Page 56 of Lethal Salvation

“I can handle it.”

Duchess smirked. “Leave him alone, Lotus.”

“Hmm, sticking up for the boy toy, must be serious. Hope that shit isn’t catching.”

Her eyes moved to Damon who was sitting across the other side of the room and watching Lotus as if he was trying and failing to figure her out. She hoped that wasn’t going to become a thing. Lotus would chew him up and spit him out and she didn’t want that for Damon. He was a good guy and Lotus had enough baggage to sink the Titanic and no intention of facing any of it.

“Enough. We have shit to talk about and it’s not you, Lotus.”

Bás sat at the head of the table, and she motioned for Gideon to take a seat beside her and Reaper.

“Burn.” Reaper chuckled and ducked as Lotus threw a pot of chilli flakes at him.

“As I was saying, we think Marsha and Carter are at odds. We believe that Carter is using the Macey deal as a way out from under his mother’s thumb.”

“Wait, you think Carter is blackmailing his own mother?”

“Not just her but essentially, yes.”

“Where does my father sit in all this?”

“Where he’s always been, a pawn in a game he doesn’t know the rules to. He isn’t involved with this, but he’s up to his eyeballs in gambling debts and Carter is using it to his advantage.”

Duchess took a spoonful of the delicious chilli as she mulled over her thoughts and what all this could mean. It was the one dish Lotus excelled at and she wouldn’t give the recipe to anyone. “Where does Hansen sit in all this?”

Duchess watched Bás’ expression go hard, a flicker of his jaw his only tell before he rolled his neck.

“Hansen knows Marsha from way back. When she entered the original Project Cradle, he wasn’t around but he came on a few years later. After it was allegedly disbanded, they kept in touch.”

“Were they lovers?”

“Hansen likes to manipulate the women in his life with sex, so most likely they were or still are.”

“So is it likely Hansen is on her side and providing help?”

“Hansen is always on Hansen’s side, so no, we don’t think so. Watchdog found a draft email from Carter’s personal account stating he wanted out of Project Cradle and just wanted to handle the trafficking side of it. He doesn’t like the heat he’s getting and thinks it’s not giving them the financial return it warrants.”

“It won’t be to him. Project Cradle is a long game, and only really benefits people in power who want to appear squeaky clean.”

“That was a rookie error leaving it there for us to find.”

“Exactly, which is why we think it was a test to see who was looking.”

“But won’t that mean Hansen will have seen it?”

“Yes, which means there’s a power struggle happening.”

“That we can exploit?”

Bás pointed his fork at her. “Exactly.”

“We need to speak to Carter again and see if we can find a way to make him tell us.”

“He promised me he’d look into who shot me and tell me at the black-tie tomorrow.”

Duchess glanced at Gideon who had been relatively quiet until now. “You think he will?”

Gideon looked at Damon who shrugged. “I don’t know, but he’d seemed different, more cooperative.”