Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(46)

Dalton had slept hard and long on the plane ride home, but he was still exhausted, and Alex’s puppyish exuberance only annoyed him right now. “What is it?” he asked with dread as Alex’s bouncing increased.

“Sebastian is arriving in a private jet in ten minutes. Humphrey is meeting him, but—”

“But you’re worried Humphrey won’t be able to handle it,” Dalton finished for Alex as he opened the door for Lizzy.

“Yeah. I mean, he’s an old dude,” Alex shrugged.

“Then let’s go,” Dalton sighed as he lowered himself into the sedan.

Alex hurried around the hood of the car and leapt in. “Oh, and I need to take you to talk to Jason. I can drop you off there and take Lizzy back to her place before picking you back up. That is, as long as Humphrey can get Sebastian to go with him.”

Alex tore out of the arrivals line and sped toward the private hangars. They wouldn’t be able to waltz right in, but they would be able to watch to make sure Humphrey had Sebastian in hand. If not, then Dalton would go to Plan B.

They saw Humphrey’s car before they saw his head. He was leaning against the side of the car with his arms crossed. Dalton and Lizzy peered out the windshield and through the chain-link fence, watching him.

“I don’t see any agents with him,” Lizzy said, scanning the area.

“Nope, and here comes Sebastian,” Dalton replied, his eyes never leaving Sebastian’s tall frame as he walked down the stairs of his jet. “He doesn’t seem surprised to see Humphrey.”

“Sebastian would never show if he was. That’s part of his image,” Lizzy answered.

Humphrey walked over to Sebastian and shook his hand. He gestured to the car. Sebastian nodded and said something. Humphrey nodded then and pulled out his phone. Lizzy’s phone rang and Alex jumped. “Dude, weird.”

“Hello?” Lizzy put the phone on speaker.

“It’s Humphrey. I’m at the airport with Sebastian. He wants to talk to you.”

Lizzy looked at Dalton, and he instantly knew what she was asking. He gave a single nod of his head. “Then turn around. We’re in the sedan.”

Humphrey spun as Lizzy and Dalton opened their doors. Lizzy still had the dress from the party on, but it was now covered with a black T-shirt. Sebastian was in the same suit as well. Sebastian and Humphrey got into his car and drove through the guarded gates toward them.

“What do you think he wants?” Alex wondered. Lizzy and Dalton didn’t answer. They spread out to cover the car as it came to a stop next to them. Sebastian and Humphrey got out and Dalton tensed, ready for anything.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” Sebastian said, not sounding all too glad.

“I could say the same, but I don’t know if it’s true yet,” Lizzy shot back in the same nonchalant voice Sebastian had used as she patted him down for a wire. “How are your new friends?”

Sebastian seemed amused, and Dalton fought against punching him. “Roland isn’t the head of Mollia Domini.”

“I guess you’d know this since you joined them. At least that’s what it appears when you wire a million dollars to Roland Westwood right after you disappear with them,” Alex chimed in.

Dalton blinked at Alex’s statement. First, Alex was standing up to Sebastian. Second, a million dollars?

“You paid them?” Lizzy asked, her voice soft and deadly.

The moment of shock that had registered and then quickly passed over Sebastian’s hard features was masked with elitist indifference once again. “A million is nothing. You know that. It was enough to learn that Roland isn’t the leader. Isn’t that worth a million dollars?”

“At what cost?” Lizzy asked. “The cost of you now being an enemy of the country? What did they need that money for? To try to kill your supposed best friend again?”

“Again, again,” Alex mumbled.

“What?” Sebastian snapped.

Alex began to shuffle his feet again. “Someone tried to kill the president again overnight.”

Sebastian didn’t react. Instead he turned to Humphrey. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Lizzy ordered. “What else did you learn?”

“I’m an enemy of the state, remember? If you want to know what I know, then I need a favor.”

“So much for no strings,” Lizzy spat. Dalton could tell she was close to letting her temper fly.

“I’ve put a lot on the line to get you information on Roland. Now I need something in return. It’s a simple quid pro quo,” Sebastian shrugged.

“What do you want?” Lizzy asked between gritted teeth.

“Nothing from you, love. I want Alex, or whoever discovered I’d wired that money so quickly, to get me all of Bertie Geofferies’s financials, private emails, text messages, everything.”

“Why?” Dalton asked.

“Bertie is my rival, and we all know knowledge is power. I’m helping you, you help me, and I continue to feed you information on Mollia Domini.”

Lizzy shook her head. “No. I won’t let him. You’re not in control here, Sebastian.”

Sebastian raised one eyebrow over his cement-gray eyes. “We’ll just see what Birch has to say about it. Speaking of my friend, let’s go, Humphrey.” Sebastian slid into the back seat as if Humphrey were his chauffeur and closed the door.