Stolen by Allison Brennan Page B

killed Sean that he had to lie to him. Sean knew Colton as well as himself—he would protect Sean’s secret to his grave. Sean regretted doubting him.
    “Did you tell anyone else? Someone you trust?”
    “No one. I swear.”
    “But you do know Paxton.”
    Colton nodded, sipped his beer. “I haven’t told the team yet, but he’s the one who hired me for this job.”
    Sean had no cover, no secrets other than his purpose for joining Colton’s group. It was the only way this undercover investigation could work—Sean publicly left RCK and reconnected with his old friend, who brought him back into the fold. Three weeks ago, there was nothing to do, no jobs, just meeting the team. Now everything was happening double time.
    Sean kept his voice low. “Why would he pay you to break into PBM?” This was the information that Noah had been searching for for months. Sean kept his voice even and pretended his only interest was in finding out how Paxton knew about his crime.
    “He wants to prove that PBM took government money and didn’t do what they claimed.”
    “We proved that when we hacked into the network.”
    “We need physical proof.”
    “He’s a fucking United States senator,” Sean said. “He can get any proof he wants with a snap of his fingers.”
    “Shh!” Colton frowned, then said quietly, “You know that if the senator went through proper channels, PBM would be tipped off and have time to destroy evidence.”
    They’d been down this path before. Finding evidence only to have it destroyed before the proper authorities got their warrants and their act together.
    “Did you tell him about the bio-weapons?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Would you have wanted me to?”
    “No.” Sean glanced at his friend. Colton was keeping something back. “What aren’t you tell me?”
    Sean was having a hard time buying the story and didn’t think Colton was that gullible, either, though everything he said had a ring of truth. And if Sean didn’t know what kind of manipulative, murderous bastard Senator Paxton was, he might have let it go. But Paxton didn’t fork over this much of his own money to expose government waste.
    Sean said, “There are far better ways of proving a company misused public funds than hiring a known computer hacker to get the evidence. He’s a senator. He can put together a committee, go to the FBI, start a federal investigation, whatever he needs.”
    “It’s more complicated that that.”
    “Paxton has his own rule book, and you can’t believe anything he says. He’s a killer, Colton. And if you don’t care about that, care about how he uses people. He blackmailed me!”
    “You should know me better than that, Sean. Of course I don’t trust him—I don’t trust any politician—and I’m certain he has his own agenda, but on this project, our purposes are aligned. And he has money.”
    “See, this is what I’m having a hard time understanding,” Sean said. “I see why you care, but why Paxton?”
    “He has his reasons, I have mine, but we both want the company destroyed. And it will save lives, Sean. You care about that.”
    “You haven’t proved it to me yet. You haven’t told me anything beyond what we found last month in the files.”
    Colton looked pointedly at Sean. “You used to take my word on it.”
    “Yes, I did.” Sean stared back.
    “I need you, Sean. I need you with me, one hundred percent.”
    Sean drank his beer. He didn’t know why Colton needed him—Hunter was as good as Sean, probably better if it came down to it. Evan was competent, even though Sean didn’t like him. Skye was smart and had her own assets. Why bring Sean in?
    “You’re the only person I’ve ever trusted, Sean.”
    His heart twisted. Colton wasn’t lying. That Sean was made him feel like shit.
    Colton lowered his voice. “I’m finally in a position to prove that Pham-Bonner Medical killed Travis and covered it up.”
    Colton had never accepted that his brother had died of