“No,” I said quickly to stave off his anger. Judging by how quick he seemed to nearly fly off the handle, I could tell that Brian had an anger problem like me, though I doubted he was on my level. “Anonymous has been around for a long time, long before we joined. It’s likely that Razor, er, Mason, just agreed with Anonymous’ principles and wanted to join.”
Brian let out a noncommittal grunt. “I see.” He waved a hand at me. “Now tell me about this information you claim to have.”
I licked my lips. “We believe that your son is staying with a woman who is helping harbor—”
“I already know,” Brian said, surprising me. “The woman who is helping him is my stepdaughter.”
“Oh.”
Didn’t look like they were just siblings to me on that footage, I thought, seething with jealousy at the memory of the two holding hands.
“Do you know where your stepdaughter lives?” I asked.
Brian shook his head. “No, I don’t. And unfortunately, I don’t think she’s with him anymore,” Brian continued. “So that information you wanted to sell me? It’s absolutely worthless.”
He had me there. Now I had nothing to leverage a big payday out of him with. It was shame too, because I knew the man was wealthy. I was hoping we’d get information and a payday. “Come on Andre,” I said, turning to leave. “Looks like we wasted our time. Good day, Mr. Keller.” Not giving the man the satisfaction of seeing me upset, I turned to leave.
I made it two steps before Brian commanded, “Wait.”
I slowly turned back to regard him with a raised eyebrow.
“You came here looking for a payday, and perhaps more information pertaining to my wayward son. I don’t have that unfortunately, but perhaps we can work together toward a common goal.”
Now he was talking.
“You obviously want something from Mason, no? Well, I do too. You two find him and I’ll pay you a handsome reward for your efforts.”
I glanced over at Andre and he had a goofy grin on his face. God, he looked stupid. But I couldn’t be bothered with getting annoyed at him.
For once, I was happy. We were going to track down Razor, something we’d been doing anyway, and get paid big money to do it.
“We’ll be honored to help you sir,” I said with my most charming smile.
We quickly hammered out the details of the deal and Brian gave us all the information he knew about Mason and his stepdaughter Carly and then we left his office.
“Well shit,” Andre said as we got into an elevator to go down to the bottom floor. “How the hell are we going to find Razor when we haven’t found him all this time?”
“We don’t have to find him,” I said darkly, my mind formulating a blueprint of a plan.
“Huh?” Andre asked stupidly.
Normally, I would have yelled at him already, but I didn’t even have the urge to say something nasty. I was so proud of myself.
“Because,” I said, “he’s going to come to us.”
Chapter 18
Carly
“It’s a fake,” Brian said over the phone about the footage I’d sent him. “This is not even real.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Surely he could see that it was Mayor Bradley in the video. How could he not? “Are you serious?”
“I am,” Brian replied calmly. “This video is just a hoax, a setup by Bradley’s political opponents to see him out of office and Mason was foolish enough to let himself be used as a pawn.”
“I’m sorry, Carly,” Brian continued, “but you’ve really got to stop doing this. You are grasping at straws in your effort to protect your brother.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I half-shouted. I think this was the first time I’d ever been angry enough to swear at Brian. “I know you can see that the man’s face in that video is the God damn mayor!”
“Calm yourself, Carly,” Brian said with unnerving calm. I was shocked. After what I just said, he should’ve been yelling at the top his lungs. “This is very much unlike you. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear at me.”
“Because I’ve never had a reason to until now!”
“Well, you still don’t have a reason to and you need to show a little bit more respect for your stepfather. I’m the one paid your way through college, remember? Me. Not you. Not your mother. And not Mason. Me.”
I’d hoped to never hear those words, to be reminded that I owed my stepfather for his generosity, but now I didn’t give a flying fuck.
“I appreciate what you did for me,” I said carefully, “and I thank you deeply for it. But this video is not fake, and you of all people should be on Mason’s side. He did the right thing!”
“Mason didn’t do anything but be the criminal that he is,” Brian growled. “And if you don’t want to wind up sitting in jail cell beside him, I’d suggest you stop defending him.”
I couldn’t take anymore. “You know what? Mason was right about you being a heartless, cruel bastard. I don’t know why I didn’t see it until now. Something is not right about a man who is only too happy to vilify his only son. And I don’t care if he wasted your money by dropping out of college or whatever. It wasn’t even that big of a deal for you. You don’t treat your children this way if you love them.”