Blackbird (A Stepbrother Romance #1)(50)

My face must have hardened, because she raised her hand.

“You know, you were right. Marrying him was a mistake.”

My hands tightened around the edge of the desk and the wood dug into my palms. “Why? Did he-“

“Hit me? No. He just grew less and less interested in me as the years went on. It’s been, what, three years now? The closer we came to the day the trust passed to you, the less interested in me he became.”

Another coughed wracked her tiny body, and I felt my stomach sink. Maybe it was just the lighting in the office, but Mom looked old. She’d never looked old. Not like that. She swept at her lips with the hanky and tucked it into her pocket, and folded her arms.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. What should I do? I’ve been thinking about a separation.”

“There’s stuff I haven’t told you about him. About the way he raised his daughter.”

“I knew there was something strange about it,” she sighed. “The homeschooling was… odd. It almost sounds like he had her locked up, isolated from the outside world, doesn’t it? I thought he was just overprotective. He can be very intense.”

“He used to hit her. Badly. He left scars, Mom.”

Startled, she blinked. “He never raised a hand against me. Why haven’t you said this before?”

I wasn’t sure I could be rid of him before.

“I talked to him once, made sure it wouldn’t be a problem with you, or with Eve anymore. Did he tell you he came to our school the first year she was there and tried to kidnap her? He was going to force her to transfer because I transferred there to join her.”

Another sigh. It turned into a fit of coughing again.

I could have sworn I saw a spot of red on the handkerchief.

“It’s nothing,” she said, before I could ask. “Just a damned cough, it’ll go away.”

It worried me, but lots of things worried me. I had the ring in my pocket. I was giddy with excitement, more alive than I’d felt in years. I never thought I could possibly be this happy. Mom hugged me.

“I hope everything goes as you have planned. Go get yourself cleaned up and get ready. You’ve had a long drive. I’ll keep Eve busy until it’s time for you to eat.”

Gleefully, I rushed to my room and cleaned myself up. I’d arranged to eat at dusk, giving me plenty of time to relax. The sun would set after eight tonight. Eve, I knew, was getting settle in herself, and would want some time alone.

Sleep came easier than I thought, but it was fitful and harsh and I spent the whole time tossing and turning, waking every hour or so to check the clock. When it was finally time, I dressed. Nothing fancy, just clothes. Eve was already outside. Somebody lit a pair of taper candles on the table on the terrace, the one where Mom and Martin ate lunch with Eve the day I first set eyes on her. Dinner was nothing fancy, either. Grilled chicken and rice. We ate quietly, enjoying each other’s company and the warm air. The breeze behind the house always smelled like the woods, deep and earthy and ancient, but when it picked up just the right way I could smell the lilacs. Eve. When she finished her portion her silverware clinked softly on her plate.

“Desert?” I said.

“Yeah.”

“I have something to ask you first.”

Here we go.

I got up and walked to her side, and dropped to one knee. A grin spread on her face and that was all the answer I needed. I took the ring in its little box from my pocket.

Then the spotlight hit me, blinded me, and Eve screamed.

The world went crazy. It sounded like thunder, whup whup whup, but it was the blade of a helicopter. The blasting wind blew out the candles, and knocked them over, and sent napkins flying from the table. I fell back on my ass, covering my eyes as Eve kept screaming, covering hers with both arms. All of a sudden men in black were everywhere, and they had guns. I started to get up but there was a knee in my back and all of a sudden two hundred plus pounds was pushing down into the middle of my spine and someone was yanking my wrists back. I thought they were going to break my arms. Mom came running out of the house, screaming at them. One of the black-clad men grabbed her arm and she went down hard on the terrace, and I saw blood on her lips and bellowed in fury, trying to buck loose, almost tearing my own shoulders out of joint as they cuffed me.

It was only then that someone barked, “Federal Bureau of Investigation!”

I went still.

What? What the absolute f*ck?

There was a gun pressed to the back of my head.

“Stop moving.”

I looked around. Jesus, there had to be fifty of them on the lawn. Where did they all come from?

Hysterical, I looked around. I dropped the damn ring. It was sitting on the stone floor of the terrace.

Eve picked it up, and opened, and looked at me.

“I don’t know what this is about,” I shouted, “I’ll take care of it. Go inside with Mom.”

“Shut up,” the FBI man barked.

They pulled me up by the arms, painfully. They dragged me through the house, where they were ransacking everything. There was a van waiting out front, one of a dozen black vehicles. They dragged me inside and sat between two guys with rifles dressed up like ninjas, like I was going to do something terrible if they didn’t watch me every second. It was only then that a man in a suit stepped into the van and the doors slapped closed behind him. He was the stereotypical G-man, right down to the mirrored aviators and the chewing gum. He chewed loudly, stared me down. I stared right back. I didn’t know what this was about, but whatever it was I was innocent, I’d done nothing wrong and I was absolutely certain I could prove it.