“It’s weird just sitting here without playing around on my phone.”

Bas gripped the steering wheel tighter. They’d been driving for nearly ten minutes and were almost at Seaver Tech, but with the tense silence stretched between them, it had seemed much longer.

Christ, but he was angry. And he had no idea what to do with it. He couldn’t recall a time he’d felt such a fierce emotion with no outlet. Even after the crash, grief-stricken and heartbroken as he’d been, he’d been able to concentrate on figuring out who’d been responsible, making sure someone paid the price.

But now… Now there was no one to blame, except Alexei, and no useful task he could throw his energy into. So it simmered in the air around him. He could almost feel it.

“I had your phone wiped remotely,” Bas told him. “Last night. There’s no way they could have gotten anything useful off it. We can get you a new one.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Drew nod. “RIP, Dragon Puzzler. I was on Level 37. Nearly a mage.”

Bas snorted, almost against his will, and glanced at Drew. “Nearly a mage?” he mocked.

“Mmm. I was going to put it on my email signature.” He swept a hand out in front of him like he was reading an invisible title. “Head of Legal Department… and Mage.”

Bas shook his head, some of the tension leaching from him even as he tried to hold onto it. “Are you being ridiculous on purpose?” He put on his turn signal and headed into the underground garage.

“Depends,” Drew said, as Bas flashed his keycard at the scanner. “Is it working?”

“No.” He sighed. “Maybe.”

Drew reached over and put a hand on Bas’s knee. “I don’t want to fight with you, Sebastian,” he began.

“Then let’s not talk about the auction,” Bas told him. He pulled into his designated parking spot next to the elevator and cut the engine. “You’re not going to change my mind.”

Drew sighed like he was disappointed. He got out of the car, slamming the door behind him, and Bas wished they could rewind this day by six hours, to the part where they were totally on the same page and confessing their love to one another.

But honest to God, what did Drew expect? That somehow Bas would be okay with them all risking their lives on the slim chance they might be able to nab Alexei? No fucking way.

There was irony there. Drew was forever accusing him of going off half-cocked, despite the risks. Where was Drew’s levelheadedness now that they really needed it?

Despite the lingering tension, Drew was waiting next to Bas’s door as he got out and locked the car, and he took Bas’s hand in his as they walked inside.

“So, what are you hoping we’ll find behind the painting?” Drew asked as they made their way across the lobby toward the elevator.

Bas shrugged. “What do I want to find? Some evidence of Alexei committing a felony? Maybe a nice clear color photo of him with a gun in his hand.” With his free hand, he jammed the button that would take them to the basement. “But what do I think we’ll find? I don’t know. Something incriminating, no doubt.”

“Air gapping on steroids,” Drew said. “Your dad was smart.” Bas shot him a look that had Drew raising his hands innocently, “Just practicing my new vocabulary.”

Sebastian snorted. Drew had always known how to get around his moods, and he appreciated the effort, but it wasn’t gonna work today.

“If he was really smart, he would’ve stayed out of all this mess and there wouldn’t have been any information for him to hide,” he countered. “I think we’re going to find hard evidence that my dad took money from SILA. Maybe more details about the specific projects he gave them.” He looked at Drew. “Proof of his guilt, essentially.”

“Ouch.” Drew frowned as the doors opened and they stepped out into the hall.

“Yeah, well.” He unlocked the door to his office and pushed it open, flipping on the light. The place seemed darker and smaller than usual - not a lair, but a cage.

“Wait a sec. You can’t just drop a bomb like that and move on.” Drew pulled at his elbow. “Talk to me.”

Bas shook his head even as he let Drew turn him. Apparently Drew didn’t get that Bas wasn’t in any mood to talk. “Can we just do what we came here to do? Please?”

“In a minute! Bas, you keep talking about choices and alternate universes. How… how people find themselves in situations that are wrong, but they don’t even realize how wrong they are. Maybe your dad—”

“No.” Bas held up a hand. “Nope. I’m gonna stop you right there. What my father did - getting involved with fucking criminals, continuing to be involved with criminals for years - was wrong. Flat out. It’s not subjective.” He shook his head. “And you have no idea what it feels like to…God. To look back at this guy I idolized, and to doubt every fucking thing he ever taught me. Who was he? Did I even know him?”

Drew stepped closer, wrapping his arms around Bas’s waist, pressing their chests together. Bas closed his eyes for a moment, shocked all over again at how good and right it felt.

