He couldn't shake the sense that something was a little bit off with Jayden last night. They went to bed, they fucked like crazy, but there was a tension to Jayden even after they'd come, and all he wanted to do was sleep.

Lucas was too damn good at reading people for his own good, because even now it was morning and they were dressed, the distance between them only seemed to be growing, and he was at a total loss as to why.

Maybe he was imagining the whole thing. Jayden had a right to be tense. A huge meeting with his board, the potential that his father had been murdered, and still the ever-present threat against his own life. These were all huge things for anyone to deal with. Of course Jayden - the client - was distressed.

Lucas' closeness was clouding his judgement. He knew this was why you didn't get personally involved with a client, but he'd waded on in regardless, and now look at where they were.

What an idiot he'd been. How could he ever have thought Jayden could be interested in him in the longer term? He was everything Lucas had convinced himself he wanted, but he was also everything he'd always thought rich people were.

Or was Lucas just being moody today?

He got through the morning briefing mechanically. There would be yet another meeting with Duchenne, the lawyer, to go over yesterday's recordings. Lucas also suggested they speak with the doctor who had signed the deceased Mr. Deus' death certificate, so they'd need to track him down.

How much did all this cost?

The team dispersed and Jayden grabbed a light jacket, then nudged his glasses up his nose as he stepped well into Lucas' personal space. "Everything okay?"

Lucas raised his chin. "I'm fine."

Jayden's blue eyes were far too incisive for Lucas' liking right now, but Jayden only nodded and walked to the door. "I was thinking," he said as he waited for Lucas to open it.

"About?" Lucas turned the handle and checked outside, then allowed Jayden to proceed.

"Lottie. Tamsin." Jayden rubbed his hands together as they headed into the elevator. "I don't know."

Lucas stared straight ahead and watched the numbers on the elevator's display decreased. "What about them?"

Jayden sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, if you and me..." He tailed off and gave a little grin. "It'd be weird if I didn't help them out, right?" Then his grin faded. "Or would it? I don't know. What do you think?"

"You are helping them," Lucas countered as the doors parted and they began to cross the lobby. "You're going to get your company back, fix the pricing, and that'll help them. It'll help everyone who needs what Deus Pharmaceuticals makes."

"Right, but I can help them now." Jayden waited for the team to check the outside world, then hurried across the sidewalk to get into the waiting car. He'd learned his lesson about standing around in public, it seemed. "Is it weird to give a gift to your lover's family if they're in trouble?"

Lucas fastened his seatbelt and waited until the car was in motion before he looked at Jayden. "I don't know," he said simply. "I don't know any rich people other than you, and if I did none of them have showered cash from above. It seems..." he tailed off.

What did it seem?

Shit, Lucas was trained as a SEAL. He knew how to kill Jayden twenty ways with his bare hands, most in under ten seconds, but he didn't know how to cope with the idea that Jayden would just swoop in and sprinkle money all over his life to make all his problems go away. Lucas worked his ass off. Lottie worked even harder. Together they barely scraped a livelihood and even that was by living in the lowest rent area of Manhattan available. If Jayden snapped his fingers, it made all their efforts worthless.

No amount of work could ever match up to the amount of money Jayden could throw at a problem. These past few weeks had shown that. Death threats? Hire a team of professional security specialists, each one of whom earned the same wage as Lucas. Corporate subterfuge? Just hire a lawyer whose offices cost more than Lucas would earn in his entire life.

Meds too expensive for the little people? Just buy a year's supply for them.

Jayden watched him. He was waiting.

Why shouldn't Jayden do this, though? And who the hell was Lucas to say no to such an offer? Jayden could lighten Lottie's load significantly, he wanted to do it, so what right did Lucas have to say no to that? And Jayden was right: they were dating. Lovers did things for each other, shared burdens.

Shared bills.

Lucas took a deep breath and rubbed his jaw. "I wouldn't say no," he concluded. "It's very kind of you. I'll ask Lottie if she's okay with it."

Jayden smiled warmly, and whatever had eaten at him last night seemed to bleed away at last. "Great!"

