Page 1 of Faking Ever After

CHAPTER 1

Finn

I hurried down the path.My hand tightened around the flash drive, hard enough to crush it. It was my only ticket out of this mess. I very much wanted it to remain uncrushed, but my fist had, at some point during my great vanishing act, ceased all cooperation.

The smile plastered over my face and directed at the random strangers who walked their dogs at nine in the evening in Central Park, marked me as a lunatic, but that was better than if I somehow looked suspicious. New Yorkers had a great deal of practice in ignoring those who appeared batshit crazy. It was as good a disguise as any, better still for the fact I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

I didn’t have a reason to celebrate—not yet, at least. I had the drive, yes, but it was tricky to carry it when I also carried my head in the bag. I had never been much of a juggler, and this was twice as true on a damp, stuffy night like this when the furies of hell were about to come after my scent.

“Hullo, Gorgeous,” I told a Golden Retriever, who thrust her nose playfully toward me. She missed my leg by a few inches when the leash around her neck tightened and her human companion barked, “Daisy, no. Come back here.” The humanpromptly returned to picking up Daisy’s shit with a black plastic bag.

I ran a hand through my floppy, dark brown hair. The thick, wavy locks went in all directions, falling over one another, sometimes tickling my right eye and covering the top half of my ears. The cream hemp shirt I wore with its sleeves rolled up was sticking to my back in equal parts because of the humidity of the summer evening and the sweat that had covered me as soon as I had first closed my hand around the drive.

I took a right turn where the path forked. When my phone vibrated in my left pocket, my blood curdled. I knew without looking who the caller was. I had been hoping for a few more hours of a head start, which was silly. I hadn’t been lucky once in my entire life. Why on Earth I had imagined that tonight might be a good night to expect any different was beyond me.

I sighed, stepped off the path, and slipped between two evergreen bushes before pulling the phone out. “Well, to what do I owe this pleasure, Diamond Hands?”

The voice on the other end was deep, threatening, and a little groggy. I imagined him waking up and discovering the empty bed and the missing drive. “I know what you did, Matthias.”

I shuddered. The warm, humid breath from his mouth as he sighed the name I had given him into my ear was a memory I had hoped to purge from my consciousness. Not that I had allowed him to get any closer than that.

“It’s not too late to give it back,” he said.

“What’s on it that you’re so desperate to get back?” I asked.

The Crypto Asshole, as I liked to call him in all my lengthy internal dialogues, wasn’t having any of it. “Matthias, you’re not in any trouble. Not yet, at least. If you bring it back, we can pretend this never happened.”

“Hmm,” I said and let the silence linger for a while. He gritted his teeth hard enough that it sounded like it wouldrequire medical attention. “I was wondering if I got it right. Now I know.” The sharp intake of breath on the other side prompted me to continue before he could speak. “And don’t bother telling me it’s your Nana’s secret recipes you have on it. You’re not the only one who knows things, Asshole. I know what you did, too.”I saw the harm it caused to those I love the most.But I didn’t say the last thing. Aside from knowing my face and the feel of my hip under his fingers, Dickcoin — I was full of pet names tonight — couldn’t identify me. Not yet. Given time, I was sure he would track me down. That was why I had hoped to find an ally before this phone call.

“Fine,” he growled and quickly smoothed his voice. “Let’s be reasonable, then. I’ll, uh…I’ll make you an offer.” He sucked his teeth before continuing. “I’ll buy it from you for five thousand dollars.”

I snorted before I could stop myself. “If you think I’ll settle for anything less than your ass behind bars, you really aren’t paying attention. Dick.” I tacked on the last bit for dramatic effect, but it didn’t have the ring to it I was hoping for. “Your glorified Ponzi Scheme ruined enough lives. I’m bringing you down.”

“Don’t be silly,” he said sweetly. “This is New York, Matthias. You’re out of your depth. I know where you live. If you don’t return the drive tonight, you’re in big trouble, kid.”

“I don’t think so, Daddy,” I said mockingly.

The growl that came from my phone was enough to send chills down my spine. “You’re making me do something I don’t want, Matthias. And for what? Do you really think I don’t have a million safeguards on that drive?”

I was sure he had. He was a cautious man, if a horny one. It had taken me weeks to get invited to his place and weeks more before I ferreted out the location of his flash drive. All the while, I had to keep him at arm’s length but turned on just enough tolet me come back. Maybe I was good at juggling after all. “We’re done here,” I said. “But I’ll visit you in prison to see those big, green eyes again.”

I hung up before he could spill the obscenities that undoubtedly filled his mouth. After all, had someone stolen the proof of my involvement in as many financial crimes, my feathers would have been ruffled just the same.

In ever so slightly more haste now that my life had been threatened, I tucked my hands into my pockets and walked on. The noose was tightening around my neck, but I still had something that might morph into a plan if the stars aligned.

I had the drive and I had the end goal. All I needed was some pixie dust to bridge the gap between the two.

Was I in over my head? Maybe just a teeny, tiny bit.

About three hundred paces later, I spotted her. Cocking my head, I spread a delighted smile. “Kim?”

“Oh, hey…Finn!” My old friend spread her arms wide for a hug, which was a bit of a challenge with her large, fuzzy German Shepherd Poodle, aptly named Strudel, pulling the leash left and right and around Kim’s legs. “Funny running into you here,” Kim said as we awkwardly hugged one another because Strudel demanded my attention, his large paws leaving wet prints all over my jeans.

Funny, yes, I thought. Even without looking at the clock, I knew it was half past nine because that was when Kim and Strudel had their evening walk in the park. “The universe smiled on me,” I said earnestly. It wasn’t a lie, either. I had never been unhappy meeting Kim, be that in a café, restaurant, my place for homemade tacos, or, you know, while running away from a wealthy lunatic and needing a friend to help me get out of town.

I pressed my right hand against my pocket to feel the small rectangular USB drive still there. Then I bent down and gave Strudel the ear scratch of a lifetime. Finally, straightening backup, I shot Kim my most charming smile. She was someone I trusted enough to speak to frankly, but I still sprinkled some of my charm in for good measure. “Actually, I was gonna look for you tomorrow.”Lie. I don’t have the time to wait until the morning. Quietly, I vowed to make up for the lie at a later date.

Kim pulled on a suspicious face. She was some rich guy’s personal assistant and possibly a part-time dominatrix. I shuddered to imagine her being angry with me. “What did you do?” Her naturally frizzy hair had been ironed to flat perfection, but the humidity after the summer rain was bringing some of the frizz back. “Finn?”

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