Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel Read online

  Rising as well, Zack let his lips quirk satirically. “Well, that’s too bad, sweetheart,” he informed her, hating himself, hating the Brighams, and letting her hate him all she needed to. “Because I’m not nearly so willing to let the bastard who killed my parents and your father escape, now that I know how close he is. Luce was in on it every step of the way, working directly with the bastard who arranged it. It stops here.” It would stop before it endangered her further; he’d make damned sure of it. “Because I’m damned tired of living under the shadow of it. Resign yourself to it. You might not be willing to be a lover, but by God, you better be a good-enough actress to convince everyone we know that you are, because that’s all that will save any of us now. Including the family willing to put their lives and the lives of the men who follow them on the line. Because that’s all that’s going to call that fucking family off and make it stick until we find the evidence to clear you or until we find the evidence period.” He turned and stalked to the door of the office. “And I’ll be a son of a bitch if I’ll feel guilty for a second of it.” He slammed the door closed behind him.

  After stomping through the foyer to the front door, he let it slam behind him as well. His truck was waiting in the front drive now, having been driven back by one of Chaz McDougal’s men and left at the farm. Within seconds, Zack was out of the driveway and heading farther up the mountain.

  Making a call to his foster brothers to meet him at the office, he resigned himself to their coming anger as well. He’d played the role of quiet, unassuming Zack with a zeal that should have won him an Oscar.

  Quiet, yeah, he liked quiet.

  Unassuming? That one had never been easy. Just as the summers his foster father had convinced him to spend with the Brighams had never been easy. When Toby told the other two foster sons he had taken under his wing that he’d arranged for Zack to work with the Brighams in the summer after Zack turned eighteen, he hadn’t been lying. Zack worked his ass off training to become the killer they’d wanted him to be. As though he’d turn into one of the jackasses he’d despised since first learning of them.

  The price of their silence at the time had been high. His mother’s father, Alexander Sr., had been a bastard with a capital B. Zack had realized within days of first meeting him exactly why his mother had turned her back on her family and run away with her lover.

  How they managed to hide within the Kin, Zack had never figured out. Vinny’s and Benjamin’s help aside, it should still have been impossible to hide from the agents the Brigham family would have sent out after them.

  It was a question he’d never been able to get an answer for, though. Not from Vinny and not from Alex Brigham, the man who had once claimed to cherish his baby sister.

  Turning into the parking lot of the offices of the construction company he owned with his foster brothers, Zack blew out a harsh breath. Telling Jazz and Slade who he was wouldn’t be easy. It was a truth he’d never confronted them with, one he’d fought to hide for as long as he’d known them.

  Both men were already there, just as he’d known they’d be. Jazz wouldn’t head out to the work sites until after ten, and Slade didn’t schedule meetings until ten thirty unless all three of them needed to be present.

  When he pulled in beside Jazz’s pickup, the RIGOR CONSTRUCTION advertisement on the side of the door brought a quirk to Zack’s lips. The other man had flatly refused to have the company information painted on the truck until he’d become engaged to Vinny’s daughter, Kenni. Now his brother was settling down, finding the happiness that had eluded him for so long, and working on a future with the woman he loved.

  Slade had settled down as well. His time with the FBI was behind him, and reclaiming the woman he’d fallen in love with years ago had settled a core of rage in the man that Zack had once feared would never disappear.

  He envied them their lives, envied them the women who loved them. It was a life Zack had never allowed himself to imagine, because he’d known his past and his identity would endanger any family he tried to claim as his own.

  He stepped from the truck, strode to the door, and entered the offices, steeling his determination.

  Jazz and Slade were at the conference table in the back corner, coffee steaming in the mugs sitting in front of them as their conversation halted, their gazes settling on him.

  “Well, aren’t you running a little late?” Jazz said, his black brows arching with the comment as mockery gleamed in his brilliant blue eyes.

  He wasn’t in the best of moods.

  “And no bruises or broken bones.” Slade grinned. “I thought Cord and his heathen brothers would have tromped his ass after he insisted on staying the night with little Grace.”

  Flicking both men an irate glance, Zack moved to the coffeepot, poured a cup of the aromatic brew, then took a seat at the end of the table facing them. “We need to talk,” he stated, running the fingers of one hand through his hair.

  Damn, he wasn’t looking forward to this.

  “Think this is where he finally tells us his momma was a Brigham and he’s been visiting good old Uncle Alex when he disappears every month?” Jazz asked, his tone a little too calm, a little too conversational.

  Zack simply stared back at the two men.

  “We’ve known that one for a while, Zack,” Slade informed him. “Ever since I found out it was Brigham agents who helped save my ass in D.C. I’m not the kind of man not to ask questions in those situations.”

  Hell.

  He shook his head, resigned. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “It was your secret.” Slade shrugged. “I figured you’d tell us when the time was right for you.” He glanced at Jazz. “Asshole over there knew before I did, though, and didn’t say a damned thing about it until I told him what I learned after the D.C. operation.”

  They hadn’t even hinted that they knew the truth of who he was, of where he came from.

