Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2)(41)

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I swallowed. “I should talk to him and see what he thinks.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Am I going to regret this?”

“It’s possible,” he whispered. “But I’ll do everything to make sure you don’t get hurt in the process.” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and my heart fluttered inside my chest. “Archer will help, too. He has a lot of sway with the news media, and we’ll hire you your own P.R. team, so someone is looking out for your interests, not just Benton’s.”

Tears burned the back of my eyes and I dropped my gaze. “Thank you. That would be great. I don’t know how I’ll pay for it, but I’ll make it work.”

“I’ll help with the cost.” He cupped my face, cradling it, looking down at me. Everything faded away, the sadness, the loneliness, and the fear of the future. In that instant, only the two of us existed. There was no barrier, no cool suspicion in his clear eyes. Just trust, understanding and acceptance.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

His lips tightened. “What are you doing?”

“I’m calling Derrick.”

“You don’t have to do it right now. It can wait until morning.”

“No.” I whipped my head back and forth. “I need to, otherwise I’ll chicken out. I don’t want him to hate me.”

This wasn’t the first time I wanted to bring this up with Derrick. But somehow the thought had never translated into an actual conversation.

He flashed a white smile. “He’s not going to hate you for suggesting it. Nobody could hate you.”

My eyebrows lifted. “I hope you’re right.” I didn’t want to lose my brother. I could count my family members on one hand. The thought of losing one of the three who were still part of my life made me sick to my stomach.

I pressed the green button to call him.

He squeezed my shoulder, his eyes boring into mine. “Do you want me to give you some space? I can go into the other room or wait in the lobby of my building.”

“No,” I rasped, listening to the first ring. “I need you to stay.”

“Hi, Trinity. What’s going on? I didn’t think I’d hear from you until Monday.”

“I have an idea I want to run by you,” I blurted out, my knee bouncing up and down.

I heard a door shut. “It’s getting late. Ellen and I just got home from a dinner party. Can it wait a couple of days?”

I shook my head. “No. It can’t. Some stuff has happened since the last time we talked.” He didn’t answer. “Derrick? Are you still there?”

“Yes.” He sighed. “What happened?”

Knox squeezed my neck lightly and nodded for me to continue.

I licked my lips. “When I got home after your party, my cat…” I closed my eyes and swallowed back the sob begging to surface. “Somebody killed my cat and left a threatening note, warning me to keep my silence.”

“I’m sorry, Trinity. Did you call the police?”

“No. I didn’t think it was a good idea for either of us.”

He blew out a long, drawn out breath. “That’s good. I’ll have some people look into it. I can have some people test the note for fingerprints and—”

“No. I’ll take care of it,” I interrupted. “That’s not why I called. I think…” I paused, taking time to get my words right. “I think we should consider coming clean.” I cleared my throat, hesitating to say anything else. His silence prompted me to continue. “I don’t know. We could make some announcement or do an interview so it’s controlled. I’m sure you have people who could spin the story to your advantage. We could focus on your effort to welcome me into the family instead of the affair.”

“You seriously want me to voluntarily air my family’s dirty laundry for everyone to comment on like we’re part of some trashy reality T.V. show? Do you even understand what this would do to my family? You might have been raised by a felon with no morals, but that’s not how I do things,” he said, his voice arctic. His cold words hit me like a slap to the face. I couldn’t speak for a second.

Derrick never indicated he knew much about my uncle, but apparently, he had done his homework. My uncle was arrested more than once in his late teens and early twenties, but he cleaned up his act after my mom disappeared. I have no doubt he walked on the wrong side of the law on occasion, but he worked as a car mechanic for as long I had known him. He may have been laid off from time to time, but he always found something.

“This isn’t just about your family. Your decisions affect me too. You may want to ride this to the end and deny everything, but I’m not going to put my friends and family in danger because you want to protect the Benton name.”

Sometimes you don’t know if you’ve made the right decision until after you’ve made it. And this was undeniably one of those times. His words made me think he never cared about protecting me.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” he said softly.

“Of course you meant it that way. You’ve told me countless times you didn’t want to turn the lives of your family upside down, but never once have you expressed any concern about how this has impacted me. You didn’t have to hunt me down or tell me the truth. You could’ve left me alone and no one would’ve known.”