Lies (Phoenix Undercover #1) (13 page)

Chapter 29

Josh

“Do you know how hard telling her is gonna be?” Audrey asked. Holding her felt wrong, but when she began to cry in the middle of the café, my first reaction was to put my arm around her shoulders.

“I know it’s gonna be hard, but she deserves to know. I couldn’t live with myself if we didn’t come clean about everything.” I slid my arm away, and she sat up straighter. “Besides, I want her back, and for that to happen, there can’t be any secrets.”

Audrey looked up at me and smiled through her tears.

“I love her, and so do you. We both owe her the truth,” I said.

Audrey nodded even though I knew she was just as afraid as I was. Telling Gabby would break her; I knew it would. But hiding what had happened any longer could only cause us all further damage.

“Tomorrow?” I asked, and she nodded in agreement.

***

I had been sitting in Gabby’s living room for over twenty minutes now, and not once had Brook offered me anything other than the nasty glare she still wore.

“You never told me he was coming too,” she said to Audrey, still focusing her narrowed eyes on me. She weighed a good one hundred pounds, one hundred five tops, and I doubt she could do much damage, but she still looked like she was planning my execution.

“We need to talk to Gabby,” Audrey said.

“What in the hell could the two of you have to share with Gabby? You barely know one another.”

I looked at Audrey, she shook her head. She wasn’t going to give away anything more.

“You’re so shady,” Brook said to her sister. “I mean, what the hell happened to you, Audrey? You’ve changed. You lie now, or maybe you just keep secrets.”

I sat on the couch feeling extremely uncomfortable as Brook’s anger went up a notch. I felt like I should get up and walk out on the balcony or something.

“People change, Brook, but I can assure you, Josh and I do have a good reason for being here. But Gabby needs to be the one we tell that reason to. If she chooses at that point to include you, then she can.”

A key jingled in the front door, and we all turned toward it. It truly felt like forever until the door finally came open.

Brook rushed forward first, and I stood from the couch. The only thing I could see was Gabby. It took a great deal of restraint not to charge toward her and pull her into my arms.

“I had no idea he was coming,” Brook announced. Gabby looked past her younger sister and narrowed her eyes at me. My heart felt like it plummeted to my stomach. “Audrey said she needed to see you, and I thought it was time you two talked. But I had no idea he would be coming too.”

“It’s okay,” Gabby said.

I watched as Gabby looked back and forth between Audrey and me. I couldn’t register what she was feeling, but I knew anger was part of it. Her chest rose and fell in fast breaths, and from experience I knew that meant she was trying to regain control.

“Gabby, I know you’re mad at me. I just thought that maybe we could clear the air.” Audrey looked at her sister, hopeful.

“Brook, why don’t you go grab that movie we were talking about last night? The one with Duane Johnson in it.” Brook looked up at her in confusion, but Gabby’s eyes remained locked on Audrey. “We’ll order a pizza and watch it later.”

“But—”

Gabby looked at Brook. “I’ll be okay,” she assured her. “I knew this was coming. I just didn’t expect it this soon.”

I looked over at Audrey, and her eyebrows were wrinkled in confusion. By her reaction, I knew she was wondering the same thing—what the hell had Gabby been expecting?

Chapter 30

Gabriella

Coming home to find Audrey in my apartment was bad enough. But her bringing Josh with her took a lot of balls. Nothing like throwing salt on the wound, I guess.

Brook was reluctant, but eventually she left. I was glad she did. She didn’t need to know the things these two were capable of, and there was no reason to tarnish her view of Audrey. This was my problem, not hers.

Suddenly I felt like my mouth was full of cotton. I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass, filled it under the faucet, and took a big drink.

“I owe you an explanation,” Audrey said from behind me, and my irritation only grew stronger.

“We both do,” Josh added, and surprisingly his words only made me sad. I had never expected him to hurt me, not like he was about to.

I took a deep breath before turning around to face them. Josh stood next to Audrey, and the vision of them standing united side by side only enhanced my anger. The love these two traitors said they felt for me was obviously a joke.

“Aw, you’re a team now, isn’t that sweet?” I sneered. “What, did the two of you plan this whole thing? Let’s join forces and break Gabby’s heart together. Because if that’s what you’re planning, you can save your breath. I really couldn’t care less that you’ve been sneaking around behind my back.”

Josh wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion and looked over and Audrey, who was looking back at me with a similar expression. “Gabby, I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to, but we weren’t sneaking around.”

