“Later,” I say to Marlon over my shoulder.
“Not later.” Marlon grabs my arm. “Now. This is your hand, Rhys.”
“I know.” I pull away. “See if you can find some Aleve or something until we’re done with this.”
“Aleve?” Marlon whooshes a frustrated breath. “At least let me call Bristol so she can have a specialist standing by.”
“Yeah, good idea. Dr. Mason’s the one who examines my hands for the insurance policy. She should probably notify him.” I turn to look at him. “Make sure she doesn’t mention it to Kai.”
Marlon holds my eyes for a moment before denting one side of his cheek with a smile.
“Always Kai.”
Always Kai.
“Just find that Aleve for me.”
I hold my injured hand, wincing as I join Gep and Drex in the living room. Drex offers me a bloody smirk, his face already swelling. He gestures to my hand.
“Looks like that hurts.”
“So does your face. Shut the hell up.”
Even bloodied and already swelling, his face manages to look smug. I have to look away because the urge to slam my probably-broken fist right through that expression is so strong, and I know we need the information Gep is trying to extract.
“Look, you’ve broken laws here.” Gep rests meaty fists on his hips. “You recorded Kai, and God knows who else, without her knowledge and blackmailed her.”
“That wasn’t me.” Drex’s eyes take a leisurely path between me and Gep. “I mean, yeah I recorded her when we fucked.”
He pauses to grin at me.
“But I’m not the one blackmailing her, and I’m not going down for it.”
“Then who?” I frown, unable to let Gep take the lead for very long. “Tell us everything, you piece of shit.”
“Ah ah ah,” Drex tsks and shakes his head, eyes alight with hatred and satisfaction. “I’m the one with all the information. You better be nice to me.”
“Nice to you?” Incredulity rolls a hollow laugh up my throat. “I’m going to destroy you either way. Your cooperation determines if I’ll leave you any scraps of your pathetic career so you can at least book weddings and bar mitzvahs.”
I lean close, almost close enough to sniff the barely-veiled panic that lurks just beneath his self-satisfied fa?ade.
“Because make no mistake about it.” I look straight into his eyes so he sees that I have every intention of backing up this threat. “You’re through in this town. Done. I’ll block every deal. I started the black-balling as soon as I saw that tape just a few hours ago. You’re poison already and just don’t know it yet.”
“You can’t do that.” He says it, but I can tell he knows I can.
“Let’s not play the game where you pretend to have any power in this situation, when we both know I’ll come out on top.”
“You always do, don’t you?” Bitterness corrodes his words. “You always have.”
“Is that what this is about? Your ridiculous jealousy since high school?”
“Everything came so easy to you, Gray.” He shakes his head, hatred alive in his narrowed eyes. “I was the one person who didn’t scrape and bow at your feet just because you were some piano savant in another life.”
“You have no idea what my life was like. It certainly wasn’t easy.”
“Whatever.” He shrugs, deliberately casual. Falsely calm. “At least I fuck your women first. If that’s my only concession, I’ll take it.”
Gep grabs my arms, but I shake him off, staring back at Drex without making a further move toward him. This idiot thinks he knows my buttons? He has no idea.
“Here’s the deal.” I step directly into Drex’s line of vision. “Like Gep said, you recorded Kai without her consent. It’s illegal.”
“And I wonder what the cops would find on your laptop?” Gep keeps his face straight, playing along since he knows I have no intention of bringing the police into this. “If we got a warrant to seize your cloud, would there be other women there recorded without their consent? We could build quite a case, and you could do some real time.”
Drex’s jaw clenches, and fear thins his lips.
“What do you want?” he asks after a few moments to contemplate that possibility.
“First, I want any and every copy of that tape so I can destroy it,” I say immediately.
“I don’t have it anymore.” Drex leans back into the cushions. “I don’t have any copy. I told you I’m not the one who’s been threatening her.”
“Who?” I try to keep my voice free of panic. Whoever has the tape could do anything with it. They just threatened Kai days ago. They could release it at any time. They could release it while I sit here with this idiot. “Who has it?”
Drex sits back and remains silent, looking around the cabin like it might offer some escape, but it doesn’t. There is none.
“And we know this place is owned by John Malcolm,” Gep continues. “How’s he involved? Tell us everything or we get the cops in on this, and it gets messy.”