Neo perches on the edge of the seat. That’s typical of him. He doesn’t like to be still, always ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice. “Something tells me I’m not going to like this conversation.”
I fiddle with the bracelet around my wrist. “Remember the hacking job I took on last month?”
“The one I told you not to touch because it had more red flags than a Republican convention? The one you pinky promised you weren’t going to take? That one?”
I wince. “It was too much money to pass up.”
“Jesus, Ansel.” Neo is on his feet, pacing back and forth. “No amount of money is worth getting tangled up with people like that.”
I duck my head in shame. “I know that now.”
He freezes mid-step. “Wait, what happened?”
I swallow around the lump in my throat as I twist the bracelet. It’s too dangerous to tell Neo everything. They may not be after me now, but I’m not putting him at risk. It’s the same reason I’m fucking grateful that Cade hasn’t pushed me on the topic. Either that ormaybe he already knows the situation I’m in. I don’t fucking know and dread ever asking.
“Let’s just say that I dug further than I was meant to.”
Neo’s face blanches. “You found out something shady?”
“That about covers it.” I give a hollow laugh. “Sort of shit that gets you killed.”
“How? How did you even get caught?”
I sink low in my seat, preparing for the verbal lashing I know is coming. “When I found…it, I was so shocked that I got careless. I stayed too long on the site, and when I left, I realized too late that it was a honeypot and a traceback.”
To my surprise, Neo doesn’t lecture me. Instead, he drops into his chair and reaches over to squeeze my wrist. “Whatever you saw, it must’ve been awful for you to have fucked up that badly. Jesus, Ansel. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I shrug. “What would’ve been the point? I wasn’t adding your name to a hit list along with mine.”
“This is so fucked,” he mutters, rubbing a hand across his jaw. I can almost see his shrewd mind working behind his eyes. That’s the thing about Neo—people consistently underestimate him. His blue hair, piercings, and sassy attitude have him being written off by others almost immediately. Which is precisely why Neo does it. It allows him to assess their weaknesses and figure out how to exploit them. His intelligence is a weapon he keeps secret. “Given you’re still alive, I’m guessing there’s more to this story.”
That’s one way of putting it.
“The guys I hacked, they threatened to kill me. I promised them I wouldn’t tell anyone what I’d seen, but it wasn’t good enough.”
“I don’t understand,” Neo says slowly. “Surely you should’ve been the one blackmailing them? Why not threaten to expose whatever you saw if they didn’t leave you alone?”
I give a bitter laugh. “Because you’re assuming I have any evidence. I don’t. When I hacked back in through the back door I planted, they’d wiped the server clean. Besides, there’s no pointturning them in if they’ll just have me killed as a result. No amount of blackmail would’ve kept me alive, trust me.”
Neo is quiet for a few moments before asking. “What did they ask you to do?”
I shake my head, staring at the ceiling. “They told me I had to commit a crime. To clean up a mess for them. That way, it was one less thing for them to deal with, and it gave them ammunition on me if I ever did decide to talk.”
There’s no judgment in Neo’s stare, just a measured understanding. It’s what happens when you grow up the way we did. Sometimes you have to do shady shit to survive. Having a moral compass is a luxury we couldn’t always afford.
“What did you do, Ansel?”
“I kidnapped someone,” I whisper. “I went to a bar, located my target, and kidnapped him. Held him hostage for a while at the old Barnum place. The one we used to use when we went fishing.”
“Okay,” he says slowly. “I’m not seeing how you got from there to being held in this mansion by a fucking Buckingham, of all people.”
I give him a humorless smile. “Cade Buckingham was the one I kidnapped.”
Realization passes over his face. “So, like a ransom situation?”
“No.”
“Then what was it? Why Cade?”
