Trina nodded.
“What was the nature of the relationship?”
“Why would that matter?”
Mick was his usual bluntness. “It matters because if your ass is cheating on Reno,” he said, “you can kiss my ass.”
Trina was offended, but she needed his help. “We were friends before I knew Reno existed, okay Mick? So kissing ass won’t be necessary.”
Mick continued to stare at her. He wanted more.
“We slept together once,” she admitted. “Just one time. But that was before I even met Reno. It’s nothing.”
“Stop putting lipstick on this pig, Trina,” Mick warned her. “You’ve gotten yourself in a hellava mess. And by the way you’re reacting, and by the way you paid out all that money, it’s for good reason it’s a mess. So stop trying to minimize this shit.”
That was Mick too, she thought. He’d chew you up and spit you out and keep on talking.
“What’s the name of this friend?” he asked her.
“Javon Douglas. Von. We call him Von.”
“Is he still a friend with benefits?” Mick asked her.
Trina frowned. “Mick, kiss my ass! No! I already told you no. I’m not like you.” Then she caught herself. “I didn’t mean that last part.”
“But you meant the first part?”
“No no, no. I’m just . . . I wouldn’t do that to Reno. That’s all I’m saying.”
Mick now seemed convinced, and he nodded his head.
“Von and I are just friends,” Trina said again.
Mick stood up, prompting Trina to stand too. “You’re leaving?”
“You think I’ve got time to sit around here all day?”
“But you don’t even know why I’m being blackmailed.”
“I need to hear the story your middleman has to tell first. If it adds up, I’ll know he’s not the blackmailer. If it doesn’t add up, I’ll know what’s next. Right now, I don’t know shit. But your ass is going to tell Reno.”
Trina was horrified. “Tell him what?”
“Everything,” Mick said. “And I mean everything.”
“Even if it’ll cost me Reno and my children, and even your respect?”
Mick was stunned she was being that dramatic. He knew it was bad. The ask by the blackmailers proved that. But losing Reno and her children? What the fuck? “That’s the price you may have to pay for whatever shit it is you did. And apparently it’s no lie. You did it.” He looked at her for confirmation.
Trina hated to do it, but she nodded her head.
Then his looked turned even more chilling than it already was. “Tell Reno,” he ordered her. “Or I’ll tell him whatever I find out in whatever way I find it.”
She somehow had hoped Mick could handle it and Reno would never have to know. But she should have known, when it came to family, Mick didn’t roll like that. He wasn’t keeping anybody’s secrets. Not even hers. She nodded. Even as tears began to appear in her huge hazel eyes, she nodded.
And Mick was thrown. Next to Roz, Trina was the strongest woman he knew. To see tears in her eyes cut him to his core. What had this woman done?
But he couldn’t bear to see her in so much pain. That was why he behaved so completely out of character that even Trina was amazed when he came around her desk, and then pulled her into his arms.
