27. “Bad Reputation” #2
As such, he grabbed said laptop, then panicked when things got too hot because Mastermind sent his goons after him, so Kev dumped it.
Perhaps somewhere he thought he could retrieve it later.
But, more’s the pity, Kev being far from a brainiac, if this was the case, he didn’t choose his hidey-hole very well.
It was discovered by a homeless person. Somehow, word got ’round about that homeless person’s score, and the Angels looking for a laptop, so Homer got his hands on it and delivered it to Jessie.
The rest, we knew.
I didn’t share my theory.
Though, I didn’t bet, but I’d lay down money it was accurate.
“I think you can guess it’s morally imperative I get my hands on that laptop,” Mastermind remarked.
Did he know we had it?
Or was he just sharing?
Willow and I remained silent.
“Kevin Johanssen, who I believe knows what his friend was up to, might very well know where that laptop is,” Mastermind stated.
So they didn’t know we had the laptop.
I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“Did you get into Trev’s phone?” Willow asked.
“I was able to do so, yes,” Mastermind confirmed.
“And how are you going to make kidnapping us worthwhile, Congressman?” Willow asked.
I should have played it cooler, but when she used his title, my head whipped her way.
I then looked at Mastermind.
And holy shmoly!
Yes!
He didn’t represent my district, but I’d seen his face on those hideous campaign signs that choked the metropolitan landscape during the election cycle.
What was his name?
My mind chugged then found it.
Congressman Kieran Mahoney.
Rumor had it, he was looking to jump up to a senate seat. Or possibly eyeing the governor’s mansion.
So, first, he was a father who didn’t want his daughter being blackmailed and living in fear of some jerk-hole making her life a misery.
Second, he was a politically ambitious man who might have his career and future prospects besmirched by his daughter’s sex tape going live.
Third, putting those two together, because he was who he was, that sex tape would spread farther and wider than some average Jane who simply met the wrong dude on a dating app, which would make her life more than a misery.
Fourth, the fact he was who he was, was why we couldn’t get a lock on him, because he didn’t occupy the spaces that the Hottie Squad, Titus or Jinx and her crew normally did.
And last, he could absolutely not have a man’s murder tied to him in any way. Not that anyone could, but this dude had the means and the motive to make sure that didn’t happen.
I felt bad for him, but more for his daughter.
I was also beginning to feel bad for Willow and me, considering the fact we’d been kidnapped by him, and I was guessing a dude who wanted to be governor, and what might come after that, didn’t want two chicks he’d kidnapped strolling around Phoenix wearing cute dresses and drinking cocktails.
Shit.
And yes, this occasion totally demanded cursing.
“I don’t wish for this to get any messier,” Congressman Mahoney said.
Well, that was promising.
“Therefore, I’ll be offering you both thirty thousand dollars in cash in return for that laptop and you both signing an NDA regarding anything that has anything to do with me or this situation.
About which, if it ever came to light, I would not only sue you for everything you own, and I’d win, I would vehemently deny it and be forced to share things about you that would expose you both as frauds. ”
“What things?” Willow asked.
“There need be no things,” Congressman Mahoney replied. “There are people who would create things you would never, ever live down, but the public would believe them like they were gospel.”
I’d seen Scandal . As such, I so totally believed he could do that.
The good news, what was left of our dead bodies being discovered in a ravine in five years was not on the menu.
Crazy enough, there didn’t seem to be any bad news.
“Alternate deal,” Willow said.
Hang on.
What was she doing?
My mind wasn’t keeping up enough to throw out an “alternate deal.”
Of course, I didn’t think it was right that Trev’s killer didn’t find justice, but I didn’t want this man’s daughter to suffer.
The deal he was offering, especially considering it didn’t include what was left of my body, or Willow’s, being discovered in a ravine, seemed like a good deal, even if this was a moral conundrum.
Willow didn’t seem conundrummed.
“I’m listening,” Congressman Mahoney said.
“First, the person who killed Trev, where is he?” Willow demanded.
Congressman Mahoney seemed visibly uncomfortable and at a loss for words.
Being a politician and all, he found his words.
“He’s been neutralized.”
That gave me a little shiver, even if I wasn’t entirely certain what it meant. Though, I suspected it was very bad for the dude who effed up and killed Trevor.
My surprisingly, and awesomely, cool and collected Willow simply nodded and kept at him.
“I want you to go get that phone. I want to watch as you delete all the videos of all the other girls that are on that phone. I will then deliver the laptop to you. The only video on it will be of your daughter so you’ll know you have all that’s to be had.
