“Wait. Are you saying Lawrence caused that and didn’t even call for help? Didn’t try to help you?”
“Nope. He apparently walked out of the office and Besson just happened to be walking past it when he saw me.” Dev dragged a hand through his hair. “He didn’t know exactly what happened and I didn’t say anything when he took me to the hospital. Everyone just assumed that I’d fallen like kids often do and hit my head.”
“But . . . but it didn’t stop there, did it? It couldn’t have.”
“You know, the odd thing was that it did stop . . . until Lucian and Madeline were born, and then it . . . yeah.” He lowered his hand. “As I grew older, I knew how he was, so I stuck close to him, because I was . . . I was the oldest. The scars are from the night I got in trouble at school, when Gabe and Lucian were trying to sneak out. Lawrence was furious. I was the oldest, the one to set an example, and whatever bullshit he spewed when he found out. Who knew a belt could leave that many scars?”
“God, Devlin, I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t. I don’t want your sympathy or pity.”
“You have my sympathy.”
“It was my job to protect them—”
“It was not your job, Devlin. That is no child’s job.”
His gaze shot to her. It wasn’t like he didn’t realize that now, but it was still hard to shake that role. “If I hadn’t been the one to take the brunt of it, he would’ve done worse to them. I know it.”
Her gaze flickered over his face. “How in the world did Nikki’s parents not see this? Not know it was happening?”
“Lawrence was very good at hiding what he did, Rosie. They are not at fault. I never spoke up. I was too weak and too scared to say a damn thing. I could’ve stopped it. I could’ve—”
“Dear God, Devlin, you weren’t weak. You were a child.” She cupped his jaw, forcing him to look at her when he started to pull away. “Don’t put that on yourself. That is all on the fucking monster who I am glad is dead.”
His lips twitched. “You’re a little bloodthirsty.”
“You have no idea.” She smoothed her thumb over his jaw. “There are few things in life that enrage me. Abusers. Molesters. Those who take advantage of others.” She paused, wrinkling her nose. “And irresponsible pet owners. Pretty much in that order of the rage-out scale.”
Dev folded his hand around her wrist. “No one has seen those scars.”
“Not even your brothers?”
He shook his head. “Never been shirtless around them.” He brought her hand to his mouth. He kissed her palm. “The times I was with Sabrina or anyone else, I never got completely undressed. I was always careful.”
“I’m glad you weren’t this time,” she whispered. “You can’t hide them away forever, Devlin. It would eat away at you.”
Hadn’t it already eaten away at him?
Closing his eyes, he kissed the tips of her fingers. “What Lawrence did to me wasn’t even the worst thing, Rosie. He was involved in some horrific things. I’ve said that to you before, but you have no idea.”
She swallowed as she leaned into him. “Then tell me.”
Dev opened his eyes as he lowered her hand to his thigh. “My brothers know nothing about this and I want it to stay that way. I don’t want them to know what he was involved in, because it’s being handled. I’ve ensured it.”
“I wouldn’t say anything and betray your trust like that.”
He believed her. For the first time, he believed her without hesitation. “Lawrence, one of the wealthiest men in the world, was involved in human trafficking.”
“God.” Rosie lifted her other hand to her mouth as her eyes filled with horror. “Oh God.”
“Before he died, I started to suspect he was involved in something. There were strange trips he took and deposits that looked odd to me. It took months for a forensic accountant to sift through the bullshit. I think that is what Andrea Joan had discovered.”
“So, Stefan is involved, too?”
“Either he is or he was aware, and Andrea trusted the wrong person. That was what was on her iPad. Evidence,” he said. “She went to Lawrence, right? That’s what Ross claims. If so, she walked right up to the viper.”
“That’s terrible.” Her eyes glimmered. “Dear God, I don’t even know what to say. I . . .”
“What can you say? It’s . . . it’s fucked-up. Worst part is that so many people are involved, either actively or covering it up.” Dev thought of the old police chief who’d met an . . . untimely fate. “The evidence that Andrea had gathered implicated a lot of people and that evidence is being handed over to the appropriate people. It’s not going to stop it, but . . .”
“But it’s going to take a lot of bad people down and that’s important,” she insisted. “That’s huge, Devlin, and you’re going to be the reason. You and Andrea and anyone else who is trying to do the right thing.”
But Dev hadn’t always done the right thing. Maybe he did what he deemed necessary, but the right thing? That was debatable. “You don’t know everything, Rosie.”
“Then tell me everything. Look, if we can talk about this while you’re completely naked and I’m wearing your shirt, we can pretty much talk about anything.”
That brought a smile to his face. “Good point.”
“I always have good points.” Leaning in, she kissed him and it was too quick. “Devlin, I can handle whatever you’ve got to say.”
Could she? He wasn’t sure. “I don’t deserve you.”
“What?” She tried to pull her hand away but he held on. “Don’t say that.”
Dev was done with the lies—all of them—and he knew if he shared this, there was a good chance this truth could cause him to lose Rosie before he ever really had her. He drew in a deep breath, knowing that he had to tell her if there was any hope of a future.
