Tangled In Lies (Tangled & Torn #1)

24. Phoenix

Chapter 24

Phoenix

I pace along the length of the room, back and forth. Back and forth.

What the fuck?

What. The. Fuck.

I had an inkling something happened back then, and it wasn’t just Eve.

But I’m not sure I believed it.

It was so easy to let my anger consume me while I was in prison and couldn’t see her. And then my mysterious person kept sending me pictures of her and how happy she was while I was in prison.

My mysterious person took pictures of her.

The person who told me I could call them Angel, which I refused to do for several reasons, one being I thought of Eve as Angel, and I didn’t want the name reminder.

I saved them in my phone as Canary instead, like an informant.

Did Eve’s person tell her their name is Freddy ?

I’m two seconds away from storming into the bathroom to demand more answers.

I rake a hand through my hair.

Fuck.

There’s a quiet knock on my door.

Holden. I texted him to come up.

I open the door, pressing my index finger to my lips and pointing at the bathroom door. I wanted to leave it open to hear her in case she needed help, but she looked so devastated after her admission that I wanted to give her some space.

I step out into the hallway but leave the door ajar.

Déjà vu hits me. How was it just a little over a week ago when we were in a similar situation after Eve’s music room episode?

“What’s going on? Is the princess okay?”

At first, it bothered me that Holden called her by a nickname like she was special. He did it as a joke at the beginning, but it didn’t take long for him to start liking her, not that I blame him. The two of them have been spending a lot of time together. And this is Eve, the girl I still call Angel, not only because it’s part of her name, but because she’s always been a genuinely good person. So good I didn’t want to taint her with my life, my family, and the cutthroat world I was always supposed to take over from my dad one day.

That’s why it hit even harder when I heard her voice on the nine-one-one recording. She was the last person I ever expected to stab me in the back.

Turns out, that might still be true, after all.

“Phoenix. ”

“Sorry.” I blink at Holden. “Eve admitted Freddy had something to do with my prison sentence.”

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “What?”

“Yeah.”

He scrubs a hand roughly over his beard. “Fuck. Is that the connection we’ve been missing?”

I shrug. “It’s something.”

“She didn’t say who the guy was?”

After a glance through the gap in the door toward the bathroom, I lean against the hallway wall and close my eyes. “I don’t think she knows who it is either.”

Holden wraps one of his hands around the other, cracking his knuckles and filling the air with popping sounds. “Okay. Shit. I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming. We knew something wasn’t adding up, but this?”

I exhale loudly.

“But why would she put you in prison just because someone told her to? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It doesn’t.”

He’d hit the nail right on the head. That’s exactly where my brain is still stuck too.

“She didn’t explain anything? Didn’t say why she listened to some random person?”

I shake my head. “Trust me, I have a million questions and want answers to every single one, but she said she wanted to talk after her bath. I want to push her so badly, but the doctor said to keep things easy or the symptoms will get worse.”

“Fair enough.” Holden studies me for a long moment. “I bet she’s been feeling like total shit since the explosion, and not just physically. I mean, this person pretty much texted her that you’d die unless she saved you. How fucked up is that?”

My chest expands, but it feels like my lungs aren’t getting enough air.

He tilts his head to the side. “You know, there was no hesitation on her part either. She read the message and took off right away.”

“She told me at the hospital that she didn’t want me dead. She also apologized several times. I didn’t understand what she was apologizing for, but maybe it makes more sense now.”

“Man, I bet she feels guilty as fuck for everything.” He shifts closer. “We need to figure out who’s behind this before something else happens and they succeed with their murder attempts.”

I nod, entirely on board with it.

“I’ll hit up the other tech guys again that I know,” he says. “Maybe one of them will be able to help now that we have some more info.”

I push off the wall. “Thank you.”

“No problem. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.” He gets his phone out of his pocket.

“Hold.”

His gaze snaps up.

I hope my hunch proves correct and we’ll get one step closer to solving this puzzle. “Also, give them everything we have on our canary.”

I see the moment it clicks for him, and his eyes widen. “Fuck me. Motherfucker. On it, boss.”

His footsteps retreat, and I step back into the bedroom at the same time the bathroom door opens .

Eve pokes her head out. She clears her throat when she sees me across the room. “Uh, hey. Are those clothes on the counter for me?”

The gap in the door allows me to see a sliver of her body wrapped in one of my big towels with her bare legs on display.

I nod. “I can get you something else if you want. You seemed comfortable in them the?—”

“No, they’re perfect, thank you.” The corners of her mouth lift into something that resembles a half-grimace, half-smile. “Mmm, okay, I’ll be right out.”

I’m still in the same spot when she steps out several minutes later, dressed in my clothes. The sweatshirt hangs loose on her frame, and the sweatpants are probably rolled up several times at the waist. But for some reason, I can’t tear my eyes away from the sight.

