“Well, if you can hand over enough dirt to take down twenty percent of the District of Columbia, then you will be a very beloved man.”
Mason stands from the couch in a hurry. “I have more than that after years of digging.”
Claude hands Mason a piece of paper. “Here’s an IP address to upload the data to, and in return Jacob will be let free without any charges, and you’ll all be free to go about what you have been doing for years.”
“But we need to know who we’re dealing with so we don’t go after them,” Reid points out again.
Mason hurries off to the second-floor study before he can hear Claude’s reply. But I’m a little thankful because I’m not sure Mason needs to know.
“Your buyer is”—Claude looks down at his phone with furrowed eyebrows—“Johnathan Wagner?”
Reid gasps. “As in… one of the Wagner brothers… the dudes who own literally everything in the United States?”
Claude shrugs. “I do not know them, but they are buying the data, and they are the ones who wanted an end to your behavior. But now that they have their data, they are not afraid of you.”
“But why would these guys want us to stop?” Dante asks in confusion, looking around at all of us.
“They’re the top conservative donors in the country,” I tellhim, thinking about the different ways in which this current news could fuck us forever. This feels a lot like getting into bed with the enemy. “They lobby Washington hard, and they basically shape the country. They are probably highly motivated in keeping the status quo, if not in favor of it being skewed toward the bad guys.”
Hayden groans in frustration. “Are we signing anything or is this a handshake deal?”
Mason reappears from upstairs, a grin on his beautiful face. “It’s uploading now.”
Claude smiles. “Let me make a phone call.”
“Do you stay on the payroll after this?” Hayden asks, eyes squinted in suspicion at Claude.
Claude shrugs, all easy and free. “I did not expect the good side to pay better than the bad. Look at me as Switzerland. But I have a feeling you are all going to need me even more now.”
“Why?” Hayden levels a glare at Claude. “What do you know that we don’t?”
“Well… I assume you will not be stopping what you have been doing, and I also assume you will be going after the Wagner family now, yes?”
Hayden’s grin is cruel and cunning, sending a shiver down my spine. “Yes. You assume correctly, Carver.”
The grins they exchange are terrifying in their cruelty. Claude disappears outside again, leaving us all a little anxious and waiting with bated breath. I wrap my arm around Mason’s shoulders and tug him to me, needing the weight of his body against mine to steady the fraught nature of the moment. He tangles his fingers in the shirt at the small of my back as he glides his lips over the edge of my jaw. Inthat moment, I realize how far we’ve both come, but still how much farther we have left to go.
Claude returns for the third time, a wide grin on his face. “Well, boys, we are officially in business. When do we go after the Wagners? And not to spill the beans—that’s the phrase, right? Regardless, there is a sector of boys like you in every large metropolitan city in the continental United States. Did you know?”
Everyone, including me, looks to Hayden in question. But Hayden just looks confused as hell, and also a little hurt.
“What?” Hayden whispers in disbelief.
“Yes. That is why I was sent to torture blond psycho, to see if we could infiltrate the spiderweb.”
“It’s just us,” Hayden says, almost as if trying to reassure himself.
Claude shakes his head firmly. “No, children, there are hundreds of you. But we will tackle that at another time. Now, we must get the other one of you out of jail. I will tell that beautiful small attorney the deal.”
Claude disappears again. Reid makes a disgusted noise, and I drag my attention to him. I thought maybe it was about me and Mason all cuddled up in front of him, but Reid’s gaze is stuck on the front door.
“I don’t trust him,” Reid says with an attitude. “Plus, I don’t forgive him for making my stomach a slab of hamburger.”
“We’re stuck with him for now.” Dante wraps his fingers around Reid’s neck and squeezes gently, making Reid go from tense and annoyed to relaxed. “He won’t touch you again, I promise.”
“He won’t touch you either,” I promise Mason.
Mason grins up at me. “I know. You give off the scariest touch-him-and-die energy. I’m safe when you’re around.”