Lucas nodded and turned to watch Manhattan go by outside.

"I've listened to the whole thing," Duchenne said as he lounged back in his chair. "What makes you so sure Covington's our guy?"

The lawyer's eyes were on Lucas, so Lucas folded his hands behind his back as he answered. "Autonomic responses," he replied. "Body language."

"Inadmissible," the lawyer mused. "How are you gonna translate that into hard evidence?"

"We've got a PI on him," Jayden said. "We're gonna start watching everything he does, so then we can corroborate if he tries anything again."

Lucas nodded in agreement.

"I was thinking for completeness we should just tail them all, to be honest," Jayden added.

Lucas blinked.

Duchenne leaned forward across his desk and frowned at Jayden. "You need a good reason to put investigators on so many people. Most PIs will turn down speculative work. At least with Covington you have suspicion."

"Oh come on, Alan!" Jayden scowled at him. "They're all a bunch of homophobic dickbags who wouldn't cry if I got killed. How do we know Brock's working alone? What if they're all in on it?"

"They're not," Lucas offered.

"You don't know that!" Jayden pulled his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And I'm the one who dies here if you're wrong!"

Duchenne huffed, then looked to Lucas. "Would you excuse us for a minute?"

"I'm afraid that isn't possible," Lucas replied.

Alan nodded slowly to himself, then leaned back and looked to Jayden. "You're tense, Jayden. I'm gonna switch from lawyer to BFF here, okay? Because you aren't listening to the attorney." He raised a foot onto his desk as he tilted even further back. "Listen to Lucas here. It's his job to keep you alive, and he seems pretty fucking good at it. Or did you forget some asshole shot at you already and you didn't get hit?"

Jayden's cheeks turned bright red and he shoved the glasses back into place as he bounced out of his chair. "Of course I'm fucking tense! They-" He gasped for a breath, then sagged, his shoulders drooping. "They might've killed Dad."

Alan dropped his foot to the floor and leaned forward. "Proof?"

"None. It's just a theory. He..." Jayden swallowed. "He needed me, and I wasn't there, and..."

"Woah, stop." Alan stood and circled his desk so that he could grab Jayden by the shoulders. "Run me through this. How did we get from natural causes to murder overnight?"

Lucas cleared his throat and began to walk through the theory. He outlined the bare bones of the conspiracy he and Jayden had worked out last night, careful to end it with, "This is only a working theory."

Alan watched him as he spoke, then released Jayden and returned to his chair. "Okay. Without a court case, we can't subpoena any medical records. Without medical records we have no cause to start a lawsuit. Have you spoken to the doctor who signed the death certificate?"

"That's on the list for today," Lucas said as Jayden flopped back into his chair.

"You realize you can't force him to say anything, or even talk to you?"

"Yeah." Lucas nodded. "But civilians aren't good at carrying guilt around."

Alan began to tap a pen against the side of his laptop, then sighed. "Okay. But promise me you aren't just gonna slap a PI on every single board member just because they're dicks?"

Jayden eyed him, then huffed. "Fine. I promise."

"I wanna-"

"-hire the PIs," Lucas concluded.

Jayden shut his mouth and looked at him like he'd just swallowed a bee. "Yeah," he croaked.

"I think you should listen to your attorney's advice," Lucas countered. "C'mon, Jayden, you've done everything by the book so far, and if you go off the rails you could endanger everything about your case." He hesitated, then reached to take Jayden's hand.

Jayden gripped his fingers tightly and his jaw clenched tight. "It's not fair."

Lucas nodded at that. "Agreed. But is it fair to put tails on innocent people?"

"Urgh. Again with the logic." Jayden sighed and leaned against him, so Lucas slipped his arm around Jayden's shoulders. "Surely the more data we have, the easier it is to get to the bottom of all this."

"Sure, but having money doesn't mean you get to trample all over people's rights," Lucas said quietly.

Jayden said nothing to that, and they drove on in mutual silence.