He lifted his gaze to hers. “That wasn’t me in the cemetery that day.”
Confusion clouded Rosie’s face as she stared back at him. “What?”
“That wasn’t me. That was my twin.”
Chapter 33
Rosie’s brain sort of shut down for several moments. That was how it felt as she looked at him.
He said her name and when she didn’t answer, concern spread into his face. “Say something. You’re starting to worry me.”
She blinked. “You have a twin?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
Rosie opened her mouth and then closed it. Several more moments passed. “I don’t understand.”
This didn’t make sense to her. Out of everything he’d just shared with her, this was the one thing that she couldn’t wrap her brain around. What she’d just learned about his father was shocking. What she thought as Devlin told her was even more unsettling, because as Devlin spoke, she thought . . . God, she thought it really might have been him.
That Devlin had killed Lawrence.
And she’d still sat there, not horrified by her suspicions but by how that hadn’t disturbed her. How she didn’t look at someone who might’ve killed another person and feel anything but horror. How she felt sympathy for everything Devlin had lived through and had dealt with to protect his brothers. As he told her about what Lawrence had been involved in, there was a huge part of her that had understood why he did what he’d done.
What did that say about her?
Her training and education suggested that she might have issues, but how could she loathe or fear a man who had stopped someone so inexplicably evil? How could she be okay with it? Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but sometimes . . . sometimes they did.
Like she’d said during their dinner conversation, life often existed in the gray area and for people like the de Vincents, even more so.
But it was this that had thrown her completely for a loop. He had a twin? And it hadn’t been him in the cemetery? Feeling numb, she pulled away and this time, Devlin let her. Needing space to think, she rose from the bed, clasping the edges of the shirt.
; “I’m going to need a thoroughly detailed explanation of this,” she said, pacing as she held the shirt closed. “Because I’m confused. You just said that the peonies were one of your favorite things—”
“They are.” He rose and picked up his pants, pulling them up, leaving them zipped but unbuttoned. “You just didn’t give them to me. I wasn’t even in town yet. Didn’t get back until that afternoon. I didn’t even know he was here, but he went to the cemetery to see our mother’s grave. He told me that he ran into someone. I figured it out when I saw you the next day.”
She stopped as realization dawned. “That’s why you didn’t recognize me at first.”
“The morning in your apartment was the first time I saw you, Rosie.”
A horrible thought occurred and her stomach churned. “Are there any other times where I thought I was dealing with you and I wasn’t?”
“No. Absolutely not. Every other time was me. A hundred percent.”
She wanted to believe that. “And how do I even know if that is the truth?”
“I have no reason to lie about it now,” he said, sitting back down. “I told you because I want . . . I want a future with you, Rosie, and to have that, I need to tell you everything.”
God, she wanted that, too. She really did, but she needed more information on this. She needed to understand how Devlin could’ve hidden something like this. “Your brothers don’t know?”
“No. I only found out myself back in the spring. My brother—his name is Payton. The man who adopted him told him the truth. Come to find out, the woman who raised him passed away a few years back and then his father got sick. Told him before he died that he’d been adopted and that he had brothers. Payton reached out to me, and at first, I didn’t believe him, but he sent me a picture. We’re nearly identical, Rosie. I think if we were side by side, you could tell the difference, but . . .”
Her heart was pounding in her chest. “How did he end up being adopted?”
“I didn’t even know I had a twin. None of us did. My mother never mentioned it. Lawrence sure as hell never did, and the Bessons—Nikki’s parents—only started working for our family shortly after I was born. I have no idea how Payton ended up being adopted, but I know without a doubt that it was Lawrence who did it. Maybe it was because he knew we weren’t his kids. Maybe he was just a psychotic fucker who did it just because he could. I don’t know and will never know. Neither will Payton.” Anger sharpened his tone. “But Lawrence took that from both of us. We are twins, Rosie, and I always felt . . . I always felt like I was missing something. You know? Like I grew up thinking it was because I almost died. That maybe I came back wrong or something, but I think . . . I think it’s because I had this person out there who was a part of me, in a way.”
Dear God.
Rosie turned away, swallowing hard. She obviously didn’t know what it was like to have a twin, but she had a sister and if she’d just found out about Bella after all these years, she would’ve been heartbroken, especially if there was no good reason for the separation. But to be separated from a twin? She knew that was an intense bond forged in the womb and she’d seen many studies on twins separated. Many had gone their entire lives feeling like they were missing a part of them.
“Payton explained that when his father died, he was told about us. There was some kind of relationship between Lawrence and the family that adopted Payton. What, we don’t know, but he lived in this small town in Nebraska. Grew up there. Hadn’t even heard of us until his father told him.” Devlin drew in a ragged breath. “I didn’t tell my brothers because Payton asked me not to—not until he was ready. I had to . . . I had to honor that.”
Rosie faced him as pressure clamped on her chest and twisted her insides. This family was . . . was a disaster. No, she corrected herself. One man was a disaster and he nearly ruined an entire family, and that man wasn’t Devlin.
