Chapter 27
ANTHONY
“I’m stealing this,” West says, tugging on one of my hoodies. “And I have something I meant to give you,” he adds as he watches me pull my pants up. “But I got distracted when you shoved me against the wall and had your way with me the second I walked into your room.”
I grin and quickly tie the drawstrings on my sweats so they don’t slide back down my hips. “Your fault for being seven minutes late. I had to punish you so you’d learn your lesson about being on time.”
“You and I have very different definitions of punishments.” He grins and steps closer.
“There’s no rule that says a punishment for you can’t be a reward for me.” I tug him against me and drop a quick kiss against his lips. “And I’d say we both enjoyed that.”
He chuckles and gives me a sweet kiss, but his expression is serious when he steps back.
“What’s going on?” I ask. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He pulls a flash drive out of his pocket. “But I might not be after I give you this.”
“What do you mean?” I ask sharply. “Are you in danger?”
His eyes widen. “What? No, nothing like that. Sorry, I was just being dramatic.”
“Strike one,” I say distractedly, still focused on the flash drive in his hand.
“I just meant you might be pissed after I give this to you.” He holds it out to me.
I take it and run my thumb over the smooth cover. “I’m going to need some context here, babe.”
He scrubs his hand through his hair. “I found it the night McKenna cheated on me. I went for a walk, and I ended up at The Crypt. While I was there, two guys showed up and exchanged the flash drive for an envelope.”
“Did they see you?”
He shakes his head. “I hid when I heard them coming. I don’t even know why, but I saw them do the exchange. Then the guy who handed over the envelope dropped the drive while putting it in his pocket and didn’t notice. I waited until they left, then I grabbed it and hauled ass out of there.”
“And you’re sure no one saw you?” I ask again.
He shakes his head. “I made sure they were gone, and there aren’t any cameras around there.”
I slide the drive into my pocket. “Did you look at it?”
“Yeah. It’s full of voice files. Parts of recorded conversations.” He chews his lip, indecision flickering in his expression. “I listened to them, but there’s no context, so most of them don’t even make sense. Some are incriminating, but the others, not so much.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.
He drops his gaze and looks at a spot on my chest. “I gave a copy of the drive to Damon.”
“You did?” I ask, keeping my tone carefully neutral.
“I heard Xave’s name in a bunch of the files, and his cousins were in there too. I figured they should know about it.”
“When did you give it to him?”
“Yesterday. When we were studying together.”
“Look at me.”
West lifts his eyes, looking torn between finishing the conversation and running away.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Nothing weird has happened since you found it? No threats against you or anything you didn’t tell me about?”
He blinks in confusion. “No, nothing. You’re not pissed at me?”
“Why would I be pissed at you?”
“Because I didn’t give you the drive?”
“I’m not pissed,” I assure him.
“Are you sure?”
I hook my fingers around the pocket on his hoodie and tug him closer. “I’m sure. You gave me the drive when you were ready, and you’re safe. That’s all I care about.”
“What are you going to do with it?” he asks as he rests his hands on my hips. The warmth from his hands feels nice as it seeps through my t-shirt and into my skin.
“Figure out what’s on it and see if it’s something we need to worry about.
But I need you to tell me if anything strange or out of the ordinary happens.
If you feel like someone is watching you or notice someone following you.
Any close calls or accidents or anything that doesn’t feel right. Anything at all and you tell me, okay?”
“Okay.” He shuffles closer and rests his head on my shoulder. “You have no idea how freaked out I’ve been. I thought you were going to be so mad at me for not telling you about it.”
“I’m not.” I wrap my arms around him and give him a tight hug. “So shove all those thoughts out of that busy head of yours before they drive you nuts.”
He snort-laughs. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that because I have such an amazing track record for being able to just turn off my worries like that.”
“I could always distract you,” I suggest and slide my hands down around his waist so I can grip his ass.
He grins. “Pretty sure my dick is down for the count after that last O.”
“Never stopped me before.” I slip one hand down the back of his sweats and tease the crease of his ass. “But then again.” I pull my hand out of his sweats. “It’s not like we don’t have all night.”
“All night?”
“You’re staying over tonight,” I tell him.
“I mean, if you insist,” he says with a goofy grin.
“I insist.” I take his hand. “Want to see the videos I finished editing earlier?”
“Yeah, definitely,” he says excitedly.
Taking my own advice, I push all thoughts of the flash drive and everything West told me to the back of my mind and lead him over to my desk.