“Has anyone ever told you that you can be stubborn as hell?” Drew demanded. “Not everything can be put into one category. Was he good? Was he bad? Nobody’s all one thing or the other. I’m not. Neither are you.” He cupped Bas’s cheek in his hand. “Baby, sometimes you can’t think your way through something, because it won’t make sense no matter how hard you try. You just need to accept it.”

Bas ground his teeth together. “I’m aware of that.”

“Are you?”

“Yes! Just because I prefer logic - things I can understand and… and control doesn’t mean I think everything works that way! Look at us for God’s sake! There’s no logic to that.”

Drew raised an eyebrow, and Bas flushed as he replayed his words. “Not like that!” He squeezed Drew around the waist. “I just mean, I tried to logic my way through it, but I couldn’t make it fit into any of the boxes in my mind. And now… I dunno.” He stepped back, frustrated that he couldn’t articulate the truth he knew hovered at the back of his mind. “I’ve never been really good with emotional stuff. I wonder if… if the reason it took me so long to see the truth of what you and I could be, was because I knew it wasn’t going to be logical or reasonable.” He huffed out a laugh and looked into Drew’s serious brown eyes. “I don’t seem to have any reason or rationality at all when it comes to loving you. It’s beyond everything.”

Drew’s smile, when it came, was soft and slow.

“You think it’s any easier for me? Sebastian, I fell for you while believing you were straight. That… that it was doomed. And I tried so hard to think my way out of it, to distract myself with other guys.” His gaze grew sharp and he pointed an accusing finger at Bas. “And if you bring up Mark right now I will drop you where you stand!”

Bas widened his eyes. “I would never.”

They both knew he was lying.

“Uh huh. Anyway, we both made dumb choices.” Drew smirked. “I think that’s the theme of our whole friendship. Put it on a t-shirt. ‘Loving each other and making dumb choices, since 1987.’”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

“But we were both doing what we thought was best, right? In these hard situations. We did the best we could, given your overwhelming stubbornness…”

“And your insatiable need for control.”

“Yes, fine, and me being a control freak.” Drew rolled his eyes. “Can you not give your dad the same benefit of the doubt? I mean, looking back, we can see that he totally fucked up getting involved with Ilya. But put yourself in the shoes of a man who is mortgaged to the hilt with no idea how he’ll support his wife and kid. He’s got a great idea, and no one will give him a loan. Was he supposed to let you starve? Forget all of his talent and dreams so he could get an honorable job working at the grocery store?”

Did he think that? Would that have been better? Bas didn’t know.

“Look.” Drew pulled Bas close again, and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “He took a calculated risk with Ilya Stornovich. He had no idea how it would end up. You or I might have done the same thing in his position.”

Bas shook his head. “I hear what you’re saying. I do. And maybe I even get it logically.” He gave Drew a wry grin, acknowledging the irony. “But I don’t know how to forgive him when his choices harmed innocent people and destroyed my family.” He wrapped his arm around the back of Drew’s neck and spoke the ultimate truth. “His choices put you at risk. How can I forgive him for that?”

“But imagine he hadn’t,” Drew said. He braced his warm palms on both sides of Bas’s neck, and his thumbs stroked Bas’s jaw. It felt so damn good. “If he hadn’t started the company, our fathers wouldn’t have worked together for years. We wouldn’t have grown up together. We wouldn’t have been friends. We wouldn’t be together now.”

Bas wanted to fight against Drew’s words, against the truth in them, but he couldn’t. Logic and emotion both insisted that he was right. If his father had made a different choice, everything might have changed and that… that was unthinkable.

“He just always seemed larger than life. He had a solution for every problem,” Bas told him. He looked around the office, at the bank of monitors where he and his father had spent so many hours together. It had been a long time since he’d allowed himself to remember the good times they’d had here. The laughter they’d shared. The joy of discovery and challenge.

“He was a lot like you,” Drew said, and Bas knew that was true, too. And maybe he was blaming his father because he would have made the same choice.

“So you’re saying I need to put this behind me, huh?”

“No way. It’ll take time to get through it. To grieve for the man you thought he was. I’m just saying maybe it’s time to stop blaming. Forgive him for being human. For your sake. For the sake of our future.”

The need to kiss Drew was overwhelming, and Bas didn’t bother trying to resist. As he lost himself in the taste of Drew’s mouth, in the heat of his embrace, he sent up a silent message to his father.

I forgive you. I’ll live well. I’ll take care of Cam. I’ll love Drew until I die.

Because that was a choice Bas could make.

All too quickly, Drew made a noise in the back of his throat and pulled back slightly, his lips clinging to Sebastian’s.

