Page 50 of Always Us

“I know for a fact that election fraud is going on. My sister proved it happened during the presidential election four years ago. She told me all about it, but she didn’t give me her evidence and they took it when they killed her. She said that a powerful secret society is behind the election fraud, along with some people planted inside the government. We just don’t know who those people are. We haven’t been able to identify the members of this secret society, other than Pearce Kensington and his father, Holton, who I know is now in a coma.”

“Pearce is not a member of a secret society. I promise you, he’s not.”

Carson watches me as I say it. I swear he’s one of those body language experts that can tell when you’re lying by your eye movements or nose scratching or whatever the signs are that someone is lying.

“We’ve been watching Pearce and we’re almost certain he’s a member. Now we need to find the others.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“I work for a very wealthy businessman who ran for president four years ago. Aston Hanniford.”

“Yes, I know him. He almost won.”

“He should’ve won. But he didn’t because this secret group rigged the election to make sure their candidate won. Mr. Hanniford is determined to expose what they’re doing and take these people down.”

I roll my eyes. “Some rich guy is mad that he didn’t win the election so now he’s making up stories that people cheated? Why? Does he think if he gets enough people to believe his made-up story he’ll somehow end up being president someday?”

“It’s not a made-up story. It’s the truth. And he wants to expose the people who did this. Not only because rigging elections is illegal and wrong, but also because in their efforts to keep it hidden, they hurt innocent people. Like my sister.”

I sit back in my chair, my arms crossed. I can’t believe this is happening. That Carson is here. That he tracked me down and that he’s not the person I thought he was. He’s not a college student. He’s a reporter. Someone who knows way more than he should and someone who could get Pearce in some serious trouble. Maybe even killed.

Garret needs to get home. Fast.

CHAPTER TWELVE

12

GARRET

I’ve been checking my phone all day to see if it’s happened yet. I just checked again and it hasn’t. He’s still in a coma. It’s Wednesday, so it’s been four days now. I didn’t think he’d make it this long. I talked to my dad earlier, and he, too, is surprised. Maybe this will go on longer than we thought. Some people are in comas for months, or years. But at least if he’s in a coma, he can’t hurt Jade.

As bad as it sounds, I’d rather have him dead than in a coma. I want this to be over so I can stop worrying about this and focus on my future. Today, during my afternoon class, I began thinking about my career, and by the time class was over I was all fired up, wanting to start my business.

It’s an entrepreneurship class and today we had a speaker as part of the ongoing lecture series my dad started here at Camsburg. Today’s speaker was Luke Canfield. He opened a sporting goods store about five years ago and the business has really taken off. He started with just one store in San Diego, a surf shop, and it did so well that he opened another store but added other sporting goods, not just stuff for surfing. Now he’s got stores all over California and he’s started to expand east into Nevada and Arizona.

The guy’s only 29, which means he opened his first store when he was only 24. Hearing that made me feel like I need to get my ass in gear and get to work on creating my business. I’m just not sure what business I want to be in. I didn’t think I’d want to be in retail, but after hearing this guy’s story I think I want to look into it.

After class, I talked to the guy and told him who I was. I don’t usually use my last name to impress people, but this time I did because I wanted to get his attention. And it worked. He asked me if I wanted to visit the company headquarters in LA and spend a day shadowing him. Then he offered to be my mentor, answering any questions I had about starting a retail business. He gave me his email address and phone number.

He wouldn’t be doing any of this if it weren’t for my dad. I’m nobody, other than a former reality TV star, which is embarrassing. I’m sure he heard about the bad shit I—or the fake me—did last spring, but he didn’t mention it. He seemed impressed that I was going to Camsburg, which is known for academics, not partying. And I told him I was married, which makes me seem even more responsible.

But despite all that, I know the only reason Luke offered to be my mentor is because of my dad. My dad is a rock star in the business world and this guy thinks if he spends time with me he’ll eventually get to meet my dad. I know how it works. Luke’s trying to grow his company and being connected to powerful people will help him do that. Or just getting advice from someone like my dad could be very valuable. I usually don’t like it when people use me like that, but in this case, I’m using him, too, hoping to learn from him just like he wants to learn from my dad.

I should also be learning from my dad. I need to start asking him for business advice. I didn’t before because he’s my dad and I don’t see him the same way everyone else does; as a great businessman with a ton of knowledge to share. But he is a great businessman and I need to start seeing him that way. He’d be happy to teach me whatever I want to know.

My dad is actually a really good teacher. When I asked him to teach me about the stock market, he did, and he didn’t make it overly complicated. He taught me the basics, then gave me some companies to research and asked me which ones I’d invest in.

It was like a school assignment, but I didn’t mind. It was way more useful than just reading a book about investing. My dad wanted me to apply what he’d taught me using real world examples, and by doing that, I learned much faster. Then he let me invest some of my money. He purposely let me pick some bad stocks so I would know what it feels like to lose money, because you have to be willing to accept losses when you’re investing. After a few bad stock picks that cost me a lot of money, my dad went over my research and showed me why I shouldn’t have chosen those stocks. That’s when it hit me that he really knows what he’s doing. And he’s not just good with investing. He knows how to successfully run a company. I’m amazed at what he’s done with Kensington Chemical, and so is everyone in the business world. That’s why my dad’s always being asked to speak at conferences and being interviewed for magazines.

So yeah, I piqued Luke’s interest when I dropped the Kensington name. I told him I’d love to shadow him for a day and I accepted and thanked him for his mentorship offer. I like the guy and I could see us being friends. He likes a challenge and he goes after what he wants, just like me. He also loves surfing and football and basically all sports, which makes sense given that he owns a sporting goods store. But what I like is that he still does all that stuff even though he runs a business. He still makes time to surf. He’s on a flag football team and a basketball league. Doing all that shows his passion for his business and makes him more like his customers. That’s why he’s so successful. He knows what his customers want because he’s just like them.

I’m really excited to start working with him. I’m going to take full advantage of this opportunity and learn as much as I possibly can. I’ve learned a lot taking this class, but learning from real life examples is so much better than listening to a lecture or reading a textbook.

I can’t wait to tell Jade about this. I’m driving home now and I just called her but she didn’t pick up. She’s probably outside. I think I’ll take her somewhere nice for dinner tonight to celebrate. She loves that sporting goods store, so she’ll be almost as excited as I am. Unlike most women, Jade doesn’t like shopping for fancy shoes and clothes. She’d much rather shop for running shoes than high heels, and I love that about her. I like seeing her all dressed up in skirts and heels, but she’s also damn sexy when she wears a sports bra and shorts.

As I drive up to our place, I see a silver car I don’t recognize parked on the street. It’s right next to our driveway and I immediately panic. It could just be parked there but why is it so close to our house?

I force myself to calm down. It’s nothing. Nobody’s after us. My grandfather’s dying in a hospital bed thousands of miles from here.

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