Burning Your Lies (King and Queen Duet #2)

48

Xavier

My blood is boiling in my veins as the videos play one after the other on my laptop. Every interaction Savannah and I had in my house is all over the internet. Our whispers of a forever love and moans of pleasure are wracking up views faster than my erratic heart is beating. I watch, without blinking, as I kneel before her and kiss her bump.

I slam my laptop closed and punch my fist into my desk.

“Francesca!” I scream.

With a terrified expression, she hurriedly enters the room. “Yes.”

“Get those taken down!”

I snarl.

“Every single one! Get my lawyers on the phone. I’m going to drown that fucking whore in so many lawsuits she’s going to suffocate in them.”

“Yes, sir.”

She practically runs back to her desk.

My fingers are pulling at my hair, but nothing relieves the pounding in my head. The urge to scream at the top of my lungs fills me. I want to find her and kill the fucking bitch. She played me.

“What?”

I snap into the phone when it rings.

“Mr Rivers.”

My lawyer sounds as terrified as Francesca looked.

“File every fucking lawsuit you can by the end of the day. This counts as revenge porn, does it not? I want the fucking bitch in handcuffs before I get home.”

He hesitates on the line.

“We would need to prove it was her that leaked them.”

I grip the phone so tight it may just snap in half.

“Who else would it be?”

I can hardly breathe. No matter how fast my chest rises and falls, it feels like someone is choking me. I pull at my tie, hoping it will help.

“I don’t doubt your intuition. But we would need to prove she had a copy of those tapes. Did you ever share them with her?”

No. The only copy that exists is the ones in my home office. A home that Savannah has only entered twice. Once after Mia and Jordan died; but I saw her on the cameras that night and she never stepped foot inside the main house.

The second was that Christmas lunch, but she was physically in front of me the whole time, except when she ran off to cry like a pathetic bitch. From the moment she left to the time I joined her wouldn’t have been enough for her to sneak into my office and steal the tapes.

I question whether it was Ray but, yet again, he never left the main room. He sat with a sullen look and a glass of whiskey the whole time.

So how did she get those tapes?

“I know it was her. She must have…”

I rub my temples.

“She must have snuck in or something.”

Even I don’t believe my words because there is no way to sneak into my fortress. It’s ironclad. You can only get in if I open the door and I wasn’t stupid enough to let her in.

“I can sue, but if no other copy exists, it will be an uphill battle. Is there anyone who may have helped her?”

My mouth opens to say no, but it doesn’t come. All I see is red with hazes of blue in front of me. No. Brynn wouldn’t do that. She has been everything I have been searching for. This is a woman who couldn’t even whisper a filthy word in my ear while I fucked her. Her love is real. She isn’t a player in this game. She’s not on Savannah’s side.

But it’s the only thing that makes sense. How else would Savannah get those tapes? She’s not a fucking ghost. She can’t walk through walls. No digital copies exist for her to hack into. Someone had to have given her those tapes. And the only person to enter my castle was the woman I embraced with open arms. The same woman who willingly stayed alone at home.

I think back to our first meeting and see if I missed any signs. She has no reason to help Savannah. There is nothing tying them together. I checked and rechecked her background checks. Nothing was out of place. Brynn Jones is a real person. I could recite every detail about her life. She never gave me any reason to not trust her.

But the feeling in my gut and paranoia has me out of my seat and storming to the one person who may have some answers.

Rowan wears a hard expression as I approach him.

“I’m busy, Rivers. Whatever it is, can fucking wait.”

“The surveillance you did on Ray. How long have you been doing it?”

Even if he tried, he couldn’t look any more unbothered.

“Since I came to London.”

“When were you going to tell me that my girlfriend was helping them?”

For a moment he looks confused and then laughs so loud it echoes.

“How was I supposed to know?”

I crack my fingers, wishing it was his neck instead.

“Your fucking pictures.”

Rowan shrugs.

“I never looked at them. I posted a few of my men to get under his skin. I already knew everything I needed to. Perhaps you should have taken a leaf out of my book.”

My lips curl into a scowl.

“You’ve always known what I am, Mr Ashford. Do not make me show you.”

The amusement fades from his eyes. He steps up to me and holds my stare.

“Try it and see what happens.”

Not needing another battle, I flare my nostrils but step down.

“Give me every single fucking picture your men took.”

He’s back to smirking at me.

“I’ll get right on that.”

Like a pompous prick, he slaps my shoulder with a chuckle and walks away.

