Truth In The Lie (The Leonidas Corporation Book 2)

by Tarina Deaton

  “Is this where you use your ‘I almost died and life is too short’ guilt trip on me?”

  “Yes. This is exactly where I do that, because you know I’m right.”

  She smiled. “I will try to call him when we get home.”

  “No.”

  “No? You just said to find out for sure.”

  “Right, but you guys bumped uglies—this is a conversation you need to have in person, not over a phone. You can drop me off at the apartment and drive your happy ass to Charleston to ask him in person.”

  She curled her upper lip. “Don’t ever say bumping uglies to me again. Ever. And…I could call him and save the gas money.”

  “Or…you could go in person and ask him to his face.”

  They had the argument the entire hour-long drive to her apartment north of Andrews Air Force Base, and in the end, she packed a few days’ worth of clothes in her overnight bag and pointed her truck south.

  Chapter 25

  Devon half-heartedly punched the heavy bag, trying to work up the interest to either pound on it good or give up and move on to something else. The problem was he didn’t have any interest in doing anything else—hadn’t since they’d left Germany.

  No one had commented on his attitude—yet—but they’d been giving him enough sideways looks he knew it was coming soon.

  Dani strolled into the gym and dropped her bag in front of a mirror.

  He dropped his arms. “Hey. I thought you were training for a fight.”

  Danielle “The Dancer” Knight was Tinker’s younger sister, MMA Featherweight champion contender, and all-around badass.

  “I am. Graham asked me to come in and knock you guys around a bit. It’s a rest day, so I figured why not?”

  He hung his head. Shit. Dani was also their resident combatives instructor. Her rest day workouts were usually some of their toughest and more than one of them ended up puking.

  “Yaaaayyy,” he said.

  She smirked and bounced around on the mat a little. “Since you’re here and warmed up, you can go first.”

  “Lucky me.” He pulled off the boxing gloves and threw them in the box along the wall. He kicked off his shoes and peeled off his socks, joining her on the mat. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he stretched his neck from side to side.

  Fuck. He was about to get his ass handed to him. No one ever beat Dani. Except Tinker, and that was only because he picked her up like a sack of flour and hauled her around. Being her brother, he could do that. No way in hell the rest of them would try it.

  Fuck it. He moved quickly, pulling her into a front headlock. Next thing he knew, his knee buckled, Dani contorted her body, he was on his back, and she had him in an arm bar.

  “Holy shit, Dani. What’d I do to you? Ow!” He tapped one of her legs that pinned his chest. “Give. Give.”

  She eased up the pressure but didn’t release him. “So, what’s your problem?”

  “You mean other than you trying to dislocate my arm? Nothing.” She increased the pressure. “Ah, fuck! What the hell?”

  “I’ll keep doing it until you tell me the truth. Graham called me specifically to find out what crawled up your ass.”

  Fucking hell. She pulled on his arm again. “Okay! Okay! I fucked up!”

  “How?” she asked, increasing the force on his arm.

  The woman was merciless. “Son of a—I met the woman of my dreams, and she wants nothing to do with me! Happy?”

  She let him go and rolled out of range. Not that he could do anything anyway. His whole damn arm was numb.

  “I heard some of the story from Christian and a lot of the story from Paige. Way more than I wanted to hear, honestly, and I don’t think that’s true.”

  Devon sat up, shaking his arm and flexing his fingers. “What? That she was the woman of my dreams or that she wants nothing to do with me?”

  “That she wants nothing to do with you.” She drew her knees up and rested her arms on them. “You should call her and tell her how you feel.”

  “It’s not that easy,” he said.

  “Why? You don’t have her number? Angie can get that.”

  He hooked his elbows over his knees. “I have her number. She was playing a role for the mission to get her brother back. It wasn’t real.”

  “It was for you. I’d bet good money it was for her as well.”

  “I heard her, Dani. She told her brother she was just pretending.”

