“I’ll pass.” Sullivan searched Ghost’s face carefully, looking for signs of trauma, for any evidence that he was reading this wrong, that he should take a different tack, but all he got was insolence. The victim was well and truly gone, and kindness would wash off the guy’s back like water off a duck.
Tobias set the paper towels on the table with more force than necessary. “You can talk to him. You can talk to me. We’re on your side.”
“I’m good.” Ghost slid the top piece of bread off the sandwich, raked his finger through the mayo, and slurped it up. “Full fat. Nice.”
“Ghost,” Tobias said, sounding completely bewildered.
Sullivan cleared his throat. “Tobias, why don’t you go grab some fresh sheets out of my room? We’ll get Ghost set up on the couch.”
Tobias wasn’t stupid; he knew exactly what Sullivan was doing. The real question was whether Tobias trusted him enough to go along with it. For a long moment he hesitated. He glanced at Ghost.
“I’m not scared of your boyfriend,” Ghost said, patting him reassuringly on the ass, which—come the fuck on. “The hair gives him a certain toughness about the face, but if he’s falling for you, he’s got to be pure mush on the inside.”
Tobias didn’t seem to know if that was an insult or a compliment, so he only gave Ghost a conflicted frown and reluctantly left the room.
Sullivan wasn’t stupid either; he figured Tobias was probably eavesdropping, but it wasn’t Tobias that Sullivan was trying to manipulate, so he didn’t give a shit.
“All alone,” Ghost said. “Whatever shall we do with the time?”
“First order of business. If you get him hurt, I’ll give you to Spratt so fast it’ll make your head spin.”
Ghost blinked a couple of times. “I’m not sure you mean that. I wonder if you think you mean it.”
Oh, he meant it. He could be pissed off at Tobias, he could know exactly where he ranked in Tobias’s estimation, but that didn’t change the fact that Tobias mattered to him, deeply and—he suspected—irrevocably. “I don’t care if you believe it. I’m not trying to scare you; I’m being honest about the cause and effect here. He’s my first priority. If you get him hurt, I will make you pay. Bear it in mind.”
“Duly noted. Do you like fucking him?”
“Immeasurably. He’s surprisingly filthy in bed,” Sullivan said conversationally, enjoying the temporary pleasure of seeing a spark of annoyance in all the wry amusement. “Let’s be clear, one bullshitter to another. You’re only here in my house because I care about Tobias. Once I’m satisfied that nothing about this is going to bite him or me in the ass, you’re free to fuck off. In fact, I’d prefer it. We both know you’re going to drag him down with you.”
“Are you warning me off?” Ghost asked, seemingly tickled by it.
“No. He’s a big boy; if he wants you in his life, he’s welcome to you. But if you’re worth half the effort he’s put into finding you, you’ll do everything you can to keep him in the clear.”
Ghost kicked his boots off and swung his legs up, putting his bare, dirty feet on the table.
“Seriously?” Sullivan shook his head as if disappointed. “I hate to think I’ve already broken you down to petty rebellion. Surely you have something more substantial up your sleeve.”
Ghost checked his nails. There was chipped black varnish on his right hand. “You’re not a cop.”
“No.”
“A bodyguard?”
“No.”
Ghost sent a sly glance around the room, settling on the Mark III on the steamer trunk. “A PI? Did Tobias hire you to find me?” His eyebrows skyrocketed and he clasped his hands together in front of his heart. “And then you fell in love! Oh, my inner teenage girl is shrieking in happiness right now.”
Sullivan tipped his head. “What’s on the USB?”
Ghost smiled. “I wish you two crazy kids all the best.”
“I figure it’s something Mama will want,” Sullivan said thoughtfully, watching that smile pick up some frigid undertones. “She sent you there to get blackmail material, and she doesn’t seem the type to forgive failure. So that’s your first priority, I’m guessing. Get the USB to Mama, and go from there. Which means it’s evidence of Spratt up to bad shit. Drugs? Hookers? Violence?”
Ghost sat there and looked at him, every muscle in his body as relaxed and chill as the day is long—except for the muscle in his jaw, which was pulsing beneath that stiff smile. Hell of a tell.
“Explains why you’re so determined to put Tobias off his game, too,” Sullivan continued. “He’s a pushover about some things, but he’s a good man. A deeply moral man at his core, and he won’t want you giving a member of organized crime blackmail material for the top cop in the city. He’ll fight you on this. You can’t risk Tobias finding out what you’ve got. Am I on the right track?”
“And what about you, handsome? What would you do with that USB?”
“Depends what’s on it. If it’s enough to put Spratt behind bars? That’s one thing. If it’s only going to embarrass him or piss him off, that’s something else. But as long as that USB exists, he’ll come after you, won’t he?”
“He doesn’t know about it.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“And when he goes through your laptop?”
The laptop they’d left behind, he meant, in the room that had been Ghost’s before he’d gotten himself thrown into that closet. Ghost’s brow tightened almost imperceptibly.
“You’ve got surveillance programs on your hard drive, don’t you?” Sullivan asked. “I do this shit for a living, pal. If you’ve got a wireless camera somewhere in Spratt’s house, it needs a receiver, and that means a program on your computer. He won’t know what you’ve been filming, but he’ll suspect you’ve got something. It doesn’t matter what you do have; he’ll think of the worst possible thing you could have, and that’s what he’ll be aiming to stop. Is he
