Drew frowned. “I’m no saint, but I haven’t committed any felonies that I’m awareof.”
“Maybe it wasn’t going to be that kind of blackmail,” Cort said, looking from Drew to Bas, clearly uncomfortable. “If you had gone out with him,maybe slept withhim…”
Beside him, Drew felt Bas tense, and he defended himself. “Ididn’t!”
“No. But if you had,” Cort said in a low voice. “If he’d gotten compromising pictures of you? Threatened to publishthem?”
“Then, whatever! I wouldn’t have gotten involved with SILA, even if my junk was all over the nightly news!” Drew saidhotly.
“He wouldn’t have gone to you,” Cort said, looking atBas.
Bas nodded once. He sat upright and folded his arms over his chest. “Cort’s right. If he’d come to me with those pictures… I don’t know what I would havedone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Drew demanded, pulling away to glare at Bas. “You would have signed your soul over to Alexei? Jesus Christ, Bas. We weren’t eventogetherthen.”
Bas turned his head, blue eyes hard. “Yes we were. We just didn’t know ityet.”
And what the hell was Drew supposed to say tothat?
“But Drew didn’t date the asshole back in November,” Camprompted.
“Right,” Cain said. “And then Alexei figured out that we weren’t sitting quietlyby.”
Drew frowned at Sebastian, still more than a little annoyed at his earlier declaration. “Did he figure out you hacked hisserver?”
“Impossible,” Bas declared. “And that’s not bragging. It would be impossible to track me through the botnet. At best, he’d be guessing I was behindit.”
Cain nodded. “Sebastian’s right. No, somehow he figured out you’d met with thereporter.”
“Gary North?” Now it was Bas’s turn to frown down at Drew. “I told you we couldn’t trust that guy. He was all about getting in yourpants!”
“No way!” Drew demanded. “Gary didn’t like Alexei at all! He wouldn’thave…”
“Jesus, could you two can it for a second and let my guy finish?” Damondemanded.
Drew hung his head for a second, trying to release the tension from his muscles, while Bas muttered, “Sorry, Cain. Goon.”
“I don’t know how he knew about you meeting Gary,” Cain told them. “I didn’t get that deep into it with my father. Although I also wouldn’t be surprised if he was paying people to follow us. Remember he’s a paranoidfreak.”
Drew nodded. “Fairpoint.”
Bas blew out a breath. “There was a guy at the bar that night, watching us. At the time, I assumed he was interested inDrew.”
Drew shook his head. Beyondridiculous.
“However he found out,” Cain said, his voice stronger now, “he knew you had the meeting. And that’s when he upped his game. Namely, with you,Drew.”
“With Mark, you mean.” Drew was pretty sure that date was the biggest mistake of his life. “Fuck. If he druggedme…”
“I don’t know that we need to sayifanymore,” Cortinterjected.
“Fine. If he’d gotten me out of that restaurant after he drugged me, he could have a billion blackmailpictures.”
“Worse,” Cort said. “He’d haveyou.And I don’t even need to ask Sebastian what he’d be willing to do if he thought your life was in danger, Drew, because it’s the same thing I’d do if it were Cam, the same thinganyof us would do if the person we love was threatened.” He smiled grimly. “We’d sign over our souls. In aheartbeat.”
Drew pushed his lips together and nodded. Risking himself was easy enough, but risking Sebastian? Cort was one hundred percent accurate. It would takelessthan a heartbeat for him to sacrifice anything and everything if Bas neededhim.
He looked at the unsmiling man beside him and put a tentative hand on his leg. “But that didn’t work either,” he said. “Because Sebastian savedme.”
