Sean pushed back his growing guilt for lying to Colton about why he was here.
"Did you tell Paxton about what happened ten years ago?"
"Of course not! I would never betray you like that." He looked pained at the accusation. "Sean, don"t you believe me?"
He sounded sincere, but Sean couldn"t be certain. He hadn"t worked with Colton in years. Things changed. People changed. Why would Colton go through such lengths to bring Sean into the group?
Colton"s face fell. "You don"t."
"Paxton knows about Robert Martin and his company."
"Impossible."
"C., he blackmailed me into stealing something for him. In July, he said that he knew of a crime I committed where the statute of limitations was still eight months from expiring. The only thing still over my head is that."
"I swear to G.o.d, Sean, I said nothing to Paxton about Martin or Martin Holdings. I would never betray you."
Sean believed Colton, and it killed Sean that he had to lie to him. Sean knew Colton as well as himself-he would protect Sean"s secret to his grave. Sean regretted doubting him.
"Did you tell anyone else? Someone you trust?"
"No one. I swear."
"But you do know Paxton."
Colton nodded, sipped his beer. "I haven"t told the team yet, but he"s the one who hired me for this job."
Sean had no cover, no secrets other than his purpose for joining Colton"s group. It was the only way this undercover investigation could work-Sean publicly left RCK and reconnected with his old friend, who brought him back into the fold. Three weeks ago, there was nothing to do, no jobs, just meeting the team. Now everything was happening double time.
Sean kept his voice low. "Why would he pay you to break into PBM?" This was the information that Noah had been searching for for months. Sean kept his voice even and pretended his only interest was in finding out how Paxton knew about his crime.
"He wants to prove that PBM took government money and didn"t do what they claimed."
"We proved that when we hacked into the network."
"We need physical proof."
"He"s a f.u.c.king United States senator," Sean said. "He can get any proof he wants with a snap of his fingers."
"Shh!" Colton frowned, then said quietly, "You know that if the senator went through proper channels, PBM would be tipped off and have time to destroy evidence."
They"d been down this path before. Finding evidence only to have it destroyed before the proper authorities got their warrants and their act together.
"Did you tell him about the bio-weapons?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Would you have wanted me to?"
"No." Sean glanced at his friend. Colton was keeping something back. "What aren"t you tell me?"
Sean was having a hard time buying the story and didn"t think Colton was that gullible, either, though everything he said had a ring of truth. And if Sean didn"t know what kind of manipulative, murderous b.a.s.t.a.r.d Senator Paxton was, he might have let it go. But Paxton didn"t fork over this much of his own money to expose government waste.
Sean said, "There are far better ways of proving a company misused public funds than hiring a known computer hacker to get the evidence. He"s a senator. He can put together a committee, go to the FBI, start a federal investigation, whatever he needs."
"It"s more complicated that that."
"Paxton has his own rule book, and you can"t believe anything he says. He"s a killer, Colton. And if you don"t care about that, care about how he uses people. He blackmailed me!"
"You should know me better than that, Sean. Of course I don"t trust him-I don"t trust any politician-and I"m certain he has his own agenda, but on this project, our purposes are aligned. And he has money."
"See, this is what I"m having a hard time understanding," Sean said. "I see why you care, but why Paxton?"
"He has his reasons, I have mine, but we both want the company destroyed. And it will save lives, Sean. You care about that."
"You haven"t proved it to me yet. You haven"t told me anything beyond what we found last month in the files."
Colton looked pointedly at Sean. "You used to take my word on it."
"Yes, I did." Sean stared back.
"I need you, Sean. I need you with me, one hundred percent."
Sean drank his beer. He didn"t know why Colton needed him-Hunter was as good as Sean, probably better if it came down to it. Evan was competent, even though Sean didn"t like him. Skye was smart and had her own a.s.sets. Why bring Sean in?
"You"re the only person I"ve ever trusted, Sean."
His heart twisted. Colton wasn"t lying. That Sean was made him feel like s.h.i.t.
Colton lowered his voice. "I"m finally in a position to prove that Pham-Bonner Medical killed Travis and covered it up."
Colton had never accepted that his brother had died of leukemia. He understood that Travis had the disease and would probably die, but after Travis went on experimental drugs, he deteriorated and died three months sooner than the doctor"s worst prognosis.
"s.h.i.t, Colton-"
"That"s why I need you. The next step of the plan-we need to get into PBM."
"And where does Paxton fit in?"
