“Yes.”Why wouldn’t I?
Keaton smiled then.
And I knew.
This man was very dangerous.Because if he asked me to come out so that we could be together…
I would have to come out.
I would tell everyone what I had been hiding for all these years just to see that smile again.
Maybe I should have accepted his resignation.Maybe I should have sent him as far away from me as possible.But it was too late.
I was gone.
Keaton only needed to turn around and realize it – and he could make me do whatever he wanted.
I fixed my eyes on my laptop and didn’t dare try to engage him in conversation again.
Keaton Dunbar was just too dangerous to talk to.
Keaton
Ace was sitting at the coffee table in Mr.Harvey’s office, sprawled back with one of his legs cocked across the table itself.Mr.Harvey was constantly eyeing his black dress shoe as it dangled out in the air, making sure it wasn’t going anywhere near the actual table.I could tell it irritated him, but he was doing a remarkable job of showing restraint.I had a feeling that Ace knew that, too, and he’d chosen the placement of his limbs very carefully just to irritate Mr.Harvey as much as possible.
I couldn’t work out why.They liked each other, as far as I could tell.Mr.Harvey said that Ace was inner circle.Maybe Ace just had something in him that liked causing a bit of chaos.
“I just give up,” Ace said, hanging his head back over the backrest of the chair.“I give up, Harvey.I can’t find any evidence.Brody covered his tracks too well.”
Mr.Harvey sighed noisily.“This is infuriating.”
That had to be the understatement of the year.
Both of them stared off: Ace looking up at the ceiling in total despair, Mr.Harvey staring at the far wall with his hands steepled in front of his face.They both seemed so dejected.
“We can’t give up yet,” I said.Both sets of eyes swiveled towards me and I tried to fight down my immediate nervous response.“There must be some other way to figure all of this out.What about going to the buildings on either side and asking for their camera footage?You might be able to spot him walking by with his hood down.”
Ace shook his head.“There’s no way.The firms on either side of us are legal practices.They’re not going to give up their footage just because I asked.”
I sighed.I wished Ace would at leasttry, but I was already overstepping the mark by speaking up.I couldn’t argue with him too much.“There must be some way to prove it was him.”
“I wish we fucking could,” Ace muttered.“I’d like to prove it was all him and then hand him over to the police.I want to see the look on his smug fucking face when he realizes he’s going to prison.”
I tilted my head.I hadn’t even thought of that.“He would really serve time just for faking contracts?”
“No, for the drugs in Ridley’s drink,” Ace said, turning back to look up at the ceiling.“That’s an offense.You can’t just drug someone without their consent.”
Something clicked in my head.
“The drugs,” I half-whispered.“Of course.He had to have been the one to drug Ridley and get the footage at the same time as the fake contracts thing was happening, so he could really take him down.”
“Yeah,” Ace said, shaking his head.His shoulder-length hair danced under his upturned head.“And all of this because he wanted Ridley as a client so badly.Well, it backfired there, at least.I already told Ridley what he’s done.Even if Ridley leaves us, he’s never going to Brody Driver.”
I looked at Ace with a wild hope starting to flare in my chest.I looked at him until he felt my eyes on him and met my gaze.There was a moment in which I knew he understood what I was thinking, and then he was shaking his head, telling me no.
But it was too late.I’d had the thought, and now I couldn’t ignore it.
I’d brought my laptop to work with me in my bag.I was thinking I could take it to a café or something and watch the footage without the distractions at work and at home, maybe on my lunch break or if Mr.Harvey let me go early.But there was no time like the present.