  “Toby told me who you were right before he died,” Jazz admitted before sipping at his coffee. “I thought it best to wait for you to come to us.” His lips quirked. “Just never thought it would take so long.”

  They had known and never made accusations, never came to him when they needed to. Of course, Zack had helped where he could, and Alexander Brigham never denied him the resources or information he’d needed.

  “I always had your backs—”

  “We knew that, always have.” Jazz nodded. As the eldest of them, Jazz had always been the one to look out for his younger foster brothers while they were growing up. He’d always seemed to know them better than they’d known themselves.

  “Come on, Zack, we knew the power we were gaining within the Kin wasn’t because of our good looks.” Slade rubbed his jaw and flashed an amused grin. “Though I’m sure that didn’t hurt.”

  Jazz snorted at the comment before his gaze sharpened on Zack once again. “You’re our brother, Zack—where your blood came from never mattered. I remember your momma, she was a fine woman and your dad was a damned good man. You’re our brother, though, nothing else ever mattered to us.”

  “I did appreciate the team of agents that watched my back in D.C., though,” Slade assured him.

  “Yeah,” Jazz drawled. “And I know that team that took Luce in for interrogation was already waiting in the wings in case we needed outside help. I appreciated that.”

  Zack stared down at the coffee in his cup, his chest tightening at the knowledge that they’d kept the information to themselves.

  Jazz had to have been about to bust for years.

  “You should have said something,” he said quietly, his chest heavy, guilt flaying his conscience.

  “It didn’t matter, Zack,” Slade assured him. “You’re our brother first, your bloodline doesn’t matter. And now, I’m going to assume what’s going on with Grace is somehow tied to the reason her father and your parents were killed? Whatever they were doing has finally come back to haunt the Maddox family?”

  After pulling o
ut the file he’d folded and stuck in his back pocket, Zack opened it and laid it on the table between Jazz and Slade. “This is everything I have concerning Grace,” he said on a sigh. “The information Toby got together for me as well as what I’ve managed to get from Alexander Brigham over the years is on this flash drive.” He pulled the small drive from the pocket of his shirt and placed it on the table with the hard copy files. “My parents weren’t killed because of any rumored information that Benjamin Maddox knew where the Brigham daughter and her son were hiding. They were killed for the investigation they were involved in to uncover a possible traitor in the Maddox family. And that’s information even Vinny Maddox doesn’t have. As far as he knows, the traitor was high-level Kin. The information Alexander had from Benjamin at the time pointed to possible Maddox family involvement. Close relatives, possibly one of the cousins who oversees top-level security.”

  Brooding, dangerous. The expressions on the faces of his brothers changed with that information.

  “No names were mentioned?” Jazz asked, fingering the flash drive.

  Zack shook his head. “Benjamin was keeping the information to himself. He told Alexander he wanted to confirm it. Supposedly that was what he was doing the night he and my parents were murdered.” Zack sat back in his chair, one finger tapping at the wooden arm of the seat as he narrowed his eyes on the files for a moment. “Vinny has known my identity for years. Vinny knew, and he trusted Cord with the information. The twins and Grace are aware of it now as well. We’ll see if it goes any further—though, honestly, I can’t see Deacon, Sawyer, or Grace being in league with a traitor. It just doesn’t fit. We know Luce was involved in the murders, but according to her interrogation, she didn’t give the orders. Though she also swore she didn’t know who gave them and that one I just don’t believe.”

  He couldn’t make Luce’s accusations that Grace was involved fit, and he’d tried. Grace had barely been five when her father died, but she’d idolized him; she would never have betrayed his memory in such a way. Deacon and Sawyer could be wild cards, but like Cord, they’d had many chances to betray the family and hadn’t done so.

  “If Grace were a traitor, she would have given Kenni up as soon as she realized who she was, two years ago,” Jazz murmured. “Killing Kenni before the family realized who she was would have been imperative. Besides, Grace sees Vinny and those boys as her only family. You’re right, she wouldn’t turn on them.”

  “So how do you intend to draw a traitor out, Zack?” Slade asked somberly.

  Zack nodded to the files. “During her interrogation, Luce swore Grace had the files her father hid and she was just waiting for the right time to sell the sensitive Kin information that was hidden on it, as well as the identity of the traitor. I can keep the Brighams from coming after her by claiming her as my lover—the traitor and missing information, we’ll have to figure out for ourselves.”

  And that was going to be the hard part. Hell, “hard” part? It could become impossible if he didn’t play his cards right. Somehow he was going to convince an unknown traitor that Grace was giving him the information. That she was becoming so enamored of him that she was willing to believe in his claims of hating the Kin and the agency enough to betray them.

  “You’re going to need help,” Jazz pointed out. “It won’t work if you try to gung-ho this and go it alone. You’re gonna need your back covered.”

  “Hell, he’s gonna need all four sides covered,” Slade snorted. “Very covertly while still giving the appearance that he and Grace are working alone. Then we sit back and listen to the rumors that start making their way to us.”

  Zack nodded, then rubbed at the back of his neck. “They still haven’t found Grace’s assailant. The team sent out after him reported in last night, and there’s no sign of him. No way he managed to get out of the county without being seen.”

