“Vi.” It was the same tortured groan from when I’d slipped away in the kitchen. In a swift movement similar to the one he’d used to kiss me and pull me onto him, he pushed me away and set me on the opposite bench.
He brushed a hand through his hair. Then, he bent, covered the gaping hole with the cash inside it, pushed a series of buttons, and sat down on the bench facing me. His eyes burned with what I could have sworn were tears.
A sudden rush of anger replaced the longing inside me.
“Tell me the truth,” I demanded. “Did you kiss me to hide that or because you wanted to?”
He stared at me. “Both.”
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. The pricks to my heart returned…stabbing new wounds. I pushed the pain aside and forced the topic he was avoiding the most.
“You’re a drug dealer,” I stated.
“No,” he responded emphatically.
I frowned. “Guns, then? What?”
“You have to stop talking, Vi. Like I said, it’s complicated.” His eyes darted around and then toward the stairs.
“Dax doesn’t know,” I said, realizing the truth. “Does Jada?”
“You really need to stop asking me questions,” he said, the beg back in his voice.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I go screaming up there about it to both of them? Why shouldn’t I send Truck a message, letting him know you’ve officially gone off the deep end?” I asked, pulling my phone from my back pocket.
He grabbed it just as I unlocked it.
“Stop. Just fucking stop,” he said.
I stared at him.
He looked around the space again as if he was looking for something. Someone.
He opened the notes app on my phone and typed before handing it to me.
We can’t talk here.
I flashed back to the kitchen at the B&B. What are you on some James Bond mission? He’d teased about having the car for it.
Holy hell. He was.
Either that or he was the bad guy in the James Bond movie, and he was worried about the feds listening in.
I couldn’t even look at him. Either way, it was enough to fill me with fear.
The puzzle pieces began falling into place.
Jada’s family. The powerful, international conglomerate that was Mori Enterprises. The icy, cold demeanor that had been Ken’Ichi’s, and how neither Jada nor Dawson had stood up to him.
I wasn’t a genius at all. I was so stupid Silas would be laughing his head off at me.
I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t think. I rose and went up the stairs to where Dax and Jada were sitting at the helm, talking about fuel and speeds, and even when it normally would have filled my head with math and formulas, it didn’t. My brain was in a fog, empty and cold.
Jada looked at me with a smirk that said, “I told you.”
I hated seeing my friend in a brand-new way. She wasn’t just some spoiled heiress. She’d never truly been that. But now, I wondered how much she was involved in the pile of cash below. Was she a criminal heiress? Was the forced marriage to Ken’Ichi some blending of crime families?
Jersey wasn’t the only one of our family who could make up stories, and my mind began to fill with plots instead of chemistry.
Jada’s smile slipped a little. “You okay?”
“I’m ready to hit the stores,” I said, forcing a lightness into my voice I didn’t feel. I hadn’t wanted a shopping spree when we’d left the penthouse that morning. I’d actually fought with her about it a little and had been relieved when Dax had shown up to bring us to the yacht club. Now, I was saying I wanted to go do just that, and it was sending her signals that were easy to read. I was upset. I needed to go.
“Sure.” She stood. “Shall I call Kaida, or do you want to shop with us?” Jada asked Dax just as Dawson came up from the cabin.
She shot Dawson a puzzled look, and he shook his head ever so slightly. So slightly that Dax hadn’t even caught on. They were definitely in it together.
“If you don’t mind Ito-san getting you, Dawson and I could use some time to go over our strategy for the race,” Dax said.
He’d been colder to Jada this morning than he had been that first night at the penthouse, and it had hurt Jada. I’d seen it in her eyes before she hid it behind her bored-heiress face. Both of these men were good at tearing us apart.