Grace’s mind was racing. “Patrick Wright? Like Matt?”
“Yes, it’s his brother.” This came from Adam, who spoke softly, as though trying to soften the blows that had come from every angle since she’d walked into the damn parking garage.
“Matt’s involved in this? I’ve never met his brother.”
Sean was as sarcastic as Adam had been sweet. “Sure you haven’t, sweetheart. We suspect that Patrick Wright had a great deal of plastic surgery after his time with the Agency was done. He would be going under an assumed name. You would know him as Evan Parnell.”
“Oh, God.” The secret meetings. The contracts that didn’t make sense. What had Matt gotten them all into? “The Bryson Building.”
“Yes, I believe we’ll be talking about that.”
“Sean, I don’t know anything.”
His eyes alone told her he didn’t believe her. “That’s why your computer is littered with surveillance and information a thief could use. Listen to me, you’re going to tell us everything. You’re going to give Parnell up, and then you’ll be out of this.”
Frustration was building inside her. How could he think she had anything to do with this? He knew her. She’d been more intimate with him than she’d ever been with a man. “I don’t know anything. Evan Parnell is just a guy at work.”
“You pay his bills. It’s your name on the security deposit box he keeps.”
“I am Matt’s admin. I don’t recall helping Parnell with anything, but if I did it was for the company. It’s part of my job.” For the last several years she’d been writing checks for all the things Matt needed. It was a bitch to keep up with considering everything else she had to do. Now that she thought about it, Matt had started asking her to pay for things out of a miscellaneous fund right around the time Evan Parnell had shown up. She didn’t always ask questions when Matt asked her to write a check. It was never more than a couple of hundred dollars, maybe a thousand. Could she have been used to do something illegal?
Sean seemed to think so. “All of the evidence against you will be on the table when we get to where we’re going. You’ll see the case we’ve made, and then maybe you’ll drop this ridiculous act. It will all go so much smoother if you’re just honest with us. You’re a little fish. Patrick Wright is the shark.”
He was so cold, so unlike the warm man who had become her lover. It made sense. That man hadn’t existed. He’d been a cover to get her to talk. It seemed incomprehensible to Grace that she found herself in this position, but there was no disputing that she was in a car in the custody of someone who didn’t care about her, who would use her to his own ends. She looked at the man she had fallen in love with and didn’t know who he was. She had been so stupid. What had she been thinking? How could she have thought for a single second that someone as gorgeous as Sean Johansson…Taggart could ever be interested in her? She was forty, and while she was still reasonably attractive, she wasn’t anywhere close to his league.
“It will go so much easier on everyone if you just confess, Grace.” His judgmental tone was the last straw.
Grace retreated. She sank into herself and let the world around her become background noise. She curled her hands into her lap and made very sure she didn’t touch Sean Taggart at all. It wasn’t easy. He was a ridiculously large man, and he didn’t seem very interested in respecting her space. Grace moved slightly so she was against the side of the door.
Sean’s hand came out to grasp her forearm. “Don’t try it. The doors are locked, and you can’t open it from the inside.”
She started to protest that she wasn’t about to throw herself out of a moving vehicle, but kept silent. She didn’t have anything to say to this man.
“Don’t cry, sweetheart.” Adam turned around and reached out to her. Grace moved away from him. He’d lied to her, too.
Grace felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. Damn it. She wished she was one of those people who could bottle up her emotions. She never had been. She’d always worn them on her sleeve, and nothing seemed to be able to toughen her up. The tears rolled down and suddenly the chill hit her. She was wet from pressing herself against Sean, and now the cold seemed to seep into her bones. Maybe it was the cold or the emotion, but Grace felt her teeth start to chatter as a fine trembling began across her skin.
Sean cursed, and she felt him move beside her. He reached into the back of the SUV and when his hand came back, he held a blanket. Grace sat motionless as he settled it around her shoulders. She stiffened when he pulled her into his arms.
“Stop it.” He used his Dom voice on her, but she wasn’t buying it anymore. It wasn’t real. It was just one more trick he had used against her. He’d figured out her fantasies. The loving care he had shown her before had been the bait for his trap. She was across his lap, pressed against his chest before she could protest. Grace squirmed, trying to get away from him, but his arms were a cage around her. Like everything with the man, she was utterly helpless. “Calm down, Grace.”
“I’d prefer to sit by myself.” She wanted to be away from him. It was hard to think about anything but how big his body was and how protected she’d felt when she’d thought he cared about her. The urge to wrap her arms around him and cry her heart out was almost overwhelming.
“And I’d prefer you calm down and let me take care of you.” He was quiet, whispering his words into her ear. “There’s no point in fighting me, Grace. You can’t win. You’re caught. I don’t care why you were doing it. Maybe you needed the money, whatever, but it stops now. So relax. I’m going to take care of it. I’m going to care of you.”
He wasn’t going to give her the dignity of sitting by herself. He seemed to want to take everything away from her. Grace sat stiffly in his arms, tears continuing to fall. She might not be able to get away from him, but he was wrong about the rest of it. There was a reason to fight. And she was going to give him hell.
Chapter Fifteen
Sean hated the stiff way Grace sat in his lap, as though she couldn’t stand to be so close to him. What the hell was her game now? She wasn’t very good at it. When she should have led him on a merry chase, she’d easily submitted. Now, when she should be doing everything in her power to appeal to his soft side, she gave him the cold shoulder. He should shove her off and let her shiver. Instead he pulled her close, unable to deny the need to be close to her.