by Julia Derek
“Fine, go. Just be sure you’re careful. I really don’t like this idea at all.”
I waved to my mom as I went inside the security entrance. If she knew the entirety of our plan—that I would not only approach Chrissy on my own but then meet up with her in a dark, empty place, she wouldn’t have let me go at all. So we didn’t tell her all the details, only that we thought we had figured out who had abducted us and that we would see to it that they were arrested. We hadn’t even told her it was an old “friend” of mine. The less my mom knew at this point, the better.
Chase and I didn’t speak much during the flight back, just like we hadn’t on our way to California. He was again deep into the financial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Once a workaholic, always a workaholic, I supposed. This time around, though, I wasn’t as worried that what was between us would end up being merely a fling. Even though we hadn’t spent much time in L.A., I felt like we had gotten a lot closer quicker, having learned each other’s secrets—and then accepted them. Especially Chase accepting mine so readily. That had been nice. It might still end up being only a temporary thing of course, but if I had to bet, I’d put my money on that it would last for a while even after we’d gotten Chrissy arrested. If not, it wasn’t meant to be and I would just have to accept that, be thankful for the time we’d shared together and what I’d learned about him, myself and life. Yeah, I’d survive even if it ended, I told myself, forcing the hard knot that had suddenly formed in my stomach to dissolve.
As we sat there in our comfy first class seats, I took Chase’s hand.
He looked up from the newspaper pages.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said and smiled. “I guess I’m just glad that you’re sitting next to me is all.”
He smiled back and kissed me on the cheek. “Oh. I’m glad that you’re sitting next to me, too.” Then he buried his nose between the pages again, utterly oblivious to all the thoughts and worries going through my head. I shook my head. Men.
Oh, well. I had other things to worry about besides what would happen between me and him, too. I looked out the window and admired the blindingly bright sun that was about to dip below the thick layer of clouds outside the plane. Okay, Chrissy. Here I come. And I’m taking you down for good this time.
Chapter Twenty-One
I was less nervous than I had thought I’d be when entering the mall that Chrissy had disappeared into several minutes earlier. According to Gabi, who was helping me stalk Chrissy, she was currently inside Victoria’s Secret, trying on bras. I picked up my pace as I walked toward the women’s intimates store that was located on the mall’s second floor. It would be a good place to”run into” Chrissy, so I didn’t want to miss her.
A short while later I walked into the big, bright shop, smiling sales attendants greeting me as I continued farther into the deep space. Gabi, who was still there, had just informed me via text that Chrissy was checking out bathing suits in a corner now. I soon spotted her, my old high school “friend.” Tall and athletic-looking, she hadn’t changed much since the last time I saw her, about six years ago now. The only thing about her that was really different was her sandy blond hair. It was much shorter than it had been throughout high school, cut in a professional bob now that ended up an inch below her jawline. She was wearing minimal makeup and a blue pantsuit.
If you didn’t know what I knew about her, you’d think she was just another young woman trying to make it in the competitive Manhattan finance world out doing some weekend shopping. A nice, young woman.
I swallowed back the nerves that had suddenly sprung up and were making me feel nauseous now. Like, really nauseous. I guess it had only been a matter of time for them to make themselves known. Still, I shouldn’t be this nervous—after all, the possibility that Chrissy would do something to me here was minuscule. Besides, Gabi was close by with a gun on her and I had my own on me, too, of course. Chase and I never went anywhere without our guns on us. I took a deep, quiet breath to calm myself. It kind of worked and I felt slightly better. My rapid heartbeat slowed and I could breathe with more ease.
Chrissy discovered me before I got a chance to say something. She broke into a smile, displaying even teeth and dimples in her cheeks. Oh, how misleading those cute dimples were…
“Elle?” she said and let the bathing suit she had been checking out fall back into the row of other suits. “Oh, my God, is that you?”
I made myself smile back at her, hoping I appeared sufficiently surprised. “Hi Chrissy! Yes, that’s me. Wow, that wasn’t yesterday… How many years has it been?”
