“Middle school. Working my way up.”
“Regan.” He stops and faces me. His lips twitch into a plastered-on smile, lacking his usual warmth. It sends a deep chill down my spine. “Leave it alone. I don’t know what you saw, but it’s fine. Everything’s fine.”
“You’re doing something for Dad, aren’t you?”
“The work I do for Dad is none of your business. Leave it alone, Regan.”
“Luke—“
“I’m not your baby brother anymore. You’re not protecting me, okay? Let it go.”
He storms off. I watch him, and I feel like a stone sinking to the bottom of a black lake, the light receding, cold, inky darkness closing in around me.
What’s he got himself into? And worse, what the hell was Dad thinking?
Luke’s a lot of things, but he’s not street smart.
He’s going to get himself killed if this goes on.
I’m bothered for the rest of the day. I try to concentrate on work but it feels hollow. Especially knowing what I know about the way things run here, about the truth behind what this company does and why it exists. There are numbers in the books, in the real books, that don’t quite make sense; numbers which should represent lumber, for example, but definitely won’t add up; numbers that are malleable in ways numbers shouldn’t be.And I’m thinking Luke knows about those numbers, knows more than he should. Maybe Luke is one of them.
The thought shakes me.
I’m rattled as I head back home. I don’t want to go to my father’s house, but I can’t exactly return to my old apartment. Not to that place. I need to find my own space, but why bother? I’m empty and feeling alone when I get off the train a few blocks from the house, only to find him waiting for me at the exit, like he knew exactly where and when I’d emerge.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Liam falls in beside me like it’s the most casual thing in the world. “I was in the neighborhood.”
“At the exact moment I get home every day?”
“Wow, what a coincidence. Want me to walk with you?”
“No thanks.”
He keeps pace anyway. “How was your day?”
“Are we doing small talk?”
“We can do big talk instead. Do you believe in a soul? What happens after we die? Is the color red for me the same red you see?”
“My day was fine, how was yours?”
“Interesting. Which isn’t always the case.” He gestures at a bar across the street. “Let’s get a drink.”
I’m about to tell him off. I had a long day and I’m stressed about my brother. The last thing I need is a drink with Liam, especiallywith the wedding coming up. If anyone sees us together, they might start talking, and that might lead to my father finding out what me and Liam did together?—
But he’s already walking off.
I could leave him and head home, but something nags at me. Liam doesn’t appear for no reason. He’s not the kind of man who waits by subway exits unless there’s a purpose.
And I could use a drink.
The bar’s beginning to fill up with post-work young people. I slip onto a stool beside Liam and he orders for both of us: white wine for me, bourbon and ice for him. “You strike me as a spritzer kind of gal, but I went for the straight stuff.”
“I’m going to pretend that’s not a veiled insult.”
“I wasn’t really veiling it.”
