Page 50 of My Best Friend's CEO Dad

Mom narrows her eyes. “Does that surprise you?”

“I… I guess not,” I say, thinking back over all the times I’ve seen them together, all the affection and sparkle between them.

“I suppose you’d prefer if I never loved again.”

Now it’s my turn to squeeze her hand. “Don’t be silly. I want you to be happy.”

“Still, it will always be difficult for you—how not-Dad Mark is.”

“Sure it is,” I tell her. “But just because something’s difficult doesn’t mean we should just quit, does it? It doesn’t give us the excuse to… What?”

She’s smiling at me. “I just think you should apply this logic to your situation.”

I bite down. “I can’t stop thinking of Kay’s face when we tell her. How it’ll turn to hate and ruin every moment we’ve ever spent together.”

“What if it doesn’t? What if she sees that you have something special? What if she supports you?”

I let go of Mom’s hand, stand up, and walk to the pool’s edge. “That’s never going to happen,” I say.

“You don’t know that. Kayla wants her dad to be happy, too, Maci, as much as you want me to be.”

“I guess we’ll see,” I mutter. “I guess we’ll hope.”

Mom walks up behind me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Whatever happens, I’ll always be here to support you.”

I turn and fall into a hug. She wraps her arms around me. We stay like that for a long time.

CHAPTER 25

LUKAS

“Nobody will understand this,” I say as I finish the live, during which I’ve talked about our progress with the VR system. “But there’s a place my business partner, Sebastian, goes sometimes. It’s a place near the water. It’s a place under a bridge. It’s not a happy place, and if Nobody understands, that’s fine. But if somebody out there does, I’ll see you very soon.”

I make sure to stare a challenge at the camera. My commenters are flooding the bottom of the screen with questions, asking if I’ve gone nuts or if it’s some viral marketing ploy—the setup for a competition. As it happens, that’s going to be our cover. I’ve put a link up for my viewers to submit their ideas about what I’m talking about. When this is over, we’ll randomly draw a name and give them a ten-thousand-dollar gift card, accepting their explanation.

Ending the live, I look over at Gabriel. He’s sitting on the other side of my office, nodding slowly.

“Are the men in place?” I ask.

He nods. “They’re watching the building. According to Finn, it’s where they’ve met every time they’ve been in the city. We’re surveilling it with long-range scopes. There’s no way they’ll know we’re watching. We’ve left a cell number in there for them.” Gabriel takes a cell phone from his pocket. “So now, it’s a waiting game.”

“In that case, I’m going to grab a bite. Let me know when it’s time.”

The plan is for me to behave as if I will trade myself for Sebastian. Then we move in and, hopefully, capture them and hand them over to the police. That’ll take some finessing since we’ll need to explain somehow how we got our hands on them. We’ll handle that problem when we get there.

Going into the open-plan kitchen living room, I find it full. Finn and Kayla sit on the couch, not touching, but closer than I would’ve expected. Finn looks more sober now. He’s showered, and he seems alert. Anna, Maci’s mom, sits holding her boyfriend’s hand. Maci sits on an armchair alone, her hands clasped in her lap. She’s changed into loose-fitting PJs. My body stirs as I think about tearing them off and revealing the perfection underneath.

She smiles tightly at me.

“Anybody hungry?” I ask.

“We’ve eaten,” Kayla replies.

I go into the kitchen, grab some precooked chicken breast and rice from the fridge, then nuke it in the microwave. Sitting at the bar, I eat while they play Scrabble. It brings me back to the time Kayla, Maci, and I played it and the words we threw at each other. Naked. Virgin. Now, it all makes sense.

“Wow, nice one,” Kayla says when Finn puts down a high-scoring word.

“Thanks,” he says tightly. “I was trying to spell sorry.”

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