Page 8 of Trick's Trap

“You’ll get this back after, at the reception. Maia will speak first, then Tahlia’s advisor from the Math Department has a few words.”

She started to leave but hesitated. “By the way, Maia is fit to be tied about the invitations. If you value your life,don’tcall this a memorial or imply in any way that her friend won’t be coming back.”

“But I thought itwasa memorial.” Liam frowned. “It’s not good for Maia to keep holding out hope. Her friend is…well, she’s gone.”

Peyton rounded on him, getting in his face. She reached up and pulled his forelock with a hard jerk. “Don’t you dare get on your soapbox on this one,” she snapped. “You donotknow what’s best for Maia. Neither does her damn fool of a husband, not this time. I agree with Maia and Maggie. It is way too soon for this. The investigation isn’t closed. Ethan just confirmed that.”

Liam’s face darkened. “Of course Agent Thomas isn’t going to tell you the truth. You’re too close to this. But he’s not investigating anymore. He’s out of leads.”

A bright red flush crept up Peyton’s face. She opened her mouth, but Trick forestalled her.

“We better take a seat. I think I see Maia about to start,” he interrupted.

Peyton rarely argued with Liam, but when she did—hoo boy. Everybody needed to run for cover. Stopping the argument before it started was the best way to go.

“Fine.” Peyton thrust something into his hand, a card of some sort. She gave one to Liam, too—only far less gently—before walking away.

He could practically see the snarky comeback bubbling up to his brother’s lips. Liam started after Peyton, but Trick snagged him by the back of his wool coat.

He gave his brother a discreet punch in his backside. “Peyton was friends with the missing girl, too,” he said. “Stop being an insensitive jerk.”

Liam’s face softened, his shoulders dropping. “I know. I just want them to deal with it instead of keeping hope alive. It’s not good for either of them to keep going on this way. Calen agrees with me.”

“Well, I’m not sure I do. How long has she been missing? Less than a year?”

“You know that doesn’t matter,” Liam muttered under his breath. “The poor thing was probably gone after the first night. The best we can hope for now is to find the body.”

Trick sighed. “I guess, but it may still be too soon to make Maia do this.”

Liam trudged toward the chairs. “Well, take that up with Calen. This is his rodeo.”

Calen, an entrepreneur and club owner, was financing Maia’s desperate search for her friend. But he himself hadn’t held out much hope the girl would be found alive.

Trick didn’t know all the details. He’d been outside the investigation’s inner circle—Maia, Calen, and the FBI agents, his brother-in-law Jason and Jason’s partner at the bureau Ethan Thomas. What little Trick did know made him side with Calen, but it still seemed harsh to say so aloud.

“I still think it’s premature,” he repeated before nodding at Jason and Ethan as they took the seats in front of them.

He tucked the card Peyton handed him into his pocket without looking at it.

Maia rose from the front row of seats, walking a few short steps to the small raised dais in the front of the room. Her eyes were red and she was very pale, but her voice was steady when she greeted everyone.

“I want to repeat what I told you when I invited you,” Maia continued after the formalities had been observed. “This isnota memorial,” she said with a pointed glance at her husband in the front row. “This is a gathering to remember an absent friend, one we all hope to see again someday…”

Trick’s eye wandered to the right. He didn’t hear anything after that. He was too busy staring at the big, blown-up color image of the beautiful brunette on an easel next to her.

“Oh my God, it’s her.”

All this time, Maia had been going crazy over her missing friend, and he’d been feeling guilty for not helping more. He’d been too busy searching for his mystery girl.

They were the same person the whole time.

His mind raced over the details he’d heard about Tahlia’s disappearance—the blood in the living room and signs of a violent struggle.

Fuck. He was going to be sick.

Trick reached out to steady himself on the back of Ethan’s chair. Even though he was seated, he felt as if the ground had given way underneath him. A tremor ran through him, and he put a hand to his stomach in an effort to hold himself together.

Oh God. All this time and he hadn’t realized. If only he’d paid closer attention or even asked to see the missing girl’s picture. Hell, he hadn’t even helped put up fliers. Instead, he and Liam paid a few of the hotel’s busboys to do it for them.

---