30
Were you going to fall sooner or later, Jude?
People were starting to leave the fair.
So yeah, the night had grown colder and, for me, sadder.
Aegan was still in the bathroom, shitting like water from a tap.
Owen had brought him more toilet paper before leaving with Laila.
I avoided Kiana and Dash. I already knew where Artie and Adrik were, which is why I didn’t want to go back to the apartment.
I didn’t need to hear what they were up to, so I sat on a bench, smoking a disgusting cigarette I’d bought nearby. I didn’t even smoke.
Then, something unexpected happened right on that bench.
Regan Cash sat down beside me. He smelled like luxury and danger.
I felt a wave of fear in his presence, the same unease I’d felt when I first saw him.
I wanted to run as fast as I could, leaving Tagus, the city, the country, even the galaxy behind, but I just sat there, knowing right away that I couldn’t escape what was about to happen.
He flashed that wide, perfect smile of a successful businessman.
“So many things have happened tonight,” he sighed, clearly delighted. “I’m glad I switched up the entire program. The chancellor’s plan would’ve been boring.”
I gave him a sharp look.
He’d changed the fair program . . .
“It was you,” I said, stunned, “who embarrassed Aleixandre at the Ferris wheel.”
Regan’s smile was so cold it sent a shiver through me.
“Some things should be known. Things that shouldn’t be kept secret.”
“He’s your brother,” I reminded him, scowling. “That was a terrible thing to do.”
Ignoring my comment, he made a gesture like he’d just remembered something.
“Let’s not focus on that. What I want to know is your name. Tell me your name, the real one, no lying.” He shook my hand, and I saw he was wearing a massive, silver, masculine watch. “I’m Regan Cash, and you?”
More stunned than ever, I glanced at his hand and then at him.
“What?” I said, my heart pounding. The smile didn’t leave his face, and he didn’t flinch.
“I want to know who you are,” he said in the same fake-friendly tone a salesman uses to close his best deal. “Tell me your real name.”
A wave of panic tightened every muscle in my body, but I did the only thing I knew how to do well: turn things around so I could get out alive.
“My real name? It’s Jude Derry, as you already know. We met a few days ago.”
A feigned look of confusion creased his brow, like he’d just heard something really strange. His face looked more macabre than ever, yet his smile was twisted and wide.
His reply left me stunned. “No, not according to the national records. The real Jude Derry died four years ago. That’s why I want to know your real name.”
This was the final part, “The Moment.”
The moment I had to confess, dear reader, that I had been lying from the very start.
But the Cash brothers had been too.
Which is why, just before Regan sat down beside me, I’d decided I wouldn’t leave Tagus just yet.
There were still things to resolve.
If Eli was alive, then who was dead? Because there was a dead girl. I’d heard Aegan talking about it in the club.
Whose phone did Aegan need to get his hands on because it had all the proof?
What had happened last year that the Cash brothers were covering up?
Who’d been sending me messages, helping me find clues to what I had believed was Eli’s murder? And if Eli was alive, what was I supposed to discover?
This all led me to the million-dollar question: What if I had all the pieces of the Cash puzzle all along?
Maybe I just needed to put them together correctly.
What’s more, May 1 was still three months away—the day when everything went down.
So, I had a new plan: do whatever it took to win Aegan back.
As for my real identity . . . I’ll tell you about that in the next book.