Alex recovers quickly enough, but with the surprise gone, all that remains in her eyes is suspicion. “Um…nice to meet you, too.” To Ryder, she adds, “I’m guessing we need to talk about something, so…er…do you want that to happen here?”
“Probably not a good idea.” He gestures with his chin over Alex’s shoulder. “Let’s take this into the briefing room.”
Once Alex spins on her heels and leads the way, Ryder gently places his hand on my lower back, nudging me forward. “She wasn’t expecting me to bring you here,” he says, and when I glance up at him, he continues, “That’s all that was.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting to come here either.” And here is a pretty impressive place. Monitors line the far walls, one on top of the other, all connected to street cameras. Beneath the monitors I count ten men and women, all working behind computer screens on cases that I’m totally sure are classified.
I follow behind Ryder as he enters a black glass–encased room, where Alex takes a seat at the round glass table and opens her laptop. I glance behind me and realize it’s one-way glass, which makes me feel a little more comfortable than being that exposed when we’re about to talk about the video.
Ryder pulls out a chair for me. “Take a seat, Hadley.”
I give him a little smile and sit in the swivel chair, clenching my hands beneath the table, not letting anyone here see my discomfort. I could do this. Hell, I’m the one in the video. I did wild and crazy things. That was me.
Though as I look at Ryder, who’s taking a seat next to Alex, being so strong and confident, and seriously hot as hell, I suspect this conversation won’t be the proudest moment in my life.
“So…” Alex begins, placing her hands on top of her keyboard. “Care to enlighten me on what’s going on?”
She doesn’t really need to say more. Because you must have lost your mind to bring her here was practically screamed through the air the second I walked into the room.
The side of Ryder’s mouth arches, and I imagine his thoughts are in line with mine. “A few developments have occurred…” Then he proceeds to recap all that he knows about my father and the corruption he’s facing and also that I had the video sent to me as well, as if I’m not sitting here and this isn’t my crazy life.
By the time he’s finished explaining, Alex mutters, “I see.” Her eyes begin to narrow in concentration as her fingers fly across the keyboard. “Oh yeah, I see the pop-up right here.”
I put two and two together and frown. “Is she hacking my computer?”
Ryder turns his head and watches me closely before addressing me again. “Would that annoy you if she was?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
“Then she’s not.” He grins.
I roll my eyes. Apparently, Ryder works within that gray area between right and wrong. Vigilante or criminal? I guess there’s my answer for why Alex thinks it’s a really bad idea that I’m here.
Before I can decide if I would give Alex permission to log on to my computer, she suddenly stops typing a
nd tells me, “It might be easier if you just give me the names of the men in the video.” She pauses, her eyes flicking upward. “I mean, there’s a very good chance they have nothing to do with this because how can anyone be that stupid. But I’ve seen it before, so—”
“She doesn’t know the men in the video,” Ryder interjects.
Alex frowns, leveling me with a hard look. “How is that even possible?”
My face flushes red-hot and I shift in my chair. “Well, the date was set up, arranged you could say. One night at Afterglow, I received an invitation in my locker.”
“Arranged by who?” Alex asks.
“I only know the one man by his mask,” I tell her with a shrug.
“So you’d been with him before?” Alex asks.
“The one guy, yes,” I confirm. “He goes by Master M. It’s why I went to the hotel to meet him there. He was a member of the club. Vetted and sane.”
Ryder arches a brow and asks, “But the other guy?”
“I assumed he was a friend or something.”
“But you don’t know Master M’s real name?” Alex inquires.
“Sadly, no.”