Dare to Submit (Dare to Love #4)(28)
Author: Carly Phillips

Decklan’s stomach cramped. He needed information. “Where’s your laptop?” he asked his brother. It was one thing not to dig up information on Amanda when they were just starting out. Now he needed more.

“I’m going to kill her,” Lucy muttered, pacing the family room. “Nobody hurts my brothers without answering to me.”

“Take the pit bull routine down a notch, killer,” Decklan said, but he was grateful for her support.

Unlike Isabelle, who surprisingly wanted him to reserve judgment, Lucy and Gabe had jumped to the worst possible conclusion, while Decklan just felt raw. He knew what he’d seen on television, and a senator who wanted to be president wouldn’t stick his neck out with anything less than facts.

Decklan was leaning toward siding with Gabe and Lucy, but he couldn’t shake the fact that he’d been with Amanda. He’d learned about her, insecurities and all. And he’d been inside her body. He knew her.

Didn’t he?

He was no longer certain.

Gabe had already returned from his office with his computer in hand. He opened it up, typed in his password, and handed the laptop over to Decklan. After settling into a chair, Decklan performed a quick search and turned up fascinating information on Bradley.

“It seems the almost-fiancé is—”

“You assume he’s her almost-fiancé,” Isabelle said, interrupting him.

Decklan turned to her. “Iz, before Gabe, your live-in boyfriend cheated on you, so forgive me if I can’t trust your instinct.”

“Hey, watch it,” Gabe growled at him.

“It’s fine. I understand what you’re saying, but I have Gabe now,” she said with the confidence of a woman who trusted her man. “I’ve seen the difference between someone who tells the truth and someone who doesn’t.”

Within seconds, Gabe had returned to her side and settled her on his lap. Not in the mood to watch the lovebirds, Decklan turned away and went back to the articles in front of him on the screen.

Lucy walked over and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Love you too, brat.”

“Talk to Amanda before you make any decisions,” Isabelle pleaded. “I don’t know her well, but I liked her. A lot.”

Decklan frowned, Isabelle’s words hammering home even more issues with Amanda’s behavior. “She ate with my family. She went shopping with you. And all the while, she was involved with another man?”

“Maybe.” Isabelle held firm.

“Call her,” Lucy said, caving in a little. “See if she answers.”

He shook his head. “She’s supposed to be at my place by five. I’ll have my answers then.”

“You can wait?” his sister asked, sounding amazed.

He spun around to face her. “I have no choice. I’m a cop. I’m good at reading people.” Or he’d thought he was. “I want to look into her face when I tell her what I saw. And I’ll know then if she led me around by my—” He cut off his thought in deference to the women.

“I’ve heard the word dick before,” Lucy said, trying to make him laugh. “I’ve even seen one.”

Isabelle grinned.

Decklan placed his hands over his ears, and Gabe’s already dark expression turned thunderous. “I don’t care how old you are, you don’t say those things in front of your brothers.”

Both Lucy and Isabelle laughed.

“Get back to whatever you were going to say,” Gabe muttered.

Decklan glanced back at the laptop screen. “Bradley Ritter’s a software genius worth billions.” It was the first thing that came up other than the fact that he was Senator Ritter’s son.

“Could that be why she held on to him? Because he’s rich?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Decklan said immediately. No matter what, Amanda wasn’t a gold digger. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that doesn’t jibe with the woman I’ve come to know.”

To his relief, no one reminded him there was every chance he didn’t know her as well as he’d thought. He continued to read. The search turned up the basics on the senator’s son. Where he’d grown up, gone to college—the same college as Amanda, which confirmed what Amanda had already told him, that she’d met her friend Bradley in college.

And when Decklan had had his brief moment of jealousy over the man she’d spoken so fondly of, Amanda hadn’t reassured him. Instead, she’d panicked that Decklan was getting jealous when theirs was supposed to be a one-night stand, something fun and not serious. True, one thing they’d agreed upon from the start was that neither one of them did relationships, but Decklan had changed his mind. And he’d thought she was well on her way. Or maybe he’d just hoped he could bring her around to his way of thinking.

What a joke.

He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. He didn’t doubt that Amanda felt something for him. What he now distrusted was her integrity. No wonder the thought of something more intimate and permanent freaked her out. She was already committed to another man.

FIFTEEN

Amanda ran out of The Plaza the first chance she got and grabbed a cab to Decklan’s apartment. She was horrified and shocked by the senator’s speech. She’d been blindsided by his public announcement naming her as his soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Brad had been taken off guard as well. Now they both had potential damage control to do with the men in their lives.

For Amanda, it no longer mattered that she’d intended to tell Decklan everything tonight, not if he already knew. She’d left Brad to deal with the congratulations and the fallout, not caring how it looked to the men in the senator’s political party. Not caring about anything but getting to Decklan and hopefully revealing everything first.

The taxi dropped her off at his apartment building, and she hit the buzzer, relieved when he let her right in. By the time she reached his unit, she was out of breath and really scared in a way she couldn’t put into words. Because she suddenly realized how much she had to lose.

She raised her hand to knock when the door swung open and Decklan stood in front of her. He looked sexy in his gray sweats and white tee shirt, the muscles in his forearms bulging. His eyes lit on hers, and the dark blue didn’t glitter with anything but anger. Added to the serious look on his face, her hopes disintegrated.

“You saw the news,” she said.

He inclined his head, his expression bland.