I’ll deal with it tomorrow.
“So there’s nothing on it that tells us where it came from or who recorded the files?” Rath asks Hazen when he finishes giving us a quick breakdown of Liam’s report on what he found when he analyzed the flash drive.
Hazen shakes his head. “Nothing, But he said he intercepted some chatter from the Rebels about some files they’ve been looking at and some sort of issue with them, but Carter makes codes for his codes and uses actual cryptography in his encryptions, so it’ll take a while to fully decode his messages. ”
“So what are we supposed to do with it?” Connor asks. “We have no context for anything that’s on it, so we don’t know what it is or why it’s important enough for all the secrecy and clandestine meetings.”
“I think we need to talk to the Rebels,” I say.
All three of my friends whip their heads toward me.
“I beg your finest pardon,” Connor says. “I thought you just suggested that we go to the Rebels about this.”
“I did.”
“Ah, so you’re the crazy one, not me,” he says. “Got it.”
“It’s not crazy,” I say. “It’s smart.”
“How is going to our rivals the smart move here?” Hazen asks. “Explain it to me like I’m five.”
“This is one of those keep your friends close and your enemies closer situations,” I tell them. “The Rebels obviously know something about what’s going on here, and they have a copy of the drive. This is the perfect opportunity to leverage what we know about Xave to get them to share their intel.”
“But then we’ll look weak,” Connor says.
“Using the tools at your disposal isn’t weak,” Rath cuts in. “And Ant has a point. Whatever is going on is obviously bigger than any one house, and we have enough leverage over Xave that we won’t have to worry about them turning on us.”
“And it’s not a bad idea to lock in an alliance now instead of waiting until we’re all in our new positions next year,” Hazen says, warming up to the idea.
“Out of all the houses, the Rebels are probably the last ones we should trust, but they’re the only ones I’d even consider trusting, if that makes sense. ”
“No, but I still understood,” Connor says helpfully.
“So you think we should do it?” Rath asks, looking between us one by one. “Use a little mutually assured destruction and actually trust the Hawthornes?”
“I think so,” Hazen says, being uncharacteristically serious.
“Yeah, I agree,” Connor says, also being weirdly serious.
Rath flicks his gaze to me. “I’m assuming you’re not changing your vote.”
“Not changing it,” I confirm.
“Then I guess we’re doing this.” He sits back against the couch. “Now how do we go about doing it, exactly?”
“I’ll talk to Damon about setting up a meeting with Xave,” I say. “But I think it would be best if we talked to him, Killian, the twins, and Shane. See all their reactions when we tell them what we know. This way they won’t have a chance to get their stories straight or coordinate things.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Connor says.
“Same,” Hazen chimes in at the same time Rath nods.
I pull my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll text Damon and get the ball rolling.”
Anthony: I need to cash in one of my favors
I’m not expecting an answer right away, and I’m just putting my phone back on the coffee table when it pings and the screen lights up with a notification.
Damon: what do you need?
Anthony: Can you set up a meeting with Xave, his cousins, and Shane?
Damon: for just you?
Anthony: me, the twins, and rath
Damon: I’m going to need a reason if you want them to even consider it
Anthony: tell them it’s about the flash drive West gave you
Damon: I’ll talk to him and get back to you
Anthony: thanks
“Any issues?” Rath asks as I put my phone on the coffee table.
“Not so far. He’ll get back to us when he gets an answer.”
“So, how are things going with your man?” Hazen asks, not even bothering with a segue.
“Fine.”
“Fine?” he asks. “That’s all we get?”
“What more do you want to know?”
“How about if you two are an actual thing yet?” Connor asks.
“Not yet.”
“What’s the holdup?” Rath asks. “You don’t do casual. You don’t even do serious.”
“He’s right, my dude,” Hazen says. “When was the last time you slept with the same person more than a few times? You’ve seen West almost every night since this thing started, and you’re doing sleepovers when you never do sleepovers.”
“This isn’t casual,” I tell them. “He knows it’s not.”
“Are you just going to keep doing everything on the DL?” Connor asks.
“Yes,” I say simply.
“For how long?” Rath asks.
“For as long as it takes for him to realize we’re dating,” I say with a little smirk.
Hazen and Connor burst out laughing.
“You could just tell him, you know,” Rath says dryly.
“I could, but where’s the fun in that?” I ask as my phone screen lights up with another notification.
“Damon?” Rath asks as I check it.
I nod and open my text thread with him.
Damon: I talked to them