Hottest Mess (S.I.N. #2)(12)

Fuck.

For years, Dallas and Deliverance had been on the trail of the six hired men who had physically pulled off the kidnapping. Five had slipped through their fingers—two had died before the team located them, one had killed himself rather than submit to the team’s interrogation, and two simply didn’t know a goddamn thing. And then a miracle had happened—they’d identified the sixth kidnapper. Silas Ortega.

Capture Ortega and Deliverance could extract the identity of the two people who’d masterminded the kidnapping—the Jailer and the Woman. It had been the first solid lead in years, and Deliverance had gone full force after the man, but they’d been too late—the authorities picked him up first. But before Interpol could get any solid intel, Ortega had killed himself in custody. Or so the story went.

In truth, the masterminds behind Dallas and Jane’s kidnapping had arranged a fake suicide—a bold maneuver and one meant to prevent Ortega from offering any evidence about the Sykes kidnapping to the authorities. Dallas didn’t have proof of that theory, of course. But that didn’t change the fact that he was absolutely certain.

With Ortega dead, Deliverance was left to learn what they could of the man’s involvement in the kidnapping by analyzing his property, including a netbook they’d found in his home in Argentina.

And that’s when things became truly disturbing. Because even though the hard drive was encrypted, Noah—Deliverance’s tech guru—managed to pull out a few bits and pieces. And what he found was Colin’s name all over those goddamn files.

Maybe Colin and Ortega had legitimate business. Maybe. And even now the team was looking for more evidence to either inculpate or exonerate Colin. They were all hoping to hell the man was clean. But Dallas couldn’t deny the tightness in his gut. A tightness that evidenced his belief that his friend—Jane’s birth father—was guilty as shit. That he’d arranged their kidnapping. That he’d held them in a dank, dark basement. That he’d tortured Jane and Dallas for weeks.

To what end? To what goddamn end?

And now Dallas was carrying this secret despite promising Jane there would be no secrets between them. But how could he tell her? How could he dump such a horrible possibility on her unless he was absolutely certain?

He gripped the counter tighter in an effort to stifle the urge to throw something hard and shatter the goddamn mirror. Colin. This likelihood that Colin was involved had been f*cking with his head ever since he’d learned about the contents of the netbook’s hard drive. He was never far from his memories of the kidnapping, but over the last few days, his dreams had been more feverish, and he’d wake up sweating, his pulse racing. He’d sit up, gasping, as memories of what that f*cking bitch had done to him clung to him like grime he couldn’t scrub away.

Had Colin known what was happening? Had he simply looked the other way?

Or worse, had Colin been behind the torment? Had he urged the Woman on? Had he watched? Had he gotten off on the vile games that bitch had played?

The questions tore through him, seeping into his dreams, shifting into nightmares. Fucking with his head.

And, inevitably, yanking him from sleep.

Thankfully his violent awakenings hadn’t disturbed Jane. He half-smiled, remembering how deeply she’d slept—how exhausted their lovemaking had made her. He’d sit frozen in bed, waiting until his heart rate slowed, and then he’d lay back down and hold her close, her warmth soothing him. And when she inevitably turned in his arms and burrowed against him, his chest would tighten with love and longing, and her warmth would banish the few dark remnants of the dream.

He took a deep breath, then another, reminding himself that they didn’t really know anything yet.

Maybe Colin was entirely innocent. Maybe he’d been mixed up in something else altogether.

Or maybe Colin had gone completely off the rails after his parental rights to Jane had been terminated, and he’d used his underworld contacts to strike back at Lisa, Jane’s mother and Colin’s ex-wife. Except that theory was flawed because the kidnapping had been aimed at Dallas. Jane had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she’d been snatched with him.

Then again, Lisa and Eli were Dallas’s parents, too. And Eli had been the moving force behind ousting Colin from Jane’s life.

So maybe Colin set up the kidnapping to punish Eli, the man who at one time had been his best friend? Had Colin been determined to take away Eli’s family the way that Eli had taken Colin’s by having an affair with Lisa, then marrying her and adopting Jane? Could it be that screwed up?

It was possible, Dallas knew. Fucked up and depressing as shit, especially considering he actually liked the man. But possible nonetheless.

But no way was he telling Jane. Not until he was sure.

Telling her now would only taint her relationship with Colin if he turned out to be innocent. And if he turned out to be guilty, it would destroy her. Colin had been the one she’d relied on after the kidnapping, going so far as to beg to attend a boarding school near her birth father because she needed to get away from Dallas. From everything that reminded her of the kidnapping. And from the reality that the love and comfort that they’d found in each other’s arms while captive was forbidden out in the real world.

So yeah, he was holding on to one hell of a secret.

He only hoped that when the truth came to light, she’d understand that he’d broken his promise in order to protect her. Because he would always watch her back, even if doing so meant sacrificing himself.