Page 49 of Deceive Me
“Blunt-force trauma to the head, needs stitches.” Dr. Karak probed around the stab wound. “This one’s a little more complicated.” He turned to his bag and began emptying it onto the coffee table. “May want to clear the room,” he murmured with a glance at Sydney.
But Deacon needed to know— “Anything else?”
Dr. Karak paused his unpacking to meet Deacon’s gaze squarely. “Nothing else. He’ll be fine… Well, except for one massive headache he didn’t earn having fun.” He gave Sydney a wink when she shifted to lay her cheek against Deacon’s chest, looking his way. “He’ll be giving you pony rides in no time, I promise.”
Deacon felt the push against his breastbone as Sydney’s cheeks plumped with a smile.
“Thanks, Doc.”
Dr. Karak waved away the gratitude, returning to his equipment without a word. Deacon stood to leave. Dain shadowed him out of the library.
He ignored the man and the anger still seething inside him as he carried Sydney up to her bedroom, retrieved a set of clothes from the closet, and took his daughter into her bathroom. Sydney quietly followed directions, seeming as unsettled as he was after the morning’s events. He brushed her hair and pulled it into a neat braid as he stared at her face in the mirror, seeing fatigue in the dark circles under her eyes. Sydney wasn’t an early riser; she’d always been a good sleeper, and her night had been cut short a couple of hours. “Want some breakfast?”
She yawned. “No.”
“Okay.” He dropped a kiss on her head. “Can you play for a bit while I talk to Dain?”
A nod. “When will Elliot be home?”
He opened the door to the bathroom, hoping if he ignored the question, Syd would drop it. She didn’t, just stood inside the bathroom, waiting. Even at four, she could be as stubborn as he was.
“I don’t know, baby.”
Her shoulders drooped, but she went obediently to her bed and grabbed Katie Kitty. Deacon walked over to join Dain at the window.
Beyond the drape of pink material Dain had pulled aside, a storm darkened the early morning sky. Appropriate considering how the day had started. And considering the SUV headed down the drive and into the storm. Red taillights brightened briefly as Elliot followed the curve. Deacon caught a quick flash of her stark white face in the driver’s side mirror, and then she was too far away to see.
“She won’t have any protection out there, no one to watch her back,” Dain said.
“She’s Mansa’s daughter. Why would she need protection?”
“Mansa doesn’t have family; he owns commodities.” Dain turned to stare at him, shaking his head. “You should’ve let her explain.”
Though his voice was quiet, Deacon couldn’t miss the edge to the words. His own were equally hard. “She deceived me. So did you. Why should I listen to anything either one of you have to say?”
“Because she was going to tell you.”
“Really?” Deacon snorted. “She got caught in a lie. Saying she would’ve told me anyway is irrelevant, if you could even prove it. Which you can’t.”
“No, I can’t.” Dain leaned a shoulder against the wall, his gaze going back out the window, back to the bit of driveway they could see. “Did you never wonder why we were late coming that first day?”
He’d wondered.
“I gave her an ultimatum before we left the office: five days. Either she told you or I did.”
“If she could tell me after five days, she could’ve told me on the first, Dain.”
“No, she couldn’t have, but you won’t believe that right now. The truth is, I believed it, and I made a tactical decision. We needed her more than we didn’t, so I gave her a deadline. I told you I’d force her to reveal anything relevant, and that’s exactly what I was doing.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make! My daughter’s life is at stake. I keep her safe, and I invited you here to do the same. You knew she was dangerous, and you brought her here anyway.”
“I brought her here because she is the absolute best chance you will ever have of finding that bastard and killing him,” Dain argued, a red flush beginning under his dark skin.
“She’s his daughter, damn it. You brought her into my house.”
“Elliot has no loyalty to Mansa.”
“Right. And exactly how do you know that?”