We’ll sign the NDA, because I don’t care about anyone knowing any of this.
I only want to assure those women know they no longer live under that cloud.
We’ll then go our separate ways. And done. ”
Wow!
Go Willow!
That was a much better deal.
I was so glad she wasn’t conundrummed!
Like my girl, I didn’t want his payoff money.
I mean, thirty K was a lot. With thirty K, I could maybe get a logo designed and start a website and put in place a whole bunch of other stuff regarding an organizing business.
But I didn’t want to get it off the backs of fifty-seven chicks going through hell courtesy of Trev.
And this would mean this whole mess was all over.
Sure, the killer wouldn’t be brought to justice, but my guess was, he already had, just not the lawful kind.
The videos would be dead, because NI&S had them only to find the women, and then they’d be deleted.
We’d find the women, share the videos were deleted…
And like Willow said…
Done.
Congressman Mahoney’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t want money?”
“Listen, you could have just walked right up and talked to me,” Willow said, and the congressman’s eyes got wide. “I hate what Trev did to your daughter. That shit is fucked up. I wouldn’t pick slitting his throat?—”
“It wasn’t a slit. It was an accidental puncture,” Mahoney cut in.
“Whatever,” the heretofore unknown bad-A Willow snapped. “Bottom line, there’s nothing we can do about that now. Trev isn’t preying on women anymore. All the videos will be deleted. His victims will be safe and out from under that cloud of worry. Including your daughter. The end.”
Congressman Mahoney took a long pause to consider this.
He then said, “You Avenging Angels are full of surprises.”
Oh my God!
Our reputation had reached the hallowed halls of Congress!
Willow and I exchanged a smug look.
“Cut them loose,” Mahoney ordered.
Goodie!
Let me tell you, zip-ties dug deep.
Goon One came to me and Goon Two went to Willow.
They started with our feet, then our wrists, and we both immediately shook out our arms and rubbed at our skin.
As for me, I took this opportunity to do the body scan I hadn’t been able to accomplish earlier.
With some shifting and flexing, I found being thrown over a guy’s shoulder onto the tarmac hurt like a mother at the time, but even if my body shared that it was still coping with the fact that had happened, I was okay.
“Watch them, I’ll get the phone,” Mahoney relayed another order.
The goons kept an eye on us while Mahoney slipped into the house.
Willow and I both decided to stay silent as he did.
When he returned, I said, “One additional thing.”
Mahoney looked suspicious.
“When this is all said and done,” I went on, “you owe the Angels a favor.”
“Good one,” Willow said under her breath.
I fought my smile and assured the congressman, “Just one and done. It might be big. It might be small. But you can’t deny it, whatever it is.”
Mahoney didn’t even hesitate. “Agreed.”
Yay!
I would have high-fived Willow, but I didn’t think that would be good for the Angels’ rep, so I played it cool.
Mahoney brought the phone to Willow and I.
We counted the videos as we deleted them from Trev’s phone.
Mahoney didn’t tell us which one was his daughter’s, but obviously, he didn’t mind us deleting it, whichever one it was.
NDAs were magically produced (not exactly magically, a non-goon-esque dude I assumed was some sort of aide shoved them through the door). We read and signed them.
“I can expect the laptop delivered…?” Mahoney asked leadingly.
“You tell us. It doesn’t matter,” Willow replied.
“We’re just ships passing in the night,” I asserted.
“Until the Angels need that marker paid,” Willow added.
“You haven’t copied those videos anywhere?” Mahoney asked dubiously.
We had, just not anywhere dangerous.
“We’re in the midst of determining who the other women are so we can locate them and assure them those videos no longer exist,” Willow said.
“We have the images we need for that, those images are of faces, so they’re not compromising, and once this is done, it’s over.
And no,” she lied, “we haven’t copied them anywhere. ”
Mahoney looked to me.
I tried to appear innocent, and I knew I nailed it just simply because I was girlie Harlow O’Neill, wearing a cute, flirty dress.
“You can deliver that laptop to me before the end of business hours at my offices on Camelback,” Mahoney said.
“Gotcha,” Willow said. “Now, are you gonna order us an Uber, or what?”
In the end, the goons took us to a Mexican restaurant and dropped us off outside.
But Mahoney did order who was waiting for us there, even if I had my phone in my server apron, and they hadn’t taken it from me (Willow told me hers was on the floor of the staff room at SC).
And Mahoney might have chosen poorly with his henchmen, but he was still a sort of class act.
We knew this because the Uber was a black car SUV, fancy and roomy.
So it was nice to be delivered back to SC after Willow’s and my first kidnappings in luxury.