Disillusioned (Swept Away, #2)(45)

“I need to get my father’s papers.” I looked back at him and grabbed the plastic bag full of documents. “I’m pretty sure there are clues in here that I didn’t get the first time around.”

“What clues?”

“If I already knew, I wouldn’t need to go through the papers again,” I huffed.

“Anything else you want to bring?”

“Are you going to follow me around the apartment as I pack?” I glared at him.

“Why so hostile, Bianca?” He grabbed my hand. “Do you need me to soften you up again?”

“You’re a pig. Do you really think that sex is the answer to everything?”

“Not to everything, no.” He grinned.

“Do you take anything seriously?”

“I take everything seriously.” He frowned. “Don’t you get it, Bianca? I’m not the enemy here.”

“Your first interest is yourself, not me.” I shook my head. “Your first interest is getting revenge for your mother.”

“We have the same interests, Bianca. We both want to figure out who the lady spying on you was. If she had an affair with my dad, why is she spying on you? Where is Larry? What happened to Steve?”

“Do you think David has anything to do with it?” I licked my lips and shivered, still not quite believing how David had tricked me so cleverly.

“No.” Jakob frowned. “I don’t think he could have pulled this off without telling me.”

“I just don’t get it.” I gasped, a memory hitting me. “I can remember phone calls he had with Mattias.” I remembered the time in his apartment when I’d stormed out and come back without his noticing. He’d been on the phone with someone—he’d said Mattias’s name. He’d been making plans with someone. Whom had he been talking to if there was no Mattias? It just didn’t make sense. Unless David and Jakob were both lying to me . . .

Maybe there was a Mattias, a third man. It would make sense. Maybe Jakob’s new devotion, his supposed “openness,” was still a part of the plan. Were David and Jakob in on this together? Could Mattias be, not Tyler Durden, but Verbal Kint from The Usual Suspects? “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

“Remember, Bianca, David knew from the beginning who you were and what you were up to. He planned every single detail he was going to let slip. Every thing he said and did was cleverly masterminded.”

“Were you the one on the phone with David that night?” I asked Jakob softly. “Were you the one telling him what to do? If you’re saying that David couldn’t have done all this other stuff by himself, how did he come up with everything by himself?”

“Bianca.” Jakob frowned. “Let’s talk when we get to my place.”

“What don’t I know, Jakob?”

“There are things we both don’t know.” He walked into the bedroom and grabbed my duffel bag. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Does Mattias Bradley exist, Jakob?” I walked over to him and grabbed his chin. He blinked down at me, his eyes revealing nothing. “Does Mattias Bradley exist, Jakob?”

“What are you talking about?” He frowned. “We already told you there is no Mattias Bradley.”

“Who else is in on this?” I glared at him. “It still doesn’t add up. Who is David working with?”

“That’s what you and I are trying to figure out.”

“David has to know.” I glared at him. “Why didn’t we question him? He has to know.”

“David is being used as a pawn, Bianca.”

“What?”

“David doesn’t know what’s going on.” Jakob grabbed my shoulders and led me to the front door. “Just trust me. We need to leave.”

“You know more than you’re saying, don’t you?”

“There is more.” He nodded. “We can’t talk about it here.”

“Tell me.”

“Not now, Bianca,” he growled, and opened the door. “Let’s go.”

“I hate you!” I said, glaring daggers at him. “You just can’t be honest, can you? Is everything a lie with you?”

“Bianca, I admit that David and I planned the kidnapping. He wanted you out of town because he was worried you would try and claim a share in the company before the merger, and I wanted to figure out what you knew about our parents. I don’t know exactly what I thought was going to happen. However, things didn’t go as planned. Someone else wanted us to kidnap you. Someone else wanted you to be scared. And I’m not going to let you out of my sight until I know who that someone else is, do you understand me?”

“But you lied to me, Jakob.” My throat felt itchy. “It’s hard to trust you fully, knowing that. It’s hard for me to take anything that you say at face value now.”

“I didn’t lie when I said I think I’m falling in love with you.” He stroked my hair back gently. “I didn’t lie then.”

“My friend Blake, the guy I told you I was meeting, he’s investigating Steve.” I stared at Jakob’s face to see his reaction. “He knows everything that’s happened. He knows who you are.”