“Really?” I asked and pushed off the counter. Taking a step toward them, I squared my shoulders, because like hell I would feel intimidated by them. This was my home, and they had a lot of nerve coming here to throw this shit at me. “I saw the two of you at the café, all snuggled up together.”

“That is not what was going on,” Josh said.

I just gave a
humph
of laughter.

“Gabby, honestly, that isn’t why we’re here. There isn’t anything going on between Audrey and me.”

“Then I’m not sure what the purpose of this visit is. Why do you two feel the need to show up here together and give me an explanation of something you both say isn’t really happening?”

“I didn’t take a trip to clear my head,” Audrey’s words rushed out. “I was here in New York. I was on a job.”

“What?” I frowned at her in confusion.

“I’m not an architect.”

I opened my mouth to respond only to quickly close it.

“That’s just something I told all of you. I thought it would be easier than the truth. Dad and Mom never would have accepted my real job without protest, and, Gabby, I love my job.”

What the hell could she possibly be doing that was so secretive?

“I’m DEA.” She shrugged.

I was shocked, yes, but I was expecting her to say something like she was an escort. I mean, that would have made more sense with all these secrets and sneaking around.

“So why the secrets? Why wouldn’t you just tell us?” That part still confused me.

“I’ve been undercover most of my career. Just like I have been for the last six months.”

I looked at her as it all came together. That was why she’d looked at Josh as if she recognized him when he came to dinner with our family. “Wait, have you two been working together all this time?” I asked as I looked between them.

“Not until recently,” Josh assured me. “This last time, when she was gone for weeks, was the first time we had seen one another outside the time we met at your parents’.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Audrey said, and even Josh looked at her in surprise. “Leo brought me to the warehouse a few times. I was in the back of the car, but you couldn’t see me through the dark windows. I recognized you from the files I was shown at the DEA. I knew the FBI was bringing in agents, and my bosses wanted me to know what I was working with. So I knew about you. You just didn’t know about me until last week.”

“Wait,” I said. “Who the hell is Leo?”

“Can we go sit down?” Audrey asked.

“Fuck sitting down,” I answered her. “I’m fine where I am, now tell me what the hell is going on.”

Josh placed his hand on her shoulder, and the gesture hurt and pissed me off simultaneously. “Let me tell her.”

Audrey shook her head and looked up at me, her eyes full of tears. “I have to tell her.”

As they shared some sort of secret exchange with their eyes, I was only seconds away from throwing shit. This was eating at me in ways nothing ever had.

“Leo was the man I was sent to watch. He’s with the Russian mafia, and the things he’s done, Gabby, they’re so bad.”

I stared at my sister, the woman I had always looked up to since I was a child. She was always so confident and strong, yet right now she had never appeared so weak and frail.

“He sells women, he supplies drugs to half the city, he’s raped, murdered, and mutilated people, and he will do whatever it takes to get his way. He has no remorse. He needed to be stopped. So when I went in, I had one goal…I wouldn’t stop until he was rotting behind bars.”

Audrey pulled a barstool from beneath the counter. I didn’t take my eyes from hers as she took a seat before continuing.

“For months I was used by him, and he soon let his guard down around me. I started hearing and seeing things about his business that would help the DEA build its case against him. Eventually, I became what he referred to as ‘his woman.’ He put me up in his home, gave me everything he thought I needed to be happy, and hinted that things wouldn’t be pleasant for me if I didn’t continue to keep him happy.”

“You were his whore,” I retorted, and she flinched.

“In a way, yes. But I just looked at it as a really bad relationship.” She smiled, trying to make light of it, but I knew it was forced. “Until this last operation, he had never made me do anything with any other man but him. It was something I never even considered.” I didn’t miss her quick glance at Josh or the uncomfortable shift of his feet.

My stomach began to tighten as thoughts ran through my mind.

“That was the first night Josh saw me. We were at the same party, and it couldn’t be avoided. Leo had drugged me earlier that night and kept me supplied as I waited in the limo. I was so lost to what was going on around me that I didn’t even realize where I was. One minute I was in the limo, the next I was standing in the middle of a warehouse. He stripped me and…”

“I couldn’t believe it when she lifted her head and I realized who she was,” Josh said, and my stomach hit the floor.

“Are you two telling me that you…?” I couldn’t say it.

“We didn’t have sex,” Audrey said with certainty. A sense of relief washed over me, only to fade once again at her next statement. “But things did happen.”

“What kind of things?” I asked.

The two of them looked down as if they were afraid to continue.

