Page 9 of Corrupted

All three of them sagged with playful disappointment.

"Spoilsport," Parker muttered.

Caleb cleared his throat again, clearly becoming impatient. "There's the matter of the information Kurt has, that he might decide to sell." He carefully avoided looking at me.

Everyone else did instead, including Ric, who looked confused.

I sighed. "He might as well know too."

"Know what?" Ric asked. He looked around the room, then at Daze.

She shrugged, then looked over to me.

"I'm the Sparrow," I said.

He stared at me in disbelief for a few moments before my words sunk in. "I see." To Daze, he said, "You knew?"

"I guessed," she said. "We're all sworn to secrecy. That includes you now."

"Yes, it does," Reuben said, his tone a thinly veiled threat.

"No one will hear it from me," Ric assured me. "Does?—"

"Rose doesn't know," I said. "Neither do Dane or Asher, as far as I know. I'd like to keep it that way. For now."

"Because we need to sell the information," Caleb said. "To keep Kurt from doing the same thing."

"We talked about this," Reuben said.

"And we came to no conclusions," Caleb reminded him. "If I recall, Mina was in favour of this plan."

"As opposed to giving any more power to Kurt," I said. "We also talked about spreading the information that a woman was kept in his basement. Without naming me."

"We're happy to do that," Hunter offered. "Parker and I have many skills. Spreading gossip is one of them. We can make it sound as bad as you want, but keep your name out of it."

Reuben glanced at me before nodding. "Do it. But Caleb is right, we need to address the issue of the Sparrow. We need to take that information out of his hands and stop him from capitalising on it."

"By capitalising on it ourselves," Caleb said.

"Is it really necessary to mention Mina?" Ric asked.

Silence fell again while everyone processed his words.

"How difficult would it be to convince everyone Kurt is the Sparrow?" I asked finally. "We give out that information and he'll have people going after him, right along with us."

Hunter burst out laughing. "That's fucking awesome. Like throwing him in the centre of a shark-feeding frenzy."

"Right where he belongs," Parker agreed.

"Easier if we can find Kurt," Damon said. "Or better yet, have him turn up at a location where the Sparrow is expected. The second part will be easier than the first."

"We need to draw him out," I said. "We need to offer him something he won't be able to resist."

"No," Reuben said. "You're not putting yourself out there as bait. We've had that discussion."

I shook my head. "We already know that won't work. He didn't come for me in person when he used Leon as bait for us. There has to be something else."

"Like what?" Hunter asked.

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