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He’s a genius, but he’s not all-powerful, no matter how awesome that would be.

If he can’t find Gotcha, it’s because whoever it is is at least half as good as Eli, and that’s fucking worrying.

“What if Gotcha found them?” I speak while the question forms in my mind.

“What?” Eli asks, and by how big his eyes are, I’m sure the idea is terrifying to him for reasons I’m not smart enough to even come up with.

I’m smart enough to ask questions, though.

“If you’re not good enough to find this person, then we can assume no one in the fucking Turris is smart enough either. What if Gotcha somehow found out about the Turris after the mayor was arrested and the site shut down? What if they realized you were connected to that, and through that, to Crawford.” I nod in Iris’s direction.

“Fuck,” Iris spits out.

“That would mean Gotcha isn’t a fucking freelancer, but is using the Chair or Heir who’s probably feeding them information about the Turris.”

The sudden, complete silence is eerie.

Fucking terrifying.

“Okay,” I breathe out. “What does this mean for us? What do we have to do?”

I might be a Chair, unlike the three of them, but this is so far above my pay grade, it’s not even funny.

Eli stands and begins to pace while he thinks out loud, so we can follow his train of thought.

“If I found out the fucking Illuminati is real and wanted to overthrow them, or take them out, which is what we can guess Gotcha wants, then I’d wait until I have enough evidence, right? I can’t go around making claims without hard evidence, otherwise people will dismiss everything I say and never believe me.”

“Sure, but what evidence is there?” Iris asks, and Eli sighs.

“Someone would have to hand over the bug sweepers, give Gotcha the locations of our meetings, maybe bug the meetings? Record them?”

“Did we sweep for bugs last time?” Beatrice asks.

I try desperately to think about every second of the last meeting.

“I swept my car on the way there, but that’s it,” I tell them.

“We swept it when we got there with Eian and Colby, but not once everyone else arrived” Iris says.

“And I don’t think anyone else did when the meeting began or when we left.” Eli sounds more resigned than anything. “So there could already be a recording of this last meeting.”

“One where you can hear Richard fucking Cockerton accusing me of murdering Jim,” I point out, cold sweat suddenly dampening my back.

The thought of a recording like that going public is enough to make me tune out of whatever it is Beatrice says next.

I could lose the boys. I would lose fucking everything, probably go to jail and⁠—

A hand appears right in front of my eyes, fingers snap, then finally I can make out words.

“Snap out of it, Tuck!” Eli shouts, before shaking my shoulders a bit.

“What?” I demand. “I’m allowed to freak the fuck out,” I defend myself.

“No you’re not.” I’m about to be insulted when he rolls his eyes at me. “I have access to everyone’s phone. I’m going to sweep for any recordings, any expenses made, anything and everything.”

I think about asking him when he’s going to find the time to do that, but who the fuck am I to question the great Eli Ellsworth?

“Do your fathers know about this? Any of this? That you’re talking to me?”