Down to My Soul (Soul Series Book 2)(88)

“That was before . . .” I let the words fall off. I know I said that, but to keep this from me? For this long? “How could you think it was okay to lie to me about this? Did you just think it would go away? What was your plan here?”

“Once San found Drex, I was going to talk to him and—”

“Talk to him?” I’m seeing red. “On your own? This scumbag who recorded you having sex with him and is now blackmailing you, a criminal act by the way. You were just gonna track him down and say please don’t? Please stop? I wish you wouldn’t do that? That was your f*cking plan?”

“I was scared, Rhys. I messed up. I hate that one night with that idiot is ruining everything.”

“That night and what happened between you and Drex isn’t what’s ruining everything. I don’t blame you for that.” I wave a hand in the abyss between our bodies. “Us. The lies and the deception. That’s your fault.”

“I know that, and I’m sorry.”

Her voice is so small. She is so small, and the thought of her putting herself in that kind of possible danger because she wanted to keep it from me when I’m the one who would literally lay down my life for her without a second thought . . . it infuriates me. Before I can tell her all of that, the front door opens, and Bristol walks in, punching in the alarm code from her phone. She lives close by, but she must have sprouted wings to get here this fast. She glances at the watch on her wrist.

“Seven minutes and several traffic violations later, here I am.” She glances past me to Kai. “Gep’s on his way. May take him a little longer, but he’ll be here soon. What’s going on?”

“We’ve got a situation.” I glance at Kai, whose eyes are fixed on the marble foyer floor. “I’ll explain when he gets here. I don’t want to go through it twice.”

I don’t want to go through it even once, but we have to. It’s probably good that Bristol got here so quickly. I don’t know what I would have said if my fight with Kai continued. I still can barely make myself look at her, and it’s not because of what we’ll see on that tape. It’s because she lied to me when I thought we had gotten past it. Because I fooled myself into thinking we had given ourselves completely to each other, and all this time she was holding back. All this time, she didn’t trust me. And that makes me question every moment we’ve shared since Grady’s wedding. And I hate that because those were the best moments of my whole life. And her lies cast a shadow over every one of them.

The three of us are brewing in a tight silence in the kitchen drinking coffee when Gep arrives. He looks fresh, alert and ready, like it’s the start of a new day, not just past midnight.

“What’s up?” Gep’s calm tone soothes me just a little bit. Kai tried to handle this alone, but couldn’t. I can. We can. We will, and I’ll deal with her lies after I’ve destroyed Drex once and for all. I’m determined that on that dude’s deathbed he’ll still be thinking about what I take from him because of this.

“Someone’s been blackmailing Kai.” The words land with a thud into the kitchen quiet. Gep glances at Kai surreptitiously, but Bristol out and out stares at her, and the questions begin.

“With what? Blackmailing how?” Bristol demands of Kai, her eyes narrow. “And what the hell does this have to do with Rhys? How are you involved?”

Even though she’s looking at Kai, I will answer her because as angry as I am with Kai right now, no one’s gonna bully my girl. Not even my twin sister.

“I’m involved because she is.” My voice is quiet, but so firm there is no doubting I’ll lay into her if I have to. “And you’re here to fix it. You’re here to work on this problem as if it’s my problem because it is.”

Bristol presses her lips together and sits on one of the high stools at the counter.

“All right.” She takes a sip of her coffee. “So let’s hear it.”

I make myself look at Kai, even though for the first time since we’ve met I don’t want to. I’ve barely been able to take my eyes off this girl since that day in Grady’s rehearsal room, and now when I look at her, she’s covered in lies.

“Tell us, Kai.”

She leans her elbows to the island in the middle of the kitchen, her eyes down, hair covering her face, and begins.

“About three months ago I got a text message from an unknown number.” She pulls the hair behind her ear, showing me only her profile. “There was a link to a write up on the fight Rhys and I had, and a warning that we should stay apart or they would release this tape.”

She glances up at me only briefly, but the connection between our eyes still runs through me like a volt. I want to turn it off, but even pissed off with her, I can’t.

“It was a clip of me . . .” Her words die, and she gulps with eyes closed, before resurrecting the sentence. “A clip of me having sex with Drex.”

“Shit,” Bristol says under her breath, but loud enough for us all to hear. She drills a look into me until I finally have to look at her. Fury and frustration pool in the eyes just like mine, reflecting some of what I’m feeling.

“You f*cked that douchebag?” she asks Kai.

Kai nods, biting her bottom lip, the breath trembling over her lips before she answers.