AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One
Jude
Pigshadfinallytakenflight.
Jason Lancaster had finally grown a pair and asked me out.
Life was amazing.
After dancing around it for months, he’d finally manned up today while we were working freshman orientation—leaned across my table, fiddled with a stack of brochures, and managed to meet my eyes long enough to ask if I’d be interested in hanging out later.
Good lord, the guy was shy. I was beginning to think I was going to have to do the asking—I was getting exasperated by all the Facebook post likes and smiles in the hallway, only to be followed by sheepish head-ducking and whipping around the next available corner like his pants were on fire.
But he finally gained some courage, and some words, and stumbled his way through a very sweet five-word “want to hang out later?”
We were going out tonight—a new Thai spot that had just opened up near school and drinks afterward.
After that…who knew?
I couldn’t stop the full-on cheesy smile from taking over my face as I stepped into the elevator that would take me from the parking garage to the penthouse apartment I had grown up in on Manhattan’s upper East Side. The elderly lady in the corner frowned at me and hugged her pocket dog closer to her chest before looking pointedly away.
Well, exswqueeze me.So sorry my happiness upsets you.
I grinned harder. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just in a really good mood. This guy I’ve been flirting with finally—finally! Asked me out.”
A rictus of a smile cracked her thin, salmon-colored lips. “How marvelous.”
“I’m super excited.”
Her gaze slid past me just as the elevator doors opened with a soft ding, and she motioned. “It’s my stop.”
I moved to the side. “Yes, of course.”
Without another word, she walked past me.
Sheesh, some people.
The elevator stopped a couple of moments afterward, the light on the panel indicating my floor, and I stepped out into the vestibule with its black and white checkerboard floor and soft recessed lighting. My head was bent as I dug in my pocketbook for the key to let myself in, so it’s no wonder that I missed my sister’s hunched form on the other side of the narrow table, hidden as it was by the curving legs and a tall floral arrangement.
“Jude?” Her voice was a whisper.
“Lens? What are you doing, sitting out in the hall like this? What’s wrong?” I dropped the keys I’d just pulled out and stepped forward, sinking to my knees beside her. Eleanor’s face was streaked with tears, her dark hair a tangled mess around her face.
“There are m-men inside.” She gestured toward the door. “Bad men. They’re saying Dad stole money.”
“What?” I half-stood, already moving toward the door, but Eleanor pulled me back down.
“No. Don’t. They’re looking for ways he’s going to make it right.” Her expression was filled with fear, and the fingers of her right hand scratched along her left wrist as she released my hand, leaving trails of red.
I pulled her hand away. “Stop that. We’ll just call the police—”
She shook her head. “I don’t think they’re going to be much help. Jude, he’s in a lot of trouble.” She handed me her phone, which had been resting on the floor beside her, and swiped it open to a webpage she had clearly visited already.
WALL STREET’S TIERNAY GUILTY OF EMBEZZLEMENT? CHARGES PENDING.
My stomach dropped. What the hell…? I forced myself to read the article, which implicated my father in a kind of Ponzi scheme that was currently under investigation by the federal government. Worse, the article linked him to the mob.
My gaze drifted to the door. Was that who was inside our penthouse? The mob?