He drew in a deep breath. “He’s actually been in town, staying at my place at the Port. My brothers don’t even know I have a place there. It’s just somewhere I go to get away. I didn’t know Payton was coming in again. He’d left after you saw him at the cemetery, but he said . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head.
“What?” she asked. “What did he say?”
“He said he had a weird feeling. That he needed to be here.”
She considered that. “There’s a lot of research that says twins share this bond that helps them know when the other is going through something. Maybe it’s that.”
“Maybe,” he murmured.
Rosie was quiet as she tried to process everything he’d told her. “I don’t know what to say or what to think. But your brothers are going to be upset, Devlin.”
“I know.” He smoothed his hands over his knees. “And I’ll have to deal with that.”
Staring at him a moment longer, she looked away. “The first time I met you it wasn’t even you. It was a lie.”
“Everything after that wasn’t. You saw the worst of me. You saw the best of me, and you’ve seen parts of me that no one else has.” He rose, letting his arms fall to his sides. “And I know this is going to sound out there and this isn’t the right time, but I think—no, I know that what I feel—”
“Dev? You in there?” Fists pounded off a door somewhere nearby, causing Rosie to jump and turn. “You need to get out here. Now.”
Devlin cursed as his gaze swung from Rosie to the living area. “I’m sorry. It—”
“It’s okay.” Rosie stepped back.
He hesitated for a moment and then prowled out of the room like a caged lion. She turned to watch him. Her eyes widened. “Wait.”
Stopping, he turned around.
“Your back. You’re shirtless.” Hurrying over to him, she shrugged off the shirt and handed it to him. “Here.”
His face had paled, but then his gaze dipped and everything about him heated. “God,” he growled, snapping forward. Wrapping a hand around the back of her neck, he kissed her deeply, fiercely. “I’m sorry.”
She was a little dazed when he let go and stepped back, shoving his arms into his shirt.
“Thank you,” he said, and then he turned, making his way down the hall.
Rosie watched him for a few seconds and then she spun around. Quickly finding her bra and panties, she pulled them on and then slipped the dress back on. Luckily, it wasn’t too wrinkled. Picking up her shoes, she started out of the room, really having no idea what she was going to do. Call an Uber? Stay and wait? She needed time to really process everything she’d just learned, but—
“What do you mean Stefan is here?” Devlin sounded furious. “How in the hell did he get into the house?”
“I have no idea.” That was Lucian. “But he was in your office. Gabe was just leaving to go to Nikki’s when he saw him.”
“What the fuck?” Devlin exploded as Rosie entered the living area.
Lucian was standing in the doorway and he couldn’t look any more surprised if a ghost had strolled out behind Devlin. Magically, he managed to not comment on her rumpled appearance.
Not that he got a chance.
Devlin was out the door and Lucian was right behind him. Rosie stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do, but instinct took over. Something she couldn’t quite explain. She dropped her shoes on the floor and followed, catching up with them in the long hall.
Neither of them said anything, but Lucian glanced back at her. She figured if they didn’t want her to follow, they would say something.
The upper hallway was just a blur of closed doors and the second floor was the same way, just less of them. Up ahead, she saw double doors open and heard voices coming from inside the room.
“You need to get out of here,” Gabe was saying. “This is unacceptable.”
“I’m family. Am I not allowed to be here?”
“At night, when you’re not invited?” Gabe shot back. “Hell no.”
Rosie’s stomach pitched as Devlin burst into the office.
&nbs
p; “How did you get in here?” Devlin demanded, stalking into his office. “You do not have keys to this house, let alone my office.”
“Of course I have keys,” Stefan replied, and when she neared the open door, she saw the tall man walk over to a small sofa. On the table in front of the sofa was a bottle of bourbon and two glasses.
Any other time she would’ve been checking out Devlin’s office, but she was riveted by what was going down.
“How did you get keys, Stefan?” Devlin asked again.
The senator poured himself a glass as Lucian walked over to Devlin’s desk and sat down, propping his legs up on the desk like this was a normal Tuesday night.
Stefan arched a brow as his glance slid past Devlin to where Rosie stood. “I figured you’d be busy longer, Devlin. Sort of disappointed in you.”
She sucked in a gasp as Devlin stepped toward Stefan. “Don’t speak to her or look at her. You need to tell me—why the hell were you in my office?”
“I wanted to spend time with you.” He reached for the glass he poured. “You were busy. Understandably so. I heard both of you went to Firestones tonight. How surprising, considering you never took—”
“Answer my damn question,” Devlin cut in.
Rosie stood there while Gabe walked past her, shaking his head. He said something to her about stepping out, but she was stuck. Something nagged at her as she watched Stefan sit back and lift the glass of bourbon with his left hand. The light glimmered off the gold watch, catching her eye.
She suddenly thought about her reading with Sarah. What had that spirit said?
“He shouldn’t be dead.”
Her gaze latched on to Stefan’s hand as the brothers and he went back and forth. Realization dawned, rocking her to the very core of her being.
It hadn’t been Lawrence’s spirit trying to come through Sarah that night.
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