Page 43 of Echoes of Sin

I barely slept despite the physical exhaustion I felt from losing myself, over and over, in the hot sweetness that was Brooke’s body. My muscles ached in the best possible way, but my mind raced with too many thoughts to allow sleep to claim me. So while she slept, curled into my body with one hand low on my belly, her breathing slow and even, my mind swirled with possibilities.

There wasn’t just one traitor within my organization, there were more, and one of them was possibly my own flesh and blood. It was something I didn’t want to believe, but I could not ignore the facts that stared me in the face.

“Oh my god,” Brooke groaned as she woke up and stretched her limbs. She pressed a kiss over my chest and flashed an impish smile up at me. “You’re thinking so loudly you woke me up.”

I laughed despite myself. “That is impossible.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged and her smile slowly faded. “Are you still thinking about the theft?”

“Among other things.” It wasn’t just the betrayal I was worried about, but also what happened when Brooke and I left the penthouse. It would happen sooner or later, and where would we be?

“What else is on your mind, Ilya?”

My brows rose. “Do you really want to know?”

She tilted her head to one side. “I’m not sure, do I?”

“It is about us. I don’t want this to just be something that happened because we’re stuck here together. I hope that this would have happened no matter what, eventually.”

“How can that happen when your uncle wants to kill me? He still might, even if you won’t.” She looked away and I caught a strange expression on her face, on anyone else I would have called it guilt.

“I will handle Oleg. I promise. What other objections do you have?” It was clear she was still hanging on to our past, but surely, she understood now why I didn’t return?

“I’m just not sure that I can trust you.” She shook her head and held up a hand to stop my automatic explanation. Brooke put some distance between us and crossed her arms. “I know that your father was killed, and I understand what happened, I really do.”

“But?”

“But that doesn’t change the years of feeling rejected and abandoned. It doesn’t change the fact that I haven’t trusted another man with my heart since that night. It’s a lot to overcome overnight.”

“You haven’t been with another man?” I was still having trouble understanding how a teenage fling had affected her so deeply. I would love to think that it was because I was such a catch, as the Americans say. But there had to be more to it.

She rolled her eyes. “That’s what you heard?”

“That’s what I’m clarifying first,” I shot back with a playful grin.

“How could I when I’ve had that issue weighing heavily on me? And well, other things.” She looked away.

This time I was certain I saw guilt, but I didn’t get to ask her about it because my phone rang. “We’ll pick this up in a moment.”

She rolled off the bed, sauntering her beautiful, naked body into the bathroom.

“Dmitri, have you found out anything?”

“I managed to track down Ryan Watts. He is a lieutenant in the Winter Valley PD. The family had been away, and they returned not long ago, so I paid them a visit.”

I laughed, picturing the scene. “Did he know who you were?”

“I said we were canvasing the neighborhood, we were considering opening a gym in the old strip mall and wanted to know if the locals thought it would be a good thing.”

Brooke had told me she’d spoken to her brother and told him that she was away on business. I allowed her privacy to make the phone call, so I wasn’t sure what she’d actually said to him. “Did he seem to be acting out of character?”

Dmitri was silent for a long minute, and I wondered if something had happened. “He didn’t seem worried about anything. Incidentally, opening a gym might be a good idea, he was definitely enthusiastic about it.”

“Good. That is very good.” I said, feeling some degree of relief. Brooke had not betrayed me, and she had told me the truth about what she’d spoken to her brother about. I couldn’t help but sense that Dmitri was holding something back. “Anything else?”

“Yes.”

I waited and waited, but Dmitri said nothing. “What is it, Dmitri?”

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