Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted #3) - Shayla Black Page 0,94
had dessert had been a stab in the heart. And Madison’s pity during the long, mostly silent drive home had been humiliating.
“You’ve been quiet for a hundred miles,” Trees remarked.
“I’ve been ready to get back to Lafayette since the day we got to Comfort. How tiny was that damn town, anyway?”
Trees laughed. “Around three thousand people.”
Yep. It sounded exactly like it was: a place where excitement was watching tumbleweeds blow.
“What’s really bothering you?” Trees quizzed. “You’ve never cared in the past where assignments sent you. You always got in, ran a clean op, and got the hell out. Why are you like a bear with a sore ass now? Something to do with Tessa?”
“Everything to do with Tessa, but no offense, I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Something obviously changed between you two at my Christmas party.”
He flung a clenched-teeth glare his buddy’s way. “I said I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Fair enough. But I’d like to talk about that night.”
Zy stiffened. “What about it? If I ended the conversation between you and Madison prematurely, I—”
“Stop.” Trees gripped the wheel. “You know what you did that night. Alone, in my bedroom. I know it, too.”
Fuck. “It was a spur-of-the-moment mistake. I was in such a bad place with Tessa and—”
“I fucking put a gun to my temple and offered to die for you.” Trees glared at him.
He had, and the shame of having been a shitty fucking friend that night torched Zy. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want an apology. I want the truth. You finally going to give it to me?”
“Yeah.” Clearing the air with Trees would be a relief. And he could truthfully tell the bosses that he hadn’t blabbed about their suspicions; Trees had merely guessed. “Love to.”
“I assume you videoed yourself searching my room because that trio of assholes we work for think I’m the mole? And that you’ve been on top of me nearly every moment for the past two weeks—except when I wipe my ass—for pretty much the same reason?”
“Yeah. I told them a dozen times it wasn’t you but—”
“And you thought they’d listen? Of course they weren’t going to. I was with you during the first botched mission to Mexico, but not the successful one, thanks to food poisoning.”
“Man, no one sane eats truck-stop sushi.”
Trees shrugged. “It looked good. I won’t make that mistake again. And I’m guessing the most incriminating part is that I was with One-Mile when he got taken in Mexico, and I couldn’t save him or call in the cavalry until it was too late?”
“You nailed it. And it turns out One-Mile emailed the schematic of Montilla’s estranged wife’s safe house in St. Louis to you—and no one else—to test you. So when our unfriendly neighborhood drug lord showed up…”
“Walker assumed I was the guilty one and blabbed to all the bosses.”
“Yeah. I told him it was possible your computer or our network had been hacked—”
Trees shook his head. “I would have known. Let me ask you something else: did Walker also tell you he emailed that schematic to Tessa first, asking her to send it to me?”
Zy knew what his friend was implying, and that had his blood boiling with rage. “Yeah, but c’mon. Tessa isn’t any more guilty than you are.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know. She wouldn’t betray us like that.”
Abruptly, Trees exited the freeway and pulled onto the shoulder in the middle of nowhere. “Stop thinking like a guy in love for two minutes and start thinking like an operator. If I’m not the mole and she’s not the mole and no one else got the schematic, how the hell did Montilla get it?”
“I don’t know, but—”
“You don’t know because no one else could have done it. How badly does she need money?”
“Fuck you!”
Trees just shook his head. “Seriously? You’re going to say that to me?”
He was right, and Zy scrubbed a hand across his forehead where he felt a headache developing. “No, I’m not. But Tessa couldn’t possibly need money that bad.”
“Are you sure?”
He wasn’t. Day care couldn’t be cheap. Nor were the baby food, diapers, and clothes for a constantly growing little girl. “Granted, her situation is probably tight, but she won’t even entertain leaving her job to be with me because she can’t find another employer who pays her as well and provides the benefits and flexibility she needs. Why would she fuck that up?”
“Or…she won’t leave her job because she wouldn’t be in any position to pass on information to Montilla