Kathleen Brooks - Secrets Collide

“I think we all were. Although, I must say Miles and Pierce were the worst. Miles with all his serious questions about our stability and Pierce just shouting out randomness,” Annie said to Cole and the other wives.

“Totally agree with you there,” Katelyn laughed.

“For me it was Pierce and Marshall,” Morgan said with a smile.

“If I recall, y’all handled it like a pro. We’re happy to have each and every one of you in our family. Now that we’ve settled that our sons and daughter are rude interrogators of unsuspecting dates, let’s have some dessert,” Jake said, putting an end to the discussion.

Paige rolled her eyes. “We weren’t that bad. Okay, maybe we were. I’ll get the pies I made this morning.”

“Excellent. I’ll go check on the babies in their new room.” Marcy shot from the table and disappeared upstairs. Within seconds her voice came over the monitor as she cooed to the babies.

“We won’t see her again,” Jake said. “Guys' night to do dishes after dessert. I get her piece since she left the table.” Jake grinned and Gemma could see what Cy would look like when he was older. All the brothers shared the hazel eyes and the strong build of their father.

Gemma took a seat in the corner of the living room and let her thoughts take her away again while the women talked weddings and babies. She guessed that was why Gia was so successful and Gemma was still working for a gossip rag. Not that she wasn’t good at what she did; she was just a dreamer. This time however, her thoughts made their way back to the same thing—Cy. He worked with ease as he cleared the table. But then he stopped and looked at his phone and reality came crashing in. She could like him and be attracted to him, but that was all it was ever going to be.

“Focus on the case,” Gemma murmured.

“What was that?” Paige asked.

“Sorry. I was just thinking of the case.” Gemma gave a little smile and hoped they couldn’t see her blushing.

“What about the case were you contemplating so hard?” Cy asked smoothly as he came into the living room.

“I’m itching to get back to my sister’s notebooks. I know the answers have to be in there.”

“Well, I’m all done with my part of the cleaning. Let me take you back and we can get to work. Good night, ladies.”

“Good night, Cy.” Tammy smiled and looked to Gemma and she realized she hadn’t gotten away clean. Someone had noticed her looking at Cy. The question was what Tammy was going to do, if anything.

Miss Lily’s porch light was on as they pulled to a stop at the bed and breakfast. Gemma was relieved to see the warm lights of the old house. She’d only been there for the day, but it felt like a retreat.

Cy opened the front door for her and she walked into the large entrance way. These old houses with the wide, sweeping staircases and gorgeous wood detailing just didn’t exist in L.A.

At the top of the stairs, Gemma paused at her door to dig for her key. No matter how small a purse she carried, she still couldn’t find what she wanted in it. Somehow her tiny purse would turn into a bottomless pit the second she tried to find something.

“Gemma.”

She raised her head and saw that Cy stood closer than she thought. He was looking down at her with a look she hadn’t seen before. Whatever it was, it was not the normal carefree mask he always wore.

“Yes?”

“I wanted . . . well, I thought . . .” Cy leaned forward and Gemma held her breath as anticipation coursed through her. Dink-dink. An incoming text on his cell phone interrupted the moment. Cy barely acknowledged the phone as he pulled it out, but Gemma caught an eyeful.

“Isn’t that the lingerie model who just posed nude on the cover of . . . ?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Gemma gave a shy smile. Was he really talking about her? Dink-dink. Gemma let out a frustrated breath. Every dink of that cell phone was a splash of cold water to the face. How stupid did she have to be to think he would want to be with her when that was texting and calling him? “And it seems she wants to talk to you. Better answer. Good night, Cy.”

Cy wished Gemma had slammed the door. Then he would know that she cared. Instead, Gemma quietly closed and locked her door as Angelina kept calling his phone and he kept sending it to voicemail.

With a sigh, he turned and headed for his room. He may not be taking Angelina’s call, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be making one of his own.

“Hello. Tonight?” Cy said into the phone as he stood by the window looking down to the front yard. “Good. I’ll see you then.”

Gemma took her time getting ready for bed. She had worked a couple hours on the first notebook as darkness fell outside her window. She took a seat on the window bench and stared at the stars, still unused to seeing them so clearly.

