Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2)(14)

I rubbed my hand down the side of my face. “That’s good. Miles is on the wrong side of this deal with Lang’s computer.”

“But I don’t trust you either.” Her tone was hard and unyielding. “So if you’re done searching my home, you can leave.”

I threaded my fingers through my hair, frustrated. “Fine, but do me a favor.”

Her nose scrunched up in disgust. “What’s that?”

“Ask Miles why the information on Lang’s computer is so important to him. Ask him how Speaker Benton is involved.”

She sucked in a breath, and her spine straightened. Silence wrapped around us, pressing against my chest like a hundred pound weight. “His client hired him to do a job. I didn’t get what he needed. It doesn’t look good. There’s nothing else to it.”

A bitter chuckle spilled from my lips. “This is about more than doing a good job for a client. I know it and I think, deep down, you know it too. What were you instructed to do with the information from Lang’s computer?”

She stared out the window over my shoulder. “He wanted me to destroy the thumb drives, then upload a virus onto the computer.” Her voice was barely audible, but somehow her words had the impact of a grenade tossed into a crowded room.

“Do you want me to tell you why he asked you to do that?”

She turned her attention back to me, and the force of her gaze speared me. She didn’t answer right away. Instead, her eyes hardened. “You mean the truth as you understand it?”

“No, the unqualified truth.”

“There’s no such thing as an unqualified truth.”

I searched her eyes. What happened to this woman to make her so cynical? “Of course there is.”

“No, there’s perception, interpretation, and wishful thinking. When you bundle all of that together, you get shades of the truth.”

Irritated with her and myself, I jammed my hands into my pockets. I glanced around her narrow townhome, taking in all the nearly non-existent details. One picture of Trinity and a younger woman resembling her sat on an otherwise empty fireplace mantle. There wasn’t a single decorative pillow on the gray sofa. The only splash of personality came from the yellow accent wall. If not for minimal clothes tucked away in the closet and the personal hygiene products in the bathroom drawers, I’d think no one lived here. I needed to dig a little more into her background to understand her strengths and weaknesses.

I stepped around her and opened the front door. “Well, when you’re ready to hear the truth, you know where to find me.”

***

“Did you find anything?” Jack said, spinning around in his chair.

I tossed my car keys on the conference table. “Nothing. Her home has fewer personal effects than a hotel room.”

Jack snorted. “Miles trained her well.”

“I don’t know about that. I got the impression her lack of personal effects had more to do with her personal preference than professional necessity.”

“Hmm.” He tapped his pen on his thigh.

“What about you?” I propped my hip on the corner of the desk. “Did you find out anything else about her?”

“Not much beyond the basic facts.” He folded his hands on top of the desk. “Her uncle raised her. She moved to D.C. days after she turned twenty-one. Her younger sister goes to college in Texas a half hour from their hometown. It looks like Trinity pays the tuition. The mom is MIA, and a dad isn’t listed on her birth certificate.” He shrugged. “No deep, dark, dirty secrets as far as I can tell, but I’ll keep digging.”

A big part of her story was missing, which made me hesitant to trust her. Trinity acted tough, but it felt like an illusion or a shell to hide all the emotional scars beneath the surface. Sure, she was strong and independent. The fact that Miles took her under his wing and trained her was a testament to her intelligence and potential. Miles was a lot of things, but dumb wasn’t one of them. He didn’t waste his time on average people. My instincts told me to roll the dice on her, but I didn’t know if my attraction to her was overruling my common sense.

“What about the thumb drives? Did you find anything else?”

“Honestly.” He ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “I just started digging though the information an hour ago.”

My eyebrows knitted together as I spotted the half empty bottle of beer next to his computer. “What am I missing? What aren’t you telling me?”

He blew out a breath. “Miles was waiting for me when I left the office for lunch.”

“Fuck,” I hissed.

Jack nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

“What happened?”

“Not much. You know Miles. He never comes right out and says anything. He infers stuff.”

I stared out the window over Jack’s head. Clouds dotted the otherwise clear skyline. “I know.”

“He acted like it was a coincidence.” He waved his arm in one giant swoop. “He said he was just walking around looking for a place to eat lunch. Then the ass had the balls to ask me to join him.”

I peered at him, my eyebrow scaling my forehead. “Did you?”

“Hell no. After the shit he’s put us through over the last couple of months, I’d strangle him within twenty minutes.” He shook his head from side to side. “But I was tempted so I could hear more of his bullshit and try to figure out what he wanted.”