Right here with Alistair was exactly where he wanted to be.
“Heh.” Noah tried to smile again. “If you’re about to propose or something, I’ll totally puke on you.”
Alistair laughter. “Noted.”
“I’ll stay.” Noah inhaled shakily. “If you gotta do… what you gotta do… then I wanna be here. Okay? I wanna see Patrick and be able to say goodbye. You owe me that at least.”
“So be it.” Alistair’s thumb lightly rubbed Noah’s knuckles.
“So, you… you really found some other guy named Patrick Allan?”
“Not me, no. I’ve made it known through certain channels that I’m very concerned for his wellbeing and am offering financial compensation for his safe return.”
“A bounty.” Noah scoffed. “You put a bounty out on him.”
“Yes. You must understand, dear boy, Patrick may be the only one who can tell us the truth about what happened to Jason Carbone.”
“But what about Medina?” Noah narrowed his eyes. “Okay, I get that Carbone and Patrick weren’t crazy about working together because they were both banging Odie. And Medina just happened to ask Odie out too?”
“Odie is quite popular. He’s also very vocal about his sex life. A night with him would be a very strong alibi.”
“Why doesn’t anybody like Medina, huh? I mean, I know whyIdon’t fuckin’ like him, but everybody else seems to have it out for him too.”
“Medina works for a real estate firm, the same one responsible for brokering the deal between myself and Patrick. If Patrick sold the land to the very generous private contractor, Medina would have also been a part of that deal.”
“You mean he would have gotten a chunk out of that extra ten million?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so, he would have gotten paid twice for the same stupid piece of land. And I’m terrible at math, but I’m gonna say whatever percent of ten million is a huge ass motive to kill Jason.”
“Which is why we’ve been keeping him very close. As far as why he is not liked, all I can say is that there is a severe conflict of personality between him and my regular employees.”
“He’s a dick.”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you just… I dunno.” Noah shrugged. “Torture him? Isn’t that a thing you guys do?”
“I’m a businessman above all else, dear boy. It would be complicated if I’m wrong about Medina’s part in this.”
“He got something on you?”
“Intimate knowledge of some of my real estate ventures, yes. It puts me in an unusually defensive position that I normally do not allow.”
“Well, fuck.”
“Exactly so.” Alistair patted Noah’s hand. “This is why I need Patrick. To help me sort this out. I am beginning to suspect that he was set up by Medina or some other unknown party, and he remains in hiding because he’s afraid for his life.”
“Duh.” Noah snorted. “He knows you think that he killed Carbone. Damn right he’s hiding.”
“Here.” Alistair offered out a cell phone.
But not just any cell phone.
It was Noah’s.
“Seriously?” Noah stared at it.
