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"I'm sure you could make it at leastthreesteps," I said.
"I'll aim for four if I have to," he said. "Even a guy like me has to have ambition."
I snorted. "You seem to have lots of that. You really think you could bring me the head of Alistair Dagen on a platter?"
"Not without help," he admitted. "That's why I'm here."
"You said you heard rumblings," I said slowly. "What did you hear and where did you hear it from?" Just like with Cooper, I wouldn't rule out the idea that Dagen sent him. Just because Helen Dagen's brainwashing didn't work on me didn't mean Gus Dagen hadn't done a number on Hutton. He obviously had, since Hutton allied himself with them, at least for a time.
"One of the guys who were sent to the Butcher with me, he's still on the inside," Hutton admitted. "He's pretty fucked up. I've been trying to get him out for the longest time. They broke him. Close enough anyway. I kept a line open between us. He didn't say much, just that something was up. He thought Dagen was planning some shit. He got scared and didn't tell me anything else. He could get eviscerated for just that much if they find out."
I would have liked a lot more information, but I suspected that was all I was going to get. He couldn't tell me what he didn't know.
"You said you'd do anything," I said. "If I asked you to go back to Dagen, would you?"
I wasn't prepared for the look of absolute dread on his face. I knew that exact feeling. It took me back to when I saw Barnaby Dagen walk through the door before the virgin auction. I was in the darkness, offstage, but I saw his strut, the determined set of his jaw. Even from a distance I felt his cold fury. He had a plan for me, but I derailed it by taking part. I wouldn't marry the person of his choice and be a dutiful little beaten down omega. I defied him and he would take it out on every centimetre of my body.
The memory made my stomach turn.
"No more than you would, I'm guessing," he said softly.
I shook my head to clear it. "The past doesn't matter. The only thing that does is what we do today."
"Keep telling yourself that," he said. "Someday you might even believe it. But you know as well as I do, that the past is what shapes us. It's why people hate me, and why they're scared of you. The past is everything."
"Only if we let it be," I said firmly. He was right though. My life up until this point shaped every part of me. Whether I put it aside or not, it was still there in the back of my mind.
He sat back. "Some of us don't have a choice. And the answer is no. If I go anywhere near Dagen, it will only be to kill him. That doesn't mean I still can't be useful."
I was starting to realise that rubbing his scar was something he did when he was nervous or anxious. The skin on that part of his nose must be very smooth by now. Part of me wanted to find out. It was hard not to be drawn to someone who had the same broken, fucked up start in life. Jake had kept himself out of it. Cooper was too young to have lived any of it. Ben’s childhood was a different kind of fucked up. Hutton and I would bear the scars of it forever.
"What can you do?" I asked. The two men who were pounding into the woman near us were getting louder and louder. One or both of them would come soon. The sight and sound of them was arousing, I have to admit. Not for the first time, I was glad I was a woman and didn't have a hard cock to show the world.
"You must have some skills."
"I'm good with my tongue," Hutton said. Apparently I wasn't as good at keeping my thoughts to myself as I thought I was.
I rolled my eyes. "Skills we can use against Dagen."
"Right." He gave me a rueful smile."I can fight. With guns and knives, hand-to-hand. With my teeth. With my claws. I'm proficient in a couple of different martial arts. And I can bake cupcakes."
"Cupcakes?" I echoed. "You should have led with that." Jake was reallynotgoing to like this guy. "Can you send Dagen a dozen chocolate ones?" Shame he wouldn't be dumb enough to eat them. A girl could dream, right?
"With laxatives in them," Hutton said wistfully.
"Or better yet, fast acting poison. Is there anything undetectable that he might eat?" I wasn't quite ready to let go of this idea yet.
"I don't think we'd get close enough to give him any." Hutton sighed.
I decided against telling him Alistair Dagen was in this very building the previous night. Although, if he got sick or died from anything he ate while at Crimson, it wouldn't be hard to trace the trail back to us.
"So I'm in?" Hutton asked.
"Because you have skills with baked goods?" I asked. "It's going to take more than that."
"You have to check with your alpha first?" Hutton asked. He raised an eyebrow at me in challenge.
"Word of advice," I said coolly, "stop suggesting I answer to anyone, even as a joke. That shit got old a long time ago. I don't just give a job to anyone who walks in off the street." Or ones I bid on. "If I did, I would be overstaffed."
