Smoke Bomb by Abbi Glines
Eighteen
Huck
The past forty-eight hours had been all work. Pulling through the arched entrance of Hughes Farm was a fucking relief. I’d get some sleep. After eating and taking a shower, I might not get up until tomorrow.
Blaise was out of the passenger side of the Escalade the moment I put it in park outside the stables. He’d been texting with Maddy, and she was working in her office inside the stables today. Maddy had wanted a job, and working on the ranch was the only thing Blaise had been willing to let her do. I would have gladly let her work at the shop, but she was his, and that made her a weakness to the entire family. Having her out there, available for any attack, wasn’t smart. Here, she could work and be safe. When it came to the woman, Blaise Hughes was owned.
In the past forty-eight hours, Blaise had scared the literal shit out of a man twice his size. That was a first, having a grown-ass man shit his pants, but then when Blaise turned on the crazed look, it was impressive. He’d also tortured another man for information and put a bullet in a few others. Yet he was so damn pussy-whipped that he couldn’t get to his woman fast enough. I wondered if she’d mention the blood splatters on his shirt. He hadn’t even taken the time to change.
Stepping out of the vehicle, I headed into the stables. Maddy had only said that Trinity was with her. I had to pick Trinity up and take her back to the house. Gage and Levi had been talking about her cooking since we had headed home this morning. If I didn’t bring back their cook, they’d lose their damn minds. The stables were busy, but that was typical this time of year. I nodded at one of the jockeys, stopped to talk to Kye about a follow-up we needed done with one of our high-end dealers, then headed toward Maddy’s office. I didn’t get far when laughter stopped me.
It wasn’t just the pleasing sound of the laughter, but also the feminine huskiness in the voice. I recognized it even if I’d never heard that laugh myself. My body suddenly felt on edge as my teeth clenched, grinding together as I walked toward the sound. Trinity had never laughed for me. I hadn’t given her a reason to, but it still didn’t sit well.
“I will not!” She let out a squeal.
She was fucking squealing too. What the hell?
My hands fisted at my sides as I turned the corner. Whoever the fucker was making Trinity laugh like that had messed with the wrong man. I wasn’t in the mood for this. I needed goddamn sleep. Not another damn dick trying to get in her pants.
Then, I saw them.
Trev motherfucking Hughes was smiling from ear to ear as he pointed a water gun at Trinity. Shit. It would have to be a damn Hughes. Did the kid have to flirt with every woman he met? Yes. He was a playboy. Why hadn’t Maddy warned Trinity about him?
“Fair is fair,” Trev called out, making Trinity laugh more.
Why was he so damn funny? I wasn’t fucking laughing. Nothing about a water gun was that damn hilarious.
“I’m sorry. Truce!” she cried, holding her hands in front of her face as she turned to run. Her eyes collided with mine then, and the smile that had lit up her face vanished, and she stopped.
Just the sight of me could turn her mood. I hated the way that sat in my chest like a damn ton of bricks.
“And the rodeo squad is back,” Trev said.
The kid had no fear. Stupid fucker knew he was untouchable.
Trinity frowned, glancing back at him.
Trev dropped the water gun and walked up to stand beside her. He nodded his head toward me. “When Maddy met them all the first time, she called them the rodeo squad. It stuck.”
“No, it didn’t,” I snarled. “You’re the only fucker who uses it.”
Trev shrugged, grinning at me.
“Time to go,” I said, turning my gaze back to Trinity.
“Okay,” she replied. “My things are in Maddy’s office.”
“Go on out to the Escalade. I’ll get them,” I told her, then shot little Hughes one last warning glare that only made the fucker grin bigger.
Trinity glanced back at Trev. “Bye. I had fun.”
What kind of fun had she had with Trev? He was a damn kid. Had they done more than this stupid water gun shit? Where the hell had Maddy been when this was going on? Trinity was too old for him … fuck. Trev was twenty. It was hard to remember that. In my head, he was still a teenager. She was only a year older than him. Yeah, no more of her coming to stay with Maddy.
I waited until she headed toward the exit, and then I turned to go into Maddy’s office to get her things. The door was open, but Blaise had Maddy up on the desk, and he was standing between her legs, kissing her like he was about to eat her alive. I cleared my throat, and Maddy pulled back, breaking the kiss. Blaise kept her face cupped in his hands and his eyes on her.
She blushed as her eyes met mine. “Hey, Huck. Did you find Trinity?” she asked.
I nodded. “Need her things.”
She started to move, and Blaise put his hands on her thighs to stop her.
“He can get them. You’re not moving.”
Maddy shifted her gaze to Blaise and scowled at him, but it was only a second before she softened again. “They’re behind my desk,” she said to me.
