Sinful Secrets (Mine 4.5)

Brock blanched. “I know…I-I see it, too.”

Jason’s arm slid around Cat’s shoulders. Her tears were ripping through him. “Get out of my way,” he told Brock.

The guy hesitated. Then backed off. But as Jason passed him, Brock warned, “I won’t let you destroy her, too.”

Jason didn’t bother responding. Cops were all around him, and that moment wasn’t the time to deck the prick.

Later.

That moment…that was just the moment to hold Cat close and to get her the hell out of there.

***

Grief made Cat numb. She stood in Jason’s penthouse, near one of the large windows, looking out of the city and she saw—

Blood. White skin. Death.

Her eyes squeezed shut, but the image wouldn’t leave. It was burned into her mind.

Did Cameron really do that? She’d suspected that Cameron hated their father for a long time, but…

Hating someone and killing him—those were two different things.

She pulled her robe tighter around her body.

A phone rang—the peal sounded like it came from Jason’s office. He picked up the call almost immediately, but his voice was hushed, so she couldn’t make out his words.

Jason. He kept staring at her as if he expected her to break. Silly man. Didn’t he realize that she’d already broken? She’d broken when the ME had pulled back that white sheet and she’d seen her father’s face. Guilt and regret had swamped her.

Regret because no one should die like that. Regret because she wished things had been different between them. Wished they’d been able to connect the way others had seemed to—so easily.

Guilt…because she didn’t feel more. She cried and she hurt but…there should be more.

The ME had said something about Cat being in shock. She didn’t feel as if she were in shock. It was more like being in hell.

“Catherine.”

If I’m in hell…does that make Jason the devil?

She turned toward his voice. He stood in the doorway, face tense, his expression so guarded. She hated that. She wanted to be able to look at Jason and tell exactly what he was feeling.

Do you feel anything for me?

When Cameron had been throwing out his accusations against Jason, she hadn’t believed him.

Cameron had to be wrong. I-I couldn’t love a man who’d do that to me.

But…wouldn’t she have also known if her brother was a killer?

“I think we should leave the city,” Jason said as he hurried toward her.

His words pierced through the numbness around her. “What?” She couldn’t leave. She’d have to…have to make funeral arrangements for her father. With Cameron in jail, someone had to take care of the Donnelly Dining employees and—

Jason caught her hands. “I have a private plane. We can leave within the hour. We’ll go somewhere warm. Somewhere…some place where people don’t know us.”

Her laughter was bitter. “People will know us everywhere now.” She’d once worried about a few naked photos? That was so beyond where she was in that moment. Her brother’s image was in every paper. Son Shoots Father…Inside the Donnelly Dynasty of Death…all the Press stories carried dumb headlines like that one.

But Jason shook his head. “There are islands we can visit, places where we’ll be totally alone. We can forget the rest of the world for a while.”

Was he serious? “You know I can’t leave.”

“I know we need to leave.” He took her hands in his. “Now.”

Something was wrong. “What’s happening?”

“I want to be alone with you. I want to get you away—”

“What don’t you want me to know?” She cut through his words. She didn’t want any more secrets or lies.

His lips compressed into a thin line.

“Tell me.” What else was she going to learn? Had she been wrong to trust him instead of Cameron? To follow her heart? She didn’t want to be proven a fool again. “Jason…”

“Your brother is…missing.”

Those weren’t the words she’d expected. “What?”

“His guards thought he was sedated at the hospital. He got out, Cat. He slipped away from them. That phone call I just received was from the police. They wanted you aware because they think…” His words trailed away.

She pressed toward him. “What is it—exactly—that they think?”

“That he might come after you.”

She shook her head. “He would never hurt me!” He’d saved her before.

“You don’t know what he could be capable of doing. Right now, the cops think he killed your father.”

Blood. White skin…

“I’m not letting him get anywhere near you ever again.” He gave a grim nod. “I’m getting my plane ready. We’ll be out of town within the hour. The cops can find him and—”

“And what? Stop him? Shoot him?” Her heart pounded like mad in her chest. “He’s my brother! I know him! He wouldn’t ever hurt me.”

Jason just stared at her.

“I trust you,” she whispered. “Why can’t you trust me?”

“Because your father is dead.” He glanced away from her. “And we both know it’s fucking on me. I pushed your brother until he broke. I did that.”

“Jason—”

He glanced back at her. Emotion blazed on his face. No mask to hide his feelings. Just—

“I won’t let you break.” A dark promise. “I’ll do anything, anything, but you won’t break. He won’t hurt you. No one will hurt you, I swear it.”

She searched his eyes. “Tell me.”

He blinked at her. “What?”

“Tell me that you love me.”

“Catherine—”

“Tell me that it wasn’t some game for you. That you didn’t hire someone to film us. That you didn’t send those pictures to the guy at the Crimson Star.”

His words were echoing through her mind. I pushed him until he broke.

“You’re not part of a game,” he bit out.

She’d asked him to tell her more.

The phone rang then. Only this time, it wasn’t Jason’s phone. It was hers. The phone she’d carefully placed on the nearby table earlier.

She backed away from Jason as she headed toward the phone. Would it be the cops, calling to say her brother had escaped? First they alerted Jason, then her?

But when she bent to pick up the phone, she recognized the number on her screen. It wasn’t the police. Cat swiped her finger across the screen and then put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Is Jason August with you?” That was Brock’s voice. It had been his telephone number flashing on her screen.

“Yes.”

He cursed. “Cat, listen carefully…he set up your brother. Do you hear me? That man is twisted. He’s sick. I got access to the video footage that the cops have.

It’s fake. Do you hear me? Fake.”

She glanced over her shoulder. Jason frowned at her.

“August hired someone—he freaking hired a lot of people—to make this mess go down. His team spliced the video, played it in such a way that Cameron looked guilty, but he’s not. I swear, he’s not.”

“Can you…can you prove this?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

“I can…we can. Cameron is with me now. We’re at the main office…your father’s office.”

She glanced out at the dark city. The cops should have shut down Donnelly Dining. They’d told her that the place was a crime scene.

“We’ve got one of our computer techs—George Straud—working with us. August hacked our accounts. He’s been in our system for years. That’s how he was able to always underbid us. And that’s how he could make it seem as if your brother had sent the photos to the Crimson Star.”

“Catherine…” Jason’s voice sounded too close. Her gaze slid to him.

“He’s right there? Cat, you have to get away from him!” Brock had obviously heard Jason’s voice. “He hired someone to kill your father, someone to set up your brother and send him to prison for life. What do you think he will do to you?”

Jason’s head tilted as he studied her. “Is everything all right?”

“Come to us, Cat. Get here, as fast as you can.” Brock disconnected the call.

Her fingers were trembling when she lowered the phone.

“Who was that?” Jason asked.

She tilted her head as she studied him. “You didn’t tell me.”

He surged toward her. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” An edge of desperation hardened the words.

“Then tell me you love me,” she whispered. Because she had to hear him say those words. She had to find out if she was being a fool for him…or if she could truly trust the man who was her husband.

“I love you, Catherine,” he said immediately. No hesitation.

The words…they matched up with the emotion she saw in his eyes. The emotion he was showing to her.

“Then help me,” she told him because she was so afraid of what would come next.

Chapter Eight

Jason hadn’t been inside of Donnelly Dining before—and as he walked down the hallways, he realized…the decoration in the place sucked.