“Lila. Think about it. He wants to stop him as much as we do,” said Benjy in a hushed voice. “He came to me, not the other way around.”
Lila, not Kitty. So Benjy hadn’t trusted him with everything. That was a small comfort in the face of the rest of it, though, and I gritted my teeth. “Did it ever occur to you how simple it would be for Daxton to tell him to do exactly that?”
“But he didn’t,” said Minister Bradley. I could hear Greyson approach, and he stopped directly behind me.
“Prove it,” said Greyson simply, and as if this was what he’d been waiting for, Minister Bradley opened his jacket, revealing a silver gun.
“This is for you, my dear Lila.” Pulling it from the holster, he took it by the barrel and handed it to me grip-first. If I’d wanted to, I could have easily pulled the trigger. “I thought it might come in handy.”
I stared at the weapon in my hand, my mind whirling. It had to be a trap. There was no reason for a greedy, selfish, disgusting pig of a man like Bradley to help us. If anything, he had every reason to betray us to prove his loyalty to Daxton, thus securing a position in the new government.
But here was a chance—a real chance—warm and heavy in my hand. No matter what tricks Daxton might have been willing to pull, he never would have given us a way to kill him.
My grip on the pistol tightened, and I pointed it directly at Bradley. “Should I see if it’s a fake?”
“Oh, it isn’t,” he said, ducking his head with such speed that I knew it had to be genuine. I’d never seen him move so fast before. “It’s very, very real, and very, very loaded. If you wouldn’t mind, my dear Lila...”
“The safety’s on anyway,” I said, lowering it. To Greyson, I added, “What do you think?”
He shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt to see what he has to say.”
With the gun securely in my hand, I stepped aside, and finally Benjy and Minister Bradley entered. Neither of them made a move to sit down in the living area, and instead we lingered in a circle near the doorway. More beads ofsweat formed on Bradley’s forehead, and he dabbed his face with a handkerchief. No one could fake that kind of anxiety.
“I won’t stay long,” he began. “I’d like to help in any way I can. There’s a great deal of information out there regarding the remaining Blackcoats, and if you’d like me to pass it along—”
“No,” I said instantly. Benjy and Greyson gave me strange looks, but I ignored them. “It won’t help us in here, and if you’re telling the truth, then we shouldn’t know anyway.”
“Right,” said Greyson, catching on quickly. “The less we know, the better. That way Daxton can’t get it out of us.”
Minister Bradley exhaled. “All right. But if anything does become useful—”
“Why are you helping us?” I demanded. He fell silent. “You have everything to lose. Power, prestige, privilege, your prime position as Daxton’s lapdog—”
“It is not what I have to lose, dear Lila, but what I have to gain.” He lowered his voice several notches and leaned in, though the walls were thick enough that I doubted anyone trying to listen through the doorway could hear us. “Is it so strange a thought that perhaps I do not want the country run by a madman?”
“You didn’t seem to think he was mad when you got everything you wanted,” I said.
“Perhaps I was blinded by greed then, yes. But even I cannot ignore what happened in the Stronghold. I am not interested in a dictatorship, and though you may believe otherwise, I do care about this country. Deeply.”
“What do you want in return?” said Greyson. “When I’m Prime Minister, what price am I going to have to pay for your help now?”
Minister Bradley sniffed. “I assure you I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart—”
“We don’t trust the goodness of your heart,” I snapped. “We trust your self-interest.”
At last he sighed and wiped his forehead once more. “Very well. Allow me to have a place in your new government. I quite enjoy my job, and I do not want to lose it in the revolution. I promise I will look out for the best interests of the people, and I will follow your agenda.”
“I don’t want a puppet,” said Greyson.
“And I do not wish to be a puppet,” said Bradley. “That is what I am now, though, with your father. Or—the man claiming to be your father.” He raised an eyebrow, and Greyson looked at his feet. “I do not want to give up my lifestyle, but I do not want to concede my morality, either, or what is left of it. It is possible to be selfish while looking out for the people, my boy. I do not claim to be perfect, and it has taken me a great deal to get thisfar.But I hope in time you are willing to trust me, or at the very least trust my desire to have a place in your new world, when the inevitable comes.” He nodded to the gun. “Use it wisely.”
Without another word, he ducked into the hallway, leaving the three of us alone. I strode over and locked the door, and once that was taken care of, I wheeled around to face Benjy.