As if Brady didn’t already know that.
“What you saw, Finn? I wish I could tell you something different, but that’s not exclusive to that club or our personal group of villains. Some people actually do crave that level of pain and humiliation. I’ve witnessed scenes more extreme than what you’ve described, and I know for a fact that in that case, it was something they wanted, something they requested during negotiations.”
When Brady scowled, Ken shook his head. “I could go into their reasoning, try to explain it but there’s no point because that isn’t my scene. Even when I was younger and let people play me, I wanted what you… Well, I didn’t enjoy clothespins or mousetraps, we can leave it at that.”
“Does anyone play you now?”
Ken reached out to touch him, a soothing caress. “No. I’m a trainer and mentor now. I do demonstrations, like the one you saw at Burke’s. People can experience sexual arousal and satisfaction in my ropes, and I love helping them if that’s what they need, but I don’t respond in kind. Maybe I’ve been doing it for too long. I need more.”
The way he was looking at Brady made it clear what he was referring to. That and the pictures he’d painted about trust and intimacy in the ropes made Brady shift uncomfortably, still aroused from their earlier embrace. “I didn’t mean to go off topic. There’s a lot I need to tell you.”
After Brady went through his time as a prize bull—during which Ken winced and leaned over to kiss him—he told him about Cal’s initiation into the club. When it started, how they treated him, even his reaction to Brady’s concern. Something in Ken’s expression made him stop.
“What is it?”
“The timing. The assistant to the senator who brought down Burke getting an invite to the dark side at the same time I’d just started compiling Burke’s locked files and sending encrypted copies to my contacts in the agency.”
Brady frowned. “You think this is about Stephen? They talked about him.”
“It isn’t Stephen. Burke was Stephen’s white whale. He wasn’t looking into the others.”
“But Cal isn’t connected to you at all.”
“I helped you with Burke’s blackmail attempt on the senator.” Ken paused. “Cal and I have a shared interest in another Finn as well. You.”
Brady shook his head. “If they knew about you, they wouldn’t have hired you as a rope guy, right?” He shuddered. “Though after seeing their version of rope I’m glad that was canceled.”
Ken set down the ice cream and stood, starting to pace. “That’s the other thing. Cal’s jealousy aside, he knew who I was. That we were living together. If he did, they must have. Why let me think I’m going to be allowed in, with a whole group of big players in town? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe we’re reading too much into this.” The sinking feeling in Brady’s gut when he remembered those confident smiles told him they weren’t. “Maybe it was just a coincidence.”
Ken walked out the door of his loft and Brady followed as he went into his office and sat at one of the monitors, his fingers flying over his keyboard. “I should be able to weed through this Vargas info in a day. Maybe we can find something—”
Beep.
Ken’s fingers froze on the keys. “Vargas just got a new text message.”
Brady put his hands on Ken’s shoulders, needing to touch him. “It’s probably from Cal. Those two were arguing over a guy a few hours ago and my phone is in bits in the trash.”
The message popped up in a window on Ken’s monitor directly from the synced-up clone phone. Brady read it silently, his fingers digging into Ken’s flesh. Then he read it again.
Terry Wahl
346 Alpine Way
Entrance code:019
“Damn it!” Ken slammed his hands on the keyboard and pushed back his chair, causing Brady to move out of the way. He stood, whirling around to stare at all his monitors with two expressions Brady had never seen on his face.
Fear and doubt.
Brady tried to reach for him. “Relax, Tanaka. Come on, man, talk to me.”
“They knew. They knew who I was looking for, what I had, what we were planning. They looked into your eyes knowing this was what was going to happen. They played us.”
That was Brady’s first instinct. It made sense. “I just don’t know how.”
Ken gestured toward the room around them. “They found a way in. Or one of my agency contacts works for them. All of this needs to be destroyed. Tonight. I’ll have to rebuild everything.”
“What about Terry? The address? It could be real.” Brady took Ken’s hands, holding him. Steadying him.
“It could be a trap,” Ken said, “but then any idiot with a brain cell would know I’d think that. If I called in federal help, that could blow up in my face too. At least until I know who my mole is.”