Page 126 of Veil of Lies

“Something amusing?” Brax asked me, his eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, just thinking how long it’s been since you got some. Must be fucking painful, dude.”

Stella choked on the water she was drinking while Brax looked like he wanted to murder me. It was pretty funny. The two of them needed to sort their shit out.

Harley and I both agreed on that point. He was sick of all the sexual tension too.

I clicked on the drive folder and scanned all the files. There were dozens of them. It was going to take ages to go through every single bloody file.

“Anything interesting?” Stella asked as she leaned over the sofa. I caught a whiff of her vanilla scent and thanked the Lord the MacBook hid my erection.

“Not sure yet, I need to copy the files to my server and then go through them. Looks like a lot of spreadsheets, though, and there are a ton of PDF files too. I’m guessing your dad scanned letters and other such documents, plus saved copies of financial transactions. That would make the most sense. We’ll find out soon.”

“Oh, OK, that’s not going to give me answers in the next ten minutes, is it?”

“Err no, sorry, angel. I’ll be up a while.”

She looked crestfallen. “You get to bed,” I told her, “Hopefully I’ll have something for you by the morning.”

“OK, and thank you. I know it didn’t seem like it before, but I am grateful.” She dropped down and kissed me lightly. “You’re my tech superstar.”

Her lips tasted of apple pie and ice cream. I wanted to eat her up and then fuck her into the mattress. God, my cock ached so much, but I pushed my needs to one side. I needed to stay focused.

“You’re welcome, angel. I’ll collect my payment later.” From the way her lips parted and her pupils grew darker, I knew she got my meaning.

“I look forward to it,” she said in a husky voice.

I watched as she disappeared into the second bedroom, hips swaying, taunting me. It was going to be a long night, but I would survive. All that mattered was finding answers to her questions.

If we could discover what happened and who was behind it all, Stella would be safe.

And that was all I cared about.

Chapter 95

Brax

It was amazing how fast my mood tanked once the topic of my sisters came up. While I was with Stella, I’d pushed my worries aside, but as soon as Quinn asked me how the evening had gone, wham, it all came back.

I knew damn well Mom was in no fit state to look after the twins. She was barely holding her head above water as it was. Watching her lose her shit when she realized who Stella was almost broke me, but I wasn’t willing to back down and push Stella away.

Did that make me a disloyal son? Probably.

Did I care? Right now, no.

I loved Mom, but she’d always been a selfish woman, so while I hated seeing her so miserable, I knew a lot of her pain was guilt.

She’d pushed Dad to make more money. No matter how much we had, it was never enough. One house, two houses, a beach house in the Hamptons, six vacations a year. New cars, expensive jewelry. Mom wanted more.

No wonder he fell for Daniel Cancello’s smooth sales spiel. The thought of making a massive return on his investment would have been a dream come true. Invest a million, make another million. Except he’d invested a lot more than that and ended up losing it all.

Now the guilt was eating Mom alive.

I’d heard them arguing the night before he killed himself. Back then, I had no clue what was happening. I had assumed it was the usual shit: Mom bitching about how her friends had more of whatever she wanted and Dad doing his best to appease her.

Except it was a lot more than that. Dad must have known he’d lost everything, and Mom had found out.

If only I’d bothered to talk to him. I could have told him none of it mattered. Being poor wasn’t the end of the world. I’d give anything to have him back, see him loading up the truck with our camping gear, for all of us to watch a stupid Disney movie because Serena wouldn’t entertain anything else.

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