Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
The rest, we knew.
I didn’t share my theory.
Though, I didn’t bet, but I’d lay down money it was accurate.
“I think you can guess it’s morally imperative I get my hands on that laptop,” Mastermind remarked.
Did he know we had it?
Or was he just sharing?
Willow and I remained silent.
“Kevin Johanssen, who I believe knows what his friend was up to, might very well know where that laptop is,” Mastermind stated.
So they didn’t know we had the laptop.
I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“Did you get into Trev’s phone?” Willow asked.
“I was able to do so, yes,” Mastermind confirmed.
“And how are you going to make kidnapping us worthwhile, Congressman?” Willow asked.
I should have played it cooler, but when she used his title, my head whipped her way.
I then looked at Mastermind.
And holy shmoly!
Yes!
He didn’t represent my district, but I’d seen his face on those hideous campaign signs that choked the metropolitan landscape during the election cycle.
What was his name?
My mind chugged then found it.
Congressman Kieran Mahoney.
Rumor had it, he was looking to jump up to a senate seat. Or possibly eyeing the governor’s mansion.
So, first, he was a father who didn’t want his daughter being blackmailed and living in fear of some jerk-hole making her life a misery.
Second, he was a politically ambitious man who might have his career and future prospects besmirched by his daughter’s sex tape going live.
Third, putting those two together, because he was who he was, that sex tape would spread farther and wider than some average Jane who simply met the wrong dude on a dating app, which would make her life more than a misery.
Fourth, the fact he was who he was, was why we couldn’t get a lock on him, because he didn’t occupy the spaces that the Hottie Squad, Titus or Jinx and her crew normally did.
And last, he could absolutely not have a man’s murder tied to him in any way. Not that anyone could, but this dude had the means and the motive to make sure that didn’t happen.
I felt bad for him, but more for his daughter.
I was also beginning to feel bad for Willow and me, considering the fact we’d been kidnapped by him, and I was guessing a dude who wanted to be governor, and what might come after that, didn’t want two chicks he’d kidnapped strolling around Phoenix wearing cute dresses and drinking cocktails.
Shit.
And yes, this occasion totally demanded cursing.
“I don’t wish for this to get any messier,” Congressman Mahoney said.
Well, that was promising.
“Therefore, I’ll be offering you both thirty thousand dollars in cash in return for that laptop and you both signing an NDA regarding anything that has anything to do with me or this situation. About which, if it ever came to light, I would not only sue you for everything you own, and I’d win, I would vehemently deny it and be forced to share things about you that would expose you both as frauds.”
“What things?” Willow asked.
“There need be no things,” Congressman Mahoney replied. “There are people who would create things you would never, ever live down, but the public would believe them like they were gospel.”
I’d seen Scandal. As such, I so totally believed he could do that.
The good news, what was left of our dead bodies being discovered in a ravine in five years was not on the menu.
Crazy enough, there didn’t seem to be any bad news.
“Alternate deal,” Willow said.
Hang on.
What was she doing?
My mind wasn’t keeping up enough to throw out an “alternate deal.”
Of course, I didn’t think it was right that Trev’s killer didn’t find justice, but I didn’t want this man’s daughter to suffer. The deal he was offering, especially considering it didn’t include what was left of my body, or Willow’s, being discovered in a ravine, seemed like a good deal, even if this was a moral conundrum.
Willow didn’t seem conundrummed.
“I’m listening,” Congressman Mahoney said.
“First, the person who killed Trev, where is he?” Willow demanded.
Congressman Mahoney seemed visibly uncomfortable and at a loss for words.
Being a politician and all, he found his words.
“He’s been neutralized.”
That gave me a little shiver, even if I wasn’t entirely certain what it meant. Though, I suspected it was very bad for the dude who effed up and killed Trevor.
My surprisingly, and awesomely, cool and collected Willow simply nodded and kept at him.
“I want you to go get that phone. I want to watch as you delete all the videos of all the other girls that are on that phone. I will then deliver the laptop to you. The only video on it will be of your daughter so you’ll know you have all that’s to be had. We’ll sign the NDA, because I don’t care about anyone knowing any of this. I only want to assure those women know they no longer live under that cloud. We’ll then go our separate ways. And done.”