  “Dude. I don’t talk to my brother about my sex life.” She shuddered. “Did it ever occur to you that she told him it was pretend so she didn’t have to explain the situation to him? Especially that particular situation…you know…with the rope?”

  Devon pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes. “Paige has a big mouth.”

  She laughed. “Can you blame her? That sounded hawt.” She waved a hand in front of her face. “Woo, buddy. If you were anyone else, I’d be asking for a demonstration.”

  He pushed up and walked over to his bag, grabbing his water bottle.

  “Oh, don’t be mad, Devon—I’m only giving you a hard time. Kind of.” She spun on her butt to face him and crossed her legs. “My point is, most women can’t fake that kind of intimacy, and if that happened in front of people, I can only imagine what happened behind closed doors. Call her and find out the truth. What’s the worst that can happen? She says she doesn’t feel the same way and you’re still miserable?”

  Devon lowered the bottle and sighed. The little spitfire had a point. He should find out for sure. Hearing her tell Braedon it had all been a lie had felt like a physical blow. It had literally stopped him in his tracks just outside Braedon’s hospital room.

  He’d been excited, hearing Addison’s voice. He’d planned to talk to her in private, tell her he wanted to take some time off and go to D.C. until they figured out a long-term plan. If they had to do the long-distance thing for a while, he’d make it work, but he wanted to explore what they had together.

  And then she’d told Braedon it had all been pretend for the mission. But if Dani was right, and she’d told him that because he was her brother, then Devon had walked away from her.

  Fuck. She probably thought he was the biggest dick in the world.

  “Damn it.” He dropped his water bottle and dug out his phone.

  “Atta boy!” Dani clapped once. “You do that, and I’m going to go find my next victim.”

  Devon put the phone to his ear and watched her leave, shaking his head. She enjoyed beating up on them a little too much.

  The phone rang and rang, finally going to voicemail. Shit. Was she screening? Should he leave a message? Would she listen to it if she was screening? Was it weird to call and not leave a message? The call disconnected before he could make a decision.

  Well, fuck. Should he call back immediately and leave a message or wait? Was it stalkerish if he called back immediately? Should he text instead? What if she had her phone on silent?

  Christ. When did this shit get so difficult? He gritted his teeth and called her again, composing what he would say while it rang, and lost his entire train of thought as soon as he heard the beep.

  “Addison, I think I screwed up. Actually, I know I screwed up, but I’d like to explain. Call me, please. Or text me. Whichever. I just want to know you’re okay. Okay? Bye. Oh! This is Devon. Fuck.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. He was an idiot, but damn it, he was an idiot in love. As soon as he thought it, he knew it was true. He loved Addison. Had been infatuated with her for years, but knowing the real her—her strength and loyalty, her willingness to honestly be herself—he fell in love with her.

  Fuck it. He was going to stalk her. He shoved his feet back into his shoes, grabbed his bag, and headed upstairs to find Angie.

  “Hey, Angie, I need a favor,” he said, finding her in her corner. Graham had offered to close off her area, but she’d said she liked it open. A furry face stepped out from under the desk and looked up at him.

&n
bsp; Addison’s dog. Or…Angie’s dog, since she was keeping it.

  “Sure, whatcha need?” Angie asked.

  “Can you see if Addison has another number, other than her cell?”

  “I have her home phone number,” she said.

  That was easy. “You do?”

  “Yeah, I pulled it at the very beginning. I have her address, too. Do you want that?”

  “Uh…sure.” If worse came to worst, he’d drive up to D.C. and confront her in person.

  Angie clapped. “Yay! You’re going to get your girl and quit sulking around the office like a little boy who lost his favorite toy.”

  “Have I really been that bad?” he asked.

  “Devon, I say this with all the sincerity in my heart, you’ve been a serious buzzkill since you got back.”

  “Well, hopefully this will fix it.” He took the sticky note she held up with Addison’s information on it.

  “And….” She pulled a piece of paper from under her keyboard. “Damn it. Jane won the pool.”

  He glanced at the paper. “You guys bet on my love life?”

