Page 9 of Beautiful Liar

Tomás must’ve heard Declan and his fuckfest. “Do you trust me?”

“You’ve given me no reason to trust you.”

He was right. I should cut him loose, but I couldn’t fucking do it. Someone banged on the door. “I’ll call you back.”

“Don’t bother,” he hung up.

I threw my phone across the fucking room. It slammed into the wall and busted on the floor. I thought about crushing it until it turned into dust, but instead I plucked up the pieces and shoved them into my pocket right before I threw the door open. Jacob stood there. For a moment I considered slamming him with a fist. I knew he’d be ready for it. He and I had sparred quite a few times already. But he cocked his head as if questioning the onset of my rage. It’d been hard to trust anyone outside the Ark Boys, but I thought about trusting Jacob. I nixed that idea quickly. He was too close to Tristan.

“Daddy’s calling a meeting.”

The way he used the word Daddy for my actual father made it sound dirty. I’m sure that had been his intent. The fucker liked to rile me up. He deserved that fist. But I showed him I was a bigger man and didn’t take the bait.

He chuckled behind me as I walked out.

The room had been cleared of everyone but Tristan, Maddox, and Jacob. The windows were blacked out to ensure privacy, and I knew Liam used privacy tech to secure our conversations.

Tristan sat down where Alessandro had been just as Jacob lowered a drink on the table in front of him. A hidden communication passed between them. It felt intimate. Something a father-son would share. I quickly clamped down the stirring of jealousy in my gut.

“We have a big fucking problem.” Tristan tossed an envelope on the table. Scowling, Maddox picked it up and removed the contents. “Apparently, we are not the only ones who know how Cillian really died.”

The level of power Tristan had to fake a police investigation and autopsy results was a fucking scary thing, but he’d managed to do both. The official cause of death reported by the coroner’s office was cardiac arrest. Cillian had been on his boat at the time, known for taking it out alone, he’d fallen overboard and was found by a couple of kids. His body was then cremated. No chance of exhuming the remains if that shit ever came to light.

Maddox’s face instantly paled, eyes widened as he carefully placed the contents of the envelope on the table. It was a picture of Tomás strapped to a chair with Cillian hovering over him the day I killed my grandfather. The photographer was behind Cillian and only captured his back, but Tomás’s face was clear and the fear in his eyes all consuming. I racked my brain going over the events of that night. How the fuck had I missed the person? I’d been too damn wound up. And although Maddox had taken out only one photo, I was sure more photos of that night existed. Especially, one of me shooting Cillian in the head. I raked my hand down my face.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Where was a diabetic coma when you needed one?

By Maddox’s reaction, Tomás hadn’t told him about being taken by Cillian that night. “Why the fuck did you fail to mention Tomás?” Maddox growled out to me.

Tomás believed Maddox didn’t care about him, but he was wrong. Maddox would kill for Tomás, as would I. Apparently. “I was trying to protect him,” I said. The truth, considering. “He didn’t see me kill Cillian. He’d been knocked the fuck out. He doesn’t know anything.”

“And what the fuck were you doing there in the first place?”

“I was there to kill Tomás. Grand—” I shook my head. “Cillian promised me the kingdom if I killed the guy. One last death.” Maddox’s eyes narrowed. I knew he wanted more information about Tomás and me, but I had nothing to give him.

“And why are you both protecting this kid?” Tristan asked. “What am I missing here?”

For a second, I thought Maddox wouldn’t admit the truth to Tristan. But then the man let out a long breath. “Tomás isn’t a threat. He’s my half-brother.”

Nothing much threw Tristan for a loop. The man seemed to know everything. But he hadn’t known this and whenever Tristan didn’t know something all the expressions a normal human would wear simply fell away, leaving only what resembled a stone statue behind. Tristan showed nothing of his anger or pain. I’d gotten that from him too.

Maddox knew he’d fucked up. And that’s how Tristan found out about Cillian’s affair with Katarina Ruiz, Tomás’s mother. How Maddox was born and taken by Cillian when he was six months old and how Sarah Brennan, Tristan’s biological mother, had raised him as her own son. Maddox hadn’t learned of it until the hit on the Moyas. Daniel had used that information to save himself. Maddox had then freed Daniel and Cruz and set up a pair of bodies to bury.

Tristan listened to everything with stoicism.

“Tristan,” his voice softened. “Tomás’s mother abused him. Sold him…” Maddox pressed his lips together while Iclenched my fist under the table. I had known something had happened to Tomás, I just never asked him about it. I’d been such a fucking asshole. I didn’t deserve Tomás’s love. I didn’t deserve him. “Tomás wouldn’t take my help unless I forced it on him, so I paid Katarina to legally adopt him. And he hates me for it.” Maddox finally stopped talking and Tristan slowly got to his feet and got another drink.

Maddox and I just watched, unsure what to do. Lies festered. They destroyed families. Maddox knew the damage was irreparable. Alessandro was right. Trust was the glue that kept us from falling apart.

Tristan returned and sat down.

“Justified or not, Tomás isn’t a Brennan. Saving him will costme.”

“Us,” Maddox snapped. “I married fucking Alessandro Mancini to protect this family.”

“From something you started!”

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