Suddenly, the room went still. If a hand had grabbed Cash by the ribs earlier, it was shaking him all over the place now, an alarm screaming at high alert in the back of his brain. “Horizon Zed? The corporation?”
As in the massive corporation that had fucked over Cash’s entire life and torn everything that mattered to him into tiny little shreds? The corporation that had sent him reeling from a happy childhood in North Carolina and into his current life of ill repute?
“Fucking Horizon Zed?” he repeated, his voice rising.
“We’ve put together research on most of the executives,” Reed said. “And we’ve got contacts like you wouldn’t believe, right up the corporate ladder. But my client is still trying to crack it open at the top.”
Cash felt dizzy. Dossier after dossier? Hidden contacts up the corporate ladder? It was enough to tent his pants right there. “All of that, huh?” he said, faux casual.
“Does it change your mind?”
Cash licked his teeth. The idea was still abhorrent to him, but he’d spent years gathering info on Horizon Zed all on his own. If he could get his hands on Reed’s information and use those extra resources to infiltrate the place, Cash would be able to accomplish things like he’d never dared dream.
And anyway, better he tracked this Lawrence kid than someone else, considering the type of men Reed usually worked with.
“How about this,” Reed added, tossing one of the silver stones in his hand. “I’ll throw in one of these damn rocks, too, just to show I care.”
Without thinking, Cash held his hand straight up, and Reed tossed him the rock. It landed with a heavy smack, and when Cash looked down, the silver sparkled under the flickering fluorescent light.
“Fuck it,” he answered with a grin. “When do I start?”
