Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2)(33)

Without bothering to stretch, I took off in the direction of the National Mall. Like every other morning, I intended to circle the reflection pool a few times and head home. Halfway there, I took a detour, and twenty minutes later, I found myself on Miles’s front doorstep. Rationally, I knew I should stay away from him until I had the evidence to pin the cat incident on him, but my anger overrode my common sense.

After ringing the doorbell nonstop for five minutes, he flung open the door. “What are you doing here?” he growled, his teeth clenched and his eyelid twitching.

A toxic mix of adrenaline and testosterone rushed through my veins. I balled my hands into fists to stop myself from ripping his throat out. “Did you have anything to do with it?”

Folding his arms across his chest, his lips tightened and his brows lowered. “Can you be a little more specific?”

“I’d be happy to.” My chest heaving both from anger and jogging, I leaned forward until my face was inches from his. “Did you kill Trinity’s cat, string it up over her kitchen table, and leave a note threatening her sister?”

His eyes narrowed. “I didn’t touch her cat, and I don’t give a shit about her sister. I’ve never met her.”

“Did you have someone kill her cat?” I asked, rephrasing the question. Miles talked in circles.

“My people take their orders from me.”

The air around us dropped twenty degrees. I squared my shoulders and rolled my neck, struggling to release the tension curling in my muscles like a wind-up toy. As much as I wanted to convince myself otherwise, beating the shit out of Miles wouldn’t help the situation. “Is that a yes?” I asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “No, it’s not.” He shrugged. “I won’t lie. I don’t like that she’s using you to get back at me, but I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t need to. She’ll be back with me soon enough.”

My brows snapped together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s toying with you to make me jealous. I don’t like it, but if it’s what she has to do to end up back together with me, I won’t stand in her way.”

Rage surged through me, and before I could think twice about my actions, my fist connected with his jaw. His head whipped to the side. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

He backpedaled, cupping the side of his face. “What the f*ck was that about?” he groused.

I rubbed the knuckles of my right hand down my thigh. “That’s for being an *. That’s for interfering with my investigation. That’s for treating Trinity like shit. She’s done with you.”

He smirked. “You’ve known her for a couple of weeks now. Is that about right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“It means that you don’t know anything about her or our relationship.”

My gaze swept down his body and back up again. “She’s told me all that I need to know. All that matters.”

“Sure, you can keep telling yourself that.” He rolled his eyes. “One way or another, she’ll be back. I’m just biding my time until I reel her back in.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you planning to blackmail her with Benton?”

An uneasy look flashed across his face, but he hid it quickly. “What do you know about Benton?”

My mouth curled into a humorless smile. “Just what Trinity told me. Is there anything else you want to add?”

“Trinity wouldn’t tell you anything. She doesn’t confide in people unless she trusts them.”

I rocked back on my heels and snorted. “Well, I guess that means she trusts me. Not you.”

A sound of muffled anger slid though his clenched teeth. “You’re bluffing. You don’t know anything.”

I arched my eyebrow. “Keep telling yourself that, but it’s only a matter of time before I have all the evidence I need to put you behind bars, and I plan to make your life damn inconvenient until I succeed.”

He folded his arms across his chest and barked out an uneasy laugh. “Go ahead and try. I don’t have anything to hide. I’m not worried.”

I glanced at my watch. “Then you’re a f*cking idiot,” I growled as I backed down the front steps of his home. I wanted to get back to my place before Trinity took off. We needed to talk. I was done playing games with her. I wanted her, and I was done pretending otherwise.





CHAPTER NINETEEN




Trinity



Knox strolled in the front door with his polished, loose-hipped gait and a lopsided grin on his face. His navy jogging pants hung low from his narrow hips, and his white shirt clung to his shoulders and chest like a second skin.

He grabbed an icepack from the freezer, molded it around his hand and sat down next to me at the kitchen counter.

His hooded stare raked up and down my body with an unnerving intensity. “That’s quite a shirt. You look good in it,” he said, his eyes flashing with amusement.

I smoothed the front. “I’m glad you like it.”

“How are you feeling today?” he asked, studying me closely.

“Better.” I pointed at his hand. “What happened to you?”

He leaned back in the chair, hooking his sneaker-clad foot around the leg of my stool. “I paid Miles a visit this morning, and we didn’t exactly see eye to eye.”