Page 29 of Forking the Billionaire

He’d swoop in with a bandage when I scraped my knee. And then there was my sparkly blue rubber ball. It was no bigger than a gumball, and came from the same kind of machine. And for whatever reason, I loved bouncing it on the rocks by the stream.Every time I bounced it too hard and lost it, Jasper would jump right in and wade through the water until he found it, no matter how many times I bounced it in.

Maybe that’s all I’d ever been to him—another helpless kid in need of saving. The thought hurt my heart, even though that was stupid. He’d been more than that to me back then. He’d been the best part of my day.

A strange sound pulled me from my thoughts. It was soft and barely audible, but also weirdly out of place.

Jasper tilted his head to the side as if trying to figure out where it was coming from. “Do you hear that?”

I nodded.

“Sounds like whispers.” He looked out in the hall.

I explored the room more, spotting a small vent on the floor halfway behind the sofa. The sound grew louder as I got closer.

“Over here,” I called to Jasper.

I leaned in close. Jasper hung over the sofa, putting his face only a few inches from mine. A long strand of his hair tickled my cheek. I swatted it away.

“You’re that soap opera star, from the eighties,” a voice whispered. “Admit it.”

Nothing followed for a few moments, then finally one more line followed, “Only if you admit that you’re the biscuit bandit.”

The whispers stopped completely.

Jasper and I exchanged a look.

“You don’t know what that means, do you?” he asked.

“Nope. But no matter what it means, we have to find out who said it, right?” I asked.

“We definitely do.”

We hurried up the steps, checking each of the larger vent areas in the halls. Then I led Jasper up to the roof. The sky wasn’t as dark as I’d expected.

A towering silhouette stood by the ventilation system. I grabbed Jasper’s wrist and dropped down behind the brick stairway wall for cover.

I pointed toward the giant man shape I’d seen.

Jasper peeked around that way and squinted.

“He’s not moving,” Jasper whispered.

That was weird. “Maybe he’s hoping if he doesn’t move, we won’t see him.”

“Like we’re T-rexes?”

“Maybe. Do you have a better explanation?”

We waited there and watched.

Morning light started to climb over the ocean, filling the sky with a soft glow. I watched the still man, waiting to see what he’d do next.

The sun kept ascending. Jasper rose to his full height. I glanced up at him, expecting him to be making some kind of move. What had he seen or heard that I hadn’t?

He wasn’t looking at the man. He was looking at me.

“What?” I whispered.

There was something on his face, some kind of expression I couldn’t read in the shadows of the early morning light.

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