  There wasn’t so much as a deer path that wasn’t being watched by Kin after the attack. The search for Richard James was one of the most intense manhunts Alex had seen in the area.

  “I have a feeling, once I have Grace in my house and our traitor is convinced she’s mine, he’ll make a move. Everyone believes I have no love for Kin and pure hatred for the Brigham family. They’ll believe I can be had and so can any information Grace has. I just have to play the game right and make sure Grace plays her part.”

  “Without breaking her heart,” Jazz ordered, his voice stern. “That girl’s been half in love with you for years, Zack. Remember that. I don’t think you want to hurt her any more than she’s already been hurt.”

  chapter six

  She wasn’t a child anymore, Grace told herself the next morning as she watched one of her uncle’s men carry her luggage from her bedroom to the front door. She didn’t get to scream, to cry that it wasn’t fair. She didn’t get to pout anymore, and she hadn’t thrown things since before her father died.

  Instead, she stood in the foyer, glaring at her uncle and her cousin Cord along with the object of her anger, Zack, as they stood whispering at the far end of the long entryway. As though she had no business hearing what was being said. It was her life, after all, so she should be privy to whatever the hell their secrets were at the moment.

  Her eyes kept straying to Zack more than to her family, though.

  As much as she hated what he was doing to her life at the moment, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he still drew her. He made her want when she knew she shouldn’t want him. He made her want the warmth, the pleasure he’d already given her, a pleasure unlike anything else she’d ever known. Not that she hadn’t dated, and often, but those kisses in the past didn’t even compare to Zack’s kisses, to his touch, to what he made her feel even when she didn’t want to feel it.

  How she’d ever been fooled into believing he was no more than a quiet accountant, she didn’t understand. Had she been blind, or had she just not wanted to see that the man who so fascinated her was even more arrogant than the cousins who drove her crazy? That determined dominance and pure self-assurance never failed to make her want to knock their heads together. Especially when they gave her that you’re-just-a-girl look. As though being female were somehow inferior to all their male testosterone.

  People saw what they wanted to see, her uncle had always told her. If they want to see weakness, then it would take little to convince them they saw weakness. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge the fact that Zack was just as strong, arrogant, and forceful as her cousins, and he’d never displayed those traits overtly. So she hadn’t let herself recognize what she didn’t want to see.

  He was quiet yet always watchful, always on guard. That fact was in the set of his shoulders, the way he seemed focused on what Cord and Vinny were saying right now though she knew he was aware of every move she was making. How had she managed to miss that steely core of authority she could so clearly see now? Her instincts were better than that; she should have known who and what he was years ago.

  How many other mistakes had she made over the years?

  She could forgive herself for underestimating Rich—she rarely saw him and had interacted with him even less, so she couldn’t have been expected to see the dangerous part of him. He hadn’t been part of her life on a regular basis since they were teens.

  She normally had an excellent instinct for people; it was how she’d identified Kenni so quickly when the other woman returned to Loudon under an assumed identity. She had known Kenni like a sister when they were younger, recalling mannerisms like a certain tilt of the head, a certain look when irritated. And Kenni had always done “irritated” very well.

  Yet she’d missed so many facets of Zack that it was unbelievable.

  How many others had she let slip by her?

  Had she missed it because of emotion? Because she hadn’t wanted to see it? Seeing it would have meant choosing to turn away from the fascination she felt for him whenever he was around.

  And admittedly, it was more than obvious he’d intended to hide that part
of himself. Especially from her.

  Too bad Zack didn’t consider it a good idea to continue hiding that part; he would have been far easier to get along with if he had.

  She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and considered him with narrow eyes.

  He’d never spent a lot of time around her. As a matter of fact, whenever she showed up and he was present, he rarely stayed long. A hello, a few quiet smiles, and he was gone.

  He hadn’t let her see him, hadn’t allowed her to know him. No wonder Kenni gave her such odd looks whenever she stated how Zack was so unlike her family. Because Kenni knew better. Because Zack showed her cousin all the things he’d hidden from her.

  From the corner of her eye, she caught the wary look Cord gave her. He’d been doing that a lot since the day before. Watching her with that faint expression he used whenever they were arguing. She was completely infatuated with a man who thought that because she was smaller and weaker physically, she was somehow weak-minded as well.

  Her lips tightened at the thought.

  She was not weak-minded, though it appeared where Zack was concerned, she’d definitely been using blinders.

  And she was tired of being ignored.

  “Did the three of you forget I’m standing here?” she asked in what she considered a perfectly reasonable tone. “If we’re not leaving the foyer, then I’m going back to my room to rest my leg for a while because I’m tired of watching you whisper around like three gossiping little girls.”

  It wasn’t really hurting, just aching a little, and her leg wasn’t the reason she was feeling put out by the three of them.

  Zack turned to her slowly, his expression borderline incredulous. “Like what?”

  Vinny was a little smarter where she was concerned, though. “Sorry, Gracie,” her uncle called over to her, an apologetic smile on his face as Cord moved toward her. “We’re finished.”

  “Were we?” Zack murmured, eyeing the stubborn stance Grace had taken by the front door. “I’m still considering the ‘gossiping girls’ comment.”