Faking Ever After

1. Finn

CHAPTER 1

Finn

I hurried down the path. My hand tightened around the flash drive, hard enough to crush it. It was my only ticket out of this mess. I very much wanted it to remain uncrushed, but my fist had, at some point during my great vanishing act, ceased all cooperation.

The smile plastered over my face and directed at the random strangers who walked their dogs at nine in the evening in Central Park, marked me as a lunatic, but that was better than if I somehow looked suspicious. New Yorkers had a great deal of practice in ignoring those who appeared batshit crazy. It was as good a disguise as any, better still for the fact I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

I didn’t have a reason to celebrate—not yet, at least. I had the drive, yes, but it was tricky to carry it when I also carried my head in the bag. I had never been much of a juggler, and this was twice as true on a damp, stuffy night like this when the furies of hell were about to come after my scent.

“Hullo, Gorgeous,” I told a Golden Retriever, who thrust her nose playfully toward me. She missed my leg by a few inches when the leash around her neck tightened and her human companion barked, “Daisy, no. Come back here.” The human promptly returned to picking up Daisy’s shit with a black plastic bag.

I ran a hand through my floppy, dark brown hair. The thick, wavy locks went in all directions, falling over one another, sometimes tickling my right eye and covering the top half of my ears. The cream hemp shirt I wore with its sleeves rolled up was sticking to my back in equal parts because of the humidity of the summer evening and the sweat that had covered me as soon as I had first closed my hand around the drive.

I took a right turn where the path forked. When my phone vibrated in my left pocket, my blood curdled. I knew without looking who the caller was. I had been hoping for a few more hours of a head start, which was silly. I hadn’t been lucky once in my entire life. Why on Earth I had imagined that tonight might be a good night to expect any different was beyond me.

I sighed, stepped off the path, and slipped between two evergreen bushes before pulling the phone out. “Well, to what do I owe this pleasure, Diamond Hands?”

The voice on the other end was deep, threatening, and a little groggy. I imagined him waking up and discovering the empty bed and the missing drive. “I know what you did, Matthias.”

I shuddered. The warm, humid breath from his mouth as he sighed the name I had given him into my ear was a memory I had hoped to purge from my consciousness. Not that I had allowed him to get any closer than that.

“It’s not too late to give it back,” he said.

“What’s on it that you’re so desperate to get back?” I asked.

The Crypto Asshole, as I liked to call him in all my lengthy internal dialogues, wasn’t having any of it. “Matthias, you’re not in any trouble. Not yet, at least. If you bring it back, we can pretend this never happened.”

“Hmm,” I said and let the silence linger for a while. He gritted his teeth hard enough that it sounded like it would require medical attention. “I was wondering if I got it right. Now I know.” The sharp intake of breath on the other side prompted me to continue before he could speak. “And don’t bother telling me it’s your Nana’s secret recipes you have on it. You’re not the only one who knows things, Asshole. I know what you did, too.” I saw the harm it caused to those I love the most. But I didn’t say the last thing. Aside from knowing my face and the feel of my hip under his fingers, Dickcoin — I was full of pet names tonight — couldn’t identify me. Not yet. Given time, I was sure he would track me down. That was why I had hoped to find an ally before this phone call.

“Fine,” he growled and quickly smoothed his voice. “Let’s be reasonable, then. I’ll, uh…I’ll make you an offer.” He sucked his teeth before continuing. “I’ll buy it from you for five thousand dollars.”

I snorted before I could stop myself. “If you think I’ll settle for anything less than your ass behind bars, you really aren’t paying attention. Dick.” I tacked on the last bit for dramatic effect, but it didn’t have the ring to it I was hoping for. “Your glorified Ponzi Scheme ruined enough lives. I’m bringing you down.”

“Don’t be silly,” he said sweetly. “This is New York, Matthias. You’re out of your depth. I know where you live. If you don’t return the drive tonight, you’re in big trouble, kid.”

“I don’t think so, Daddy,” I said mockingly.

The growl that came from my phone was enough to send chills down my spine. “You’re making me do something I don’t want, Matthias. And for what? Do you really think I don’t have a million safeguards on that drive?”

I was sure he had. He was a cautious man, if a horny one. It had taken me weeks to get invited to his place and weeks more before I ferreted out the location of his flash drive. All the while, I had to keep him at arm’s length but turned on just enough to let me come back. Maybe I was good at juggling after all. “We’re done here,” I said. “But I’ll visit you in prison to see those big, green eyes again.”

I hung up before he could spill the obscenities that undoubtedly filled his mouth. After all, had someone stolen the proof of my involvement in as many financial crimes, my feathers would have been ruffled just the same.

In ever so slightly more haste now that my life had been threatened, I tucked my hands into my pockets and walked on. The noose was tightening around my neck, but I still had something that might morph into a plan if the stars aligned.

I had the drive and I had the end goal. All I needed was some pixie dust to bridge the gap between the two.

Was I in over my head? Maybe just a teeny, tiny bit.

About three hundred paces later, I spotted her. Cocking my head, I spread a delighted smile. “Kim?”

“Oh, hey…Finn!” My old friend spread her arms wide for a hug, which was a bit of a challenge with her large, fuzzy German Shepherd Poodle, aptly named Strudel, pulling the leash left and right and around Kim’s legs. “Funny running into you here,” Kim said as we awkwardly hugged one another because Strudel demanded my attention, his large paws leaving wet prints all over my jeans.

