Chapter Twelve
Kinley looked away to give them a moment of privacy. The love and respect between the brothers made her want to curl up on the floor and cry. Cyrus was mad as hell at Eli, but it was only because he cared and was afraid of losing him. If that happened, she would be the cause.
Before this is done, we’re going to bury a lot of bodies on this mountain. Cyrus’s warning rang with an undeniable truth. They’d already buried one.
She cursed herself for ever approaching Eli at the fight club. It had seemed like such a simple and straightforward plan. He’d been no more than a name, a mercenary for hire. Someone whose skills she could utilize to escape her dire situation.
He was no longer a stranger. She wasn’t sure what to call him.
Friend wasn’t quite right. And he definitely wasn’t her lover.
Not yet, a tiny voice whispered. If the kisses they’d shared were any indication, they’d burn up the sheets if they ever got that far.
Eli was ... special. Vital in a way she couldn’t explain.
Her wolf wanted to be near him and so did she.
But mostly she cursed Duke Wright for his unrelenting thirst for power, Holden for the unhealthy desire he had for her and his quest to rise within the pack, and the rest of the pack for falling in line and doing nothing to stop the coming bloodshed.
If only Daddy was alive. But she was no longer sure that would have made any difference.
He’d always backed Duke. He’d have done his best to talk him out of doing something he disagreed with, would have offered up other solutions to the problem, but in the end, he’d have supported whatever the alpha decided.
It was a devastating blow to realize the man she’d loved and idolized her entire life had a fatal flaw.
She’d been lying to herself to think for one second she’d have been allowed to stay single and remain a member of the pack.
It had only been a matter of time until she’d have been forced to mate.
Her daddy would have done his best to talk Duke out of it, or talk her around to it, but in the end, it would have happened.
Funny that only after his death was she able to view him outside his role as parent, as a man with strengths and weaknesses doing the best he could.
He hadn’t been perfect, but he’d loved her.
God knows she’d been a trial to him at times.
His life would have been easier if she’d been a more obedient daughter, but hers would have been hell.
They’d both done the best they could. That was all anyone could do.
Too bad it hadn’t been enough to stave off the nightmare her life had become.
“You okay?” Eli asked, his brow furrowed in concern. Both brothers were watching her. How long had she been lost in thought?
“Nothing about this situation is remotely okay, so no, I’m nowhere near okay. What I am is pissed off and determined. I don’t want to see any of you hurt.” Especially Eli, but she was coming to know and like the others.
A door cracked open upstairs and a voice called out, “Is it safe to come down?”
She tilted her head to one side and challenged Cyrus. “Is it safe for him to come down or do you want to yell at me first?”
Eli shook his head in exasperation, but the corners of his mouth twitched.
He detoured to the sink and began to scrub the remaining bloodstains from his hands.
There wasn’t as much as there would be if Ridge had been human.
The blood, like their bodies, deteriorated quickly once it was shed.
Another way nature protected them as a species.
“If I thought it would do any good, I might give it a go, but I figure it would be a waste of breath.” Cyrus swiveled his head toward the stairs and yelled, “It’s as safe as it’s going to get. Get your ass down here and tell us what you found.”
Boots pounded down the stairs. “Nothing yet. I’m still trying to get into it.” Zach held up the phone. “Facial recognition didn’t work?”
“I tried that,” Cyrus told him.
She’d been too distracted before to pay much attention to what Zach had been working on before he’d bolted upstairs. Her stomach began to churn and she swallowed heavily. “Is that Ridge’s?” She dropped down onto the nearest chair.
“He had it on him. It may have information we can use.” Cyrus said it as if issuing a challenge, daring her to object.
“Its password protected.” She wasn’t sure if facial recognition would work when a person was dead. Gave her the creeps just thinking about it. “Give it to me.” She held out her hand. Zach glanced at Cyrus but handed it over.
She prayed what she was about to try worked.
There was no telling what might be on the phone.
Holden would be privy to the details of any attack plan.
As one of Holden’s inner circle, Ridge would also know.
It wouldn’t matter if Duke told him to keep things private.
