Page 5 of Tainted Truth

My nose scrunches, and my eyes squint as I attempt to do the math in my head, but I end up with a headache instead. “That’s not the day we met.”

“True, but don’t worry, I took care of that for you.”

Fucking hell. Now I’m going to have to figure out the day we met, which is in my calendar . . . in my phone, which I don’t have, and is now locked with a new password.

I roll my eyes at him and imagine punching him in the arm. I know it’s a bit juvenile, but there’s not much else I can do with literally one hand tied to the damn headboard.

Rio pulls out my phone from his other back pocket.

What else is he hiding back there?

“Speaking of your phone . . .” He rolls my phone around in his hands while he chooses his words carefully. “You didn’t tell me about the texts.”

Playing dumb has become my new m.o. so why give up now?

“What texts?”

“You know what texts I’m talking about. The ones from Anthony.”

I turn a cold eye on him. “Yes, I did. You’re my lawyer, remember?”

“I mean the last few you’ve gotten. Why didn’t you tell me?”

My lips roll inward as I keep my answer to myself. He won’t like what I have to say, especially after all three of them ganged up on me when Asher caught me trying to flee my apartment after the whole sand fiasco.

Yeah, that made it perfectly clear they’re a smidge overprotective.

Rio narrows his eyes, lets out a frustrated sigh, and releases me from the cuffs with a key. He gently massages my red wrist, and I don’t like how the action causes a fluttering in my belly. I’m not supposed to be yearning for his touch. I’m supposed to be trying to get away—far away.

He must see the indecision in my eyes because he leans back in. Right when I think he’s about to go for a repeat performance of our studio escapades, he lifts me to my feet and leads me to the en suite.

I wish I could report that the peeing chases away this aching need, but that’s not the case. I only get a temporary reprieve.

The thought of Rio, Zane, and Asher being complicit and actively participating in the death of those men terrifies me. I know what I saw; those images aren’t going away anytime soon. But burying my head in the sand isn’t an option here.

So why don’t those images do anything to kill my desire for my men?

CHAPTER 2

ZANE

“This is not how I saw Spencer moving in with us.” Rio shakes his head.

“You’re shitting me, right?” Asher snaps.

“Did I stutter,hombre?”

Asher has been acting like we shoved a cactus up his ass. I don’t see what his problem is. Eventually, Spencer would’ve ended up right where she is now.

My bed.

How she got there wasn’t ideal, but when Asher called Rio and me after Gabriel shot his homeboys, I didn’t expect to see Spencer there. My first instinct was to get her as far away from the MS-13 as possible. I wasn’t going to let those three, especially not fucking Gabriel Castillo, lay eyes on my Angel. I needed to know she would be safe.

Naturally, the safest place she could be is in my bed.

Asher punches Rio in the arm, bringing me back to the problem at hand. Rio’s mom, Paloma, called and said that she expects us all to be at family dinner tomorrow night. We’ve been sitting around our modest kitchen table, brainstorming what to do.

“We can’t go. We’ll all just stay home and tell her we’re sick.” Asher leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.

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