It only took an hour for the office to pin down the doctor who had signed Deus Senior's death certificate, and once they had the details, Jayden wanted to shoot straight over there.

"Do you want me to do the talking?" Lucas offered.

"He might be more willing to talk to me," Jayden reasoned. "I'm the relative. I don't know that you'd have any legal rights in this."

Lucas nodded faintly. He agreed completely, but it was moderately frustrating. He couldn't walk into enemy territory and shake down a prisoner for a confession. In some ways, civilian life was incredibly hard. "Yeah," he said.

They looked to the building they'd parked outside, then Lucas opened the door while Marcus flanked the other side of the car. Between them they secured the area, and then escorted Jayden inside.

It was up to Jayden to use his charm now.

"Hey, I'm sorry to trouble you," Jayden said as he flashed a smile to the lady at the front desk. "Is Dr. Hapsburg available?"

She looked up at him across the top of her half-moon glasses. "Is he expecting you?"

"No. It's just a quick question about my father's death certificate. I can wait if he's busy right now."

"If you need a copy, you just fill out this form," she said, and wheeled away to fetch a form to offer to Jayden with a smile. "Here you go, honey."

"Oh, no, I have a copy. It's-" Jayden shook his head ruefully. "I was just hoping he could explain to me what it meant, you know?" Jayden pulled it up on his phone to show to her. "It's been a while, I know, but..."

She eyed him sympathetically, then set the form down. "Let me ask if he can help you. One second."

Lucas remained on the lookout while she chatted into her phone and then asked Jayden to wait, and it wasn't long before a harried, middle-aged man emerged from a door labeled Staff Only.

"I'm Dr. Hapsburg," he announced in a warm Southern accent. "What can I do for you?"

Jayden bounced up and showed the doctor the death certificate, and Lucas watched closely as Jayden spun his tale.

Hapsburg's features flickered as his gaze flit across the phone, then he frowned. "What you can do is request a copy of the autopsy and toxicology reports," he replied, a faint strain in his tone, "but I can't discuss this with you out here. It would be a HIPPA violation."

"In your office, then?" Jayden asked.

"There's really nothing I can tell you that isn't in those reports." Hapsburg stuffed his hands into his pockets and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

Lucas sensed fear. It rolled off the doctor in waves, almost like a stink, so he stepped forward and loomed over the far shorter man. "You performed the autopsy, didn't you, Dr. Hapsburg?"

Hapsburg shrank away from Lucas. Tiny pinpricks of sweat broke out across his forehead. "That's really all I can suggest," he stammered.

Lucas glanced to Jayden and nodded faintly, and Jayden shook Hapsburg's hand. "Thank you, doctor," he enthused. "I'll fill out the forms."

"You're welcome," Hapsburg mumbled.

Marcus headed out first, and Lucas fell in at the rear as they escorted Jayden back to the car.

"Okay," Jayden said as they settled into the back seat. "I'm not the best at this cloak and dagger stuff, but he was shitting himself, right? Like, I didn't imagine that? He's totally terrified?"

Lucas nodded calmly. "You're not wrong," he murmured. "Dr. Hapsburg is hiding something. I suspect he lied in his report, but to prove that we'd need to check his financials for the past year."

Jayden nodded as Marcus began to drive away. "Right. How do we get those?"

Lucas shook his head grimly. "We don't. We have no access to his banking records, and no right to get a copy. Only the cops or the court can get that information legally."

He could've kicked himself for adding that last word on there. Jayden's gaze lit up like it was Christmas.

"So how do we do it illegally?"

"We don't," Lucas said.

It was too late. He could tell just by looking at Jayden that he'd already decided to break the law, and Lucas couldn't see how the hell to stop him. This went beyond worrying about his client, and into worrying about his lover, because this shit could get Jayden jailed, and then he'd lose everything he'd been fighting for.

And then Tamsin, and kids like her, would be the ones who suffered.

As they headed back toward Manhattan, Lucas chewed over how to talk Jayden out of this, but every way he could think of would just lead to the truth.

Jayden's money was corrupting him.