“Then why can’t you—”
“Because I can’t. That’s why.”
“Sorry, Joe. Not good enough. This concerns us both equally.”
“I know that. But there are other things involved here.”
“What other things? Look, man, we’ve been friends our whole lives. I’ve got your back. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Then be honest. I need to know what we’re up against.”
“We’re not up against anything. Not from this, anyway.”
“Then why can’t you tell me more?”
“Look. You’ve got to trust me on this.” He grabbed my arm—actually grabbed my arm.
I yanked it away. “Not cool.”
“Sorry. If I tell you, you’ve got to promise me full confidentiality.”
“That’s a given, Joe. Christ.”
“This friend of mine—I met him at a…club.”
“The Future Lawmakers Club?” I blurted out.
Joe’s eyes went wide.
“Sorry,” I said. “Bad joke.”
“Not a joke of any kind,” Joe said.
“So what club, then?”
“A lifestyle club.”
“Lifestyle? You mean swingers?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t share. It’s the…leather lifestyle.”
BDSM? My best friend was into BDSM? Whoa. I’d dabbled a bit in the past myself, but never to the extent that I joined any kind of club.
“There’s an underground community in the city,” Joe continued. “I used to be a part of it.”
“Okay. No offense, Joe, but TMI.”
“Yeah? Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”
Did he and Melanie…? I so did not want to know. “Uh…okay. No judgment here.”
“I’m not concerned about your judgment, Bryce, but there’s an unspoken rule in the community. We don’t talk about who or what we see there. Some of the people are pretty well-known, and if their names and involvement are revealed, it could hurt their business and everyday lives.”
“I see. So you can’t tell me who you got the name of the hacker from.”
“That’s right.”