Page 69 of Lane

Raiden took me by the elbow. “Move, Lane.”

He led me to the guy, who glared at us like he could incinerate us on the spot with just a look. Red hair, sharp eyes, and a clean-shaven jaw with muscles popping under his shirt, I could see the appeal.

“Simon, it’s nice to see you again.” Raiden extended his hand, and they shook, the guard’s eyes softening a bit.

“You too. Please know you and your family are in our thoughts.”

“Thank you.”

“Hi, Lane Everhart,” I introduced myself. Raiden had to speak to more people than I could count after his dad’s death. Losing a parent was horrible. He didn’t need to feel that agony every time he came here. Enter me and my need to draw Raiden’s attention back to the topic at hand. He’d said distraction was his friend.

I shook Simon’s hand. “Your partner is beautiful.”

“Thanks, we don’t share.”

“Can’t take a compliment without immediately thinking I want to fuck him. Got it. Just so you know, I ride Raiden’s cock and my other boyfriend’s on the daily. You don’t need to worry about me. I was simply complimenting his performance.” I smiled. I really wanted to add for him not to be a dick, but I kept it to myself. Fighting with him and Dexen wasn’t on today’s agenda.

“Sorry. If you saw the shit I did in here, you’d be on the defensive too.”

“Men are always hitting on your guy, huh?”

“Guys. They’re both dancers not only on stage, but they give private shows.”

“I could see how that would be tough. I’d take off Ray’s balls if he did that. Literally. I have knives.”

Simon chuckled and met Raiden’s eyes. “I should have known you’d find someone to match your level of violence.”

“He keeps me on my toes.”

“I bet he does. Dexen’s waiting for you in his office.”

“Thanks.”

I grinned as we walked by. He wasn’t nearly as bad as he seemed.

Another guard stood outside the office we were going into, but we didn’t stop to make small talk with him. Instead, we were ushered into Dexen’s space. Why were there no windows in here? It looked like a comfortable room with a leather couch, a rug, throw pillows, and a desk. The lack of windows was concerning though. Didn’t he miss the daylight?

The door closed behind us, blocking out the noise. I opened my mouth to see if I could pop my ears then realized it was the soundproofing. It threw me a bit.

“Sorry about that.” Dexen smiled. “I’m used to it but not everyone else is.”

“My ears feel weird. It’s the same when I use noise-cancelling headphones. Too quiet too fast.”

“Let’s have a seat so we can talk. It won’t take long.”

We sat on the couch, me in the middle. I turned slightly so Raiden was at my back, and I could face Dexen.

Dexen held a folder. “I did some digging outside of the normal channels. If this guy really has his hands deep in hacking like he says, we can’t do what we normally would. Apparently, he’d been moving a lot. If I had to guess, he was following you.” He handed me the folder.

I flipped it open and saw the list of transactions Ulrich had made. From Florida, where we first entered the country to North Carolina where I first met up with Jordan, but these were dated before that day. They kept going until I went to Pennsylvania with Jordan. The transactions were in and around Dremest.

“He knew where we were the moment we were back in the U.S.,” I said. “He could have come at us at any point to ask for the money.”

“Why would he if he could go after someone much bigger and much wealthier? Edison was a small fish compared to Jordan. Back in the day, Edison was bigger. Recently, he was nothing but a loud mouth with some firepower and barely enough money to function.”

“That motherfucker.” I should have known better. He learned how to be a snake from my pretend father.

“If you read through the rest of the pages, you’ll find trends to what he does. Where he likes to eat, what he’s bought. We even managed to find his illegal purchases, which wasn’t easy.”

---