Binding Attractions

Chapter 11

The atmosphere was tense enough to cut with a knife. No one spoke, as though they all feared being the spark that would set everything off like an explosion.

They were all gathered in Trick and Trey’s living room after the unexpected arrival of the woman claiming to be Gabriel’s sister. Trick sat at the far end of the room with a scowl on his face. He had finally managed to regain control of his system, but he was seething at the fact that someone had hacked his system in the first place. And it didn’t help that the woman looked very pleased with herself every time she glanced his way. He was almost certain she was laughing at him.

Lorenzo finally turned away from the window and walked over to Trick. He gave the laptop a pointed look. “Everything in order again?”

Even the mere question made Trick bristle, but he nodded. “Yes. I have full control.”

“Nothing to worry about?” Lorenzo gave the woman a glare that said exactly how much he had enjoyed her unique entrance and what he thought of her intentions.

Trick also glared at her and found that she was already watching them. At least the humor seemed to have faded from her eyes, he noticed. Trick turned back to his friend to answer. “She only hacked the system to turn off the cameras and gain access to the elevator. I can’t find any other damage.”

“See?” the woman said. “I told you I only did it to get up here.”

“And we were just supposed to believe you?” Edward asked from where he stood behind her like a guard on duty with his gun still gripped in his hands and feet shoulder length apart. He looked like a man just waiting for an excuse to take action.

Although his tone had been anything but friendly, the woman calmly looked over her shoulder at Edward. “No. That is why I have sat my ass down in this chair for twenty good minutes with my mouth shut so your boy over there can fix his system. Now it’s fixed. I want answers. Where is Gabriel? Where is my brother?”

“You don’t get to ask questions here,” Trey snapped and pushed off the wall he had been leaning against. “We won’t tell you anything until you tell us exactly who you are. Let’s start with a name.”

At that moment, the baby pressed against her chest let out a demanding cry. The sound pierced the room like a siren and made everyone stiffen.

Abigail, who was holding her son Arlo, shifted to the edge of the couch she was seated on. She looked at their unexpected visitor. “I think you have run out of time to play games. Your kid… and I assume it is your child.” She waited for the woman to nod in confirmation and then continued. “Okay. That baby needs to feed and change. So tell us your name and what you want here.”

Their guest narrowed her eyes, clearly not pleased with the way things were going. A shift in how she held the baby seemed to be enough to calm the child for now, but Trick knew from experience with Arlo that she had only bought herself a few minutes at best. He watched as her eyes swept the room like a person assessing their opponents. And then her gaze landed on him again. He wasn’t sure what she saw, but she quickly looked away and grimaced before clearing her throat.

“My name is Nadiya Thora.”

Trick already had his fingers flying on his keyboard when her voice stopped him.

“You won’t find anything.”

He paused and looked at her. “You erased your existence?”

“The same way you erased yours and that of your friends here.”

“And yet somehow you found us.” Lorenzo’s words dripped with suspicion.

Nadiya shrugged. “It’s not my fault that I am better than your boy over there.”

“I am not a boy!” Trick snapped. “And my work is very far from amateur.”

“True.” She gave a nod. “It took me a while to find a trace of you and connect the dots. But what matters is I did find you.”

“And we are still waiting on the why,” Talia said calmly.

Nadiya shook her head. “Nah-huh… That’s not how we are doing this. I answered one question. You answer mine. Where is Gabriel?”

Trick shared a look with Lorenzo. After a beat, his friend gave him a stiff nod.

“Gabriel is missing,” Trick answered.

Her back instantly straightened. She looked at Trick with a frown. “Missing? What do you mean, missing?”

Her words hit the room like a slap that had everyone cringing and looking away as they all remembered Gabriel saying the exact same words only weeks before, when Trey had been abducted by Danielle’s brother.

Trick swallowed and cleared his throat before he could attempt to say anything. He felt as though a lump the size of a full lemon had lodged itself in his throat, constricting his airway.

“Someone talk to me,” she pressed. “How is my brother missing?”

“Are you even sure he is your brother?” Edward suddenly asked. “Gabriel never mentioned a sister, and we have known him for more than two decades. Since he was ten years old.”

