Chapter 40
Sunny: You have champagne and cheese whiz in your fridge. That’s it.
Chase: Groceries are arriving at some point this morning, and I left my card on the kitchen counter. Order yourself whatever you want or need.
Sunny: Thank you. BUT…you live like this?
Chase: Cheese is one of the main food groups. Didn’t you know?
Sunny: And the champagne?
Chase: It’s for emergencies.
Sunny: A champagne emergency?
Chase: Correct.
Sunny: You’re a weird dude.
Chase: Unfortunately I am aware.
CHASE
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Evelyn’s face is alabaster pale—the same way it has been for the past ten minutes while I spilled everything to her.
“I needed you to focus on keeping us moving forward.”
She scoffs, standing from the seat opposite my desk and raising a hand to her head as she begins to pace, the loosely fitting silk shift dress she wears swishing with every move. “I can’t do that properly if you’re keeping things from me, Chase.”
“I agree, and I’m sorry.” I fold my hands together, fingers meshed on top of my desk.
“You’re a real ass sometimes, do you know that?” She turns to face me with her hands on her hips.
This is why Evelyn worked her way to the top at Dev Tech Inc.—she was never afraid of telling me exactly what she thinks. Whatever filter people usually have to warn them not to cuss out their boss is absent, and that works for me. I’d rather know exactly where I stand with someone.
“For saying sorry?” My eyebrows rise.
“At least give me a minute to be mad at you before you go all healthy masculine and apologize!”
The corner of my lips twitch. Women. I’d like to think I understand them better than most men, but some stuff will never cease to amaze me.
“In that case, I take back my apology. Be mad.” I shrug, leaning back in my chair and drumming my fingers softly on the arm.
I feel like I’ve got a thousand tabs open in my brain.
And I can’t stop worrying about Sunny, which is insane because she’s about to be sixteen and not a toddler.
I know she’s pretty self-sufficient, and she’s only spending the day settling in at my place, but I feel like I should be there.
I had tried to be there, but she declared loudly that she didn’t need to be babysat and that I should go do my, “Rich boy things,” today. Which I took to mean go to the office.
Evelyn’s shoulders slump, all of the haughty fire in her frame wilting as she blows out a breath. “I don’t feel like being mad anymore. You took the fun out of it.” She returns to her seat and fixes me with an astute glare. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Nothing gets by her.
“Someone tried to frame you. Or at least, used your name as cover.”
Her perfectly painted lips drop. “I would never—”
“I know,” I cut across. “It was never even a question in my mind.”
She falls silent, her eyes wide.
The door crashes open before she can truly react, and Tessa barges through the door with more urgency than I’ve ever seen, her lined face tight. “Quick, line one.”
My phone light blinks up at me, but I don’t reach for it. “We’re kind of—”
“It’s Pepper!” She reaches the phone and snatches it up, hitting the button and handing it to me urgently.
My stomach plummets and I take it from her immediately, my throat feeling tight. “Pepper?”
“Chase,” her voice cracks as I rise from my chair, turning away from Evelyn and Tessa.
“Baby, are you okay?”
I hear soft sniffling, but the voice that responds is strong. “I’m fine, are you okay? And Sunny? Chase, I heard what you did, I…” The line crackles as she trails off. “How can I ever repay you?”
A slow sense of comfort melts over my skin just from hearing her voice. “I’m fine, we’re fine.” I close my eyes and press my fingers into them. “You can repay me by staying safe.”
“Chase, listen. If I get sentenced, I need you to know.” Her voice definitely wobbles this time. “That you don’t need to feel guilty for leaving me behind. You’ve been so kind, but it would be crazy to put your life on hold for a summer fling.”
“That’s not what this is.” My words grind out like boots over wet gravel. “This couldn’t be further than a fling for me and I know damn well it isn’t for you either.”
She hiccups softly on the other end of the line, the only tell that her tears still flow.
“I’m going to get you out of this, I promise.”
I’ll never give up. Loving someone through the good is easy, but loving them through the bad is what counts. If I have to use every drop of money and influence I have to get her home, so be it. We’ll live in a shoe box if we have to.
