“I can explain everything,” he said roughly, stalking toward me. He hooked his hand under my arm and pulled me toward the couch, fending off my angry shoves the entire time. “Let me explain!”
Nausea gripped me. Turning away from him, I slammed down, holding my fist to my mouth as he paced the narrow space between where I sat and the coffee table. I counted his steps. Listened to his growls of frustration. But I wasn’t ready to meet his eyes, not yet.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way,” he told me at last.
“How the hell did you want me to figure it out, then? Does Pen know?” I wanted to believe my best friend hadn’t been involved with this, but I’d reached the point where nothing surprised me.
“Of course she doesn’t know!” He let out a flustered curse. “I figured you’d come to me when you found what that woman was hiding. Dammit, Gemma, I thought you’d ask for my help.”
“When you called, did you really think Margaret had screwed me over? Or were you making a wild guess.”
“I knew it was a possibility. But I knew for sure there was something going on at that company. ”
The emptiness in the laugh shoving up from my throat scared me. “Congrats, then. You called one right.” Abruptly, another thought hit me, and I jumped off the couch, planting my feet apart. “That call came from Emerson & Taylor. How the hell did you manage to make that one happen?”
“I had a—” His green eyes plunged to the floor between our feet, and I tapped my bare toes impatiently on the laminate. “I had a source who worked at the company.”
“A source?” I snorted. “And why couldn’t that person get you what you needed? When you weren’t one hundred percent positive any of this pertained to me, why didn’t you use your source to dig for information?”
“When that person couldn’t get things taken care of like I needed, I thought of you.”
I scoured my brain, thinking of everyone I’d met so far who might have helped Linc. When I stared up at him pleadingly, my arms outstretched, he sank down on the ottoman and shielded his eyes with his hand.
“Stella Marchand.”
“Stella?” I wheezed. The woman who’d been my friend. The woman who’d taken me out for drinks, who had met me for lunch numerous times. “The next thing you’re going to tell me is that Oliver Manning is your new partner, right?”
It wouldn’t shock me.
“I can’t go into details about Stella, but I can tell you she didn’t want to hurt you. I take full responsibility for what I did to you, but I knew you and my sister would wiggle your way in and figure out what I kept missing. I really hoped you’d find answers for yourself, Gemma.”
“That’s disgusting,” I hissed. “That you would use Pen and me to do your job.” Biting the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood, I stepped around him and grabbed my phone from my purse.
“What are you doing?”
I turned my back to him, focusing on the green light on my cable box as I waited for Pen to pick up. When she answered on the second ring, her voice cheery, I immediately interrupted. “You should come home.”
“Nothing’s wrong, is there?”
“Your brother is here,” I said, “And he knows everything.”
She sucked in a breath. “God, Gemma! You told him?”
“He knew all along.” I tossed a furious stare over my shoulder at Linc, who was still on my ottoman looking like he was just deceived. “Just get here so you can ask him yourself.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Linc said quietly when I hung up.
“Did you expect me to keep it from her?” Tossing my phone onto the couch, I scrubbed my hands over my face, wishing this were just a nightmare I’d swiftly awaken from. When I dropped my arms to my sides, though, Linc was still there.
And I was still livid.
“What do you need from me?” I asked.
“What?”
I paced from the armchair to the ottoman, letting my head fall back so my eyes faced the ceiling. “You sent me here to dig around in Margaret’s life, so what is it you want to know? I can give you plenty. Do you want to start with how she forged my father’s will? Or how she’s been skimming money from the company and charities for the last fourteen years? Or—”
“I already know all that. I’ve—” He paused and curled his lip guiltily. “There are surveillance microphones in here. I put them in last month.”
Recoiling, I bit the tip of my tongue. I wanted him out of my apartment. And the quickest way to do that would be to get him to come out with exactly what he required from me—how much longer he needed me to be his puppet.
“Tell me what you want me to do.”
Clearing his throat, he looked me up and down. “I want you to get a confession from Margaret.”
“Is this a confession about what she did to me?”
“No, but it’s a start. We’ll get everything else out of her once we have her in custody.”
“When this is done, we’re through,” I said, starting toward my bedroom. “And get your fucking surveillance microphones out of my house.”
*
When my phone rang an hour later, and I saw it was Oliver, I slipped into my shoes and grabbed my purse. Pen and Linc’s argument had reached the point where I was sure the neighbors were calling our landlord to complain. Not that I planned on stopping her. As hypocritical as it sounded, I couldn’t even bear to hear Linc’s voice at the moment. If he had approached me and asked for help, I would have done anything he wanted in a heartbeat, but the way he went about it made my chest ache.
He’d been like a brother to me. At least, that’s what I let myself believe.
Shutting my apartment door, I answered Oliver’s call and held the phone between my shoulder and ear. “I didn’t expect you to call so soon,” I answered nervously. Jogging down the stairs at the end of the hall, I headed for the lobby. “Are you still there?”
“I was thinking about you, Li—Gemma.” Oliver was momentarily silent before his low growl made me shiver. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I denied, twisting my head to either side to convince myself.
“I’m looking right at you. And you look like you’ve been crying.”
When I whipped my head up, my blond ponytail flew around my face. There he was, crossing the carpeted lobby steadily with a frown on his bronze face. I met him half way, immediately offering an excuse.
“It was a ... family argument. Nothing to worry about,” I said lamely, gasping when he held my chin between his thumb and forefinger.
He chuckled, and though it might have been somewhat sarcastic, that sound was the best thing I’d heard all day. It brought a touch of warmth to the coldness that had weighed me down for the last hour and a half.
“There are so many places I could take what you just said about family, but none would be appropriate, considering how badly I want you right now.” Sucking in his cheeks, he tilted his head and examined my face. “Come with me.”
Yes, I thought. I’ll go with you anywhere. “Should I change?” When I looked down at my jeans and white V-neck I’d changed into after arguing with Linc, Oliver shook his head.
“We don’t have to get out the car. I just haven’t been able to get you out of my head, and I needed to be near you.”
His hand firmly pressed to the small of my back, he escorted me to his Viper, which was parked illegally in front of the building. As we walked, I slid closer to him to fight off the slight chill of the early December night, and the fingers touching my back moved around to grip my hip possessively.
It was a touch that had me wanting more, and I was reluctant when we parted to get into the car.
For the first few minutes of the drive, he was content to focus solely on the road, so I stayed quiet too. With all the thoughts assaulting my mind—Margaret’s impending downfall, Linc’s deception, and the possibility that Oliver’s ex-girlfriend might be my sister—it wasn’t hard to keep my mouth closed. Finally, he broke the calm.