Page 69 of Seven
"You know why. I can't be seen with you in public right now. You're out on bail."
Wick took a sip and nodded, then glanced around the room. Bro code was still a bro code. They weren't supposed to mess with each other's careers.
Caius silently slid the envelope of photos across the table.
Wick didn't touch it right away. He stared at the envelope for a beat, then at Caius, as if weighing the risk of what was inside. Eventually, he pulled the pictures into the light and spread them with the flat of his palm.
Caius grabbed the photo of the unidentified mystery man from the bottom of the pile and placed it in front of Wick, then tapped at the image with a finger.
"So, you talked to Jerico?" Wick guessed.
"I did."
"I remember this guy," Wick said, returning his attention to the photo. "He was at the mixer. Bumped into me in the back. Dressed like a waiter. Had a beard."
"But he wasn't one," Caius concluded.
"Definitely not. He knew exactly what he was doing." Wick was quiet for a while. "That dumb bitch… You saw the footage, right. I bet she's involved."
"Kimberly Holt?" Caius prompted.
Wick's nostrils flared. "Just so you know, I didn't talk to the cops about her. And Thorne—he might be a cockroach, but he's no snitch either."
"I didn't say you did."
"She made a lot of noise after," Wick supplied.
"I made it go away, didn't I?"
"Why you think she suddenly showed up? She's been quiet for three years."
"You're serious?" Caius asked, almost laughing, but it was all for show. On the inside he wasn't laughing at all. "You think that's her? You think she has something to do with your arrest and Jerico's forgery scandal. I mean we both know she's dumb. But she's not dumb enough to try and go against us. Not smart enough either."
"Any leads?"
"My investigators are watching her now."
"She figured out someone was following her and managed to lose the tail when I had my guy on her."
Caius was quiet again. His mind drifted back to the party three years ago. Frankly speaking, it wasn't that memorable. Women subdued by pharmaceuticals weren't his cup of tea. He liked when they felt the pain, when they felt his dick in their holes and begged him to stop. He liked when they fought him off. Kimberly Holt was a dead fish, knocked out by a minimal amount of Rohypnol.
She was just another useless bitch, who cost him a pretty penny.
But the fact that both Ronan and Jerico were convinced she somehow was involved set off his danger detectors.
"Did Jerico's contact find anything on her. You mentioned he was poking around the dark web?"
Ronan shook his head. "No. Nothing you can't track through a regular background check."
Caius pondered. If this woman was in fact involved in Jerico andRonan's recent scandals and no chatter on the dark web occurred, she was either truly not connected to any of this or somehow cleaned up or had someone with serious tech and resources clean up after her. The last notion made Caius squirm internally.
"My suggestion is to be careful, Caius," Ronan supplied. "You have a lot to lose."
"I appreciate it," Caius said, not meaning it.
The meeting came to its logical end since he got all the info he needed from Wick. He got up, warned Ronan not to call him directly and not to get involved into the investigation further and left.
In the elevator, he took a moment to adjust his tie and smooth his hair. He checked his phone, then looked at his reflection in the glass wall of the moving cabin, calibrating his expression to perfect neutrality.