  “Absolutely. I had you down for caving two days ago. Kind of mad you held out this long—it cost me five dollars.”

  “So sorry for the inconvenience.”

  “That’s okay. You can make it up to me by staying here while you call her.” She rested her chin on her fist and batted her eyes at him.

  He rolled his eyes and punched in the number she’d given him, earning a big grin in return.

  It rang three times. “Hello?” a male voice asked.

  “Uh, Braedon?”

  “No comment.”

  “Wait! It’s Devon,” he said quickly.

  “Oh. Hey, man, I didn’t recognize your voice.”

  “No problem. Is…Addison there?”

  Braedon didn’t answer immediately. “She should be there.”

  “What do you mean she should be here? Here as in Charleston, here?”

  “Yeah, she left two days ago to drive down there to talk to you.”

  Unease rolled through Devon’s stomach. “Have you tried calling her? She’s not answering my calls. I figured she was screening.”

  “I haven’t. Hang on—let me try.”

  He waited impatiently while Braedon tried to call her. Angie looked up at him, brows furrowed, before turning away to type furiously on her keyboard.

  “She’s not answering,” Braedon said. “Shit. I’ve had a bad feeling since yesterday, but I figured it was because you’d been a dick and broke her heart. I tried TLC’s main number, but no one answered.”

  He lowered the phone from his mouth. “Did another receptionist quit?”

  “Yesterday. Paige is NOT happy. I did win that pool, though.”

  Devon shook his head. “Braedon, I’m in love with Addison.”

  “Cool. Pretty sure she loves you too, man, but I’ll let her tell you that for sure—once we figure out where she is.”

  “Angie, can you—?”

  “Her phone last pinged at South of the Border on I-95. Devon…” Angie looked up from her screen, worry filling her gaze. “It hasn’t moved in two days.”

  “What’s she saying?” Braedon asked.

  “Hang on, I’m going to put you on speaker.” He toggled to speaker and lowered the phone from his face. “Braedon, this is Angie, our IT guru. She said Addison’s phone pinged two days ago at the South of the Border rest stop on I-95.”

  “I’m familiar with it. There’s been nothing since then?”

  “No,” Angie said. “If she’d kept going, the other towers along I-95 would have picked her up.”

  “Fuck,” Braedon said.

  “I’m leaving now,” Devon said. “It’s two hours north of here.”

  Paige flew out of her office. “Where’s Graham?”

  “He’s in the conference room, I think,” Angie said.

  “Get him, now.” Angie didn’t move fast enough. “Now!”

  Angie scrambled up and ran down the hall, the dog chasing after her.

  “What’s going on?” Braedon asked.

  Paige pointed at the phone in his hand. “Who’s that?”

  “Braedon,” Devon said.

  “Fuck. My office. Now.”

  “What’s going on?” Braedon asked again.

  “I don’t know. Hang on a sec.” He’d never seen Paige lose her cool. She was the definition of calm, cool, and collected. For her to yell like that, especially at Angie, something bad had happened.

  Angie and Graham came down the hall, Angie out of breath. “He’s here.”

  They piled into Paige’s office. She turned her computer monitor, revealing Connie on VTC.

  “Please repeat what you just told me,” she said.

  Connie sighed. “Tsarevna escaped the raid on the castle. This video was sent to me late last night. Due to a communications blackout, I only received it thirty minutes ago.” She pressed the screen on her phone and held it up to the camera. Tsarevna appeared on her phone screen.

  “Constance, you traitorous whore. You will wire ten million dollars to the account I sent to your email to replace the money I would have received from the auction of the two men you stole from me. Don’t bother trying to trace where the email came from. I know these things take time, so you have seventy-two hours to send me the money. If you fail to do so, I will auction off her instead.” She stepped to the side, revealing Addison, blindfolded, gagged, and tied to a bed. “I already have many, many people waiting to bid on her.”

  The video ended, and Connie lowered the phone.

  Angie had a hand over her mouth. “Shit,” she whispered.

