He found Aiden in his office chair, light from the laptop screen illuminating the lines on his face as he frowned at the video as it played. Thomas didn’t want to move closer, didn’t want to have to explain what Aiden was looking at, what was happening. But he’d have to. He couldn’t ask for Aiden’s help but not explain what happened to his family. At least, in part. But how much? How much could he reveal and still live with himself?
“What is this?” Aiden asked as Thomas came to stand beside his chair.
“Someone is blackmailing me, threatening to expose our family’s secrets. This is their way of letting me know,” Thomas said.
Aiden handed him an insulated cup. “Which family secret? The one where we kill people? The global conspiracy where we teach the government to do the same?”
Thomas took a sip, the bitterness biting at the back of his tongue before the coffee burned its way down. “No, those secrets are well protected. It’s something else. Something that happened a long time ago.”
“What is it? What do they have on you?” Aiden asked. “What does it have to do with these dead bodies? Those coffins are your family, right?”
Aiden knew about Thomas’s family? Of course, he did. He was a private investigator. The boys had probably all done a deep dive into the Mulvaneys at least once in their lives, curious to know their family legacy. But Thomas had never worried about them stumbling onto the truth.
Several people had worked in tandem after the tragedy to assure that what really happened that night would never see the light of day. Of course, those people never suspected Thomas was the real villain that night. But then again, that had been the whole point.
“Yes. My parents. My siblings. My…cousin, Shane,” Thomas said, the last part sticking in his throat just a little.
The shrill laugh pierced Thomas’s already throbbing skull as Aiden restarted the video, causing him to wince. Whoever had created the video knew the truth and they had a real flair for the dramatic. Superimposed over graphic images of his family’s dead bodies were words likeguilty,sinner,liaralong with their demands. It was all very over the top. If Thomas didn’t know the pictures in that video had supposedly been destroyed years ago, he might have just written it all off as a hoax.
But there they were, in full color.
In all these years, Thomas had never seen the crime photos. Pictures of his siblings’ bloated bodies. Pictures of Shane. What was left of him, anyway. They’d only been seven. Too fucking young for the horrors they’d endured that night. His uncle had assured him it was better that way.
He had only been fifteen after all, even if he was taking college level classes. Even if he had suddenly just had a fortune dumped in his lap. Even if he was suddenly expected to act as the head of a global empire. He had only been a kid.
“Why are they doing this?” Aiden asked.
Thomas shook his head. “I truly don’t know.” Aiden gave him a baleful look. Thomas sighed. “They want to hurt the family. They want to hurt me.”
“But why?” Aiden asked. “Who’s doing this?”
The fullness in Thomas’s chest expanded to the point of pain as he tried and failed to search for the right words, the right phrase, something that would explain this all away without having to say the truth. Finally, he just blurted, “If I knew who was doing this, would I have called you?”
Aiden flinched, then scoffed, his face contorting in disgust, though whether it was with Thomas or himself, he didn’t know. “No. I guess you wouldn’t.”
Something withered inside Thomas. “Aiden, I—”
Aiden turned the office chair back towards the laptop, hands flying over the keys as he opened Thomas’s email. “I’m sending myself an encrypted copy of the video. Did they send anything else?”
Thomas clenched and unclenched his jaw. He just couldn’t stop saying and doing the wrong thing when it came to Aiden. It was alwaysjust Aiden. He’d been Thomas’s undoing since the moment he laid eyes on him, and some small part of him wanted to vomit the truth about who he was and what he’d done so Aiden would finally cut him off, once and for all. It was nothing less than he deserved.
But doing that would endanger more than just him. “There’s a link to an offshore bank account embedded within the file. I’m assuming so I can transfer the money they’re demanding.”
Aiden turned the chair to face him, their knees brushing, sending a jolt through Thomas. How long had it been since they’d touched? Not since that last night. Right there in the study. Right where Aiden sat now. Only that night, it had been Thomas sitting right there when Aiden crawled into his lap.“Why can’t I stay away from you?”
But he’d stayed away after that. Far away. All the way across the country, only returning home for the occasional job, always careful to avoid Thomas. Had it really been almost four years since that night?
Thomas forced his attention back to Aiden as he said, “What do they have on you? Why are you even entertaining this bullshit? Call Kendrick? Call one of the fifty senators you have on speed dial.”
“I can’t do that,” Thomas said.
“Why not? You call in favors all the time. ‘For the good of the program,’” he air-quoted.
“It’s not that simple this time. These people—this person—isn’t making idle threats. They know something. They wouldn’t have those photos if they didn’t. If they know everything, it will ruin our whole family. It will ruin everything I’ve worked for. It will wreck your brothers—the others—” he corrected. “Their whole lives.”
“What? How?” Aiden asked, clearly bewildered.
“What we do…who we are…it’s all a house of cards. This family. Project Watchtower…it all exists due to mutually assured destruction. If the truth about my family comes out, the rest of our secrets will fall like dominoes. We cannot let that happen.”
