Samira sniffed.“It’s like he gets off on torturing me.”
Gisèle grumbled something I couldn’t make out.
In Laurent’s pocket, his phone buzzed. He extracted it, frowning when he saw the number. “I have to take this. I’ll meet you inside. Okay?”
I nodded, watching as he skulked along the wall away from the sound of Samira’s tears until he rounded the corner out of sight. I was still high from our kiss, yearning for the pressure of his body against mine, but the heat of our connection left me cold now that he was gone. The reality of my situation once again weighed on me, his abrupt departure on the heels of Tyson’s arrival bringing back all my doubts about his intentions and making me second-guess our connection.
Tyson had mentioned that Laurent had secrets, had insinuated that these secrets gave him power over Laurent, then thrown us together. Was our immediate attraction serendipity, or something more sinister?
Eleven Years Ago, August
The day was still but for the shrilling of the cicadas and the slight breeze that ruffled the palms in our backyard. Mom had gotten so she was cold all the time, so we were outside in the heat, passing the afternoon on lounge chairs in the shade. I finished a chapter of the detective novel I was reading and bookmarked the page, looking over to see she’d fallen asleep.
The past few weeks had been rough, with Tyson’s betrayal followed closely by the official news that the second round of treatments hadn’t taken, and a third was not recommended. I knew how badly she didn’t want to see me suffer on her behalf, so I was strong for her when I was home, forcing positivity and tranquility, then collapsing in tears on Rosa’s shoulder the minute I walked into her apartment.
My phone buzzed beside me, and I checked the number. Tyson again. This was the third time he’d called within the hour, leaving only one message asking me to call him immediately.
But I wasn’t fooled.
In the two weeks since I’d found him with the blonde, Tyson had called and texted almost constantly, alternating between messagesbegging for my forgiveness and complaining about Ian, who was still asking for ever larger amounts of money.
A knocking roused me. “Audrey!” came Tyson’s voice.
I groaned. He was at my front door. I stood and charged in the back entrance, through the kitchen and into the living room, where I jerked open the door to find Tyson panting on the stoop, his eyes panicked. “What do you want?” I demanded.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“No, we don’t,” I hurled, slamming the door in his face.
But he blocked the door with his foot. “Not about us,” he said urgently. “It’s about Cody. He’s been arrested.”
I stared at him in shock. “Arrested?”
“This morning at work. His lawyer just called to let me know there’s a bail hearing set for tomorrow morning.”
I swung the door wide, allowing him to step inside. “Arrested for what?” I asked as I shut it behind him, hoping my assumption was wrong.
He frowned at me like I was an idiot. “The sales deflation program.”
My heart stopped. “How?”
“Ian must have turned him in.” He ran his fingers through his hair, distraught. “It’s my fault. He kept coming for more and more money. I couldn’t keep up.”
“Fuck. This is bad,” I said, the wheels in my brain spinning so fast I felt dizzy. “What do we do?”
“We can’t do anything now,” he said. “If we touch anything, they’ll know he’s not the only one involved.”
I gripped the back of a chair to steady myself. “Surely they’ve shut the program down already.”
“I assume so, but I don’t know. I tried to check but I was locked out of the website because his credentials didn’t work anymore.”
“Shit. The bank account,” I said, sinking into the chair.
“It’s a numbered Swiss account,” he said. “They shouldn’t be able to get into it.”
“Because it’s linked to a Swiss citizen—my dad,” I said, growing more upset as I began to grasp the gravity of the situation. “They’ll figure that one out pretty quickly, then they’ll come for me.”
He perched on the couch across from me. “You’re giving them too much credit.”