Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies by Cynthia Cooke Page A

from under her shirt and showed him. “And who knows if my father actually sent it.”
    He looked at the crystal in its setting, then up at her too-innocent face. “Genie, I’m here to help you. Don’t you think if someone, anyone , sent you a necklace, your mother’s necklace, the very same day all hell broke loose that maybe you should have mentioned it?”
    “I don’t recall asking for your help, Kyle.”
    Frustration coiled through him. “Why are you being so damn stubborn?”
    “Thank you for getting me here, I appreciate it. I really do, but I’m home now, and I really just need you to go away.”
    Stunned, he stared at the hardness in her blue eyes. Earlier, she’d seemed relieved to have him there in the house with her. Now suddenly she wanted him gone? And then it hit him. “Because for some reason you suspect that Emerich didn’t take your dad, after all. Which probably means your father’s hiding somewhere nearby.”
    She didn’t answer, just stood regarding him impassively, her arms holding the box crossed against her chest.
    “Let’s open the box,” he suggested evenly.
    She didn’t move. The look in her eyes just got more stubborn.
    Kyle clamped down on his growing anger and frustration. “Really? I’m not just your ride to this island, Genie. I have always had your back, and you’ve always had mine before. What’s changed? What the hell did I ever do to lose your trust?”
    Her gaze shifted to the floor. “I don’t trust anyone. I never have.”
    He sucked down a deep breath, grasping for the last remnants of his patience. “What more do I have to do to prove myself? I’m not the one who…” He stopped, swallowing his words, knowing they wouldn’t get him anywhere.
    “Who what?” She challenged, her chin lifting. “You think I betrayed you?”
    “Didn’t you?” he shot back.
    She flinched, then went stony-faced, her chest heaving.
    “You knew Becca was in that warehouse,” he said, his voice edging on accusation. “You warned her we were looking for her.”
    “I didn’t.” Her eyes glided away. “I never even saw her.”
    She was actually lying to him! His insides went cold. “You turned off your GPS locator. You went inside alone. You broke protocol. You knew she was a person of interest in connection with Emerich and yet you told no one who she was. That she was your goddamn sister. Not even me!” The last came out in full-blown anger.
    “So I kept a secret. That doesn’t make me a traitor.”
    “Maybe not,” he said through gritted teeth. “But it makes you one hell of a bad partner.”
    His words hung in the still air of the kitchen.
    “After I pulled you out of that building,” Kyle continued, his voice raw with suppressed emotion and the pain of betrayal. “You told me she was there. I went in after her, I landed in the emergency room barely alive, and Emerich got clean away. So, please tell me, Genie. If you never saw Becca that day, why would you send me back into that building to die?”
    Confusion played like a swiftly moving gale across her suddenly pale face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said hoarsely, and took a step back from him. “I don’t remember seeing her, and I sure as hell don’t remember sending you back in after her. I honestly don’t even remember seeing you. All I know is that I’ve lost my sister and my father is missing, and right now, I want— No, I need for you to go. For both our sakes.”
    She was obviously still lying to him. Fury swept through him with a vengeance. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. His fingers dug into her skin as anger clouded his reason again, boiling, raging. “I loved you,” he ground out. “I don’t let a lot of people in, darlin’, but I let you in, and you…” He swallowed back the bile. He couldn’t say it. Couldn’t admit to her or even himself how badly she’d hurt him.
    But she had, and the worst part—the part that really made him see red—was that