last night.”
“Yeah. Joe and I had a lot of business to discuss.” I kissed the top of my son’s head. “Hey, buddy.”
He gave me a sloppy smile, and I tousled his hair.
“Speaking of Joe, he’s outside. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Tell him to come in. I just put on a pot of coffee.”
I can’t. Someone might be listening. A shiver skittered across my arm. At least we’d be out of the house today. “He says he’s in a hurry, Mom. I won’t be long.” I walked out of the kitchen, through the small foyer, and out the door.
Joe stood across the street, next to his truck. He was dressed for work in jeans and cowboy boots. He even wore a black Stetson. I didn’t own a cowboy hat. Not that I needed one. It wasn’t a good look on me. At least I didn’t think it would be.
And why I was ruminating over Joe’s hat I had no idea. Anything to think about something other than what we were about to discuss.
Then a thought speared into my head. What if… What if Joe hadn’t come over to discuss Justin and the Morses? What if Marjorie had called him? What if he was going to kick my ass for breaking his little sister’s heart?
No matter. I deserved it.
I crossed the street. “Hey.”
“Hey. Sorry to freak you out this morning.”
Not Marjorie after all. I was relieved. A little.
“You didn’t. I just didn’t sleep well.” A lie. I’d slept fine—after making love to his sister. Marjorie seemed to be my anti-nightmare drug. I just hadn’t slept enough.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping great either. I hate keeping this from Melanie, but she’s in her third trimester and I don’t want to overload her.”
“Good,” I said, my tone a bit harsh. “Not just for Melanie, but we did agree to keep this solely between us.”
“Easy,” Joe said. “I haven’t forgotten that. But she’s my wife, and we don’t have secrets. At least we didn’t until now, and I don’t like the feeling it gives me.”
“I get it.”
“You can trust me, Bryce. You know that.”
“Yeah. Of course I do. What’s up?”
“I found us a hacker.”
“A hacker? What for?”
“To hack into the school system. To find Justin’s last name.”
I lifted my brow. “We just got done talking about keeping this between the two of us.”
“I haven’t told him anything.”
“But you found him. Someone knows you’re looking for a hacker.”
“No one knows.”
“How do you know that?”
He cleared his throat and adjusted his hat. “A friend of a friend.”
“Who’s the friend?”
He cleared his throat again. “I can’t say.”
“What do you mean you can’t say? I thought we were in this together.”
“We are. It’s just…”
My heart slammed against my chest. “Joe, you didn’t go surfing through the dark web, did you?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You think I have a clue how to get on the dark web? Christ, Bryce.”
“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