Nadiya turned her head and glared at Edward over her shoulder. “You can do a DNA test if you like. But I am certain Gabriel Hills is my brother, even though he never knew I existed.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Lorenzo said, stepping forward with a sinister smile that would put anyone on edge. “I will not take your word for it. We will do a DNA test.”

“Whatever,” she responded, seemingly uncaring of the promise of repercussions if it was discovered she was actually lying. “Now tell me how it is that he is missing.”

“Missing isn’t actually the right term to use,” Trey corrected. “It is more along the lines… He crashed in a helicopter and then was captured by a gangster who is now dead and we have no idea where he was taken.”

Nadiya double blinked and stared at Trey as though she was trying to determine if he was actually serious or joking. Even though it would be a very poor taste in jokes if he was.

“Real nice, Trey,” Abigail murmured. “As usual, delivered with the efficiency of a bull in a china shop.”

“Well, at least she gets the entire story in one sentence and we can move on to other questions,” Danielle defended.

Abigail shot Danielle a disapproving look. “Seriously, Danielle. You don’t have to support everything he says just because he is your man.”

“That’s not…”

“He crashed in a helicopter?” Nadiya cut in. She looked around the room like she wanted someone to tell her she had heard wrong. When her gaze locked with Trick’s, it was almost pleading. It seemed she had decided he was the one who would give her the answers she sought.

Reluctantly, Trick nodded and sighed. “Yes. It’s a long story, but basically, it happened how Trey put it. He was moved before we could get to him after the crash. And when we tried to get him back… Things didn’t exactly go as planned. But we are looking for him as we speak. I have several programs running. Searching for any lead of where he might be.”

“We will find him,” Abigail added in a reassuring, calm voice. She then observed Nadiya for a few beats before asking, “How is it you knew about Gabriel but he did not know you exist. You can’t be so much younger than he is.”

Nadiya blinked and turned toward Abigail. At that moment, Trick saw a woman who had just had the rug pulled from under her. He didn’t know what problem she was in, but she had obviously counted on finding Gabriel as her only salvation. And now that she had been told he was missing, she looked like a woman at the end of her rope.

Nadiya cleared her throat and responded, almost in a daze. “He was the result of a love union. After Gabriel’s father died, it apparently hurt too much for our mother to keep him. So she dumped him at the church doors with his name scribbled on a piece of paper. I, on the other hand, was a result of a drug induced haze. She had no trouble keeping me and telling me just how much she had loved her son and regretted having me.”

“Your mother certainly sounds like… quite the human being. Guess she wouldn’t be nominated for mother of the year,” Trick commented in a clipped voice.

Nadiya scoffed and shook her head. “No need to hold back what you truly think. My mother was a junkie and a cold, heartless b***h. That was why I left home at sixteen and never looked back.”

Silence fell in the room then. Trick watched the woman look down at her baby and refuse to look at anyone in the room. It looked like a move to hide whatever emotions flashed through her eyes that she didn’t want them seeing. But it also served the purpose of avoiding the looks of pity Abigail and Talia were giving her.

Nadiya certainly hadn’t had an easy childhood, but he could understand her unwillingness to be pitied. Nadiya looked like the kind of woman who fought her own battles. Which begged the question: what had happened to send her running and looking for a brother she had never even met?

Trick thought it was time for more questions. “You mentioned you were in trouble. What kind of trouble?”

The hesitation in her eyes was clear as day to see. And for some reason, it irritated him. Trick clenched his jaw and said, “I highly doubt it’s some small s**t, because you would have handled it yourself. Whatever got you running is big. Tell us so we can help you.”

“Who said I was running?” Nadiya immediately snapped and clenched her teeth like a cornered animal.

Tricked arched a brow. “Your actions, that’s who. You were desperate enough to break into my system and get up here, consequences be damned. We could have shot you before asking questions.” He pointed at her and then the baby in her arms. “Any mother willing to put such a small baby at that risk is running. So, what is it? Got money from the wrong people?”

Half a minute passed, in which time Nadiya seemed to be debating with herself. Finally, she sighed and her entire body sagged like all the energy had left her body.

“Have you heard of the attempted assassination of Matthew Parsons’ daughter?” she asked quietly.

Trey immediately looked at Trick. “Isn’t that the case you have been obsessed with?”

