Page 107 of Reveal

“So you have blackmail information, but you refuse to use it?” Noah asks with an astounded shake of his head.

“I have it on all of my clients, but it has to be played very carefully or else it can backfire. The threat of it is typically enough to keep my clients in line.”

“But Carter isn’t your typical client? Is that your reasoning? Why you didn’t do anything more than just threaten?”

“Because I’m scared of him.” My voice wavers, and I don’t think I realized until now just how fearful I am of Carter and what he could do to my life.

“Understood,” Noah says. “Can I speak with you a moment in the other room?” he asks Abel.

“One moment,” Abel says to me with a smile. “No phone calls or texts, please. We’d know.”

I can hear the low murmur of their voices as they step into the other room, door open. Their discussion is heated for a moment while my head spins and my ears strain to try to catch what’s going on.

And then it hits me. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the two of them staring at me. Maybe it’s because I have a chance to breathe. Regardless, the gravity of everything about this situation blindsides me.

Oh my God.

This is really happening.

The FBI.

All of it.

And just as I sink into the reality of all this, the two men walk back into the room, Noah scratching his head, Abel resuming his bodyguard stance against the wall.

“Change of plans,” Noah says.

“There were plans?” I ask, and Abel nods. “Care to expand?” I laugh nervously as they both fix their unrelenting stares on me.

“We planned on waiting until he made his move on you . . . then we’d make ours on him. We’d push and pressure and use you as leverage,” Noah explains.

“But I don’t understand. It would be simple solicitation. Sleeping with underage girls is a way stronger case.”

“Yeah, but if we add aggravated assault—”

“You already have that in my proof. The pictures of him and a minor,” I interject, and Abel clenches his jaw in reaction.

“Do you care to let us run this discussion, Ms. Sanders, or should we just press those charges now?”

I stare at Abel and his threat and dutifully fold my hands in my lap to hide their trembling. “Sorry, but I’m not following what . . . oh.” It’s all I can say as my thoughts fall in line. “You were going to use me. You were going to wait for him to hurt me and then swoop in and use that against him as leverage for whatever it is you want from him.” I blink as I try to comprehend that they would really do that.

They don’t waver in the least at my accusations. Instead, Noah takes a sip of his Sprite, his eyes on mine.

“You’ve told the senator you have something else on him, and yet you’ve never quite elaborated what it is.” Abel lifts his eyebrows, neither confirming nor denying my accusation, and that in itself sends chills down my spine.

“Wait a minute. After you got what you wanted from Carter, what was going to happen to me?” My voice is barely a whisper.

“You were collateral damage,” Abel says, eyes boring into mine as he lifts his eyebrows. “We were using you, and if the Southern District of New York wanted to press charges against a madam who became known in the midst of our process or from the fallout”—he shrugs—“then so be it.”

My ears ring. Collateral damage? Press charges?

Am I going to lose everything I’ve worked for? Everything I took all these risks for? The irony isn’t lost on me—that I started Wicked Ways as a means to save Lucy, and it just might be the reason I lose her.

The panic attack hits me full on without holding any punches. Assuming it is one thing. Living with the hint of its fear for so long has almost dulled the thought, made it blend into the background, but now—now that I’m sitting here with two federal agents, now that I’ve heard the actual words spoken out loud from an FBI agent—this is a whole dose of reality I can’t fathom.

Noah is up in an instant, his hand on my shoulder as he urges me to breathe slowly. As he tells me to calm down while I want to scream at him that there’s no way I can be calm.

Abel pushes a bottle of water across the coffee table, and Noah picks it up and hands it to me.