"I couldn"t do it alone-the cost of the equipment alone is astronomical."
"But you"ve been doing well."
Colton shrugged.
"You"ve given your money away."
"Maybe a little too much."
Colton had always been generous to a fault. Other than the carriage house on the Upper East Side, he"d never spent money on himself. He never forgot his roots in South Boston, even though he"d painstakingly worked to lose the accent. With Colton, it was feast or famine.
"Tell me," Sean said. A sick feeling crowded the beer in his stomach. If Colton was playing games with Paxton, this would not end well for anyone. "What"s Paxton"s plan?"
"I can"t tell you."
"Then I can"t help you." Sean had to be willing to walk. If he didn"t, Colton would be suspicious.
Sean drained his beer.
Colton looked panicked. "I need you."
"You just said you trusted me. If that"s true, then I need to know your game plan. I"m not going to risk my freedom. I"m not the same arrogant, reckless kid I was in college."
"It"s sensitive right now. I"ll tell you everything tomorrow night, once I put the rest of the pieces together."
"How do you know Paxton is the only one involved?"
"I don"t care if he has a whole gang of senators, none of them know about me."
"You can"t be certain."
"Sean, I just told you I can take down PBM and you"re squabbling about irrelevant details."
"Not so irrelevant if we want to live free when this is all over. I don"t want to lose what I have."
"It"s your girlfriend, isn"t it?"
Sean hadn"t lied about his relationship with Lucy because it would have been too easy to verify, and no way would Sean break it off for this operation. If he broke it off without telling Lucy why, he"d hurt her deeply. And if he brought her into the plan and faked a breakup, she would constantly worry about him and jeopardize her graduation. He didn"t know how long Colton had been keeping tabs on him-it could have been since they"d parted nine years ago or only during the last few months. But either way, Sean had to a.s.sume that Colton knew everything about him-which was why he had had to officially, and publicly, leave RCK.
"I told you when I agreed to help that Lucy is off-limits."
"It"s never going to work between you and her," Colton said.
Sean"s jaw tightened. "I said-"
"Sean, I know you better than anyone. We might not have kept in touch since-"
"Another off-limits subject." He didn"t want to discuss what had happened after he destroyed Martin Holdings.
"I know what drives you. I know what keeps you getting up each and every day. No federal agent is going to understand that the system doesn"t work. That people like us are necessary."
"First, you don"t know Lucy. You don"t know what drives her. She"s not even interested in white-collar or cybercrime; she"s driven to put s.e.x offenders and killers in prison. Something I can get behind and support. Sometimes, the system does work."
"Then why did you agree to come back?"
"You know why." He hadn"t spoken to Duke since he quit. He"d talked to Patrick a couple of times, helping him adjust to being a solo operation, but Sean wasn"t going to talk to Duke. Sean didn"t even know if he wanted to talk to Duke when it was all over, but he"d figure that out later.
Breaking with RCK was necessary, but his emotions were still raw. Sean had been acting. Duke hadn"t. Rick Stockton felt it was absolutely essential that no one at RCK know about the undercover operation.
"I"m really sorry about Duke. If you weren"t trying to help me-"
"I don"t want to talk about Duke, either. He"s still my brother."
"Have you talked to him since-"
"No. But he"s family."
"Understood." Colton drained his beer. "I"ve always had your back. You"re as much a brother to me as Travis was. You know that."
Sean didn"t doubt Colton"s loyalty. It was the one thing Sean had always trusted. He knew Colton was keeping something back about PBM, but he hadn"t betrayed Sean to Paxton.
Someone else had.
Sean motioned to the bartender for two more beers for him and Colton.
"Paxton isn"t someone you can screw over."
"Let me worry about Paxton."
"I can"t."
"Sean, Paxton has far more to lose than either of us."
"Tell me what you know."
"He understands the risks, but once I get into PBM, I"ll have everything I need-" He cut himself off.
"What?"
"I don"t want to say yet-"
"Dammit, tell me."
Colton waited until the bartender put the beers in front of them, drank a long gulp, then said, "He just wants one file."
"What file?"
"I don"t know what"s in the file, but it"s in Joyce Bonner"s personal safe. He wants it before I expose PBM to the world, in exchange for funding my operation. He has a secret. So do we."
"I really hope you"re going into this with your eyes open, C."
"I am."
"If I think Paxton is doing something that"s going to screw people, especially us, I"m walking." Sean paused. "I need something from you."
"What?"