Page 103 of Notorious Park Avenue Prince

“East,” West shouted as he moved out of our apartment’s kitchen and into his room. “Fuckin’ hell, man, I’ve been goingout of my mind worrying about your punk ass. Why’d you hang up on me? Then your phone’s going straight to voicemail. Where are you?”

“In my defense,Ididn’t hang up on you.” I took a sip of my perfectly dirty martini and hoped King was already making another.

Someone grabbed the phone from West, and a few seconds later Travis’s face filled the screen. “Oh good, you’re in the tub. For a second I was worried you’d be overreacting somewhere.”

“Aw, you were worried about me? That’s cute.”

Travis was pushed off screen suddenly, replaced with Donovan, Preston, and Gavin squeezing their faces in.

“Are you okay? Do you need a Van talk?” Donovan asked.

“We’re here for you, East,” Preston added. “Whatever you need.”

I held up my half-empty glass. “I could do with another drink.”

“I already called Scotty and told him to come early so we could pick you up wherever you are.” Gavin frowned, and his shock of platinum hair moved closer to the screen like he was trying to see what was inside it. “Wait, where are you?”

“Tell him not to bother. I’m not going.”

Travis stole the phone back. “What do you mean you’re not going?”

“If reporters are all over the Towers, you don’t think they’ll be crawling up Astor’s gates too? Come on, Trav. They’re not getting a shot at my glorious face without coughing up the money for my father’s bail.”

“I could take care of it,” Daire said somewhere off camera.

“We’ve met the quota on arrests this week, but thanks.” I slid an olive down the swizzle stick and into my mouth.

“All right, all right, give me the phone back.” West took one look at me, then said to the others, “Give us a sec.”

There were grumbles as the guys all left West’s room, and when they were gone, he flipped the lock and sat on his bed. “Obviously you’ve got everyone’s support. We’ve all got your back, East.”

“If you didn’t, I’d have to pay for new friends. Oh, wait. I can’t. Never mind.” I bit off the remaining olive and tossed the swizzle stick in the direction of the trash can, missing entirely.

“It’s okay if you wanna vent. This is shit, the whole thing.”

Yes, yes it was. The events of the last hour hadn’t quite penetrated my brain, and the vodka was doing a decent job of cushioning the blow. Before I went fully into shock, therewerea couple of things I needed to clear the air on, though bringing them up made me want to find that open window.

“I suppose there’s a little issue that needs to be worked out,” I said. “Apparently, these morons have frozen our accounts, which means?—”

“Don’t worry about that,” West cut in. “You’ll always have a place at the Towers, and whatever you need, I’ve got you. Seriously.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat, thankful he didn’t make me say the words “I’m a penniless asshole, can you spare some change?” because my God, I didn’t think I could force that shit out even if I was destitute.

“Well, we’ll be back on our feet before you know it,” I said, waving my hand like none of this much mattered and it was all a mistake.

My twisted-to-hell stomach knew better.

“I know you will.” West nodded, buying into the lie we both knew that it was. “Just like I know you’re upset and trying not to show it. But you’re allowed to be pissed about this. You trusted your dad and he let you the down.”

Yeah, in the most monumental way ever.

It was no secret my father was a cutthroat businessman. One didn’t get to the top without stepping on a few people to get there—or, you know, destroying them. But I’d always assumed he’d done it in a way that was legal, that he was the smart, savvy type, not the low-down, underhanded, cheating type.

Turned out I didn’t know anything at all. Which I supposed was a blessing in this particular instance. Otherwise I might be modeling the latest shade of orange too.

“I don’t know what to feel right now. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact my father is currently sitting in a jail cell.”

“I get it, man.” West ran a hand through his hair. “We tried to get a hold of you Friday but we couldn’t reach you and—actually, whycouldn’twe reach you? You never said.”

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