Page 142 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
Brandon swallows bleakly when he notices the fury clouded in Hugo’s eyes. “I-I-I’ll call you back,” he stammers into the phone before disconnecting his call.
When I place myself between Hugo and Brandon, Hugo adjusts his gun so it no longer faces me, although it could still inflict harm to Brandon. “I trust Brandon; he wouldn’t do this.” I stare into his barren eyes, my voice quaking. “He's my friend. He’s been helping me.”
I don’t turn my head, but I see Brandon rising from the bed in Hugo’s dilated eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Why don’t you tell us,blondie?” Hugo spits out Brandon’s nickname like it’s trash.
After giving him my best ‘warning’ look, I spin around to face Brandon. His eyes flick between Hugo and me for several heart-thrashing seconds before he shifts them to Hunter, who is leaning in the doorjamb of his hotel room.
His focus returns to me when I divulge, “They found a listening device in my cell phone.”
He nods a mere second before reality dawns on his face. “I didn’t plant the bug. It wasn’t me. Izzy, you know me. I’ve been helping you—”
“You’re the only one who’s been with Izzy since I removed the last bug yesterday morning.”
Hugo’s angry sneer reverberates through me so well, it clears some of the bewilderment in my head. “No, he wasn’t.” I crank my neck back to face Hugo, my legs shaking. “Theresa Veneto and a male agent came to my apartment yesterday afternoon. She showed me photos of Col Petretti’s right-hand man in a hospital bed. She said he was beaten the weekend Isaac and I went to club 57. She was trying to coerce me into unwillingly incriminating Isaac.”
Hunter’s deep snicker sounds through the room. “That’s bullshit. For one, if Isaac had tracked him down that night, he wouldn’t have left breathing. And two, Col would never file a police report on the assault, let alone have an FBI agent consider it. He’d have swept it under the rug like he always does.”
Hunter squeezes Hugo’s shoulder, wordlessly suggesting he stand down. After working his jaw side to side, Hugo does precisely that.
I eye Hunter in suspicion when he moves to stand in front of a quiet and white-faced Brandon. With the veins in his neck pumping, he asks, “Who are you?”
“Brandon James.”
When Brandon offers him his hand to shake, Hunter snubs his offer.
“What’s your real name?” He crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Because I did a search on a Brandon James after yourdatewith Izzy a couple of months ago, nothing came up.”
“Just like your search on Izzy failed to yield any real results?”
I’m not the only one shocked by Brandon’s brash statement. Hunter and Hugo are also taken aback.
“I buried Izzy’s private life as much as I did mine.” Brandon’s eyes stray to mine. They’re clouded with intrigue and anxiety. “I knew they’d be looking.”
He doesn’t need to say any more. His truthful eyes communicate the entire story. He knows my secret. He knows who my dad is.
“Isaac already knows—”
“I’m not talking about Isaac,” Brandon interrupts, stepping closer. “I’m talking about the Bureau.” After smiling to ease the turmoil swirling in my stomach, he strolls to the other side of the room to secure some papers from a black briefcase. “You’re not the only one who’s been doing some research the past few days.”
When he hands me a printed document, my eyes drop to scan it. The more I read, the closer my brows become. “The Bureau paid for me to fly business class?”
Brandon shakes his head. “Not the Bureau, Izzy. Alex signed off on it.”
“That son of a bitch,” I growl, baring teeth. “Why would he do that?”
When Brandon shrugs, I clench my fists into a tight ball, fighting with all my might not to curse the quiet night air. I shouldn’t be surprised by Brandon’s admission. Alex was adamant from my very first day that I was only brought in as a piece of eye candy for Isaac. I just had no clue how vigorous his attempts were to force me to go undercover until now.
