15. Anastasia
“That was insane! Completely epic!” Rix gushes.
He’s still talking about the stunt we pulled off by intercepting the live feed to broadcast Xoid’s logo. Everyone in the Den is buzzing with the excitement of it, and though my thoughts are distracted by Lanshall and Silas, I’m uplifted by the spirits in here considering the grimness they experience daily.
“How the fuck do you hack into such a thing?” Adam asks from beside me.
Rix still isn’t best pleased I’ve brought him with me, and the reminder Adam is here drops his eager expression.
“Not something you’d understand,” Rix says.
“No one would understand unless they’re shown,” I argue, meeting his look with a partial plea to try tobe receptive to Adam.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Rix grumbles, folding his arms as he leans against the desk.
“Hello? Right here,” Adam says as bitterly.
“I’m trying to forget that,” Rix counters without looking at him.
“You’re an ass,” Adam shoots.
“Never would have pegged you as the type to think of a guy’s ass, pun wholly intended,” Rix says, casting a devilish look at him now.
Adam shifts and turns away, trying to disguise the pink creeping up his neck. “Whatever,” he mutters.
I’ve never seen Adam so at a loss, conceding so easily. I pin Rix with a warning look. “I trust him, and he’s got more to offer than you’re willing to see. No one would have believed me capable of anything if it wasn’t for Rhett.”
Rix looks back at the many surveillance feeds in front of us. “Fine, pretty boy,” he says, dragging out a chair. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Adam lifts a brow at the offering, as if the chair is one of those altered to catapult him through the roof. He sits after holding daggers of warning on Rix, who delights in watching his unease. Then Rix leans over him, tapping the keys for a few seconds, which switches the feeds.
“What am I looking at?” Adam asks.
“I’ve been tracking my idiot younger brother,” Rix says. On another screen, a map appears, and there are three red lines. “We know he’s staying here. These other three locations are as far as we can track him before he disappears, so we’ve assumed he’s been granted access to three of Lanshall’s secret setups. But mostly, he goes here.”
Another screen pulls up an establishment in a more rural part of D.C.
“Foxglove Country Club? My dad frequents there,” Adam says.
Rix gives him a curious look. “Access here is highly restricted and by personal invite only.”
“It’s just a golf and equestrian resort ...” Adam says, puzzled. Then his face relaxes as he leans back with a note of dread. “Please tell me it’s just a golf and equestrian resort.”
“By all official registrations, yes.”
“Why do I get the feeling there’s a ‘but’?”
“Well, it’s not like any of us are going to get an invite,” Rix says, straightening. “Perhaps you can be useful after all, pretty boy.”
“Can you not call me that?”
“Since you asked so nicely, I’ll use it more often.”
Perhaps bringing Adam in on this was a bad idea if I’ll have to suffer their bickering.
“Do you think you can go with your father next time?” I ask him.
“I don’t see why he wouldn’t agree. He’s always complaining we don’t spend enough time together.”
“Golf and horses not your thing?” Rix asks. I wait for the teasing remark to follow, but he actually seems curious about Adam for once.
“Too pretentious—where my father likes to go anyway. I went to another club with him once.”
“So if he doesn’t let you go with him ...” I trail off.
“Guess we’ll have our answer that the club is a cover-up,” Rix says.
I really fucking hope Rolf Sullevan doesn’t turn out to harbor some dark, vindictive secrets like Gregory Forbes.
I shake my head, pacing away with the weight of the possibility. It would break Adam if his father was involved in anything as heinous as trafficking. And I don’t think I could handle the heartbreak either.
“I know my father,” Adam defends at everyone’s unspoken fear. “If there is a cover-up, he won’t know anything about it.”
“Let’s hope so,” is all Rix says.
The eruption of yaps as little fur bullets dart for Shadow pulls away everyone’s attention. Oma comes out. A woman hugs her, and when they part, Oma is staring right at us.
“Now, who is this handsome young man you’ve neglected to bring to me?” Her cane taps the ground in sync with her shuffling footsteps.
“This is Adam Sullevan. Adam, this is Oma,” I introduce.
“Ahh,” she says, instantly recognizing the name. Her blue eyes shift to Rix for a beat. “Now it makes sense.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Adam says politely.
“So posh and proper, you people are. Come here, boy. We greet with love in here.”
Adam stands, giving Rix a once-over and muttering, “Never would have guessed.”
Then he looks to me for help, but I shrug. He goes over to her, and I bite my lip at the awkward way he leans down to Oma’s awaiting arms and she hugs him tightly with a content smile.
“So tall and strong,” she says, approving of his embrace.
“Well, Oma, we have work to do,” Rix says, grabbing his jacket.
“We do?” I say.
“Not you. I’m looking forward to meeting the Vice President of the United States.”
“What?” Adam snaps. “No way in hell.”
“You want in? This is it. Tell me now, before I waste my damned time.”
Even I’m confused. “Why do you want to meet Rolf?”
“My little brother is out there. This is a place he frequents by Alistair’s demand. If Adam is getting a way in, I’m damn well going in too.”
“If it’s as confidential as you say, it’s going to be a challenge to get a plus-one invite for his son,never mind a plus-two for a guy he’s never met,” Adam argues.
“Best convince him how much youtrust me. Lucky for us, I happen to have a particular knowledge of golf, and I’m a spectacular actor to pull off our years-long friendship you neglected to tell him about. As it so happens, I’ve just arrived back in town, and look at us, joined at the hip, inseparable. It’s like I never left.” Rix plays out the vague rundown of their story off the top of his head, and I’m impressed. It could work, and I don’t doubt his ability to pull it off.
Adam, on the other hand ... I’m concerned for his ability to act and lie to his father.
“That is not going to work,” Adam grumbles. “And I don’t want you in my house.”
“Are we doing this or not?” Rix says, bored.
Seeing it as an ultimatum—this plan or leave—Adam simmers in his reluctant acceptance.
“What should I be doing?” I ask as we head out.
“As I hear, you have your hands perfectly full. We’ll keep you updated. You keep us in the know about the shit with Lanshall and Balenheizer. Anything goes to shit on either end—” Rix pauses, pressing his thumb to the scanner in the elevator. “Well, make sure nothing goes to shit. There isn’t really a plan B for either of us.”