“You two showed up here with these plans to explain. So fucking explain. Something sexual happened between my sister and my boyfriend. While I thought my sister may be dead and had no idea where the hell you were.” I pointed at Josh, and he swallowed hard. “While I sat here and waited, you two were fucking around with one another.”

“That isn’t how it happened,” Josh said.

“Oh really? Then how did it happen, Josh? Please, enlighten me.” I knew I was being a bitch, but I also no longer gave a shit.

“He forced her, Gabby. We were surrounded by his men, who were all carrying guns. We had a part to play or risk outing ourselves, and blowing our cover in that situation could have not only gotten us killed, but Mike and Greyson too.” As he spoke, his own frustration emerged.

“There was something you could have done. A way out of it,” I said. The problem was, I had no idea what I was saying.

Josh walked to me and looked me directly in the eyes. His nostrils flared and his jaw tensed. “It was ‘give me a fucking blowjob or die.’ We had a choice to make, Gabby. But she—”

“Get out,” I yelled as I shoved him in the chest.

He stumbled back. “Gabby, please, just let me—”

I slapped him, and Audrey let out a frightened yelp from behind him. A sob escaped me, and I shoved at his chest again.

“I said get out,” I screamed. “Now.” My voice shook with anger and hurt. “Both of you, get out of my home. I can’t look at you.”

Tears rolled down Audrey’s face, and Josh stared back at me blankly. “Please, baby.”

I spun around and pitched my glass from earlier against the wall. It shattered on contact. “Get the fuck out now.” I stifled a sob by placing my hand over my mouth. My stomach was in knots, and my heart literally ached in my chest.

I kept my back to both of them until I heard the front door shut, and I then crumpled to the floor and cried harder than I ever had before.

Chapter 31

Josh

After leaving Gabby’s apartment, I chose to walk home. I needed some air. Once Audrey was in her car safely, I sat on a bench outside Gabby’s apartment, fighting against my need to go back upstairs and force her to hear me out. I knew she was hurting and it was because of me. I had broken her, and I would never forgive myself for it, nor would I forget the hurt in her eyes. It would haunt me forever. My world had just been rocked, and the ache I had in my chest since Audrey and I were forced into unimaginable circumstances had now only grown.

I should have walked away like Frank told me to.

I wandered for what felt like hours around the streets of New York, feeling empty. I was not a man who cried, but the tears fell freely as I thought about the sadness I had just inflicted on the woman who would forever hold my heart.

I rounded the corner and noticed the streetlight ahead was flickering, leaving the side road in darkness. Just as I was about to turn around and go back, something struck the back of my head.

I fell forward, my knees hitting the ground as I gripped the back of my head in pain. Someone shoved me then, and my face hit the pavement hard. White spots flashed across my vision, and I was fading in and out as my body was dragged along the pavement. Warm liquid covered the side of my head and dripped down over my ear. Muffled voices continued to filter in, but everything was hazy. If only I could find my gun.

“Put that sorry-ass pig in the trunk. I don’t want him messing up my interior.”

My body tensed at the man’s words. I knew at that moment the chances of me getting out of this alive were slim to none.

Leo Markovich. I would know the Russian accent anywhere. I had spent the last six months learning his every move. I’d lived in his world, pretending to be one of his people, working with them to supply the streets with drugs and easy women. Now that was all about to end.

“We taking him to Roman?” The name made me tense even more. Roman would not hesitate to put a bullet between my eyes.

“No.” Leo chuckled. “I want to play first. I have some things I need to learn. Some questions I need answered.”

I knew the beatings had just begun.

My body was hoisted up and then tossed into the trunk. I let out a loud groan as I landed on something hard and the pain shot through me like a hot stake.

“You brought this on yourself.” Leo leaned over me, looking down with a smirk on his lips. “Now you must pay the price for your mistakes. No one gets away with deceiving me.”

My right eye was completely swollen shut, but I could still open my left. I watched as the two men chuckled, looking down at me. I knew I would only be digging my own grave if I spoke, but I refused to let them think they had already defeated me.

“Fuck you,” I snarled. “When Roman finds out you twats didn’t know you had a cop living inside the center of your operation, he’ll end you both. Whether I’m dead or not, you two are fucked.”

I refused to look away even when Leo raised his gun and cracked it across my cheek.

The trunk slammed shut and the blackness set in. My stomach rolled as bile filled my mouth, and I coughed and sputtered as bitter, coppery blood drained from the gash on my cheek and ran toward my lips. Turning my head to the side, I heaved as I faded in and out of consciousness from the pain.

Gabby’s face was the last thing I saw before the darkness took over, and I prayed I would get to kiss her beautiful lips again.