“Was it you?”

Rowan stills.

“Was what me?”

“Henry.”

He looks over his shoulder with a smirk.

“She offered a fair price.”

“And the rest?”

His hands come up in surrender.

“Nothing to do with me. She won fair and square. But don’t worry, Mr Rivers. I’m about to steal her winnings. I wanted her, but the king made the ultimate sacrifice.”

I almost ask him what Ray did to deserve a bullet between his eyes, but I couldn’t care less. I only wish I was the one to put it there.

“Do me a favour. Just before you pull the trigger, you tell that bastard I’m going to enjoy killing his wife. It’s going to be so slow and torturous she’s going to be begging me for mercy that won’t come.”

My cool leather chair does little to calm the fire of rage burning inside me. I spin the small device in my hand on a loop. This is how I never saw Brynn helping her. It messes with the signal and makes my connection vulnerable to being hacked.

All the pieces are slowly falling into place.

Ray created a new identity for Brynn. She was coached by Ray and Savannah before she entered my life at just the right moment. She lowered my guards by becoming everything I needed. Once inside, she served as their hands and eyes. She would block the signal while Ray hacked it and paused the recording on the empty room. While I thought she was sleeping or showering, she was sneaking around my house.

I should have seen this coming. Savannah practically told me Brynn was playing the game when she called her the red joker. Brynn was always there. Even when she had every reason to run the other way, she stayed, and I never questioned it, so desperate to have a queen protect me.

The biggest sign was the night they were all in her house. There was a fifth glass like they were expecting someone else to join. I had deduced that Mia and Jordan were helping, but that clean glass told me there was someone else. Brynn didn’t want to go to dinner that night. She wanted to go home to get her letters and books. When I pulled up at Savannah’s, she was evidently tense and worried. Was the traitor worried someone would let the truth slip?

When I open the encrypted email from Rowan’s associate, it only confirms what I now know. There are hundreds of pictures of Savannah and Ray. Some of them are individual shots of them doing ordinary things like leaving for work and carrying their shopping in. There are some of Savannah kneeling at her mother’s grave. Others show Mia and Jordan waiting at their front door.

And then I see Brynn.

It’s the middle of the night. She and Savannah are standing close together. I look at the date stamp and note it’s from before Brynn said she would befriend her to help take her down. She only needed an excuse to meet up with her. There are more pictures of Brynn with the rest of them. Some are out in remote public spaces, while others are her entering their house.

This is where she went every time she said she had an errand to run or she was going home.

There’s movement in the doorway. Brynn sighs.

“I really wish you didn’t find that.”

I stand up and throw the device to the floor.

“You’re going to wish you never met me.”

The Brynn I’ve known vanishes. The blue eyes that reminded me of a diamond have turned to ice. Her soft smile is now a taunting one.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Mr Rivers.”

She steps into the room.

“I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Who are you?”

“Brynn Jones.”

My hands tremble at her teasing tone.

“Who are you?” I repeat.

She smirks.

“Maya Adams.”

I step out from behind the desk and walk towards her.

“Well, Maya Adams, I’m going to kill you.”

She tuts at me.

“I don’t think you are.”

My chuckle slips out.

“And why’s that?”

“Because I’m the only one that can save you, Mr Rivers. I know exactly how she’s going to take you down.”

Even I hear the amusement in my voice.

“And why would I trust you?”

She pretends to think about it.

“I don’t think you have a choice.”

“I’ll give you a five second head start,”

I threaten.

“Who do you think handed Huxley to Rowan? It was me or her, and I chose myself. I will always choose myself. So if it means my freedom, I will tell you how to stop her because I will not die to protect them.”

I’m missing something.

“What do you know about Ray and Rowan?”

“I’m the one that killed his brother and little girlfriend. Huxley agreed to protect me from Rowan as long as I protected Savannah from you.”

That explains the look on Rowan’s face when I mentioned Brynn earlier. I fight my smile. It doesn’t matter if I let Brynn go because she will meet her death at Rowan’s hands.

“You have a deal.”

She closes the distance between us and offers a handshake. Just as I place my hand in hers, she pulls out a syringe with her other hand. It’s plunged into my neck before I can even blink and I feel my body give in. I fall to the floor and gaze up at her.

She crouches down.

“Your friend is a smart man. He has contingencies for contingencies and he made sure I would have to protect her.”

She strokes my face.

“This isn’t personal. It’s only because she holds the key to my freedom.”

And then it all goes black.