“I—oh shit, Chase, I’ve got to go. Tell Sunny I love her and don’t forget the manife—” A brief static buzzes and the line clicks, a dead tone relaxing it in a long, somber note.
“Fuck,” I mutter, pressing the phone to my ear in the vain hope it will keep me tethered to her. When it doesn’t work, I drop my hand down into my side, still white-knuckling the receiver.
The sharp scratch tipped skyscrapers glitter in the late summer sun, the sky behind them a painted wash of oranges and pinks amongst the blue. A happy scene that opposes the bleak cloud settling over me, coaxing me back into the murky shadows I’ve been operating in since her arrest.
“Chase?” Evelyn places a hand on my arm, appearing from nowhere, and gently pries the phone from my hand. “What can we do to help you?”
I turn to face them, a steely resolve slipping into place. “I need you to read something for me.”
Evelyn’s smooth brow twitches in confusion as I reach for my drawer, pulling out two of the thirty-page long wad of paper that I printed off.
“Pepper believes that the key to finding out who’s really behind this is hidden in this manifesto.” I hand them both one, and begin to head for the door.
“Wait, aren’t you going to read it, too?” Evelyn calls out after me.
“Already scanned the pages.” I tap the side of my head to indicate where I’ve got it stored.
“But where are you going?”
“Home. If Landau calls, patch him straight through to my cell.”
I’ve got a special message to deliver to Sunny, and she deserves to hear it in person.
***
“I need you to be honest with me about what is going on.”
Sunny scowls down at the wide cracked pavement, where boots that remind me of Pepper’s—except she’s embellished them with small pink gems around the soles—thud on the sidewalk.
I nod, mostly to myself as I survey the quiet Tribeca street around us. Colorful old warehouse conversions flank us on either side, a zig-zagging mesh of fire escape runs caging each building.
This small slice of New York City where I live is one of the few places where the bustle of the city doesn’t follow you home. No blaring horns, no packed, narrow sidewalks, with small hole-in-the-wall minimalist cafes instead where a few people work and eat.
I take the last bite of my ice cream cone and consider how to handle her request. I think I would want answers too, if I were her.
“Your sister did some things to expose bad people, but to do that she had to break some rules.”
“What kind of bad people?” She blinks up at me, squinting from the afternoon sun.
“Affluent people who abuse their power, doing illegal things with their money to get out of paying taxes, stealing things, abusing people…all things that the system lets them get away with because they are rich.”
“But surely if they are bad people doing illegal stuff then it’s a good thing she did to expose them?” She frowns, turning her attention back to the floor and yeeting her mostly untouched ice cream into a trash can as we pass.
I grunt, scratching the back of my head. Deep, existential chats with a teenager weren’t on my bingo card this summer, and I feel wholly unequipped.
“The law is more black and white than that, unfortunately,” I settle on.
Sunny lets out a long sigh, coming to a halt and staring up at the One World Trade Center peeking out above the building tops. “The law sucks.”
I huff out a laugh. “That’s what I think every time I get my tax bill.”
“But you still pay it, right?” She wedges a stern finger in my direction.
“Yeah, kid. I still pay it.” I smile, ruffling the violently pink hair on top of her head.
“Chase!”
My head snaps up to see Evelyn on the street corner, her cheeks red from exertion. She rushes over in a rapid-fire click of heels and leans over to wedge her hands on her thighs, struggling to catch her breath.
“Do you ever answer your fucking cell phone?” she explodes, her blue eyes bright with irritation.
“How did you—” I pull out my phone and see the missed calls which went unnoticed on vibrate.
“Never mind that.” She scrunches her face up as she gasps in breath. “You have to come with me, right now.”
“What happened?” I click into business mode instantaneously, my mind whirring with scenarios that could have her here out of breath and so frazzled.
“No time. I’ll explain on the way.” She urges me to follow with her hand and turns to rush in the other direction toward a town car that slowly pulls up to the curb.
I glance quickly at Sunny and her shocked face morphs into a stubborn set that I recognize all too well from her sister.
“Don’t even think about not taking me with you.”