“Jesus. We need, like, an entire week when this is over. Just us. No phones. No family. No work.”

“No clothes?” Bas asked, ducking his head to claim one last kiss. “Are you sure a week will be enough?”

“Did I say week?” Drew sucked in a breath and ran his hand down the front of Bas’s sweater, which peeked out from his open coat. “I meant month.”

“Noted.”

With a sigh, Bas let him go and moved over to the painting, moving the edge cautiously. It was surprisingly light and had been mounted with a single wire draped over a screw in the wall. It lifted off easily.

“Well, that’s fucking anti-climactic,” Drew said, coming closer as Bas set the painting on the floor.

The wall behind it was completely bare, but Bas ran a hand over the smooth surface anyway.

“Total waste of time,” Bas said, looking up at the ceiling. “Fuck.” What the hell were they going to do now, without any other strings to tug or leads to follow?

“It’ll be fine,” Drew said, coming around to console him. “We still have things we can…Wait! Bas! Look at the back of the painting!”

The painting was just a stretched canvas on a frame, with no paper backing. And nestled against the bottom edge of the frame, held in place with a single strip of duct tape, was a tiny thumb drive.

Bas watched as Drew knelt to peel away the tape. His mouth was suddenly dry and his gut churned.

“Got it!” Drew said, brandishing the stick. He looked at the row of computers and frowned. “How do we load this up?”

Bas took the drive from his hand. “I can do it.” He shucked his coat, sat in his chair, woke his machine, and inserted the flash drive, tapping his fingers restlessly on the desktop all the while.

“Hey.” Drew leaned over him from behind and laid a hand on Bas’s, stopping its motion. “It’s gonna be fine. Whatever’s on there, it’ll be okay.”

Bas nodded, but he wasn’t sure he believed it. Everything he and Drew had talked about was a hypothetical. Now he was going to see the reality… and learn exactly how much blood Levi Seaver had on his hands.

He called up the directory on the drive and scrolled through it. “It’s a bunch of notes,” he told Drew. “Names and dates. Contacts. Amounts paid, all in cash and untraceable. Shit, he made a lot of money from SILA.”

“What are those?” Drew pointed at the screen.

“Those are… Huh. Those are charitable contributions,” Bas said. “It… it looks like he made anonymous contributions for the same amounts Alexei was giving him.”

“So he wasn’t profiting,” Drew said softly.

“I guess not.”

And did that make Levi Seaver’s actions okay? Maybe not. But, yeah, it made Bas feel somewhat better. He kept digging.

“Are those emails?”

“Yeah. Dozens. Between my dad and Michael Paterkin. And notes from my dad’s conversations with him.” He turned to Drew. “Use my cell and call Cort.”

As Drew got Cort on the line, Bas skimmed the emails, excitement and anxiety thrumming through his blood in equal measure the further he read.

The FBI-agent Cort used to be was evident in his no-nonsense voice as Drew put the phone on speaker and set it on the desk. “We’re here. What did you guys find?”

“A flash drive,” Bas said. “With all the missing project notes from Storm Surge. For a paranoid man, Alexei… or Michael Paterkin, as he calls himself here… was remarkably stupid about the things he put in writing.”

“Yeah, probably because he knew we couldn’t connect Michael to Alexei,” Drew said.

“What kinds of things, Seaver?” Cort demanded. “What have you got?”

“I can tell you what tech my dad sold Michael over the years. I can tell you how much he paid - in cash - for each thing.” Bas kept reading. “And… oh, damn. I can tell you who Collier is.”

“Collier’s not a project?” Cam demanded. “I thought when Alexei… or Michael… whoever… emailed you, he referred to the Collier Project.”

“He did,” Bas said, shaking his head even though he knew his brother couldn’t see him. “Looks like Alexei had Dad feeding him information on some surveillance programs that Seaver Tech developed for the government. Collier was an undercover agent trying to infiltrate SILA about three years ago. But using the tech Dad passed him, Alexei was able to find and eliminate Collier before he could get any info on Alexei.”

“Jesus,” Cam breathed. “So when he was going on and on about how well they worked together on the Collier project…”

“He was essentially implying that Dad had a hand in the guy’s murder. Yeah,” Bas confirmed. He was sickened by the idea. “But that’s where it ended for Dad. After this, he refused to pass on any more information. There are no new deposits here, even after… Huh. Even after he reminded Dad about the terrible car accident Drew and I were in, and how he hoped we’d learned to be more careful.” He glanced back at Drew, who looked shaken. “Son of a bitch.”

