36. East

THIRTY-SIX

east

IT WASN'T THE Phantom that picked us up from the airport but a blacked-out SUV, though it was still King's personal driver that loaded our bags into the trunk.

"I knew it," I said, winking at King as we settled into the back seat. "You rented the Phantom."

"It comes out for special occasions, but I prefer to be inconspicuous in the day-to-day." He returned my wink. "I am just a professor, after all."

Behind me, Zac snorted out a laugh. "Understatement of the century."

As we pulled out of Teterboro and headed toward the city, I reached for my phone and powered it on. When I realized it would be worthless while I was gone, I'd turned it off and shoved it in my bag, and I could only imagine how many "I'm so bored" messages West had sent during his trip.

I chuckled to myself just thinking about the stories he and the other guys would have about their supposed romantic getaways. They'd all be begging me to plan the next trip and apologizing for being idiots.

Then again, their being idiots was the reason I'd just spent the most incredible week with two men who were supposed to be off-limits.

I loved my life.

"Jesus, East," Zac said as he watched the notifications light up my phone one after the other. They were never-ending, the way I imagined King's would be once he turned his cell on.

"My friends regretting their poor decisions, no doubt." But when I swiped my thumb over the screen to see the damage, the sheer amount of missed calls and messages was jarring, even for me.

As I scrolled through, several more popped up, not just from my friends, but my mom, and quite a few others I wasn't in regular contact with. "Fuckin' hell, what's the emergency? I was only gone for a week."

I opened up the most recent one from West first.

WEST:

East, you need to call me.

Where the hell are you?

Why are you not answering?

Wherever you are, stay there. Don't come home.

"‘Don't come home'? What's he talking about?"

King's head jerked in my direction. "What happened?"

I shrugged and hit West's number. "I don't know. He just sent me a bunch of?—"

West picked up on the first ring. "Fuck, East, are you alive? Why haven't you been answering any of our calls?"

"I missed you too. Actually, I take that back. I didn't miss you at all?—"

"Shit, you don't know, do you?"

"Know what? You sound like a drama queen."

"About your dad, East. He got arrested."

I blinked, not sure I'd heard him right. "Say that again?"

"They arrested your dad Friday night. Your mom's been trying to get a hold of you?—"

"Arrested him for what? What are you talking about?"

"So much shit. Fraud, tax evasion, falsifying records. It's all over the news, like front-page shit. They seized all his assets and set his bail so high he's still behind bars."

All the blood drained out of my body. I didn't think I was even still breathing as the phone fell from my hand and hit the floor.

"East, what's wrong?" Zac put his hand on my arm as King picked up my phone and hit speaker. West was still talking, but all I heard was "reporters fucking everywhere." I couldn't speak, couldn't even think, as Zac asked, "Where?"

"At the Towers," West said, not catching that it wasn't me responding. "So you can't come back here. Tell me where you are and I'll come get?—"

King ended the call and turned the phone off before he pulled out his own and began to type.

"Why'd you do that?" I demanded as he tucked my phone into the inner pocket of his jacket.

"It's best you stay off your phone for the moment."

"Best for fucking who?" I lunged for him. "Give it back."

King caught my wrist in a firm hold and leveled me with one of those no-nonsense stares."No. You don't know who might've hacked your phone. Who might be listening in to any calls you make. You've been off the grid until this very minute. You turn that phone on right now and you're opening the door to anyone with slightly better than average tech skills. Not to mention the authorities. Think."

That was pretty hard to do when my world had just exploded right before my very eyes.

"What's going on?" Zac said.

"You need to trust me."King's focus and grip didn't let up.

"Did you know?"What, exactly, I had no clue. But for some reason I felt he knew more than he was letting on.

A suspicion that was soon confirmed when he let go of me and lowered his eyes back to his phone.

"I asked you a question," I said. "Did you know ?"

King took in a deep breath, and like a mask had been slipped back on, the relaxed man I'd spent the last week with vanished and I found myself staring at the leader he'd revealed himself to be.

"I'd heard rumblings. We all have for years now."

"Rumblings about what?"

"Your father and his…business practices."

I shook my head, trying to make sense of what he was telling me, but nothing seemed to fit. He'd heard things ? What kinds of things? And if this had been going on for years, how was my father still conducting business in one of the most influential cities in the world?

"This is bullshit." My molars threatened to crack with how hard I was grinding them. "My father… He's a shark, yeah, but you have to be in New York. Especially in the business he's in."

"That's all true, but?—"

"I don't believe you. Believe any of this." My hands shook as I ran them through my hair, and a comforting hand on my shoulder made me flinch.

"Sorry," Zac said, his voice quiet, almost pitying, and I spun around to aim and fire, until the second our eyes met.

Where I expected to see pity, I saw compassion, and when he ran a hand down my arm this time, I nodded. "Thanks."

I spun back to look out the window, refusing to look at the stoic man in the seat beside me. God knew what King was thinking as he typed away on his phone. Hell, I didn't even know what to think. I didn't know what to do.

My father had been arrested.

Fucking arrested .

I had no idea what that meant for me and my mother. What that meant for my future. If all my father's assets had been seized, did that mean we were…broke?

I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to work out what to do next, where to go. If I couldn't go back to the Towers and I had no fucking money, what now?

"I need my phone."

King stopped typing to look at me."I told you, no."

"And I'm telling you I need it."

"What you need is somewhere safe to go. Somewhere away from prying eyes and nosy reporters."

"And how the hell do you think I'm going to be able to organize that without my fucking phone ?"

"East, maybe you should try to calm down for a minute. King is only trying to?—"

"Don't, Zac." I held up my hand. "This is my life that's being fucked over right now. My world that has just gone to hell in a handbasket. I need to find out what happened, talk to my mother, make arrangements on where the hell I'm going to live—since apparently my place is off-limits. So please, do not tell me to calm down ."

My body vibrated with misdirected fury, but since my father wasn't around to yell at, Zac and King were the unlucky recipients.

"Jorge, change of plans," King said to his driver, his demeanor infuriatingly calm. "Let's head to the house."

He then turned and said, "You're coming home with me."