She glanced at the clock and saw it was already close to midnight. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had to admit the reason she hadn’t let the exhaustion claim her was hope. Hope she would hear a small tap on the door and open it to find Cy standing there ready to finish what it appeared he wanted to start earlier. Of course, that was just a dream.

Gemma climbed onto the big four-poster bed and slid under the covers. Well, a little dreaming never hurt anyone—so long as you realized it was nothing but a dream. Gemma closed her eyes and dreamt of the kiss she had hoped to receive. The way his lips would dance along hers before taking her mouth possessively and with such eagerness, robbing her breath.

Cy checked his watch and slid on his sneakers before heading out the door. He quietly went down the stairs and unlocked the door. He drove in silence out past the Ashton Farm and turned into the next drive. He gave a nod to the man at the gate who buzzed him in.

He traveled the long drive and passed the dark massive house before turning down a side road and heading farther into the property. A two-story brick Federal house with black shutters stood at the end of the road. Lights warmed the house and made it look like a family home instead of a bachelor pad.

Before he could park, the front door opened and Ahmed walked out to greet him. Next to him a large pit bull stood at attention. “Zoti, go greet our friend,” Ahmed said in an unusually relaxed voice. The large dog wagged his tail and ran over to Cy. He sat down at Cy’s feet and raised a paw.

“What a good boy you are,” Cy reached out and shook his paw before Zoti caught his face with a lick. “Nice dog, Ahmed. I kinda pictured him attacking me, though, not giving me kisses and wiggling around my legs.”

“I thought you of all people would know not to judge something by its appearance. Zoti, alert.” Ahmed gave the quiet command and the dog’s demeanor changed in a split second.

He was tense and scanning the area and Cy could easily see the well-trained protection dog within.

“Relax. Good boy. Who’s a good boy?” Ahmed praised as he rubbed behind Zoti’s ears.

“Impressive. I guess you’re right. I should've known better.” Cy walked up the steps and followed Ahmed into his surprising house. Another assumption he should not have made. He had expected dark and masculine with weapons lying around for some reason. Instead he found a home that was bright and welcoming. The walls were dark beige, the couch was red with navy accents, and the floor was a gleaming honeyed oak. Pictures from around the world were framed and hanging on the walls.

“I’m sure you recognize some of those places,” Ahmed said as he handed Cy a beer.

“I do. These are amazing.” The pictures played with lights, shadows, and angles in such a way as to captivate the observer.

“Thank you.”

“You took these?”

“Judging by appearances again?” Ahmed almost cracked a smile. If he had, Cy would have thought he entered an alternate universe.

“I guess so,” Cy turned and took a seat in a chair across from Ahmed, who sat on the couch with Zoti. “So, tell me about Sergei.”

Gemma cursed under her breath and threw her pen down. She had been working on translating her sister’s notebooks for the past three days and was still only getting bits and pieces. She remembered the alphabet Gia used to spell out a name or words that didn’t have specific symbols. But it was those symbols that were hanging up her translation.

To make matters worse, she found a flash drive in the bottom of the box. Gemma worked all day yesterday and couldn’t even get the thing to open. She tried to think like Gia and tried to crack her password, but she had no luck.

“Oh, bless your heart. It’s not going well, is it,” Miss Lily stated more than asked. “I just came inside from taking Dinky a snack and thought you might want some iced tea and cookies to help you while you work.” Miss Lily set the tray down on the chest of drawers and smiled understandingly at her.

“No. It’s not. We grew up talking this language and then we made up this huge written language when she came home with this box. The trouble is, I haven’t used it in well over a decade. There were around seventy-five words we had symbols for—all the pronouns and so many adjectives. I just can’t finish translating without them.”

Gemma paused and took a deep breath. “See, this sentence. Blank will be at the blank club on blank at eleven. I’m just glad I remembered the symbols for words like and and the or I wouldn’t even have this much and what I do have does us no good.”

“Tell me when you came up with these symbols. Was it at home? Did you do it all at once or over the course of the year?” Miss Lily asked as she handed Gemma a cookie.