Chapter 4
ZACH
Maya has vanished from sight.
I manage to shake off the Trevayne twins and get back onto the floor for the after-event party, but I spend the entire evening looking for her.
We can’t meet after all these years only for her to disappear.
She obviously can’t disappear because she works here, so I walk around, mingling, in the hope of finding her again.
Unfortunately I’m constantly approached by people, and I pretend to be attentive, like I’m listening, but my attention is elsewhere.
As I’m talking to a business associate, Maya appears in my periphery. She’s talking to Katherine, then she rushes off to talk to Cecil. I wonder if she’s the only one running this show. I half-joked about it earlier, but it seems like she is.
I get the feeling she’s overworked and underpaid. It’s obvious she isn’t treated well, because I heard firsthand the way her boss talks to her.
Crawling around on the floor like an animal, what the hell was she doing?
Every now and then my eyes find Maya. She darts in and out, but now she appears, with her jacket on, and carrying a box. I want to ask her so many questions about the past—where she went, why she went without saying a word and why she didn’t get in touch.
It looks like she’s leaving. I start to move towards her, Katherine’s hand snakes along my arm again. She’s territorial and predatory, and I can’t stand it.
“Great event,” I say.
“Thank you.” She flashes me a smile that lingers too long.
I look again for Maya, she’s disappeared.
Just like she did that time she and her mom left the Knight Estate.
I didn’t understand it. They left without warning.
No explanation. No chance to say goodbye.
One day she was there, and the next she was getting into a black SUV.
I watched from a distance, stunned, waving because I didn’t understand.
I thought they would be back. That they were just running an errand.
Even though the house staff would never use one of our chauffeured cars to do that.
I made the mistake of thinking she’d come back. That there would be time.
But there wasn’t.
I didn’t see her again.
Until now.
“Where’s your assistant?” I ask. Katherine casually informs me that Maya is going back to the office. Understanding exactly why Katherine wants her gone, I excuse myself and leave, not bothering to hear what Katherine has to say.
***
MAYA
Katherine wants me to take Cecil’s laptop back to the office.
I’m annoyed that I can’t mingle with the guests, but the way I’m feeling, looking like a mess, still in my dirty day clothes, going home is the best option for me.
It also means I won’t risk running into Zach again.
Every time I peek out from behind the stage, I see him looking around the room. I know he’s looking for me.
A few times, when I’ve had to ask Katherine something, I’ve felt his gaze on me, before I’ve caught him staring.
Glad to make my escape, I rush out, with Cecil’s laptop balanced precariously on top of a medium-sized cardboard box filled with branded notebooks, pens, lanyards and leftover presentation packs.
My rucksack is slung over one shoulder, and another bag, stuffed with clothes I never changed into, hangs from the other.
I’m weighed down, off-balance, but the exit is in sight.
I rush forward, the noise behind me dimming.
But in my hurry, my foot catches. It happens so fast. The box tilts and I remember thinking: I should never have balanced Cecil’s laptop on top. I lurch forward, until strong hands grip my arms, and I don’t fall. But the laptop slides off the box and hits the marble floor with a thud.
The sound echoes, leaving me cold and empty again.
What have I done?
This is Cecil’s laptop.
The one Katherine specifically told me to take back to the office. Now I’ve gone and broken it.
She’ll kill me for this.
Worse, she’ll fire me.
I freeze, staring at the laptop in horror. I shouldn’t have rushed to get out of here. I should have been more careful.
Zach bends down and picks it up, turning it in his hands. He prevented me from falling. I should thank him, but I’m shaking too much.
“Please tell me it’s okay,” I whisper, but a part of me knows it isn’t. He pulls it out of its sleeve. Thank goodness it had some semblance of protection. He opens it, and the screen lights up.
The tension in my body eases , but as I peer at it, I see a crack splintering from the lower corner. It’s thin, and hairlike, crawling like a spider underneath the glass. The image flickers, and a faint bleed of color runs through the display like an ugly stain.
Cecil will notice.
I clap a hand over my mouth, shock oozing out in a gasp. “I’m dead. I’m actually dead.” The blame will land squarely on my shoulders. I can already see Katherine’s face, hear her voice, see her big, glaring eyes bugging out of their sockets because I’ve done the unthinkable.
Where is Tom?
This wouldn’t have happened had he been here to do his job.