I didn’t say anything or look at them again. Blaise wanted me out of here. I grabbed the bag that Trinity had brought with her and headed for the door.
“Remember the cameras,” I said before locking, then closing the door behind me.
When I reached the Escalade, I opened the door to the back and tossed her bag in, then climbed into the driver’s side. Trinity looked tense. Nothing like the girl I’d walked up on a few minutes ago with Trev.
I’d had two days to think about what Blaise had said to me back at the house. When we hadn’t been torturing traitors, I’d let my thoughts go to Trinity. There was a lot I had assumed about her because I didn’t trust easily.
Especially someone who looked like her but had been engaged to my religious younger brother. That pairing made no fucking sense. The way she had reacted to her squirting on me wasn’t an act. She’d been as shocked as I was. One minute, I got the feeling she was naive, and then the next, she was a willing piece of hot ass. I couldn’t figure her out.
Once we were on the road back to the house, I glanced over at her. She wasn’t going to talk—that was clear. I’d said some hard shit, and I knew it had hurt her. Blaise had had a point. I needed to find out some things about her.
“Tell me about the fraud,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road.
“Is that what it was described as?” she asked softly.
“It said you stole your stepmother’s identity to get credit cards that you maxed out.”
I heard a deep sigh. “She claimed that, but I wasn’t charged with anything because once it was investigated, they found most of the charged items were in her possession or there was evidence she’d been the one on the trips where the cards were used. Tabitha had gotten herself into a financial bind and decided to blame me so she wouldn’t have to pay her debt.”
Motherfucker. I knew I hated that bitch. She’d been fucking evil at the funeral. However, that was the one thing on the background check that I’d overlooked. If Trinity had committed fraud with that woman’s identity, I would have commended her. Not judged her. I’d met the woman.
“You don’t believe me,” Trinity said with a trace of annoyance in her tone.
I wanted to smile, but didn’t. I had more questions.
“Tell me about the book theft.”
She shifted in her seat, and I was tempted to look down at her legs and see if those shorts had ridden up any further. At least these covered her ass. I wasn’t sure where she had gotten them, but I was damn thankful there had been no asscheek showing when I showed up to get her.
“Roy is Tabitha’s son,” she said, then paused. There was something in the way she had said his name that bothered me. As if saying it was difficult for her. “He needed money and sold all the rare books from Tabitha’s library on eBay. They were to go to him at her death one day, but they weren’t necessarily his yet. Anyway, when Tabitha found them missing, she accused me, but when I had no idea what she was talking about, she dropped it. Then, the next thing I knew, Roy had filed a police report, claiming I had sold his rare first-edition books. Since Tabitha had already tried to charge me with something I hadn’t done, my guess was, they thought it might work better if Roy did it. But again, no proof that it was me. Charges dropped.”
She was telling the truth. It was in the way she’d spoken and the defeated tone in her voice. There was no pausing to think about what she would say or how to explain it. She’d just repeated it as she knew it. I had forced the truth out of many men, and I knew the tells of a lie. Trinity wasn’t lying.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened. I wasn’t sure if I even needed to hear about the car. Blaise had already found out the truth. But I needed to hear her tell me. I wanted to see what her story was.
“And the car,” I finally said.
She let out a laugh that held no humor in it. More than anything, it was laced with pain. What the fuck had she grown up with? Where had her father been when that bitch of a stepmother was doing this shit to her? Why hadn’t he protected her?
“My dad missed my high school graduation. No one came. I would never have expected or wanted Tabitha there, but I had thought my dad would at least come. Someone to watch me.” She paused then, and I looked at her. She was staring straight ahead, but the look on her face killed me.
“Anyway, I didn’t have many friends—or any friends. I never went out. I always studied and focused on getting out of that house after graduation. It paid off at first. I got the scholarship. That night, one of the girls in my class was having a graduation party for the entire class. This was my last time to do something in high school. I didn’t want to stay home in a house with a woman who hated me. I wanted to celebrate that it was over. I’d be free soon. I called my dad and asked if I could use the car and go to the party. He said yes, probably because he felt guilty for missing my graduation. Tabitha was at a church event when I left. My dad didn’t tell her I was taking the car, so she thought I’d done something she could punish me for. She called the cops and reported it as stolen and accused me. The cops showed up at the party—I had been there maybe fifteen minutes—and I was arrested. They took me in. I told them to call my dad since it was his name on the title of the car. They did, and my dad confirmed he’d let me use the car. Then, I was released.”
