Page 38 of Filthy Liar
“Why didn’t you call me?” Except I know why.
“It turns out, I don’t have your number.”
“Weird.”
He shrugs. “I was waiting for Wilson to track down one of your neighbors when you came downstairs.”
“I was just going to get some food. We didn’t make it into my kitchen, but the cupboards are quite bare.”
“We can pick something up on the way. Or get delivery.”
“And where do you think you’re going to take me?”
“The office. Wilson has some things to show you.”
I hesitate. “Something good?”
“I’m not wasting your time, Ellie. Get in the car.”
We don’t talkabout our early morning boundary-obliterating sex. We don’t talk at all as he navigates through the busy afternoon traffic, or on the quiet and quick elevator ride up from the parking garage to the third floor.
It’s reassuring, actually. This isn’t Jason vs. Ellie, this is Melinda Gray being invited to the Horus Group offices for a reason that isn’t yet clear.
We don’t go to the boardroom. Instead, Jason leads me to Wilson’s cavelike command central of an office. He’s the only partner who doesn’t have a window, by his own preference.
Jason stops me at the door. “How do you feel about signing an NDA?”
I jut my chin at him. “I’d rather try my luck with the wi-fi at the coffee shop downstairs and whatever teenage hackers I can find on Reddit, thanks.”
He sighs. “I thought that would be your answer. So I’m going to ignore you said that and tell you some shit anyway, because maybe the only way to get you to trust me is to show my trust in you. But everything you see and hear in this office is off the record, background only. Understand?”
I nod.
Inside, the hacker is waiting for us. Spread out over three screens are the contents of a classic Horus Group dossier.
Jeff Mayfair, their client.
And one of the screens shows Mayfair with a young girl, too young to be in a photo with a grown man. I recognize the setting immediately. “That’s Lively’s private plane.”
“Hello to you, too,” Wilson says. “And you’re correct.”
“You don’t think the photo is real.”
“Mayfair insists that it’s not, and we believe him. He has provided comprehensive travel records, and there is zero overlap with Lively. In fact, Jeff had gone out of his way over the years to avoid Lively, which makes targeting him an interesting and not particularly well-thought-out decision.”
“Interesting.” I scour the other screens. “Was the blackmail all via email?”
“Yep. And it dropped off immediately when we had Mayfair get ahead of the NDA story.”
“I thought that had your fingerprints on it. So he’s not running for office?”
“Never.” Wilson smirks.
“Who else has been blackmailed?”
They don’t answer. I look back and forth between Jason and Wilson. “Do you not know of any other targets, or you can’t say?”
“We don’t have any other clearly identified targets. But we suspect there are others.”
