Page 2 of Faking Ever After

I bit my lip playfully. There was no fooling her. “Oh, you know…I tracked down the man who ruined my family and dug up the USB drive with the evidence of the fraud, then he figured it out, and now he’s after me. Isn’t that what everyone does on a Thursday night?”

Kim’s glare turned to a look of pure horror. “Shit, Finn.” She knew that my parents had been pulled into a scheme that drained their bank accounts and left them holding the bag. Not only had the architect of the plot sucked my folks dry, he had dared to lift their hopes to the Moon and take them away in an instant.

I shifted my weight from one leg to the other and back, almost like I needed to pee really badly, and looked at her pleadingly. “Kim, I need your help.”

I watched my old friend move from worry that was entirely based on the fact that she was a decent, caring human being to the person she was now. A confident, capable woman who could negotiate her way through the Pearly Gates and probably have Saint Peter apologizing for any and all errors he might have made. “Who is he?” was her first question.

I clamped my teeth around my lower lip. As I shook my head, I said, “I can’t tell you. Not yet.”

“Shit, Finn,” she said again, with more heart in it. “Big fish, huh?”

“Call me Ahab.” I cringed. “I tracked down the guy who fooled my old man, then I followed the scent up to the Big Bad. And the less you know, the safer you are.”

Kim pinched the bridge of her nose while Strudel skedaddled around her legs. With a sigh that could make a mountain slouch guiltily, Kim looked at me again. “So. You can’t tell me who he is. And you need me to do what exactly?”

I tilted my head this way and that, shrugging. “Help me get out of New York for a while?”

“Are you asking me?” The shock on her face hardened my resolve.

“No. Of course not. Kim, I need you to get me out of town for a while. He doesn’t know who I really am, but he’s got the resources to find out.” I straightened my back with the bravado I did not feel.

Kim’s features softened under the streetlight and at my words. The fact that I had made this meeting happen when it suited me stung whatever was left of my sold-out soul. Still, I knew she would help me and I knew I would owe her a big one. Licking her lips, Kim deadpanned. “Why not just surrender the evidence to the police?”

I shook my head. “No way. Not until I have some security.”

“You don’t trust them?” she asked, but she knew the answer.

I was certain that this flash drive held all the proof the prosecutors could need to put that Dickcoin broker behind bars, but I wouldn’t just hand it over without the assurance that there would be justice. My family had suffered the sort of losses that single-handedly worsened all our lives. I wasn’t parting ways with this drive until I cracked it open and duplicated the evidence. In the worst-case scenario, the cops would bury the original, but the press would get the backup.

It occurred to me that I was in a deathmatch. I had never been particularly big and burly. What muscles I had were there more for aesthetic purposes than anything else. I wasn’t fast, either. But I wasn’t totally stupid.

“Alright,” Kim said firmly. “If he’s after you, you probably shouldn’t return to your place.”

“I was gonna hitch a ride north and stay in some motel,” I admitted.

Kim shook her head. “How can I help you if you’re God knows where? You’re staying with me.”

“B-but what about you?” I asked, my heart thundering. “It’s not safe for you.”

“How unsafe are we even talking?” Kim asked, pulling Strudel closer to her heel.

I did the quick math in my head. “I mean, the guy’s guilty of financial crimes. When he makes vague threats…I dunno. Maybe he means to beat me with a wad of cash, but I can’t take those chances.”

“How vague?” Kim asked.

“He said he knew where I lived,” I answered, an innocent smile shining on my face.

Kim narrowed her eyes. “That’s rarely a good sign.”

“Unless you ordered a cake from your baker friend, no, it’s not nice to hear.” I tucked my hand inside my pocket and held the drive protectively.

Kim inhaled a deep breath of air and nodded sagely. “Let’s go to my place first. I’ll figure something out.”

“And I will never be able to pay you back,” I said, barely able to contain the giddiness of knowing I might get out of this with my skin intact.

“Oh, you beautiful fool,” Kim said like it was just a musing. “You will absolutely pay me back.”

The grin that spilled across my face was unstoppable. That was my Kim. That was why I came to her.

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