Page 115 of The Truths that Deceive

I turn the computer toward him and bring up some of the extra things Calista dug up. Mainly on Eric Brown. “Down there on the screen behind you are most of the people you want. Sex trade assholes and gunrunners. I assume you want the shit you gave to Hendrix. You know, the reason why she hasn’t been taken and locked up yet?”

“She’s smart.” He shifts. “I knew if there was pressure, she’d find the missing pieces.”

“I have those now.” I flash him the thumb drive again.

And fuck. It’s killing me. Keeping up this façade as a sex club owner and power player is perfect for a lot of the Knights’ work so we’re keeping the place as is. But sitting in this chair, acting like I’ve got the power when… fuck.

When I don’t. Not where it counts.

Somewhere between leaving Queens and landing here, I realized something.

I like Calista. Too much, maybe. And enough I want her to live, to be happy.

So I’m going to bargain, something I never fucking do.

“What’s it worth to you?” I ask.

“Her life, you mean?”

“Calista’s worth fighting for. Begging for. Bargaining for.”

“She ran.”

“She uncovered something huge. Bigger than what you know. She uncovered an underbelly of vile sex trade that’s hiding in the shadows. And we’ll destroy it. This arm of it.” I pause, tapping the drive on the desk. “Itisbrilliant, using the cover of the weapons. Everyone’s looking at the weapons, and when the gun sellers and mercenaries fall, no one’s digging into some smutty porn. She found the connections. The ones everyone else would have missed. And more than that, she found names you weren’t even after. Like the senator.”

I slide the drive into the laptop and show him what we have, then I pull it out.

“Calista’s brilliant,” he says quietly. “But the senator… that’s different.”

He’s either telling me they have a deal, or I got it wrong about Riley’s guilt. But that doesn’t concern me at fucking all.

Calista concerns me. Calista and her freedom.

“Consider the senator yours,” I say. “You’re going to go down there, sign your deals, and when they leave, they’re all quietly going down. Let me guess, something small, FBI arrests, and then…”

“They’ll do deals, flee, and we’ll get them the moment they leave US soil,” Johnny says.

“And Riley?”

“He’ll be wanted in DC.”

Yeah. I don’t ask about that one.

“Calista’s saved your ass. Let her go.”

“Wish I could.” Johnny nods and his hand closes over the drive. “She’ll get a nice place to live.”

“But no freedom.”

“She poked at it, didn’t break into the important stuff,didn’t decode it. And you helping us to catch some of the more slippery actors in this? It’ll help get her a nice place and work?—”

“Under lock and key.”

“Better than a black site. It’s all I can do.”

I want to kill him.

“She’s just a cog?”

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