“What isn’t? What was he—you—” I shut my mouth and squeezed my eyes closed, trying to gain control of myself. “What were you pretending, Brax?”
“No way, asshole,” Nevaeh suddenly snarled. I snapped my eyes open to find her on his lap, holding him down with her weight as she straddled his legs and pressed him down into the couch, keeping him from standing. “Answer her.”
Braxton’s throat bobbed for a second until his head dropped back onto the couch and he closed his eyes. “I’ll explain everything. Just get off me. Please, kitten.”
His voice was so quiet and strained, I barely heard him. After only a small hesitation, Nevaeh got up, but she didn’t move away. She stood over him, her eyes narrowed like I’d seen her mother do many times over the years right before she struck out with her razor-sharp tongue.
“Barrick isn’t who you think he is,” Braxton said after a moment.
I wanted to scream and shout, “Then who the fuck is he?”, but my phone rang, and I answered it before he could go on.
“Mia?” Momma sounded out of breath, and then I heard Jagger grumbling in the background and a door slamming. “Listen to me. I need you to know, I knew nothing about this. Do you hear me? I knew nothing.”
“Didn’t know about what?” I whimpered.
“Charles Seller’s stepson is Charles Barrick Junior.” I blinked. Her security expert? That Seller? But she didn’t give me the chance to ask. “Charles Barrick Senior was Seller’s best friend and business partner. The son is supposed to inherit everything once Seller retires.”
“Wh-what?” I knew she was giving me answers, but they weren’t making sense to me.
“I don’t know what’s been going on, but I can guess. Gods, I should have questioned it when Nik stopped pouting about my letting you go to college without bodyguards. But I was just glad not to be arguing about it anymore, so I didn’t look too hard at it at the time.”
“Momma, please,” I told her as I wiped my wet eyes with the back of my hand while still clutching Braxton’s phone. “My head is all over the place, and I don’t know which way is up right now. Please dumb it down for me.”
“Barrick works for his stepfather as a security operative, learning the company inside out until he eventually takes over the business. My guess is that your dad hired this guy to be your security at college without either of us knowing.”
“The mission is over,” I breathed, my gaze locking with Braxton’s tortured one, and I felt physically sick. “They don’t have to pretend anymore.”
It made complete sense now.
“Mia?” Momma’s voice sounded strained, and I realized she’d been speaking but I hadn’t heard a word of what she’d said. “Mia!”
“I-I’m here.”
“I chartered a jet. I’ll be in New York before the sun comes up. Just stay there at the hotel with Cole and don’t go anywhere.”
“Cole went out.”
“Of course he did,” she groused. “Who is there with you, then?”
“Nev and Braxton.”
“And that would be?”
“B-Barrick’s cousin.”
“Put him on the phone,” she commanded, and even though I was hurting, I suddenly felt sorry for the guy I thought was my friend.
But was he, though?
I didn’t know anymore.
I didn’t know anything.
Crossing to him, I held out the phone. “She wants to speak to you.”
Sighing heavily, he took the phone and cautiously lifted it to his ear. “Hello? Mrs. Armstrong?”
His jaw clenched, and I knew whatever she was saying to him wasn’t pretty, but she kept her voice quiet so I wasn’t able to overhear any of the one-sided conversation.