Page 103 of A Captive Situation

I said, “It’s none of your fucking business, but I need a favor.”

He laughed, his smirk morphing into a genuine grin before he shook his head. “This oughta be good. Let me guess, you want me to make all that information I was able to unearth not be unearthable?”

“I want it to go away.”

“You haven’t made contact with Lane yet, have you?”

“Before I declare open war on Lane, I want to make sure EJ and his family are safe.”

“Why does your son think another man is his father?”

I countered, “What do you want from me in order to make that go away?”

He went still before expelling a ragged breath. “You’re kidding, right? Your divorce certificate was never put in the system. Why is that?”

I gave him a hard grin. “Because I still have it.”

One of his eyebrows shot up.

“It was one of my fail-safes against Tabitha if I’d ever need it.”

“She married.”

My grin widened. I liked hearing that, liked knowing that I had the power to fuck up her world if I ever needed to. Tabitha liked following the law. She was a rule abider.

She would never recognize me now. I was so far from the boy she knew.

I said, “I know.”

Ashton’s eyes narrowed.

If I wasn’t sure he was too sick and twisted inside, I could’ve sworn there was a flare of respect that flitted over his face before he masked it.

“I know you have the skills to make anything and anyone disappear online. I’m sure Lane would’ve done a perfunctory search on all the members in my family, but there’s a shit ton of us. He couldn’t havedone deep searches on every single one of us. He might not have found my marriage certificate.”

“No, he wouldn’t have.”

I went rigid, hearing how smooth Ashton just said that.

His mouth lifted up, a cocky glint in his eyes. “Especially because I hid it years ago.”

“Why the fuck would you have done that?”

“Because you were my employee. I took it on the off chance I would need it to use against you one day. I got a good enough file on you to know that you hated your family almost as much as I did, or more, in fact. You were quite a good little asset that fell into my hands. I sent your uncle a thank-you card when it happened. He didn’t enjoy the card.”

“Which uncle?”

“All of them.”

And this was a part of the reason I felt like Ashton and I were friends sometimes, or could’ve been friends in another life. I wasn’t foolish enough to call anyone in this world a friend. You had alliances, connections, pawns, or enemies.

I grunted. “Good.”

I felt his surprise more than I saw it. No one else would’ve noticed a reaction at all.

He leaned back. “There’s nothing that can be found in an online search that connects you to your ex-wife or your son. I found the marriage certificate. You know what I did with that, and the other pieces were some high school items linking your name to hers. I can take care of those, but according to the records, she’s only married to one man. Your name was not put on any of the children’s birth certificates. The other man’s name is on the two girls’, but not your son’s. At the moment, I didn’t give it a thought, but the boy is yours. If Lane isn’t directed to her, he won’t look close enough to see the resemblance.”

Good. That was all good.

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