Hottest Mess (S.I.N. #2)(78)

I try to move, but I’m glued to the seat. I try to speak, but my hand is glued to my mouth. Seriously? They think Colin had something to do with the kidnapping?

Oh, god.

The room starts to turn gray, and I realize that I’m not breathing and that Bill is by my side, his hand on my back telling me to just inhale. To take it slow and breathe deep.

“Colin?” I say. “You’re really telling me that Colin was behind the kidnapping? Are you sure?”

“It’s looking bad for him. I’m sorry,” he says. “God, Jane, I’m so sorry.”

I swallow, trying to make sense of what he’s saying.

“And he’s gone?”

Bill nods.

“And—and someone took him.”

“They did.”

I stand. I have to move. I have to—oh, god. Oh, god.

“How long have you suspected him?”

He looks away. “A while.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

He turns back to face me. “Come on, Jane. It was an official investigation—”

“That’s bullshit.”

“—and I didn’t want to hurt you unnecessarily. What if we’d been wrong?”

“You shouldn’t have kept it from me,” I insist.

His expression turns ice cold. “Seems like you’ve kept a lot of things from me.”

I start to lash back at him, but I bite my tongue. Instead, I look straight into his eyes and very calmly ask, “So why are you telling me now?”

He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Christ, Jane. I still love you, you know that. Even with … everything else, do you really think I’d let you hear about this through a news leak? From someone in the FBI coming to investigate? From anyone other than me?”

I cringe, thinking of the way he heard about me and Dallas. Not from me, that’s for sure.

“It’s classified,” he continues, “but no way in hell am I keeping this from you.”

I open my mouth to answer and taste the salt of my tears. “Thank you. Really. But I—I need you to go now. I need to be alone.”

“Jane—please. We need to talk. About this. And—and the rest of it, too.”

I shake my head violently. “No, no, please. I’m sorry about—well, everything. But not now. I can’t—I—” I draw a breath and try again. “Thank you for coming. I mean that. But right now, I need to be alone.”

Right now, I’m falling apart, even more than he realizes.

Because I know something Bill doesn’t. I know who has Colin.

Deliverance.

Deliverance has been investigating my birth father. Dallas has.

And he never once told me.

He lied to me. He shut me out.

And right now, I think that he’s broken my heart.

I’ve reamed Dallas out in my head at least five times before he even walks through the door. Finally he comes home, and I’m so well-practiced that it’s almost anti-climactic when I cross the room in five strides, lash out, and slap his handsome face.

“What the hell?”

“No,” I shout. “That’s my line. What the hell, Dallas? What the f*cking hell?”

He shuts the door behind him—probably a good idea since we haven’t even met our neighbors yet—and eases around me into the apartment. He’s moving warily, like someone who’s found himself trapped in a cage with a tiger, and he raises his hands in an effort to either soothe or protect. I’m honestly not sure.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?”

“Oh, that’s rich,” I say. “But sure. Yeah. Why not? I’ll tell you what’s going on.” I cross to him and shove him hard in the chest with the heel of my hand. “What’s going on is that you lied to me. What’s going on is that my boyfriend and my best friend and their friends have been investigating my birth father. What’s going on,” I conclude, my voice so hard it’s painful, “is that you think Colin kidnapped us and you didn’t f*cking tell me.”

I step back, breathing hard. Dallas has gone completely white, but he moves toward me, his green eyes glowing. “Jane—”

“You grabbed him.” I have to force the words out. “Did you kill him?” I force the question out on a sob. “Oh, god, Dallas. Did you kill Colin?”

“No.” He tilts his head back and draws a long breath, and I watch as he visibly steels himself. As his color returns. “I didn’t want to tell you until we were certain. But today—well, dammit, it doesn’t look good. Liam’s sending me everything we’ve gathered, and I’ll show it all to you, I swear. But right now, we need to interrogate him. He’s locked up. And Quince is going to talk to him.”

“Talk? Is that what they call it?”

“What the hell, Jane? I’m pretty damn certain that the man f*cking kidnapped us.” He’s in my face now, and I’m glad. I want him fighting back. I want a battle. “You damn well better believe I’m interrogating the f*cker.”

“You promised me no more secrets. Damn you, Dallas, how the hell could you keep this from me?”

He seems to deflate with my words. “Oh, baby. Baby, I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t want you to think—I mean, if it turned out our suspicions were wrong. I just—oh, f*ck. I was going to tell you. I swear I was going to tell you as soon as we were absolutely certain.”