Deception (Infidelity #3)

I’d thought about the entire scenario from the moment I left Charli at the house. The danger we’d averted consumed my thoughts as Isaac drove and during my flight to DC. The entire time, as I read notes and prepared for the task ahead, Alexandria Collins was on my mind. Sometime during that reflection, I made a decision. I couldn’t allow her to do it any longer. This morning, I’d been thinking with my dick or maybe my heart. There was a time for that, but not when I needed to keep my head in the game.

I wouldn’t let that happen again.

I wouldn’t allow Charli to lower my defenses or lessen my instincts. Those predispositions had protected me throughout my life. They’d kept me safe and alive. If I’d have listened to them instead of concentrating on work, Jo would still be alive.

A new and unaccustomed discomfort filled my chest. For the first time—ever—I wasn’t overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of my wife. I loved her. I always would, but Charli said something this morning that I couldn’t shake. If Jocelyn were alive, I wouldn’t have met Charli. We wouldn’t be together. It wasn’t like I’d have ever left Jo. I wouldn’t.

I was a one-woman man.

A smile graced my lips as I thought about Charli—as I thought about being buried balls deep inside of her earlier today. How in the fuck could I imagine doing what so many men did? How could I imagine indulging in other women when I had the best, most amazing, sexy-as-hell, intelligent, witty, and beautiful woman waiting in my home?

The last words she’d said in the bedroom came back, asking me to punish her, asking me to stay with her.

Fuck!

I needed to think about the testimony and listen to the speaker. If I didn’t, I’d grow so uncomfortably hard sitting right here amongst this gallery of finance assholes that I wouldn’t be able to stand.

No matter what the future held, I couldn’t imagine cheating on, or leaving Charli—or losing her. Thankfully, at this moment, I could divert my attention knowing that she was safe with Deloris and Silvia. Tomorrow was another day. I refused to think about her back in Manhattan or about the possibility of dissension among Deloris’s ranks.

I also couldn’t think about Jerrod right now, even though Deloris had told me what was happening. Worrying about it was Deloris’s job. She’d find out what happened.

“No, sir.” The answer of the gentleman behind the microphone refocused my attention to the front of the room and reminded me why I was here instead of beside Charli.

“What can you tell us about the implications of this minimal increase in taxes?”

Minimal? Has he read the same draft I have?

“The revenue will be invaluable to the states involved…”

Fuck.

My fists balled as I listened to Severus Davis. The fact that this paid mouthpiece was testifying in an expert role was laughable.

While Davis waxed eloquently, the committee seemed enthralled with his answers. Step by step, he shared figure after figure, effectively painting a completely inaccurate picture. I pulled my phone from my pocket and quickly took notes.

This was why I needed to be here—to hear exactly what was being said, the lies our side needed to combat.

As Senator Higgins finished his questions, the committee called an end to today’s testimony.

Severus stood and turned toward the galley. When he did, his head moved back and forth in rapid succession. As he did a double take, our eyes met.

I nodded, standing with the others in the crowd.

“He looks surprised to see you,” Isaac whispered from behind me.

I agreed. Perhaps I’d assumed wrongly earlier. Perhaps the instigator of the hit was standing at the front of the room. Perhaps Davis had anticipated my being in a morgue in New York City, instead of at the hearing.

“I’m going to speak with him,” I replied, unwilling to walk away. Rule number twenty-seven of Oren Demetri’s decrees to live by—never back down from a challenge. The statute had been good to me during my MMA years.

“Mr. Davis,” I said, standing tall and addressing him as soon as he stepped from the well. “I couldn’t help but notice that you were looking my direction.”

“Mr. Demetri.” He nodded. “I suppose I didn’t spot you earlier. I thought you might not make it.”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I found your testimony… what is the right word? Entertaining.”

“I don’t think that’s the right word. Enlightening would be more appropriate.”

“To-may-toes, to-mah-toes.”

“Hardly.”

He sounded less than amused with my assessment. “My father said that the two of you had a nice meeting a month ago. I’m sorry I missed it.”

Davis’s brows rose. “I’m surprised Oren bothered to mention it. The exchange was rather uninformative. Perhaps the two of us could make more progress?”

With my lips pressed together I nodded. “I’ll need to check my schedule. I’m always interested in hearing the plights of others.”

“Plights, Mr. Demetri? My clients are hardly enduring plights. As you may have heard during my testimony, the bill will benefit everyone.”

“Everyone? I suppose that’s a matter of opinion.”

“As long as it’s the opinion of the committee, that’s all that matters.”

“Thankfully, today was only the first day of testimony.”

He nodded. “And you plan to stay in DC for the remaining testimony?”

“I do.”

“Then we should talk…” He looked around the emptying room. “…perhaps in a more private location?”

“I look forward to it,” I said as I stepped back, allowing him to pass.

Isaac remained near the back of the room, now closer to the door. As I followed Davis, Isaac waited and exited behind me. Once we were in the hall, he whispered, “Shall I get the car?”

“I’m not in a hurry. I’d like to talk to Carroll.”

“Yes, sir.”





MY COSTLY SUITE was filled with all the amenities: a bar, a living room, a scenic view of the Washington Monument, currently lit up against the night sky. Though I couldn’t see it from my room high in the sky, I knew that just west of the bright white-illuminated monument, beyond the reflecting pool, sat our sixteenth president. Abraham Lincoln presided over the district in the throne-like chair, day after day, overlooking the ramifications of his decisions.

Over a hundred and fifty years later.

“What do you think, Abe? Are you happy with what you see?” I sneered at my own negativity.

He’d made historic decisions that changed our country forever. Without his insight, America would be a different place. A simple man from the Midwest, born in Kentucky and raised in Indiana, he grew to adulthood in Illinois. It wasn’t the résumé of a great leader, yet history said otherwise. And yet after everything President Lincoln accomplished, he’d succumbed to the fate that had tried to take me out just this morning.

He’d been assassinated.

The idea sent a cold chill down my spine.

Assassinated.

Shot.

Killed.

The difference, as I saw it, was that Mrs. Lincoln hadn’t been a possible victim.

I needed to know who the intended recipient of the bullet was.

Me or Charli?

After seeing the look on Davis’s face, I believed it was me. But it could have just as easily been Charli. She was now my weak link, the one I’d sacrifice anything for. For that reason she needed protection.

This wasn’t my first personal brush with death. The grim reaper and I were old friends. Before he took Jo, I had my own near miss with him. The final result of that encounter was much more painful than what Charli and I’d experienced this morning.

It was the night I found myself staring across the octagon at my cousin Luca Costello.

Family.

From the time I was old enough to understand, my parents told me that family was important. Luca was the son of Vincent Costello, my mother’s cousin. She and Vincent were close. My grandfather died young, and she and Vincent had been raised like siblings by his parents, Carmine and Rosa. When Luca and I were children, we’d played in backyards and parking lots all over Brooklyn. Together we were little shits who had one another’s back. After we moved to Rye, I rarely saw Luca. Nevertheless, kick-the-can in some back alley was a far cry from the MMA octagon.

When that night came, I was “Nox” Demetri, MMA champion. In my short career I was the youngest contender to accumulate so many wins—in points and knock outs—more than anyone else in the Newark area.