Page 28 of Unlocking Hope

He pulled back. “I will take care of you.” Cole worked her panties down her legs. Her ass was on the cold counter.

Cole wasn’t lying when he said she was going to be his appetizer; he took her over the edge over and over. Dinner was cold by the time they got to it, and neither of them cared. It was the best end to her workweek and the start of their weekend.

12

COLE

Cole gripped his drink as he watched his brothers. He’d told them to meet at his house. He wanted to have an upper hand this time, with no audience. Cole sat with his gun on the table. His older brother rolled his eyes when he sat down.

“I’m not even armed,” Bryson grunted.

“You’re lucky I’m even speaking to you after you pointed a gun at Zoey.”

Bryson winced. “We needed everything, or there might have been a chance you’d continue the mission without us. This is something we’ve been working on for years. Does Zoey know we are here? I would really like to apologize.”

“No, I’m never letting you around her,” Cole grumbled.

“Dude, I can tell by the way you look at her you’re going to marry her, which will make her our sister. You can’t keep us away forever. Now that we know some of the things we were told were lies. You’ve been told lies, as well.”

“So what lies was I told?” Cole asked bitterly.

“We never got the calls. Mom told us you stole millions from the family and then joined the military. A year after you left, there was a raid on the house, and she told us it was you. We didn’t understand Mom was dirtier than Dad. Yes, he was a pieceof shit, but the things we have on Mom make him look good. He wasn’t doing what he did by choice—she has always been behind everything.”

“He could have walked away,” Cole said.

Bryson ran his hand down his face. “No, she has everything. She would have killed him on the spot, and who knows what would happen if he wasn’t there to buffer us?”

None of this makes sense.He’d watched his dad kill and torture someone. “Believe me, I’ve seen what our dad is capable of. I’ve witnessed it first-hand.”

“I told you he wouldn’t believe us.” Nathan threw his hands up in the air.

“You talking about the trip to Vegas? Think back to the day. Someone else was in the room,” Bryson told him.

Cole wracked his brain, but all he could see was the man in front of him bleeding to death, while he couldn’t do anything to help him. His dad had put the man through hell, and he remembered hearing a faint laugh in the background, though he couldn’t place it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He could remember the smell of the blood, but not if there was someone else in the room.

“Mom was there.”

“No, she…” He faintly remembered someone else but didn’t know who it was.Why would she want her kid to see that?“Why?”

“She’s fuckin’ crazy!” Nathan exclaimed. “Each one of us went through it, and to top it off, she had it all recorded. A few years ago, we came across the tapes. You left a week after the incident, and she fed us full of lies. For once, she gave us attention we’d never seen before, and it was all a ploy to make us hate you. Hell, it worked for years. Then when we put all the pieces together, we didn’t want to drag you into the mess.”

“Now?”

“Well, your girlfriend kinda dragged you into it now. We are going to take mom down. I promise you that, and the evidence you gave us helped, but we…”

Cole had worked enough missions to know his brothers wanted Zoey’s help. “No.”

Nathan looked over at Bryson and shrugged. “You don’t even know what we were going to ask.”

Cole snorted. “I was a Navy SEAL. You want to use Zoey for something. You didn’t come here to see me or try to work shit out. The CIA only cares about their mission and nobody else.”

Neither of his brothers seemed to care he was upset. They acted like he hadn’t even raised his voice. “We do want to get to know you. Hell, it’s been years, but you’re right—we’ve turned into the mission. We want to take the bitch down so bad that we will risk everything. That isn’t fair to you and Zoey, but we can’t do this without her help.”

Cole clenched his hands together. “Tell me what you need so we can figure out another way.”

“We need her to get into the computer at Clyde’s place, and before you say anyone can hack it, that’s not true. He’s paranoid and doesn’t have it connected to the internet. The info Zoey retrieved the first time helped, but we need more. We are sure he didn’t wipe out her retina authorization. She was the only one besides Clyde who had access. He’s out of town. We can sneak her in, log in, and make a copy of the remaining files. There is more evidence on the computer, and if we wait too long, it might be gone. I overheard him talking about a fail-safe on the hard drive—it will erase if removed.”

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