Dane

Dane's head was spinning. He was still having trouble processing where he was, what had happened, and what he had to remember.

​​

Walking into the apartment, smelling it, smelling her, had just about broken him. He'd had to wait until Chris left, then sunk onto the couch in that same seat where he'd sat with her, on the phone…

But he'd had no real time. Chris had brought Harry down ten minutes later.

Now, Harry sat on the other side of the apartment dining table, in the very same spot Dane had had Lila weeks earlier, and his heart clenched at the memory.

But this was a very, very different set of circumstances. And his heart and mind were confused. There were too many things. Too many impossible things. He was struggling to know what was real.

Harry had come armed, and with his cuffs, and he sat back in his chair, elbows braced on the table, his eyes on Dane like cat who'd seen a dog.

"You're telling me he's dead?"

Dane nodded.

"But you didn't do it?"

"No. And I have proof."

"How?"

"I was able to do what I told you I hoped that I could. I have a device… but I need my tech guy to unencrypt the files."

"And that hasn't happened yet?"

"I've literally spoken to no one but you. And Chris, who got me out."

Harry blew out a breath. He didn't take his eyes off of Dane. "I don't know, Dane. This is… a lot. You're asking me to go on a lot of trust here. And frankly, with the way you disappeared, I don't know if I've got it anymore."

"You really think if I killed him I would have made you my first call, the second I got out?"

"What about Lila?"

"I… sent her a message. There's been some major shit and I didn't want her pulled into this. She's innocent in this Harry. I've got proof of that, too. You have to keep her out of this. I can't take her down with me. She's got enough shit to shovel without that."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing that you need to worry about. Nothing illegal. My dad just fucked shit up."

Harry huffed and started clicking his pen that he'd brought out to write on the notepad in front of him. But Dane couldn't see anything he'd written yet.

"Okay, let's go back," Harry said slowly. "Let's take this from the beginning. You were supposed to meet with me that morning, but instead… you went in?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because there's people around you who know him and work with him. I knew that in concept, but now I know who—some of them. And how many. There's a lot, Harry. I don't doubt that decision. I needed to get in there with no record of it happening associated with you. He already knew we'd been talking—and he has your bodycam footage from your meeting with Lila."

"What?"

Dane nodded. "What he can't get directly, he's got people feeding him from inside. You are surrounded by his people—especially on this operation that's kicking off today."

Harry went very still. "What operation?"

"The one where you're enacting search warrants and planning to bring me down, among others. Dad not only had most of the people on your team, he had a plan for you, personally. He was going to take you out if he could do it without getting the whistle blown."

"How?"

"I asked him to give me the gun on it, Harry. When I thought it was going ahead, I asked him to make me the point man. I was going to stop it from happening, I swear. Once I knew… he actually let me see how much you'd pissed him off—how hard he had to work to keep your stuff from getting to the wrong people. He didn't trust me entirely. He'd heard some of our conversations. But he wasn't sure. If he hadn't… if things hadn't… changed… I'd be out there right now trying to convince him to let me in on it."

Harry's jaw twitched. "How did you get out, Dane. Tell me."

"He's dead."

"I understand that—though I've heard nothing about it yet."

"You probably won't. At least, not for a while. It's not like they broadcast what they're doing over there. And the support he had from the suits in Washington… I'm guessing it will either be covered up completely, or it'll be touted as an accidental death, or something like that. No one's investigating the murder of my father."

"Murder at who's hands."

Dane took a deep breath. "Chris," he said. "He did it for me. I was going to—I was just about to, if I'm really honest. But he… took care of it for me."

Harry shook his head, then rubbed his face. "So, there's dead body on the ninth block?"

"Yeah. Felix was taking care of it."

"He's your dad's back up?"

"Yeah. I think he'll probably step into the role now, if the government will have him. Otherwise, I don't know. I didn't see anyone else primed for that. Or he didn't let me see it, anyway."

"Fuck, Dane. This is murder. And conspiracy. And… fuck!"

"It wasn't me, Harry. I can show you that. Just give me a few hours, maybe a day at most. This technology is beyond the cutting edge. I don't think anyone else has it. I need him to get the files for me. If he doesn't… I'm up shit creek."

Harry huffed again and shook his head. "So you're telling me about a murder that you witnessed, about the infiltration of Law Enforcement, and you're sitting here in front of me, and I'm just supposed to let you walk free?"

"You think I can walk free right now? The entire world knows my face."

"Money gets you all kinds of freedom, Dane. I'm not naïve. If you're playing me, giving you a day's grace is giving you an opportunity to hide literally anywhere in the world."

"But… why would I come to you if I wanted to hide? Why wouldn't I have just run without telling you there'd been a murder?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out. What's your angle here?"

Dane raked both hands through his hair and inexplicable rage shoved through his veins. No matter where he went no matter how honest he was, he was always questioned. Always second-guessed. Always disbelieved.

"I came here—before I even came to my wife—so I could get you safe, and fill you in, and hopefully get your help to get to the actual truth of what is happening out there right now. I don't know what else I can tell you, Harry. I have the evidence, but I need time to get it. If you don't give me that time, I can never prove it to you. So… one of us has to trust. And in the meantime, I'm telling you, whatever you do with me, get out of these raids tonight—or tomorrow, whenever it was they decided to do it."

"But he's dead, right? Won't that put an end to whatever he was doing?"

"If you believe that, you're the naïve one," Dane said. "Not only will tht project go ahead without him, but whoever steps into his place will likely go even harder, because they won't have his discipline. You're at greater risk now, in my opinion, than you were six hours ago."

"And if this is just a trick to get me out of the operation? To stop me from finding what we need?"

Dane shook his head. "Why wouldn't I have just let them kill you? Then you'd be out of the way for everything. Forever."

Harry tipped his head side-to-side and locked eyes with Dane. "Maybe."

"Fuck you, Harry."

"What if I tell you I'm not getting out of the raids?"

"Then I'd be asking Bert to pray if I were you."

"If what you're saying is true, then that team needs people on it like me. Otherwise the dirty guys just skew everything, maybe even plant evidence. Someone needs to keep them honest."

"Why does it have to be you?"

"Because you might have noticed, Dane, that even when you think someone is trustworthy, it doesn't always prove to be true. Getting someone else involved means trusting that person. And I have to trust you first, to make that happen."

"They're getting everything. You understand that, Harry? What they don't get from these guys directly, they get from tech, or someone else behind the scenes. You aren't in control of your own information. Let alone things like videos."

Harry swore and threw his pen down, dropping his head in his hands. Dane considered a compliment that Harry would take his eyes off of him.

"If I let you stay out, where are you going? What are you doing?"

"I'm mostly sitting here," Dane said. "I'll be going to visit my tech guy as soon as I can. There's a couple roadblocks that need to be navigated, but I figure I get to that sometime after lunch. Then I get back here, and then I wait."

"Who else knows you're out?"

"Chris, dad's people, obviously. Or at least, they will. Other than that, no one except Lila, who knows I'm out, but she doesn't know where I am. We haven't seen each other yet."

Harry gaped. "You weren't exaggerating?"

Dane shook his head.

"But—"

"I can't bring her into this, Harry. It'll be a step too far. She's falling apart as it is. If she got arrested too…"

"Holy shit, Dane."

"I know. But I don't want to talk about it. So what are you going to do?"

Harry stared at him hard, his jaw tight.