Trick shook his head. “I wasn’t obsessed. Just following the story.” He looked at Nadiya and added, “The police got a tip off that some guy, Glisson Barkley, was going to kill Parsons’ daughter. They, of course, didn’t catch Glisson and the entire case has gone cold.” His eyes narrowed. “What does this have to do with you?”

The nervous act of Nadiya licking her lips had two separate reactions from Trick. One end that recognized whatever she was about to say was serious made him straighten in his seat. And then there was the part of him that followed her pink tongue lick over her pierced lip and another part of his body twitched. That certainly wasn’t expected. Trick frowned, looked away, and cleared his throat like he had suddenly swallowed sand.

Trey shot him an enquiry gaze. Is everything okay? But Trick just shook his head and looked back at Nadiya, waiting for her to answer his question.

“I was the person who leaked the information to the police.”

“s**t,” Lorenzo muttered under his breath, and walked back to the window.

The furrow on Trick’s forehead deepened. But before he could ask anything, Edward was already speaking. “And how did you get your hands on that information?”

Nadiya shifted in her seat as though the cushion under her butt had suddenly gone hot. “I was… acquainted with Glisson.”

Danielle leaned forward. “Acquainted how exactly?”

She obviously could feel every eye on her, and it was growing uncomfortable. Nadiya squared her shoulders, straightened her back, and looked at the woman who had asked the question. “We met and had drinks at a club a few times.”

“And that was all? Just drinks?” Abigail asked with a pointed look at the baby in Nadiya’s arms.

Nadiya knew exactly what Abigail was asking. And damn the woman, but she had guessed right about Riona’s parentage. But that was not a piece of information she was ready to give a bunch of strangers just because they were connected to her brother and claimed they would help her.

“Riona’s father is an ex-boyfriend,” she stated. Not exactly a lie. But her next words were untrue, right down to the core. “He unfortunately died in an accident before I could even tell him we were going to have a daughter.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Abigail may have sounded sincere, but the look in her eyes told Nadiya that the woman bought that story with a healthy dose of doubt.

“That doesn’t explain how you found out Glisson was an assassin,” Edward pressed. Determined to still get answers. The man was like a dog with a bone and he was yet to step away from her back.

Exasperation and fatigue began to beat at Nadiya’s temples. She lifted her free hand and massaged her left temple as she answered. “Look, I hacked into his laptop. Okay? It’s what I do. I got into his laptop and found the order to have Parsons’ daughter killed before midnight the next day, and I did what I had to do.” She dropped her hand and glared at Edward. “I’m not exactly regretting saving that girl’s life, but it sort of put me right on the business end of Glisson’s gun. Which is why I’m here. I have been on the run for months.”

Nadiya looked down at Riona, sighed and closed her eyes before murmuring, “I am so tired.”

Suddenly, Abigail stood up from the couch she had been occupying. “You do look exhausted. And I think the rest of the questions can wait for a while. At least until you take care of your daughter and rest a little.” She walked over to Lorenzo and handed over her son before she turned back to Nadiya and announced she would show her to a room she could use.

Trick watched as Nadiya rose from her seat shakily, as though her feet were not sure they wanted to support her weight and the baby’s. But instead of the woman asking for help or falling, Nadiya tightened her hold around her daughter and straightened her back.

As she followed Abigail out of the room, Trick couldn’t help but take in more of the woman. The lack of flesh on her bones now made sense after hearing her story. If she had been running for months and was pregnant during that time, scared for her life. No doubt she had felt death itself breathing down her neck. Trick doubted food would have been at the top of her list of priorities.

He did worry if drugs were also perhaps the cause for her lean figure and pale skin. The ink he saw on her arms didn’t seem to be the only ones she had. He was certain he had seen some peeking under her collar on the side of her neck. Not that he disapproved of tattoos. Hell, three of his friends had them and more than one in each case. But there was something about Nadiya’s ink that screamed of anger and a wildness. And that was before he thought of the piercings.

The sudden feel of eyes watching him had Trick snapping out of his thoughts. He looked around until his eyes landed and locked with Lorenzo’s studying stare over Arlo’s head.

Trick arched a brow. “What?”

That got the attention of everyone else in the room who seemed to have all been lost in their own thoughts. Now they all stared at Trick curiously.

Great.