Naked Games (Hard to Get 3)

careful, Dean was going to end up breaking her heart.

16

After Catherine had left, Dean had done some serious thinking. He’d hurt Catherine with his careless words. He needed to make it up to her, if that was at all possible. But he also couldn’t shake the feeling that he couldn’t trust her. That she wasn’t telling him the full truth about her parents, her adoption, all of it. He, better than anyone, knew how easily a woman could lie. Hadn’t Linda acted the part of the perfect girlfriend? She’d pretended to be so in love with him, even going as far as wanting to have his babies. Dean would’ve gone on believing her too, if he hadn’t come home early and found her in bed with Jimmy. Then there were the women who’d lied and used Dean before Linda had entered the picture.

He didn’t know if Catherine was capable of such deceit. He wanted to believe she wasn’t. Dean ached to have faith in her the way everyone else did. The bottom line was, if he was ever going to have more than one night with Catherine then he needed to find out one way or the other whether she was the innocent long-lost sibling she claimed to be. That thought had brought him to Deanna and Jonas’s house.

Dean pounded on the front door and waited. He needed to talk to Jonas. He knew the idiot was home, because his black Charger was in the driveway. He couldn’t reach him on his cell, and no one was answering on Deanna’s house phone either. Dean was starting to think Jonas was avoiding him. When the door swung wide, revealing Jonas barefoot and wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and a white T-shirt, Dean frowned. “Why aren’t you answering your damn phone?”

Jonas crossed his arms over his chest. “Because I’m seriously pissed at you at the moment.”

“What the hell for?” He rubbed his hands together to stave off the cold and asked, “Can I come in, or are you planning on letting me freeze to death?”

To Dean’s consternation, Jonas actually appeared to give that some thought. When he stepped back and let him enter, Dean was only too pleased. Jonas slammed the door shut behind him and proceeded to glare. “Deanna is upset because of the way you’re treating Catherine. I really don’t like Deanna upset.”

Dean looked around for his sister but came up empty. “Where is Deanna anyway?”

“She went shopping with your mom. She needed to get her mind off her asshole twin.”

Dean winced. “Look, that’s why I’m here. I want you to run a search on Catherine.”

Jonas threw his hands in the air. “Why the hell would I? In case you forgot, we already did a background check on her when she first contacted Gracie claiming to be her sister. Get it through your thick skull that she’s clean, Dean. The. Fucking. End.”

Dean unzipped his Carhartt and tossed it over a chair. “Then you need to dig deeper. I know it sounds crazy, but there’s something she’s hiding. I can’t move forward until I know what it is.”

“Why are you so sure she’s hiding something? Don’t you think Wade or I would’ve gotten the same vibe from her if that were true? We’re the private investigators here, not you, and our instincts say she’s harmless.”

“You and Wade want her to be harmless. You don’t want to find anything on her because you care about her. My head is less clouded by my feelings.”

Jonas quirked a brow at him. “Oh, really?”

Dean squared his shoulders, ready for a fight. “Really.”

“From what I hear, your feelings are plenty involved, seeing as how you spent the night with her.”

Dean took a step forward, closing the distance between them. “Don’t even go there, Phoenix. What happened between Catherine and me is off limits.”

Jonas fisted his hands at his sides and shot right back, “I sort of thought so too, until I saw Deanna cry earlier today.”

Dean felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. He couldn’t have heard right. “She was crying? Because of me?”

Jonas rolled his eyes. “Haven’t you figured out that she loves you and wants to see you happy? She came home in tears after dropping Catherine off. It was all I could do to get her to tell me what had happened.”

Dean shook his head, unwilling to think of how much pain he’d caused everyone already. “Catherine and I had a little misunderstanding. I’m going to fix it. Deanna doesn’t need to worry about me.”

“Yeah, well, she does. So if you don’t get your head out of your ass soon, I’m going to lose my temper and do something we’ll both regret.”

He had to bite back a smile at Jonas’s protective attitude toward Deanna. Dean’s admiration for the guy went up a few notches. “Then help me find out more information on Catherine. Once I know for sure that she has nothing to hide, I’ll gladly let this whole thing go.”

Jonas sighed and shoved a hand through his hair. “Deanna won’t like it if she finds out we’re digging around in Catherine’s life. She considers her part of the family already.”

“Look, if you won’t do it, I’ll find someone who will.”

Jonas was quiet a moment before asking, “You aren’t going to stop, are you?”

Dean shook his head. “Not until I can see the proof of Catherine’s innocence with my own eyes.”

“I’ll do it, but I think you’re making a big mistake,” he said. “She’s not the con artist you think she is. You could really fuck this up, Dean.”