“Dad said no?” Cam repeated quietly.

“Yeah, bro. That was the line he wouldn’t cross. And, uh. For what it’s worth, it looks like he donated all of the money Alexei paid him to charity. Anonymously.”

Drew’s hands came up to thread through his hair and Bas let some of the tension he’d been holding bleed out of him. “See, it’s not black and white,” Drew whispered, low enough that only Bas could hear.

Bas nodded and grabbed one of Drew’s hands so he could press a kiss in the center of his palm.

“So, it sounds like you have plenty there to convict Michael Paterkin to a whole host of crimes,” Cort said. “And it’s all been obtained legally. But you’ve got two problems. One, giving all this information to the authorities is going to cause serious problems for Seaver Tech.”

“I don’t care,” Bas said quickly.

Cam’s answer was slower, more reluctant, but no less heart-felt. “Yeah, Bas is right. I hate to see my dad’s legacy go down in flames like this, but if it means putting Alexei away, there’s no question.”

There was a rustle on the other end of the line, and Bas strongly suspected Cort had wrapped Cam up tightly, just as Drew was now doing with him. Thank God they had both found men who loved them for far more than their last names.

“Well, the other problem is that we need to find a way to connect Michael Paterkin to Alexei,” Cort said.

“And the only way to do that is to get into Alexei’s money. And we can’t do that unless we can get into his fucking server.” Bas groaned. “So, we’ve traveled in a circle and found ourselves right back where we started.”

Someone, likely Cort, sighed. “Seems that way. Don’t suppose that drive contained any contact information for people who’d love to testify against Alexei?”

Bas snorted. “‘Fraid not.”

“Figured. Well, I’ll give Cooksy the update. Decide whether you wanna give him a copy of the drive for safekeeping, just in case.”

“Right. I’ll consult my attorney,” Bas said, winking at Drew.

“Your attorney is overworked,” Drew replied. “The answer is no. We’re not turning anything over to the FBI, even unofficially. But we’ll give you a copy, just in case, Cort.”

“Fair enough,” Cort agreed. “So, uh. What should I tell Sean about the auction? It’s in less than a week and he needs to prepare.”

Bas opened his mouth to tell Cort exactly what Sean could do with his stupid fucking idea, when Drew slapped a hand over his mouth. “Tell him we’re still considering,” Drew said. “Give us New Year’s Eve to think about it. We’ll get back to him by tomorrow.”

“Fine.” Cort seemed to hesitate before he continued. “For what it’s worth, Bas, I share your concerns. But I agree with Cam. The alternative is waiting for Alexei to come for us another time, another way, and that’s unacceptable.”

“We’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Bas said.

“I, ah, take it you won’t be coming to our place to hang out tonight, then?” Cort teased. “How am I not surprised?”

“Uh huh. Happy New Year to you and Cam, too!” Drew said brightly, then he leaned over Bas again to disconnect the phone.

“Smooth,” Bas remarked.

“Sebastian,” Drew said, turning Bas’s chair around to face him. “Did you hear what Cort said a minute ago?”

Bas wrapped his hands around Drew’s lean hips and brought him forward until he was straddling the chair. “The part where he totally knows why we’re not going to his house tonight, or the part where he’s still trying to convince me to fall in line with this asinine plan?”

“Neither.” Drew shifted until he was sitting sideways on Bas’s lap - not the most comfortable position in this chair. But when Drew leaned down and brushed his lips against Bas’s neck, Bas decided it was his new favorite. “I meant the part about knowing someone who’d testify against Alexei.”

Bas rubbed his hand up Drew’s back, distracted by the warm breath on his skin. “What about it?”

“Well, we do know someone who knows them,” Drew whispered.

Bas pulled back. “Who?”

Drew licked his lips. “Well. Gary.”

“Gary,” Bas repeated dryly.

“Gary North.”

“I know which Gary you meant, McMann. The Gary who wants to get in your pants. The Gary who flirted with you relentlessly. The Gary who refused to give us any more information on Alexei because he wouldn’t betray his sources. That Gary.”

“Fine. Point made. Forget I mentioned it.” Drew looped his arms around Sebastian’s neck. “Do you know how many times we would be sitting in meetings and I would think about this? You’d get all cranky about… something or other. I mean, it never took much.”

“You’re calling me a drama queen?”

“Never!” Drew laughed. “But I’d stare at you and wish that I could push back your chair and sit on your lap. Tease you. Relax you. Kiss you. Like this.”