She points at the table by the window where Huxley set up breakfast. “Is this for us?”

I nod, tracking her with my eyes as she strolls across the room and sits.

With her damp hair framing her face in waves and no makeup, she looks much like her younger self. Like the Eve I had a hard time staying away from.

Doesn’t seem very different from now.

In a way yes, but so much has also changed.

My thoughts circle back to that one godforsaken night that still fills me with regret whenever I think about it.

Her sixteenth birthday.

I’d been so tired of resisting, of keeping her at arm’s length. I was desperate for her attention, taking every morsel she threw my way. She was the forbidden fruit I wanted so badly, I couldn’t handle it.

I had just given Eve her birthday present and was ready to find her again, to say fuck it all and take what I wanted. But then I got a text message from one of my father’s enforcers. It was only an address, but I knew exactly what I’d be witnessing that night. What my dad considered part of my training for my future CEO position in the family company: blackmail, physical assault, threats of any kind. Whatever worked to get my father the companies he wanted for cheap so he could tear them apart and resell them for enormous profits. If there’s one thing my father is good at, it’s being a ruthless and calculated businessman.

That night, I watched my father’s men beat a man unconscious to get the information my father was after.

Later that night, I heard from someone that Eve had disappeared with that douchebag, Tyler. While I wanted to find them—find him—and tear him limb from limb, I also told myself it was better this way. The reason why I had resisted her for so long was because I didn’t want to drag her into this twisted and fucked-up family I was born into and put a target on her back for my dad to exploit and destroy. I wanted Eve to shine brightly and explore the world.

A noise drags me out of my thoughts, and Eve looks at me with an apology in her eyes.

“Sorry, I dropped my fork.”

I inhale deeply, shaking those old thoughts off.

“No worries.” I join her at the table, pleased when I see she’s filled her plate with lots of fresh fruit, some fried eggs, and French toast.

I’m a routine person when it comes to my meals, enjoying a vegetable-laden omelet every morning. But today, something urged me to follow in Eve’s footsteps, and I fill my plate with a mix of everything.

We eat silently, glancing at the other when they aren’t looking. Well, that’s what Eve is doing. I’m not even hiding I’m staring, still hoping I’ll suddenly be able to read her thoughts.

“How’s your back? Does it hurt?” She moves the eggs around on her plate but raises her gaze at the end of her question.

I lift a shoulder and drop it. “It’s okay. Nothing I can’t handle.”

She huffs a breath like she knew I’d say something like that.

Her hand tightens around her fork, and she guides it to her mouth. I watch the food disappear behind her full lips.

After a swallow, she goes back to pushing her eggs around. “I . . . mmm . . . I’m really sorry about your back and your other injuries. I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you for what you did, so thank you.”

A million unspoken things float between us.

“There’s nothing to thank me for, Eve. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead.”

She opens her mouth and closes it again.

It’s easy to tell she doesn’t like this topic by the way she averts her gaze and chews on the corner of her lip.

“Eve, who’s Freddy?” I put down my fork.

She blows out a long breath and holds my gaze. “Listen, I want to tell you everything, but I need you to promise me something first.”

“What?”

“I need you to not do anything rash, please. I haven’t heard from Freddy since the explosion, so to be honest, I’m not completely sure what’s going on, but this isn’t just about you and me. There are other people involved who could get hurt.”

I lean forward. “Other people? What are you talking about?”

She swallows. “Pretty much anyone who’s close to me. My family, Ruby, Mason, Tyler. Thankfully, I haven’t been close to anyone else since I started college, or they’d be targets as well.”

“We need to find this guy. He tried to kill us. And he’s the reason I was in prison. Prison , Eve. I was locked away for three years like a fucking animal. I had to spend most of my time crammed in a tiny cell, was beaten up for fun, had to eat food I’m pretty sure even stray dogs wouldn’t eat, and was deprived of so many other things. I fucking deserve the truth.”

Her eyes shimmer, and she nods.

With a firm grip on the imaginary knife, I twist it in deeper. Not because I want to hurt her, but because my desperation for her to lay it all out is pushing me from the inside. “Connie wouldn’t have wanted this for us.”

A lone tear escapes her eye and runs down her cheek. I’m not sure if that was the right or wrong thing to say, but as before, it’s too late now.

Knowing someone’s secrets is a weapon like no other.

I finally understand my dad’s “words of wisdom,” as he calls them. They’re pretty much the company’s unofficial mission statement at this point.

He failed to tell me, though, they can also turn on you at any time, slicing you up from the inside until you slowly bleed to death.

And I’m so sick of it.

With no time to regret it, I open my mouth again, knowing my next words will completely change the trajectory of Evangeline and me.

“You knew that Connie was pregnant?”

She nods, suddenly looking a little paler.

Here we go.

“The baby wasn’t mine.”