Page 113 of Passion and Payback

“Just who the fuck are we potentially getting into bed with?” Hunter hissed as he approached me. “Because that didnotlook like a positive reaction from you.”

“It wasn’t reallybadeither,” I said with another sigh, leaning against the counter.

“Okay, so who are they?”

“Remember me telling you about The Company?”

“Yeah, big name in killing people for money.”

“Those. Well, The Collective is a little like that, in the sense that they work internationally, have no loyalties except tothemselves, and are not into the wetwork business so much as the information gathering and trading business.”

“Like...hackers?”

“Hackers, spies, thieves, you name it. If it’s a useful bit of information or a bargaining chip, they’ve either dug it up or they’re looking to dig it up. And they’re not picky about who they take from and who they provide for.”

Hunter looked away, his lips becoming thin as he chewed on that. “Which means they don’t care much about who gets hurt.”

“From what I hear, they like to keep things in balance, so they’re not going to sell things to a group dedicated to bombing a city with a nuke, but they’re afraid to sell information to the Cartel about an informant’s location and their security systems. It was never proven, but it’s been rumored they were the ones who helped nudge an investigation into the sarin gas attack in Japan back in the nineties. Some people were pretty pissed that they weren’t on the ball sooner.”

“Didn’t like that much death?”

“Didn’t like the idea of a radical group having the kind of power the gas provided. That is the sort of thing that can wipe out whole cities, remember? That can destabilize the shit out of a country, a continent, hell, the whole world if it hits hard enough.”

“Great,” he said with a sigh. “So they’re selfish and assholes, but they’re not maniacally evil.”

“A necessary one in this world.”

“Seriously?”

“They have scruples and lines they don’t want crossed, both of which they enforce strictly. They have the knowledge to bring down the world’s economy, overturn leaders, and send countries into mass rioting.”

“So I’m supposed to be okay with them because they don’t do those things?”

“Anyone who has the power to destroy and holds back is moral in some way.”

“Or just pragmatic.”

“Semantics.”

He glared at me before snorting, shaking his head. “Alright, fine. I see your point. But I don’t have much room to talk here, do I? If it wasn’t for me, neither of us would be here, and Brooke?—”

“Listen to me,” I said, reaching to take his hand before he could retreat to the far end of the kitchen in his hurt. “You did not do that.”

“If I hadn’t gone after them, or at least done it better, then Brooke wouldn’t be...she’d be alive,” he said, sounding miserable. “You tried to warn me that this revenge shit would get out of control, and look, it did. Brooke’s dead, caught in the crossfire of a fight she didn’t even know existed, and now we’re about to sell our souls to get us out of the trouble I championed to create.”

“Iwarnedyou thiscouldget out of control,” I said carefully. “And even knowing that, I still followed you. I have no regrets about what we’ve done or what we might have to do.”

“Even when it puts a leash back on you?”

“We’ll be on a leash together. Whatever they offer, I refuse to let either of us do anything without the other knowing and being involved. We got into this together, and we’re getting out of it together.”

His face softened before his mouth twisted. “And Brooke?”

“She...yes, I regret that,” I said softly, my shoulders sagging. “I’m not letting that hit me until we’re alone and have the space to mourn. They used her to get through the apartment door and then jumped me before I could figure out what was going on. I wasn’t able to save her, and she died right in front of me while I was helpless.”

Hunter’s face was pinched as he reached up to hold my face in one hand. “You know that’s not your fault, right? You did the best you could.”

“That’s easier to say than believe.”

---