He pressed his warm mouth to Sebastian’s, and even though Bas knew he was being played, he couldn’t bring himself to give a shit. He threaded his fingers into Drew’s hair and took the kiss deeper.

“That was supposed to relax me?” he asked when he finally eased back some time later.

“Didn’t it?” Drew asked innocently.

Bas took Drew’s hand and pushed it against the front of his jeans. He was already half-hard and debating the wisdom of taking Drew against the floor or having Drew suck him off right in the chair.

“You know tonight is New Year’s Eve,” Drew commented. “If you had told me even three days ago that you and I would be spending it together, like this, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“I know,” Bas said. He traced a finger around the curve of Drew’s neck which, three days ago, had just been a neck, and now was almost unbearably erotic.

“And you know what’s even better than that?”

Bas shook his head. He literally couldn’t think of anything better. He wouldn’t have been able to imagine this.

“What’s even better,” Drew whispered. “Is thinking about the way we’ll spend next New Year’s Eve. And all the nights between now and then. Together. Safe.”

Bas ran his tongue over his teeth and stared into the intelligent, crafty brown eyes of the man he loved.

“You want me to agree to go to this auction,” he surmised. “Plying me with kisses is low, McMann.”

“Please.” Drew snorted. “That won’t sway you. My argument will.” He dropped another kiss on Bas’s lips. “I just like to kiss you because I can.”

And fine, Bas could hardly argue with that. But as to the rest…

“Okay, let’s talk about this, then.” He shifted position, holding Drew more firmly. “I know I’ve been the one pushing this for months. All I could see was Alexei and SILA. Getting revenge.” He ran his hand up Drew’s back, feeling his muscles bunch and flex under the soft cotton of his own t-shirt. “And part of that was guilt, because things began to change on Halloween. I started to think of you in a different way and I… felt like maybe I didn’t deserve that. After Amy.”

“Bas,” Drew sighed, his brow creased with worry. He started to tense and pull away, but that was the last thing Sebastian wanted. He squeezed Drew tighter.

“I shouldn’t have asked her to marry me. I didn’t love her.”

“But…”

“Hush,” Bas said. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s true. And this shit with my dad… I think I hoped by catching Alexei, I could somehow make up for the bad choices my father made. Which also doesn’t make sense,” he added, before Drew could interrupt. “I know that too.”

He wished he had Drew’s gift for words, his way of crafting convincing arguments, but the best he could do was state the bald truth. “Now that you and I are together, Drew, none of that matters anymore. None of it. The best revenge is living well, isn’t that what they say? And that’s what I want. To love you, to take care of my brother and the weird-as-fuck family we’ve made for ourselves. That’s how I’ll honor the people who died.”

Drew was silent, watching him, so he took Drew’s hand in his, toying with his fingers. “So… maybe we walk away. Run off to some island, or some tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know. Just… the right way is the one where we end up together, remember? And to do that, we need to survive this.”

Drew shook his head. “You know, I’ve loved you for a long while. But every time I think I can’t love you more, you prove me wrong.”

Bas laughed. “So… we leave town?”

“Sebastian, you have no idea how tempting that is. But, baby, we’re too well-known to hide. Especially you. This is a personal vendetta for Alexei, and he’s never gonna stop searching for us. We’d be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. And there’s my mom. I’m the only one she has left.” Drew paused for a second. “Plus, I know you’re not jazzed about the idea of having kids, but maybe… maybe we’d like to, someday.”

Wow. Yeah. Bas hadn’t had any desire to have kids of his own in the past. But having kids with Drew? That was a whole different ballgame. “Damn, baby,” he breathed.

“Listen, no one likes this plan, Bas. No one is eager to be bait! But if we trust Sean and his team, if we stick together, that’s our best hope of catching Alexei. You have to agree, Sebastian. Please. Because we need to end this.”

“Since when are you the risk taker?” Bas asked wryly.

“After thirty years, I feel like it’s time for us to shake things up. From now on, I’m the dramatic risk taker and you’re the calm voice of reason.”

“God help us,” Bas said, and Drew laughed.

“Fine. We’ll play this your way,” Bas finally said. Reluctant didn’t begin to describe his feeling about this, but he also knew Drew was right. “We’re stronger together, right?”

Drew pressed a kiss to his lips, soft and gentle. “Right. And when this is over - when Bas, not if - we are absolutely taking that month off.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Bas said against Drew’s mouth. “But for now, let’s go home and ring in the New Year together.”

And if Bas had his way, it would be the first of many.