Sinful Secrets (Mine 4.5)

Cameron’s shouts were attracting a crowd.

“Let’s go inside,” Jason suggested with a nod toward his building.

“I’m going nowhere with you. But you…you’re heading to jail.” Then Cameron’s bright stare turned on Cat. “He’s the one…he’s the one who did it all.” His eyes widened as he stared at her. Then he touched her lips.

Were they swollen from Jason’s mouth?

Cameron’s fingers slid over her hair.

Hair that had to look like a wreck because of what she’d just done in that car.

His hand fell away.

Ice slid over her skin. “Cameron…”

His jaw locked. “He recorded the video of you. That same piece of shit who tried to hit me in that garage—he told me that August had hired him to plant the camera last year. August got you out of the hotel room while the guy snuck in. Dammit, it was him. All along.”

Her heart stuttered. “That’s not true.” It couldn’t be.

“It is! He’s the one who’s been doing all of this. The guy got screwed over by our father—hell, in the same situation, I’d want payback.” He pulled Cat closer to him. Glared at a silent Jason. “But you pulled her into this mess. You hurt her. Why?”

“You’re causing a scene, Cameron.” Jason’s voice was low, mild. This was the Bad Boy of Britain? She expected him to rage at her brother. To tell Cameron how very wrong he was.

Because Cameron has to be wrong.

And Jason wasn’t raging. He was calm. Too controlled. What is going on?

“He’s been doing it all, Cat. Every move, like a freaking chess player. He hacked into my account and he’s the one who leaked the photos online.”

She tried to pull free of her brother.

“Catherine.” Jason’s voice was still low but now heavy with intensity. “Look at me, Catherine.”

She couldn’t look anywhere else.

“Do you trust me?”

“I—”

Cameron whirled toward her. “He didn’t save you.”

“What?”

“The motorcycle attack…he paid that guy to come at you. So that August could play the hero. He wanted you to be grateful to him, to feel like you owed him. It was the same SOB who’s been doing all of his dirty work. The guy was August’s puppet—and, Cat, dammit, you were his prey.”

She shook her head. “It’s not like that.” It couldn’t be like that. Because Jason—I love him. He couldn’t have just been playing with her, manipulating her. Jason wouldn’t do that to her.

She glanced back at Jason. He was close to her now. So close. “Tell him that it’s not true.”

“It’s not true,” Jason said instantly.

“He’s a liar!” Cameron snarled. “He’s using you, Cat! Manipulating you! He’s going to destroy Donnelly Dining, and he doesn’t care if he takes you down while he—”

A police siren cut through his words. Cat’s head jerked to the right, and she saw the swirl of blue police lights reflecting off nearby buildings as not one, but two patrol cars raced toward them.

“Now you’re gonna see…” Cameron sounded so satisfied. “They picked up August’s thug from the garage, just where I left him. The cops are coming here because they know what he’s done.”

Her whole body seemed to be turning to ice.

Jason stared at her brother. “Let Catherine go.”

But Cameron’s hold was unbreakable. “You aren’t touching my sister again. Stay away from her!”

“I can’t do that.”

One of the patrol cars came to a screeching halt about ten feet away. The other followed closely, and the scent of burning rubber filled her nose as the tires squealed.

Then the cops were rushing from those cars, closing in and saying—

“Cameron Donnelly, step away from the woman and put your hands up!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cameron shouted back as he pulled her closer. “I’m not the one you’re after! It’s him! Jason August!”

Had the doorman called the cops? “It’s—it’s just a misunderstanding,” Cat told them, trying to keep her voice steady.

“No, ma’am,” one of the cops told her and he had his gun up. And aimed at Cameron. “This isn’t a misunderstanding. It’s murder.”

The breath she sucked in seemed to burn her icy lungs. “Wh-what?”

“We have the security footage,” the cop continued. “We saw what you did in that garage.”

“The garage? I-I—” Cameron’s words stuttered to a stop. Then, a moment later, he murmured, “He came at me…”

“Let the woman go,” this came from a blond-haired cop who was sidling closer.

“I tied him up,” Cameron continued, his voice growing a bit stronger once more. “Then I called you—I’m the one who called you and told you that Jason August would be here!”

“But August isn’t the one who we saw on that security footage,” a dark-haired cop said—a guy who seemed to be in charge because the other cops were looking to him for guidance. “He’s not the one who went back…”

Went back?

“He’s not the one who went back,” the dark-haired cop said again, “and put a bullet in the head of a man who was tied up…Tha

t was you.”

“No,” Cat whispered.

“Fuck, no!” Cameron yelled. “I wanted to kill him—that asshole tried to run me over! But I left him there. I didn’t touch him—I left him there!”

The dark-haired cop never lowered his gun. “The same way you left your father in his office?”

“C-Cameron?” His name trembled on her lips.

“Yes,” Cameron gritted out. “I left the bastard there. I’m done with him.”

The cop nodded. “It’s easy to be done with the dead, isn’t it?”

Cameron dropped his hold on Cat. “What?”

Jason surged forward then. He grabbed Cat and yanked her away from her brother. He pulled Cat tightly against him even as the cops swarmed on her brother and slammed him into the pavement.

It’s easy to be done with the dead.

“No,” she said, shaking her head and pushing against Jason. “They’re wrong!”

Cat glanced back. The cops had Cameron down, face-first, on the sidewalk. They’d yanked his hands behind his back and they were slapping handcuffs on him.

“You’re under arrest for the murders of Nathaniel Donnelly and Ken Ross—”

“My father isn’t dead!” Catherine shouted. She tried to rush toward the cops.

Jason caught her. His arms wrapped tightly around her waist as he hauled her back against him. “Easy, love, easy.”

Screw easy. “My father isn’t dead!”

Cameron was on his feet. Being pushed by the blond cop toward the back of a patrol car. “Cat!” Cameron shouted, frantic. “What’s happening?” The blood was pouring down his head again. He looked confused. Lost.

Scared?

“I’ll protect you,” Cameron promised her. “Always…that’s what I do.” His eyes blazed for a moment as he stared at Cat. “I… protect you.” The blond cop pushed him into the backseat.

The door slammed, sealing him inside.

“No!” Cat cried out. “This isn’t right! This isn’t—”

“You’re Catherine Donnelly?” The dark-haired cop stepped into her path. “I’m Officer Nick Shaun. You…you look just like the picture your father had on his desk.”

Her muscles locked. “My father isn’t dead.”

Sympathy flashed over his face. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but he is. He…he went fast. One gunshot to the head. Just like the other victim.”