“It’s okay.” Zach looks at me, calm and unaffected while my world unravels with every passing second.
“It’s not okay! This is Cecil’s laptop. I was supposed to return it to the office, not break it.”
“Relax, Maya. I’ve got this.”
I open my mouth, a hundred questions at the ready, but Zach’s on his cell phone, sitting down at one of the big comfy chairs in the hotel lobby.
He sets the laptop on a coffee table. I’m aware that he shouldn’t have access to it.
No one should. I walk over to him, with no plan, other than feeling utterly helpless.
“Matteo … uh … sorry about this, but I need a favor,” he says, sounding a little uneasy suddenly. Then, “Yes. Now.” He catches me staring at him, then looks away, assessing the laptop again. “There’s been an accident. I’ve got a cracked screen, but the laptop still boots.”
“Who are you talking to?” I whisper, but he’s focused, doesn’t hear me.
“I don’t care what security layer it’s on,” he snaps. “I need it fixed quietly and fast. Please.”
I need to do something. He could be selling secrets to a spy. I’m aware that I’m paralyzed by inaction, but Zach has thrown me for a loop, and I don’t have any other options right now, other than to see where this goes.
He turns the laptop over. “I’ll send you the serial number and the model. Can you clone the drive and swap the display?”
What?
Then, he says, “Appreciate it. Thanks, man.” He hangs up.
My heart thunders in my chest. “Who were you talking to?”
“My … uh … brother,” he says. “Matteo.”
I’m about to say that he doesn’t have a brother called Matteo, but then I remember.
He’s one of the secret brothers, from the secret family.
I remember when Zach told me. How we got talking one day.
I was walking past the boathouse and he was sitting on the edge of the old wooden jetty by the lake, skimming stones across the water.
The boathouse sat slightly apart from the main house, and I only ever passed it when I was running an errand for my mom.
I stopped, we stared at one another and he waved at me to come over.
So I did.
We got talking about things. About schools, at first. He seemed slightly embarrassed telling me about the school he was at. It sounded fancy. I told him about my public high school, overcrowded and loud, with teachers who looked like they didn’t want to be there.
We talked about my mom, and I asked him where his mom was.
I wish I hadn’t. His face changed, and then it all came out, in little pieces. How his mom had died when he was nine, and how his father had another family.
“What’s he going to do?” I ask, pushing past memories away, and worried again about my current predicament.
“He’s going to fix it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how. All I know is that if anyone can fix it, Matteo can.”
“But the security—”
“Is his specialty. If he can’t, someone in his team will. He’s in charge of tech at the company. You can trust him. You trust me, don’t you?”
He’s a Knight, and there are a million reasons I shouldn’t, but Zach was never like the others. I wonder if he’s still the teenage boy I started to fall in love with.
“Yes.” A tight knot loosens in my chest. I do trust him, especially when I have no other option. He made it look so simple—one phone call and the problem is taken care of. It’s effortless. That’s what money does. It makes life easy.
“Cecil will kill me if he finds out.”
“He won’t find out. Though your boss might.” He gives me an apologetic smile “You look so worried, don’t be. This will be resolved quickly, I promise, and no one ever needs to know.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, curious.
“Really? Why do you think?”
The way he says it, I know instantly why.
Because once upon a time we meant something to one another. We started to talk, and share. We started to care about one another. He made me laugh when I didn’t expect to. He said I made him forget things for a while.
But then we left, so suddenly, and I never got to say goodbye. I never got to tell him I wouldn’t be back.
It broke my heart.
Until my mom told me why we couldn’t stay there anymore. And after that, I hated the Knights forever.
“Thank you.” I never expected to see Zach Knight again, and of all the words I thought I’d say if I ever saw him again, I never thought it would be these two words.
“You’ll have to come with me,” he says, making to leave. “We’ll need to go to his lab.”
“His lab? Where’s his lab?”
“In the basement.”
***
ZACH
Matteo doesn’t ask questions when I walk into his lab. Not even when Maya walks in after me, looking curious.
“You’re lucky I’m still here.” He nods, sleeves folded up, like he’s been busy working.
“You didn’t go to Dex’s?” I won’t look so bad, if I’m not the only one who missed dinner tonight.
“Been busy. We’re having some problems. Security breaches and shit.”
“Sounds serious.”