Page 151 of Their Cruel Play
Nico
It’s still early when Caden closes us off from Harper. The other feeds are still live, but with the exception of Luke’s camera in his empty room, they all disappear. I close my laptop and head to the kitchen.
The rest of my house is quiet, but there’s a light coming from beneath my father’s office door. I don’t want to stop and talk with him, so I try to creep by.
“Are you sure it’s still there?” My dad’s voice carries through the crack in the door.
I pause, afraid he’ll realize I’m out here.
“We need to get that back. I thought you said it disappeared with him.” My dad must be on the phone. I only hear his voice in the room.
“Damn it, William. This was supposed to be fixed years ago.”
William? That’s Luke’s father’s name, but it could be another William. I don’t know my father’s business associates.
“Does Bruce know?”
Bruce, as in Bruce Ross, Caden’s dad? What the fuck is going on?
“We should meet. And you’re sure your son will be able to locate the asset?”
My heart thumps as the wheels on my dad’s chair squeak into the silence.
“The girl better not be too big of a distraction that he doesn’t do his job.”
Something isn’t right. My father vowed he wouldn’t ever come back here and then suddenly this year, he made the move for the whole family. We knew he was connected previously with both Luke’s and Caden’s fathers, but who’sthe girl?
“If this comes out, it will ruin us all.” My father stands.
Afraid to get caught, I move past his door and into the kitchen, acting like I’ve been in here a while. I grab from the fridge what I need to make a sandwich.
Footsteps approach and the overhead light comes on. I wince at the sudden brightness.
“Nico, what are you doing up?” My dad’s voice is gruff as he goes over to the liquor cabinet to refill his glass.
“Hungry.” It’s not only the truth, but it’s legit. I’m always fucking hungry.
“How’s school going?” He adds an ice cube to his drink and swirls it around while he watches me put together a sandwich.
“Fine. The classes are all comparable to the ones I’d planned to take.” I finish my sandwich and put away the ingredients. Not that he cares about what I planned for my senior year. We were moving here. He made the gesture of offering for me to stay behind to finish my senior year, but Mom never would have let me.
I want to get out of the kitchen before he asks me for a favor.
“You used to hang out with a girl when we lived here before.” His voice fades a little like he’s trying to remember. “What was her name?”
“Harper.” I put my sandwich on a plate, but I wait to see what else he’s going to say.
His dark eyes light up. “That’s it. Are you two still close?”
I don’t miss the shrewdness in his eyes. “We talk.”
He nods. “You should get to know her better.”
My father has never told me to get to know someone better.
“Why?”
He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Protecting our interests. You know we should talk about you doing an internship this summer before college. There’s a lot of things you could learn.”
