“Fuck, I guess I’ll go to my dad’s,” Chasm starts, moving back over to me. He takes a moment to thread his fingers in my hair, kissing me with such deep, mournful longing that my knees go weak, and I end up grabbing onto the waistband of his pants to keep myself standing upright. “I’ll have my phone so … you know, call me if anything goes down before I get there. Otherwise, I’ll be the one calling you.”
I nod and release him reluctantly. Our hands touch, and our fingers stay tangled until the last possible second. I let my hand fall by my side before I step into the hallway and close the door behind me.
I’m already waiting on my bed, legs crossed, phone in my lap, when Chasm calls. I answer immediately, relieved to see his smirking face on the opposite side of the screen.
“Okay, so,” he says, panning the phone around so that I can see the room he’s standing in. With beige stucco walls, heavy dark wood shelves, and a slate floor, it’s quite clear that Chasm’s wine cellar is not the wine cellar at all. “It’s definitely not what we’re looking for.”
“Definitely not,” I agree, bringing my thumbnail to my lips and nibbling on it. “No hidden doors, right? Anyplace to put a skeleton key?”
He says no to me in Korean. At least, I think he’s saying no.
“Negative,” he repeats in English. “You’ll be pleased to hear that one, my dad isn’t home so I’m not about to get my ass busted. And two, he hasn’t mentioned the lake house to me at all.” He stares at me through the screen for a minute before snagging a bottle of wine and tucking it under his arm. “We deserve this,” he adds, leaving the wine cellar and locking the door behind him.
“I’m relieved that it isn’t your dad’s wine cellar, but I’m also disappointed. We have nothing, Chas. Nothing at all.”
He pauses in the hallway, setting the wine bottle down on a side table for a second. The sheer size and luxury of the house behind him blows my mind, even having lived with the Vanguards all this time. I’m aware that Parrish’s grandmother is, supposedly, one of the wealthiest people in the entire country. And that Paul is her only son. So, assuming neither Laverne nor Paul blow the inheritance, it’ll eventually become Parrish’s.
As of right now, it appears that Seamus McKenna wins the money game.
“Each time we eliminate a possibility, we open up three more. Remember that. Also, we don’t know for sure that my dad isn’t involved. I mean, the lake house, the fact that he and Justin were friends once upon a time, the Fort Humboldt Security thing. I’ll see if I can’t dig up more information about that.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I tell him honestly, and he gives me a genuine smile in response.
“Anything you want me to grab on my way back? I could get supplies and teach you to make kimchi or something.” He notices the look on my face and frowns heavily at me. “Don’t do that. Yes, we have to find Parrish. We also need to eat.”
“What’s kimchi?” I ask, since I can’t seem to find the energy to make myself address the rest of what he’s just said.
His eyes widen and he curses under his breath.
“Jesus Christ, where did you grow up again? The middle of butt-fuck nowhere? I thought you watched a ton of Korean TV!”
“I have like, an idea of what kimchi is, but I don’t know what’s in it, what it’s made of, what it tastes like.” I tick my fingers off with each statement, my phone nestled in some pillows in front of me. “I never got around to looking it up or trying it. Give me a break here: I’m a kidnap victim for crap’s sake.”
He rolls his eyes at me.
“I’ll stop at the store on the way back. We’ll make some side dishes.” Chasm hangs up the phone, and I let out a huff, my hair billowing around my face. Readjusting myself, I get comfortable in the pillows, and then crack open Tess’ novel, Fleeing Under a Summer Rain. I’m a quick reader, so I’m already a quarter of the way through, using the time while I was waiting for Chasm to call to get started.
So far, it reads like pure fiction. A man mistreats his wife and daughter, so the wife attempts to flee and take their child with her. Her husband murders her (this isn’t revealed until later in the book, but I’ve read it, like, ten times before) and then raises the child himself. Eventually, the daughter learns the truth and stabs her dad to death.
I’m at the part in the story currently where a big time skip happens, jumping from the scene where the mother dies, to a sunny day during the daughter’s junior year in high school. So far, all I feel is guilt for reading this when my time might be best spent somewhere else.
