Page 1 of Deadly Lies

1

Ash

JOAQUÍN CRUZ COULD BE INNOCENT.

Joaquín Cruz could be innocent.

I repeated those words over and over again in my head, trying to understand the ramifications of the possibility of Joaquín being not guilty. It would throw everything into question. If he hadn’t raped Mia, had he really killed Tiffany? The party had been at Paul’s house. Had Paul killed Tiffany? Had Paul raped Mia? Had Paul kidnapped Julián? And if so, then why, why on God’s earth, would Joaquín cover for that monster? What did Paul have over Joaquín? If Paul had done all these horrific crimes, did he really kill himself? I never thought he killed himself—and these crimes would put his suicide ruling even more into doubt.

There had to be a rational explanation for this.

Mia gripped my arm, her hand shaking. “Ash. Don’t you dare lie to me right now. What did he say? Did Joaquín leave the base that night? Tell me the truth.”

I studied Mia’s face. A beautiful, flawless, surgically enhanced face. She had changed her life, her body, her face to find out the truth about Joaquín. She deserved to know everything I did.

But I didn’t want to tell her the truth.

I couldn’t tell her the truth because I didn’t even know what was true and what was false. I had spent the last few years of my life convinced Joaquín was guilty, convinced Joaquín was behind all of the shadiness of the Se7en Deadly SEALs. And that Mia was involved in covering up his crimes. That she was somehow in cahoots with him and not the victim she pretended to be. I’d always felt that I was close, so close, to figuring out the depths of the crimes of the Se7en Deadly SEALs. But if Joaquín was innocent, if Paul was the one who’d raped Mia, then that meant I didn’t have a clue what was going on. And even if it was Paul who had committed the crimes that Joaquín had taken the fall for, there was still trouble lurking around the SEALs. I believed someone killed Paul. And, though I hadn’t shared my suspicions to Mitch, Grant, or Mia, I believed there was a chance that there was a possibility that Sienna’s disappearance was linked to these shady SEALs.

If Joaquín was innocent, I was horrible at my job. And worse yet, that I had let a killer go and had convicted the wrong man.

Some NCIS agent I was. I could kick myself for not checking the base logs when the Joaquín Cruz case was under investigation. That fatal error was on me. I had no one to blame but myself.

Grant had been right when he’d accused me of being a shitty agent. Maybe if I had cracked the code of the Se7en Deadly SEALs back during the Cruz case, then Sienna would be safe now. I wasn’t sure how these crimes were linked, but I just knew they were.

I didn’t want to share my suspicions with Mia. To have her cling to the hope that her brother was innocent. She was my partner, and, for once, I needed to push my suspicions about her past behavior aside and be a true friend.

“Look, Mia. Meeks said the records indicated that Joaquín hadn’t left the base, but you know your brother. He’s smart. He could have doctored the logs.” I didn’t believe a word I was saying, but at the moment, I had no other answers to give.

“Doctored the logs?! Do you realize how fucking ridiculous that sounds?”

I nodded rapidly. “Yes. But it is in the realm of possibilities.”

Mia shot me a dirty glare. “Who left that night?”

A lump grew in my throat. “Mitch. And Paul.”

Mia’s eyelashes fluttered, and her lips began to tremble. Within minutes, tears came rushing down her face. She held her knees close to her chest, in the fetal position, rocking back and forth like a baby. And I actually wanted to comfort her.

I reached my hand out to her, but she pushed it away.

“Ashley, what does this mean? If Joaquín is innocent, it makes no sense that he would lie and take the blame for something he didn’t do. Especially something so horrific as raping his sister and kidnapping my son! He told me to my face he had raped me. He told me that he’d been in love with me all his life. I refused to believe it, but I had finally accepted it. Why would he admit he rap—”

She couldn’t even complete her sentence. Her jaw shut. “I need to go to him. I need to ask him why he lied. Now. We can’t even interview Paul because he’s dead!”

Paul. If Joaquín hadn’t left the base, then Paul could most definitely have raped Mia. And April could’ve covered for him. Implicating Joaquín to Mitch. But why?

“With Paul dead, April in a coma, and Joaquín lying, we may never know the truth. I’m so sorry, Mia. Do you think you can get Joaquín to tell you the truth?”

She shook her head. “No. Clearly not. He has his own agenda. An agenda worth confessing to a horrific crime that he didn’t commit and ruining the relationship with the only family member he has left. Why would he come clean now?”

Well, he wouldn’t. “We can figure this out, Mia. We’re smart.”

“Now. I need to nip this in the bud now. I need to go to him. I want to confront him and see his face when he lies to me again.”

“And what will that accomplish? This is of utmost importance, and I vow to move heaven and earth to help you figure if he lied and get answers. But Joaquín isn’t going anywhere. There’s no rush. Sienna is missing. We need to go to April’s house and focus on finding her.”

“No. I can’t wait. And he could know something about Sienna. He’s going to have to come clean if we have proof of the base logs.”