Lotus Effect by Trisha Wolfe

Author:Trisha Wolfe [Wolfe, Trisha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trisha Wolfe
Published: 2019-04-29T18:30:00+00:00

19

Perfect Storm

Lakin: Now

I’m not a good liar. Let me rephrase: I’m not a good liar to other people. The lies we tell ourselves so that we can cope with our insignificant existence, to make us feel more meaningful in this life, aren’t the same as a tailored lie meant to deceive another person.

Rhys is a walking lie detector. Which means the lie I’ve prepared about visiting my parents sits sour on my tongue. I’m not sure if this is because I know I’ll most likely be caught, or whether the thought of lying to Rhys just feels…wrong.

Either way, by the time I hear him enter the keycard into his hotel room door, I’ve rehearsed the fib too many times in my head for it to come out naturally. So when he asks, “How are your parents?”

I blurt: “I went to see Cameron.”

It’s midnight and he doesn’t look jetlagged in the least. His slate-gray eyes are clear and alert, and they’re assessing me coolly, calmly.

He sets his duffle bag down in the corner, then peels off his suit jacket. “Did she know Mike Rixon?”

The breath I’ve been holding eases out. Rhys doesn’t do confrontation. If he had been upset, felt deceived, he’d have simply left the room without a word. I’d rather he admonish me for being reckless than suffer his stone-cold silent treatment. It’s hard to bring him back from that.

I tug my long T-shirt down my thighs and cross my ankles on the bed. “She seemed like she had no idea that Torrance had a brother.”

“Did you show her a picture of him? See if she recognized Rixon from the Dock House?” Black tie hung loose around his neck, he removes his shoulder harness and takes a seat across from me on the bed.

“No. I didn’t…” I should have, and I probably would’ve thought to do so had I not been so focused on Drew. “And the element of surprise is gone now. Going back to ask probably won’t render any new information on that front. Especially since we didn’t part on the best of terms.”

The stern contort of his expression relaxes at this. “I take it she wasn’t exactly happy to dredge up the past.”

I glance at the floor. “She lied to me,” I say. “I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before. I can’t blame faulty memory there; I knew something was off. I just didn’t know what or didn’t want to know. Maybe.” When I look at him, the commiseration I glean in his eyes is a comfort. “She’d been sleeping with Drew.” I barrel ahead before he can start an interrogation. I fill him in on everything Cam revealed. “She claims she wasn’t with him in that capacity the night of the attack, but that she was with him at his house. That he couldn’t have possibly went back to the Dock House.”

Rhys takes it all in, then says, “Not unless he never left.”

Alarm skitters through me at that realization. “The drive from the bar to Drew’s house then is over an hour.

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