Chapter 159

When I checked my dark web inbox the next morning, I nearly cried with what I found. Inside were dozens of responses to my ordeal yesterday.

Somehow, the news of my being taken in for questioning had gotten out, and support had come flooding back in. Truly, it just went to show that the dark web wasn’t something evil but a place where the citizens of Packhaven and Southhaven had come together to show support for one another. And now that included me.

Their response also brought up a new resolve. But before I could act on my idea, I needed to double-check with Charles because there was no way that I wanted to implement it without checking with him.

I waited until he woke up naturally, just fooling around on the dark web while I waited. When he tried to pull me over and initiate lovemaking, I stopped him.

“I want to talk about something else for a minute,” I said.

He kissed along the back of my hand and then flipped it over and kissed the palm. “Make it quick,” he said. “We have work today.”

“I know,” I responded, pulling my hand away from his. “But this is important. Everybody is taking my back after what happened yesterday, and I just feel like I can’t leave them hanging.”

He cocked his head and propped himself up on his elbow, looking at me intently. “What do you mean, leave them hanging?”

“There’s so much material that I wanted to publish, still. What if they come and arrest me or something like that? Or find out what I’ve been doing and put a stop to it before I have a chance to get out the rest of the information that I’ve gathered?”

Charles sat very still, slowly considering this. “I see what you’re saying,” he said. “But I think it’s exceedingly dangerous, given that they brought you in for questioning just yesterday.”

“I know that you’re worried about me,” I agreed. “But what’s the point of everything that I’ve done all the way up to this point if I run and hide the moment things get uncomfortable for me? I need to finish this.”

“How?” he asked.

“I want to publish one last article. I want to take the rest of the information that I’ve gained and I want to turn it into something cohesive that people can use. I want there to be a cohesive record in case anybody ever has the opportunity to seek justice for all of the wrongs being done.”

Charles went very quiet again and rolled back, staring up at the ceiling for a few moments. “I can’t say that I agree,” he said, finally speaking slowly as if still processing his thoughts. “But I also see what you’re getting at. Besides, I don’t think I’d be able to stop you even if I told you no.”

“If you had a better reason than you just don’t want to draw more scrutiny on me, then I would agree,” I said. “But as of right now, the scrutiny is already on me. What’s to be gained by not finishing what I started?”

He nodded. “All right then. What do you need from me?” he asked.

“Well, obviously, we can’t let our guards figure out what I’m doing today. I didn’t get the impression from Theo yesterday that he’s involved in my arrest in any way, but I also don’t want to leave him in a position where he has to be the one to tell on me. I’ve done enough to him over the course of my investigations. I’m not going to do that to him too.”

Charles went silent again, folding his hands across his chest and staring at the ceiling once. After a long moment, he spoke.

“I’ll give you what time I can,” he promised. “I don’t know how much that’ll be.”

“Anything is good enough,” I said. “I want to get this written this morning because I don’t know when they’re coming back for me.”

“If they’re coming back for you,” he added. “Although, you might be sealing that fate now by adding another article. There is a distraction that I’ve been saving up, and I guess I’ll be using that today.”

“What was it?” I asked.

“It’s probably better if you don’t know about it.”

He pulled me into his arms. “But before you do this and we have the possibility of random officers taking you away like that again, I want to make love, and I want to make it meaningful. I don’t want to leave without showing you how exactly I feel about you.”

I couldn’t argue, so I snuggled in against him, letting his hands wander, and his kisses caress me.

He parted my legs, pulling one up and over his hip and letting the other slide between his legs so we were scissoring, and then slowly rubbed his erection along my slit.

I sighed and opened myself up to him, letting my hands wander across his legs and his chest and between both our thighs to cup his balls. When he finally slid inside, my head tipped back, my eyes fluttering shut. I absorbed every sensation, every feel of him.

His hands wandered across me the way mine wandered across him, tweaking, massaging, feeling, memorizing. We continued this slow, intimate love making shifting positions several times to explore new aspects of each other, but the whole time, moving gently and touching along the way so that the entire session lasted far longer than our usual and certainly faster than the other night when we had had such hard, fast, lustful makeup sex.

When we finally reached orgasm, Charles took the time to ensure we came at the same time. We cried out in our mutual pleasure, gripping one another tightly, holding on against the onslaught of the outside world.

Once we’d finished, he left me let me for the living room. I pulled out my secret laptop from its hiding spot and got to work straight away. I couldn’t let anything interrupt this final mission of mine.

I wouldn’t have enough material for any additional stories after this, so it was a natural place to pause my reporting. But I was determined to get out the last of my articles.

This one would include a comprehensive list that I had compiled, containing all of the names of various businessmen and government officials who were party to the corruption and what their alleged crimes were. I didn’t want anyone to be able to get away with continuing to harass women, embezzle funds, endanger people, or cheat the public without being called out. At the very least, my work might lead to investigations later.

As I wrote, I was still floored by the fact that anyone could consider this working against the government. That wasn’t at all what I was trying to accomplish. If anyone within the government or the Alpha King were to correct these problems, they would actually end up being the hero, not the villain. All they had to do was listen to people about what was going on within Packhaven and Orlune at large.

I finished the article shortly before lunch and gave it a quick proofread because I couldn’t waste the time to do an in-depth edit. I didn’t know how much longer Charles was going to be able to give me with the guards, and then, with no small amount of butterflies in my stomach, I pressed enter and published it—ceiling whatever fate came with it.