Page 52 of Mr. Match

He steps back, untucks the curtains out of their holdbacks, and then pulls them across the window, the metal rings clanking across the rod.

“How the fuck can you do business without a door?” Pax asks, nodding towards the stairs.

“I don’t usually need so much privacy up here.”

“Well, you’re gonna need it today,” Nolan says. “We should probably go somewhere else.”

I stand up and shrug. “Follow me then.” I couldn’t have asked for a better invitation to explain more of what’s happening here.

I walk over to a door on the other side of the stairs, open it to reveal another door, then dial the combination.

“What is this?” Pax asks, knocking on the metal door with his knuckles.

“SCIF,” I say, like this is normal.

“Nice,” Pax says. “How come I didn’t know you had a SCIF room?”

“Need-to-know basis, my friend.” I look over my shoulder at him and smile. “You never needed to know.”

I open the second door and lead them down a flight of stairs. When we get to the bottom I dial the combination to the third door, open it, and let everyone pass me by as they enter the dark room.

I turn on the lights, jog back up the stairs, close the first door, lock the second door, then hop back down the stairs and lock the third door.

“I think you’re being dramatic,” Nolan says.

“You would. But you’re the dumbass who had a SCIF room in his resort basement and didn’t know it.”

“Do I need to know what a SCIF room is?” Mac asks, leaning against a wall.

“Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility,” I say.

“Got it.” Say what you want about Mr. Perfect. He’s a big-picture guy and I appreciate that sometimes.

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” West asks.

“Look,” I say, “I didn’t lie back there at Ariel’s house, OK?” I look at Paxton. “I just didn’t—couldn’t—tell the truth in front of Cindy.”

“Explain,” Pax says.

“I did see my sister Rory that day. It completely fucked with my head since, ya know, she’s supposed to be dead. But that’s not why I covered for Allen that night.”

“Then what is it?” Mac asks. “Because I know Allen was home that night.”

“He was standing outside with me,” West says. “Tori saw him too. He definitely had contact with that girl.”

“He didn’t do it though,” I say.

“Of course he didn’t. But neither did you,” Pax says. “Because you weren’t even there.”

“Like I said, he had something on me. But it wasn’t Rory. It was…” I laugh a little. “This.” My arms go wide as if this room explains everything.

“What is this?” Nolan asks.

“This is what he really does,” Pax answers. “Black ops.”

“It’s not black ops, you dick. It’s just… dark web. We—Ariel and I—we run a marketplace for illegal data.”

“What’s that got to do with Allen?” Nolan asks.