  “God damn it,” Graham ground out.

  “Does she have Addison?” Braedon asked. “Does she have Addison?” he yelled when no one answered him.

  “Yes,” Devon said.

  “Send me the video,” Angie said. “And the email.”

  “Angie—” Connie started.

  “I don’t care what she said. She doesn’t know me. Send me the video and email.”

  Connie nodded and typed on a keyboard on her desk. “It’s on the way.”

  Angie pushed out of the office.

  “Because of the delay, we have less than thirty-seven hours to find her.” Connie shook her head. “We won’t wire the money. Tatiana knows that. She’s just playing with us—with me—as payback.”

  “We already have a starting point,” Devon said. “Addison’s phone pinged at a rest stop on I-95 two hours north of here.”

  “I’ll do what I can from my end,” Connie said.

  “I don’t know if she can hear me,” Braedon said from Devon’s cell phone, “but let her know if she has any kind of authority to keep me from being pulled over, I’m in a dark blue two thousand nineteen Charger. License plate November, zero, tango, delta, echo, delta. See you at South of the Border.” He ended the call.

  Graham huffed out a laugh. “Got to admire his sense of humor.”

  “Why?” Paige asked.

  Devon smirked. “His license plate says not dead.”

  Chapter 26

  Oh my God. Why does my head hurt so bad? Addison tried to turn on her side and bury her face in the pillow, but her arms were stuck on something. She pulled on them and felt bindings tighten around her wrists. What the fuck?

  She blinked open her eyes and squinted in the light. Was this some weird, kinky game Devon was playing? If it was, why the hell didn’t she remember? She racked her brain, trying to remember what led her to being tied to a bed in a dingy motel.

  D.C. traffic. Driving to Charleston. She’d been tired so she’d stopped at the obnoxious rest stop just over the South Carolina line. All she needed was coffee and gas. And a chance to gird her loins, so to speak, before the last two hours to Charleston.

  Now all she had was a splitting headache and no idea what happened.

  A toilet flushed, followed by running water. Should she fake being asleep? Screw that. She yanked on the ropes,
wiggling the headboard.

  “Oh, good. You’re awake. I was worried Andrew had hit you too hard.”

  What. The. Fuck. Addison stared at Tsarevna as she stood at the foot of the bed, hands on her hips. Dressed casually in dark jeans and a blouse, with her hair in a low ponytail, she looked different than she had at the castle—almost approachable. Until Addison met her gaze and the familiar derisive gleam in her eyes.

  “I see you are surprised to see me,” she said. “You almost got me with your little raid, but there are more tunnels under that castle than the one you used.”

  “You—”

  Tsarevna waved a hand. “Yes, yes. I’m not going to get away with this. You have people that will be looking for you. I will pay for this. I’ve heard it all before. Believe me when I say it never happens the way people think. I always get away with it. No one will find you. And the only person getting paid is me—one way or the other.”

  She sat in the only chair in the room and crossed her legs. “I will say you surprised me, though. Not too many people are able to do that. I didn’t expect you to steal my merchandise.”

  Addison gnashed her teeth at Braedon and Michael being referred to as merchandise—again. “What did you expect, then?”

  “I expected you to bid on your brother to try to win him in the auction.” She must have seen the shock on Addison’s face. “Oh, yes, I knew who you were almost immediately after you arrived. I always do research on my guests. It was difficult—whoever you work for did a masterful job of scrubbing your online identity, but they missed photos of your brother’s funeral.”

  “Then why play along?” It was very difficult to pull on her wrists without giving away was she was doing.

  “Because it amused me. I wanted to watch your face as you realized your brother was so close, only to be ripped out of your grasp. But, like a greedy, entitled American, you decided to take what you didn’t possess.”

  “They’re human beings, not possessions.”

  Any hint of civility fell from Tsarevna’s face as she snarled. “They were mine, and you took them.” She visibly fought to control her expression. “So I took you. I won’t get as much for you as I would have for them, but it will have to do.”