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Daniel
You’re after the same information as Lia—you want the information she found.
Lia Goldin was out in West Carlisle with Ty. She’d already confessed everything to Ty, how she’d been sent by Ryan White to get dirt that the cop, Mickey Weiss, had on our family. Enough dirt to put Ty in jail and destroy us, leaving an opening for Caleb Hendrix. Hendrix, who’d used White once again to do his dirty work as he enjoyed the spoils of the Volksov Bratva that he’d somehow managed to take over.
So, that was why Sara was here—she was tying up that loose end for Hendrix.
I shook my head at myself. To think I’d almost bought her sob story for a second, but it explained everything. Why she was looking for family-owned locations, how she knew about Lia—this was Hendrix and White still trying to get what was on Weiss’ hard drive to hurt Ty.
Lia’s mini hard drive, which lay only a foot away on my desk, tucked under some papers. Ty had given it to me last night. Pulling in a deep breath, I dove deeper into the cracks of myself, into the faraway places that I’d carved out as a kid when I was scared and alone and needed to shut out the world.
I didn’t let myself consider any other options, didn’t consider the holes in the story, why Sara seemed so worried about Lia, not the information, nor the timing. Or how she’d worked atMoxifor at least a year or so,the banter with her online, dancing in the club—or what had happened right outside this office in my bedroom.
I’d have time to torture myself later.
So maybe she works for White and not Hendrix. Either way, I’ll get her to crack.
“I amnota liar,” Sara said, interrupting my thoughts. “Manipulative, stubborn, and smart, yes.” She snorted. “You should recognize those qualities, Daniel, you have them in spades.”
“You’re on White’s payroll. When did that start?”
“Maybe not so much the smarts,” she muttered. “I don’t work for who—a white dude? My company was started by a dude born in Pakistan and another dude who’s half-Asian, half-Puerto Rican.I work forMoxi.” She shook her head. “Why the hell would I risk myself working for criminals when I’m in the goddamn security business?”
“Money.” I focused on her. “It would explain the nice tech and why I couldn’t find where you lived. You need money to protect yourself like that.”
“Yes, I have money—from working,” she snapped.
“For White.”
Her eyes went wide with irritation. “ForMoxi.And freelancing for other tech companies before. I wrote code that helped fix a fatal flaw in a security program and got a huge bonus for that, that got me my job atMoxi.That’s how I’m at a fucking Ivy League school on scholarship. Why would I risk any of that? Think.”
“Where are you from originally?” I asked as I grabbed my laptop and settled it on my lap, once again trying to dig up information on Sara Tailor. “Why hide that?”
“I’m from here, from Brookline, same as Lia. We grew up together—although, I spent a lot of summers in Denver.” Her face went tight. “Computer camp. I lived there for one year before college.”
“Hm.” I raised my eyebrow. “Is that why you’re two years behind where you should be in terms of graduation?”
“Yes.”
“What was out in Denver?”
“I’m not discussing that,” Sara said in an empty voice, her eyes focused on some middle distance beyond me. “It was a mistake that I won’t make again.”
“A mistake that led you to work for Ryan White?”
“Oh my God,” Sara muttered.
“Oh, we’re just getting started, Sara,” I said and stretched out my arms, placing them behind my head. “Did you actually like sucking my cock or was that another lie?” She stared at me, still except for her hands curling around the top of the arm of the chair and squeezing. “I know you liked me going down on you. Sad it won’t happen again?”
Her knuckles went white. “Enough, Daniel. You know I’m telling you the truth—what is this, that you just don’t want to be wrong about your theory? Can’t stomach that I was interested—that I did like sucking your cock?” She was getting red in the face and glassy-eyed. “Can’t have that, right?”
“So, is Sara Tailor an alias?”
“No.”
Her snappishnoirritated me and I began to ask her more of the same, over and over and over again. Asking the same questions about Hendrix and White, throwing in random questions about us dancing or going down on each other, and then pausing, watching her fight and hope that I might relent or tell her something about Lia.
When four hours had passed, Sara was starting to unravel, and I could see that exhaustion was starting to set in.