I couldn’t ask any more questions simply because I couldn’t fucking handle the answers. The damn ache in my chest was new for me. I was struggling to take deep breaths. Motherfucker, I needed to kill someone. Or at least break them. My body was strung so tight that I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. It didn’t help that every shitty thing I’d said to her and accused her of since I’d brought her to the house was just more cruelty that she had to endure.
Apologizing to her now would sound fucking weak. There weren’t words to make that go away. Dammit, why hadn’t Blaise cleared that shit up with me on day one? She had been through enough bullshit. Had Hayes known this? If so, why hadn’t he dealt with that fucking redheaded bitch? He had been religious, but even the God he believed in had dealt out consequences. Hayes had been a Kingston. He’d turned from that, but it had still been in his blood. I wanted to ask her if she’d told him these things, but I couldn’t because if she had and he’d not done shit about it, I didn’t want to be angry with my dead little brother.
“Since you aren’t going to ask me, I’ll tell you. I never did anything with Professor Kilgore. Not willingly. He flirted, and I ignored it. Then, he gave me an F on a paper I had turned in and told me he needed to meet with me in his office. I couldn’t fail that class, or I’d lose my scholarship. I’d never made anything lower than a C in my life. I was devastated. I went to his office, and he pushed me against his desk and told me all I had to do was fuck him for an A.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I tried to get away from him. He grabbed my boobs and said things about my body. His hands were up my skirt, grabbing my butt, when another professor entered the room. Except she was also currently having an affair with him and was furious. She told the board that she caught us having sex. They believed her.”
I hadn’t asked. Because this was what I had been afraid I’d hear. My chest burned. Fucking son of a bitch. I was going to find Jonathon Kilgore, and he was going to fucking wish he’d never laid eyes on Trinity.
I pulled through the security gate that surrounded the house. The more I thought about all the shit I didn’t know, the life she’d lived, the more the fury inside me began to get dangerous. These things couldn’t have been the only problems Trinity had dealt with in that house. When I could gain control of the rage licking at my pulse, I’d ask. That wasn’t now. Not when my need to put a bullet in Kilgore was clawing at me.
I parked inside the garage and turned off the ignition before looking at her again. She had her hands gripped tightly in her lap, and her shoulders were slumped, as if she was defeated. That shit only made the monster inside me roar to life.
“Trinity …” I said her name as calmly as I could, considering the shit stirring inside me.
She turned her head to look at me.
“I would apologize to you, but the words I’m sorry don’t feel adequate.”
Those big brown eyes blinked twice as she studied me.
“The family is my family. It always will be. But Hayes was my blood. Even if he didn’t want to be a part of this world, he was my brother. I protected him from the moment he was born. He was never like me. He was softer, kinder, understanding—things that make a man an easy target.”
A sad smile touched her face, and then she licked her lips, and my fucking dick got hard.
“And you thought I had used him,” she said. “You were right. There is no reason for you to apologize. The things you’ve said to me and about me, most are true.”
What the fuck was she talking about?
“I wasn’t good enough for him. I’ve been broken a very long time. If it helps, I don’t think I could have walked down that aisle. He wanted a girl that I tried very hard to be, but I knew I could never be her. I’m not good. I don’t think there is a god we can pray to who answers us. I tried that many, many times, and there was no answer. But more than that, I did love Hayes. Who wouldn’t love him? He was impossible not to love. I just … I wasn’t in love with him. That wasn’t his fault. It was mine. I’m not sure I can love that way. He deserved that love. I knew it even when I said I’d marry him.” She stopped and dropped her gaze from mine. “You were right about me.”
Jesus Christ, I couldn’t take any more of this shit. I reached for the handle and swung the car door open with more force than necessary. I needed air. The kind that didn’t smell like honeysuckle and jasmine.
What the hell perfume did that woman wear? Was it not enough that her damn pussy tasted like honey?
I slammed the door behind me and stood there, taking several deep breaths as I tried to separate my rage from my arousal. The two did not go together.
I heard her get out of the vehicle, and I closed my eyes tightly, forcing myself to get control. I was tired. I needed rest. I’d be better after sleep. This had all come out at a bad time, but then I was the one who had asked her for answers.
“If you want me to leave …” Her voice sounded so damn nervous and unsure.
She was used to people abusing her. I hadn’t even asked about the stripping because I no longer gave a shit. I’d learned enough so far, and already, I was planning on a road trip to kill a man.
“No,” I bit out, opening my eyes to turn and look at her.
She was biting her bottom lip, and the defeat in her eyes as she stood there, ready for someone else to let her down, broke me. I stalked toward her, and she backed up, her eyes going wide until she hit the Escalade and couldn’t go any farther. She let that bottom lip go as she gasped.
It was then my mouth claimed hers.
