“I know you pledged.”
“How would you know that?”
He shrugs. “Ways and means.”
Shay presses his hand on top of mine. “No need to freak out. Callan can obviously get around a computer.”
Callan shoves his glasses up his nose again. “That’s right. I saw you walking into the lodge on pledge night.”
“You better tell no one of this,” I hiss at him.
He hitches a shoulder. “Nobody I’d want to tell, Victoria. I’m not proud of my association with my father. But the Veronians are bad news and worse people. If they accepted him into their brotherhood, you want to steer clear of them.”
“Victoria wants to make changes,” Conor inserts, voice soft. “She thinks that the way to a brighter future is on this path.”
Callan snorts. “If that’ll help you sleep at night, then go for it.”
“Callan!” I bite off. “I mean it. I hate that the Veronians are helping scum like Dyers get away with terrible crimes?—”
“You’ll have to enact terrible crimes if you’re going to join their little club,” he points out.
“Hacking isn’t an innocent crime.”
He smirks. “Touché. Never said I was an angel.”
“And I never said I was a demon. We’re on the same side if we want to take Dyers down.”
“True. So long as we stay on the same side…” He surprises me by sticking out his hand. “I won’t say anything if you don’t.”
“Perhaps the two of you can even help one another,” Conor chimes in.
“Perhaps,” Callan agrees.
Unease fills me and, seeing it, Shay rubs my shoulder.
“You said it yourself, Callan,” I point out wearily. “I may have to do things you don’t approve of. Will you be on my side then?”
“What’s the end goal? Why would you want to be in that society?”
“Because it’ll help me get a friend in the White House.”
“Victoria,” Conor thunders.
But I ignore him. So does Callan.
“That’s a lofty goal.” Callan rocks his desk chair. “Is he worth your sacrifice?”
“He’s family,” I grind out. “That means he’s worth any sacrifice.”
Callan softens at my declaration, sticks out his hand again, and doesn’t let it drop until I shake it.
That has my shoulders sagging—somehow, without meaning to, I realize I just passed a test that I couldn’t afford to fail.
Callan might look sweeter than an ice cream sundae complete with sprinkles, hot fudge, and chocolate syrup, but there’s more to that whackadoodle brain of his than I first thought.
He turns to Shay. “You better not let her down.”
Shay’s gaze locks on Callan’s.“I don’t intend to.” And finally, the dick-measuring contest ends and they also shake hands. “You can understand why this is being kept under wraps, Callan.”