Holden had an almost pathological need to brag to his friends.
She tapped in a number, slightly surprised and profoundly relieved when it actually worked. “I’m in.”
“You just happen to know his password?” A muscle in Eli’s jaw flexed. “Convenient.”
The suspicion stung. “Yes, I just happen to know the password. I’ve known him—” She broke off as reality slammed down on her.
For all he’d done wrong, they’d once been childhood friends.
Now he was gone. “I knew him my entire life. Ridge was a creature of habit.” He’d unquestioningly followed Holden his entire life.
It didn’t matter how many times his friend dragged him into some scheme that landed them in trouble, often with Ridge bearing the brunt of the blame.
“I took a chance that he had the same password he’d had since he was a teenager.
As senior enforcer, daddy kept a list of passwords for all the underage kids—phones and social media.
He’d spot-check on occasion to make sure they weren’t doing anything too stupid.
I knew where he kept the list and may have written down some of the passwords.
” She threw her hands up in the air. “I was a bored teenager, what can I say? Now let’s see what’s on it.
” She clicked on his text messages. Before she could read anything, Eli plucked it out of her hand. “Hey.”
Ignoring her protest, he started to scroll. There was no way to take it back without it deteriorating into a tugging match she’d lose, so she settled on glaring at him. Not that he seemed to notice or care. He was glued to whatever he was reading.
“Well?” she asked after a minute passed where he said nothing.
“Your good buddy Ridge and Holden had a lot to say about you.” It wasn’t what he said but the way he said it that worsened the churning in her stomach until she feared what she’d eaten earlier might come back up. Whatever he’d found, it wasn’t good.
“Let me see.”
“You do not need to see this.” The lack of expression on his face was downright scary.
“Let’s just say if he wasn’t already dead, he would be.
” The quiet promise sent a shiver racing through her.
There wasn’t a shred of mercy in his black eyes.
He handed the phone to Cyrus who scanned the screen, his frown deepening as he read.
Zach read over his shoulder, his countenance growing more forbidding each passing second.
The Seven Deadly Sins. In this moment, the title seemed apt. Anger snapped in the air, all the more potent for being under iron control.
They have no idea what they’ve unleashed. Her pack had started something that might be the end of them. But how much of a toll would it take on the brothers?
“Eli.” His head snapped toward her. Faced with a mountain of fury, a sane woman would back down. She held out her hand. “I have to see it.”
“No, you fucking don’t.” It was the first crack in his icy armor.
She wanted to go to him but wasn’t sure her shaky legs would hold her. “I need the truth.” No matter how devastating.
“Damn it, Kinley. Why are you doing this to yourself?”
“Do you think I want to?” She pushed upright. “Do you think I want to read whatever vile things are in there? To know that someone I thought was my friend spent years lying to my face?” Her entire life had been a lie. It was devastating.
“Can’t you trust me?”
“It’s not about trust.” Praying her legs held, she went to him. The muscles in his arm were like iron beneath her hand. “There’s a wound in my heart, one that will never heal unless I uncover all the secrets and deceit. There might be some hint, some clue about what happened to my daddy.”
His lips thinned but he gave a curt nod. She heaved a sigh, the first hurdle passed. Cyrus passed her the phone without her having to ask. Steeling herself for what was to come, she began to read.
****
The lewd comments and innuendo, not to mention the downright blatant sexual suggestions about Kinley, had Eli in a killing mood.
These were men she’d lived among, ones her father had helped protect.
He wasn’t feeling too kindly toward Lincoln Wright at the moment.
That was her daddy’s name. Holden made mention of it several times in his texts to Ridge.
He wanted to spare her this, and maybe he should have, but he understood that if he kept her from reading the texts it would damage not only her but their relationship. If he was the one in her position, he’d damn well demand to know what was on that phone.
She sucked in a breath but kept reading.
“Well, that’s disgusting. If either of them thought for one second I’d be open to doing that.
..” she muttered. She did her best to adopt a detached attitude, but the slight quaver in her voice and the hunch of her shoulders gave her away.
It had to hurt like hell to read the ugliness on the screen, but she didn’t back away from it.