Always (Follow Me #6)

Chapter Forty

Monday morning I’m back in the office in Manhattan, meeting with Dimitri and Lizzie on putting out yet another fire while Skye is meeting with her team at Susanne Cosmetics.

My phone dings with a text from Skye.

Eugenie wants to take us both to dinner tonight at eight. Are you free?

Sure , I text back.

Just as I press send, Dimitri clears his throat, reminding me of the task at hand. The next several hours pass in a blur of panicked phone calls, garbled emails, and hastily scribbled notes.

By two thirty, I’m drained and disheveled but ready to face the rest of the afternoon when my phone dings again.

A text.

From my investigator in Boston. He’s been working with me to expose Beau Reardon and his architecture firm in Boston, but they’re smart. They don’t leave trails.

I got you a meeting.

With whom? I text back.

Someone who can help. Louisa’s Ristorante in Little Italy. Tonight at eight. Don’t be late.

Damn it, I need a name.

The Unholy Trinity.

My eyebrows shoot up. I don’t live here in New York full time, but I’m around enough to know about the Unholy Trinity. They’re vigilantes. Vigilantes who feel that the end justifies the means—and the means can be anything.

Any fucking thing.

Fuck.

Has it come to that?

A shiver runs through me, but I tamp it down. I’ve faced worse in my lifetime than a trio of vigilantes. After all, they’re on my side.

I’ll be there , I shoot back quickly.

“You okay, Braden?” Dimitri says.

I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m good. But I’ve got an issue that just came up. You and Lizzie got this?”

He nods. “You can count on us.”

“Remind me to give you both a raise.”

Lizzie laughs. “You bet we will.”

I head back to my building and ascend to my penthouse.

The elevator doors open to my home office area, which doubles as a living area when it’s not in use. Skye sits in a wingback chair.

“Skye,” I say simply.

“Braden.”

I break the news to her quickly. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you and Eugenie for dinner this evening.”

“Oh? Why not?”

I inhale. “Something has come up.”

“What?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

“Braden, anything that concerns you concerns me.” She draws in a breath. “Is Addison still stalking you?”

My eyebrows nearly fly off my forehead, but I don’t answer.

“Come on. She has to be. Either that or she’s stalking me. Or both of us. How else would she know all the things she knows? How else would she have ended up at the convenience store across from Tessa’s place the other night?”

“I have this handled,” I say.

“So she is.” She shakes her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“This isn’t as simple as you think.”

“Of course it’s as simple as I think. Make her stop, legally if you have to. I don’t appreciate being spied on.”

“Do you think for a minute that I don’t have more tails on her than she has on me?”

Her mouth drops open.

“I’ve told you before that I have her watched. Why does this surprise you?”

“What’s up with the cat and mouse game, then? Why are you letting her do this?”

I draw in a deep breath. “There are things you don’t know.”

“Only because you won’t tell me.”

I feel for her. I do. She loves me, she opened up to me, and she has the right to expect the same. I’m on edge about my meeting tonight. I won’t walk into any trap without protection, and I have a pretty good idea who’s behind the texts.

“Have you considered that I may not be able to tell you?”

She widens her eyes. “What?”

I pace away from her for a moment and stare out the window in the living area. Manhattan is gray, as usual. Why do people live here? Boston is so much more beautiful.

“Braden, does she have something on you?”

I turn toward her but don’t meet her gaze.

“Why are you protecting her?” she asks. “What am I supposed to think? You won’t tell me. I can only deduce that she has something on you.”

“She doesn’t. At least not in the way you’re thinking.”

“How can you possibly know what I’m thinking?”

“I know you, Skye. You think what Betsy told you is true. You think I did something to Addison that I shouldn’t have done. You’re wrong.”

“Prove it to me. Prove to me I’m wrong, then.”

“I shouldn’t have to prove anything to you. If you will never trust me, how can you still be in this relationship?”

She opens her mouth, but no words emerge. Because I’m right.

If she doesn’t trust me, she has no business being in a relationship with me.

She promised she’d give me time like I gave her time. And now she’s welching?

“I’m sorry,” she finally says. “I promised I wouldn’t push. I do trust you, Braden. I know you’re a good man. I couldn’t be with you if I didn’t believe that.”

I stride toward her and pull her to my chest. “I know you trust me, Skye. You’ve proved that many times over. You have to trust me with this as well.”

“I do.” She nods into my shoulder.

I push her away slightly and meet her gaze. It’s time. She’s waited long enough, and she deserves to know the truth about Addison and me. “I will tell you what you want to know, but I need your promise that it goes no further than you.”

“I tell Tessa everything.”

“Not this. I can make you sign an NDA like you did for the club.”

“That’s not necessary. I won’t tell Tessa about the club, and I won’t tell her anything you don’t want me to.”

“Good. And it’s not just Tessa. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. Especially not Addie or that friend of hers.”

“Who?”

“The one who owns the dog supply store.”

“Betsy? She and Addie aren’t really friends.”

“Maybe not, but she knows some of this. You can’t tell her anything more. Got it?”

She looks into my eyes.

Does she see my torment? My subtle sadness? I wish I didn’t have to do this, but I will. I’ll do it for Skye.

“Of course, Braden. You can trust me. With anything.”