Funny, yes , I thought. Even without looking at the clock, I knew it was half past nine because that was when Kim and Strudel had their evening walk in the park. “The universe smiled on me,” I said earnestly. It wasn’t a lie, either. I had never been unhappy meeting Kim, be that in a café, restaurant, my place for homemade tacos, or, you know, while running away from a wealthy lunatic and needing a friend to help me get out of town.

I pressed my right hand against my pocket to feel the small rectangular USB drive still there. Then I bent down and gave Strudel the ear scratch of a lifetime. Finally, straightening back up, I shot Kim my most charming smile. She was someone I trusted enough to speak to frankly, but I still sprinkled some of my charm in for good measure. “Actually, I was gonna look for you tomorrow.” Lie. I don’t have the time to wait until the morning . Quietly, I vowed to make up for the lie at a later date.

Kim pulled on a suspicious face. She was some rich guy’s personal assistant and possibly a part-time dominatrix. I shuddered to imagine her being angry with me. “What did you do?” Her naturally frizzy hair had been ironed to flat perfection, but the humidity after the summer rain was bringing some of the frizz back. “Finn?”

I bit my lip playfully. There was no fooling her. “Oh, you know…I tracked down the man who ruined my family and dug up the USB drive with the evidence of the fraud, then he figured it out, and now he’s after me. Isn’t that what everyone does on a Thursday night?”

Kim’s glare turned to a look of pure horror. “Shit, Finn.” She knew that my parents had been pulled into a scheme that drained their bank accounts and left them holding the bag. Not only had the architect of the plot sucked my folks dry, he had dared to lift their hopes to the Moon and take them away in an instant.

I shifted my weight from one leg to the other and back, almost like I needed to pee really badly, and looked at her pleadingly. “Kim, I need your help.”

I watched my old friend move from worry that was entirely based on the fact that she was a decent, caring human being to the person she was now. A confident, capable woman who could negotiate her way through the Pearly Gates and probably have Saint Peter apologizing for any and all errors he might have made. “Who is he?” was her first question.

I clamped my teeth around my lower lip. As I shook my head, I said, “I can’t tell you. Not yet.”

“Shit, Finn,” she said again, with more heart in it. “Big fish, huh?”

“Call me Ahab.” I cringed. “I tracked down the guy who fooled my old man, then I followed the scent up to the Big Bad. And the less you know, the safer you are.”

Kim pinched the bridge of her nose while Strudel skedaddled around her legs. With a sigh that could make a mountain slouch guiltily, Kim looked at me again. “So. You can’t tell me who he is. And you need me to do what exactly?”

I tilted my head this way and that, shrugging. “Help me get out of New York for a while?”

“Are you asking me?” The shock on her face hardened my resolve.

“No. Of course not. Kim, I need you to get me out of town for a while. He doesn’t know who I really am, but he’s got the resources to find out.” I straightened my back with the bravado I did not feel.

Kim’s features softened under the streetlight and at my words. The fact that I had made this meeting happen when it suited me stung whatever was left of my sold-out soul. Still, I knew she would help me and I knew I would owe her a big one. Licking her lips, Kim deadpanned. “Why not just surrender the evidence to the police?”

I shook my head. “No way. Not until I have some security.”

“You don’t trust them?” she asked, but she knew the answer.

I was certain that this flash drive held all the proof the prosecutors could need to put that Dickcoin broker behind bars, but I wouldn’t just hand it over without the assurance that there would be justice. My family had suffered the sort of losses that single-handedly worsened all our lives. I wasn’t parting ways with this drive until I cracked it open and duplicated the evidence. In the worst-case scenario, the cops would bury the original, but the press would get the backup.

It occurred to me that I was in a deathmatch. I had never been particularly big and burly. What muscles I had were there more for aesthetic purposes than anything else. I wasn’t fast, either. But I wasn’t totally stupid.

“Alright,” Kim said firmly. “If he’s after you, you probably shouldn’t return to your place.”

“I was gonna hitch a ride north and stay in some motel,” I admitted.

Kim shook her head. “How can I help you if you’re God knows where? You’re staying with me.”

“B-but what about you?” I asked, my heart thundering. “It’s not safe for you.”

“How unsafe are we even talking?” Kim asked, pulling Strudel closer to her heel.

I did the quick math in my head. “I mean, the guy’s guilty of financial crimes. When he makes vague threats…I dunno. Maybe he means to beat me with a wad of cash, but I can’t take those chances.”

“How vague?” Kim asked.

“He said he knew where I lived,” I answered, an innocent smile shining on my face.

Kim narrowed her eyes. “That’s rarely a good sign.”

“Unless you ordered a cake from your baker friend, no, it’s not nice to hear.” I tucked my hand inside my pocket and held the drive protectively.

Kim inhaled a deep breath of air and nodded sagely. “Let’s go to my place first. I’ll figure something out.”

“And I will never be able to pay you back,” I said, barely able to contain the giddiness of knowing I might get out of this with my skin intact.

“Oh, you beautiful fool,” Kim said like it was just a musing. “You will absolutely pay me back.”

The grin that spilled across my face was unstoppable. That was my Kim. That was why I came to her.