Page 5 of The Secrets We Bury

Pressing the green button next to Viks’ name, I lift the phone to my ear. He answers on the second ring.

“Speak.” Short and to the point, his greeting is straight business.

“Do you have information or a way to get a lot of it?” I ask.

Silence and then, “I can,” he says, hedging the last word. “What do you need?”

I know, without asking, that this is going to cost me—us—everything. For Juliet, though, we’ll pay any price. I take a breath and slowly release it as Gio backs down the long winding driveway, spinning his tires against the grass and circling the Firebird to face the road.

“What can you tell me about Morpheus Calloway?”

2

JULIET

When it rains, it fucking pours.

For me, there’s no ‘small’ amount of pain. It’s all or nothing. There are no breakups, but an absolute wrecking of any and all trust that could have been established. Then, just when I think I’ve crawled my way out of the dark void of anger and betrayal, I found out that the men responsible for giving me back at least a little bit of my old self are something else entirely.

Sharp, gunmetal gray eyes stare at me and I stare back.

“Juliet, I know what you’re thinking—” He doesn’t. He really. Fucking. Doesn’t.

My eyes latch on to the open doorway and I shift to the side. My hip connects with the computer chair and it rolls into the wall. This room is far too small and as close as the doorway is, Lex’s big body practically covers every inch of it.

“Juliet.” The desperation in Lex’s voice jerks me back to his face. Lips parted, eyes wide, brows lowered, he looks ready to cry. “Please. Let me explain.”

“Explain?” I repeat the word, sure I’ve heard him wrong. How can he explainthis? I turn and gesture to the image on the screen still playing. I don’t have to look at it to know whatit’s showing. I can hear my own moans and Gio’s filthy voice as I come on his cock over and over again. “You want to try and explain this?” I gesture to the wall plastered with my face, the various bits and pieces of my old life that even I didn’t know were being invaded. “Or do you want to explain that?”

Lex closes his eyes and his nostrils flare as he sucks in a deep breath. He drops the duffle bag on the floor and his lashes lift once more.

“I love you, Juliet.”

The distance between us disappears in an instant as my fist slams into his jaw hard enough to snap his neck to the side. Lex grunts but otherwise doesn’t say a word or make another move. Slowly, he pivots back to face me. My chest rises and falls in rapid breaths as I glare up at him.

“You claim that you did this because youlove me?” I spit those last two words out, tasting acid on the back of my tongue. “Isthiswhat you think love is?”

Lex grinds his jaw, clenching and unclenching it as the muscle beneath his skin jumps and works itself over. Finally, when he speaks, it’s with a low, reverent tone. “If you don’t want me to say it, I won’t,” he says. “But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

I hit him again, this time on the other side. When I go for a third punch, though, his hand snaps out and grips my wrist. Eyes sparking with a swirl of smoky danger burn into my face.

“I gave you the first one, baby,” he says, his tone remaining low and almost soothing. “The second one, though… that wasn’t very nice. I wish you hadn’t found out this way, but hit me again and I’ll reciprocate.”

My upper lip curls away from my teeth as I bare them at him in the mockery of a smile. “Wow,” I taunt. “It took so little for you to threaten me after claiming that you love me.” I yank against his hold, but nothing happens. He doesn’t release meand I don’t move. I pull harder. Still nothing. With a grunt, I reach up and try to peel his fingers away from my skin. He merely stands there, holding me and staring at me as if he’s waiting for something.

“You’ve had a rough night,” Lex murmurs. “I think you should finish getting dressed and then when the guys get here, we can have a real discussion about what you just witnessed.”

“I don’t want to talk to any of you about shit! Youliedto me!”

Lex ignores me and, without releasing my wrist, he moves farther into the office. I’m dragged backwards and I nearly stumble over my own two feet as he stops in front of the walls of monitors. My heart hammers in my chest, pounding against my rib cage as I turn and watch as Lex uses his free hand to click across the keyboard in a series of numbers and letters.

Black password screens pop up and disappear almost as quickly. The video shuts off and then the whole system is powering down.

“Hiding evidence?” I hiss, struggling against his hold.

“Not at all.” Lex turns back to me. “I’ll let you have access to everything if you ask me.”

I go still. He can’t be serious. “You’re lying.”