“And the computers? The server?”
“Information. It’s all just information. Bank accounts. Blackmailing. Satellite images. P.I. reports. Burial locations.”
“So this…this is what you have on people. All of the dirt you’ve gathered over the years. This is all leverage?”
“Yes.”
In the distant recesses of my mind, I recall Julio discussing some files Rebel was holding over him, which was why the guy drove across the state in the night to pick me up from Hector’s place: Rebel was bribing him.
I quit my investigating, leaning against the other desk, facing him. “Very valuable, I’m sure.”
“Yes.”
“And you showed me how to get in here. You’d trust me in here all by myself?”
He nods. “You think you’re a flight risk, Sophia, but you’re not. You’re as invested in me as I am in you.”
“I don’t think so.” I don’t know how invested in me he thinks he is, but regardless…I don’t want it to be true. Caring about this man will only get me killed; that much is obvious.
Rebel looks away, focusing on the wild, red text marking the wall by his head. He folds his arms across his chest. “You know why you resist me so much, Soph?” he whispers.
I narrow my eyes at him, trying not to let him see what I’m thinking. “Because you’re rude and arrogant, and you left me alone in a cabin for ten days?”
He smiles softly, allowing his gaze to fall to his feet. “Nope.”
“Oh no? Well, please enlighten me, then. Why do I resist you so much?”
“Because you’re in love with me, and you’re afraid.”
“What?” I consider picking up the large rock that’s being used as a paperweight on the desk next to me and chucking it right at his head. He is such an asshole. “You are dreaming, my friend,” I inform him.
“We’re not friends. We’re much, much more than that and you know it.”
“Jesus, you…you just have no shame, do you? Where do you get off saying stuff like this?”
“I find shame is usually a wasteful emotion. It occurs after an event or certain actions have taken place. There’s no sense in beating yourself up over something you can’t change or effect, right? I think you’re actually uncomfortable because I say what I think. I don’t sugar coat anything. And I’ve never been afraid to admit what I want, Sophia.” He rubs his fingers over the stubble on his jaw, piercing me with those blue eyes of his. “You, on the other hand… you’re afraid of admitting anything to anyone, ever. Must be exhausting.”
I don’t answer him. I don’t really know what to say. I want to be stubborn and hard with him, tell him he couldn’t be more wrong and he should keep his half-baked theories to himself, but I am so done. I don’t have the energy to fight or bicker with him. And besides, it’s becoming harder and harder to deny that what he’s saying isn’t actually the truth. Fuck him. Fuck him and his ability to see right through me. Rebel starts to laugh. “You don’t need to say a word, sugar. You know it’s true, and so do I. I can wait, though. If you ever feel like being honest with me, I’m ready to hear it.”
His voice softens out at the end of this statement, the laughter slipping away. He sounds muted, soft, almost pensive. I want him to put his arms around me so he can hold me and make the whole world go away again, but won’t that just be proving him right? Instead, I turn away from him.
My eyes land on a file sitting on the overflowing desk. Scrawled across the front of it in black, blocky capitals is one word: MAYFAIR.
“What’s Mayfair? Is that, like, a code for something? A place?”
Rebel sighs heavily. I can hear his boots grinding against the bare concrete underfoot as he paces the length of the room; he takes the file from me and places it back on the pile of disorganized binders and papers. “It’s a name. A guy back in Seattle. Cade’s been looking into him.”
“Is he connected with Hector and Raphael?”
“No. He’s not someone we need to worry about right now, Soph. We have other things to take care of. Namely Maria fucking Rosa.”
ELEVEN
CADE