“Oh, my gosh, I don’t know. Six?”
“Yes, that sounds about right. How are you?” I forced myself to look ashamed. “You’re not still mad at me, are you…?”
She placed a hand on her chest and gasped, looking outraged. “Me? Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?” Her face turned serious. “Oh, you mean because of what happened in high school?”
“Yes,” I mumbled as I kept glancing at my feet. I was surprised at how into this I was, actually feeling like this was just the two of us randomly running into each other, and she was just someone I had once known and had a little fight with. Not someone who had abducted and terrorized both me and Chase only a week and a half ago, then had a snake try to kill me.
“Of course I’m not mad at you!” Chrissy said, sounding offended. I thought she was putting it on rather thickly. “That was like a lifetime ago! I’m not one to hold grudges. I barely even remember what happened, only that it was an awful situation. We all did things then we regret having done. Well, at least I regret them terribly…” Her face darkened a shade as though she thought back to those days and felt bad. Her overacting or not, had I not known better, I probably would have bought her contrite act and not have thought twice about it. Goosebumps formed on my skin even though I was wearing two long-sleeved sweaters. It had been a cool April day today.
A smile spread across her face then, dimples popping again, and she leaned in to give me a hug. Mechanically, I returned it. “Well, it’s really good to see you, Elle! I like your new hair.” She narrowed her eyes as she studied my hair. ‘That blond shade is your natural one, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied. I had been a dark strawberry blonde in high school, bored with my much lighter hue. “Your new hairstyle looks good too. What are you doing here in New York? I moved here for work a few months ago.”
She pulled in a breath, looking like this was complete news to her. “Oh, really? I did, too, but I’ve been here a year already. Where do you work?”
“I’m an associate at Goldman Sachs. I work in the investment banking department.”
Her green eyes widened. “You do? What a coincidence! I’m an associate too, but at Morgan Stanley. In their investment banking department.” She chuckled. “Imagine that, huh… The two of us ending up working the same kind of job in the same city. What are the chances of that?” Her smile widened and she looked a little manic. “I love it here. Don’t you?”
“Actually, no. I did at first, but then things changed quickly for the worse.”
The big smile died and she frowned instead. “Really? How so?”
I looked around as though I wanted to make sure there weren’t any people next to us that could overhear us. Not that what I was about to tell Chrissy was top secret or anything. I just felt better talking about it if no one could overhear us. The closest shopper was several feet away, but I still leaned in closer to Chrissy before I answered.
“Honestly, I don’t know where to begin,” I said. “Working at Goldman is not the dream job I thought it would be. The opposite, actually. It’s a nightmare. My coworkers are not very nice, and my boss is a total pain in the you-know-what.” I lowered my voice. “But that’s not the worst of it. Last week the most awful thing happened to me.”
It was subtle, but I could distinctly tell how Chrissy’s breathing picked up then and that her pupils had dilated. She was looking ext
remely excited. If I had ever doubted she was the one we wanted, I no longer did.
“Oh,” she said. “What happened?”
I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath. “It’s so crazy that I doubt you’ll believe me.”
“Try me.”
I threw another glance over my shoulder. “I was kidnapped.”
Chrissy’s mouth dropped open. “What! You were kidnapped? Why would someone want to kidnap you?”
“That’s what Chase and I were both wondering.”
She frowned again. “Chase?”
“Chase is my boss.”
“The one you don’t like?”
“Uh-huh. He was also kidnapped by these thugs.”
She gasped loudly, blocking her mouth with her hand. “Oh, my God! You and your boss were both kidnapped?”
I laughed without humor and shook my head. “I know it sounds totally unbelievable, but that’s what happened. Fortunately, we managed to escape after only two days in captivity.”
“Well, thank God for that. And you have no idea why they took you? Didn’t they want money or something for you?”
“We never found out exactly why they took us. They kept telling us that the woman in charge would eventually let us know, but we never did find out.”
Chrissy clenched her teeth and looked suddenly furious. “They told you a woman was in charge? Really?”
Hmm, I thought when I saw how mad she seemed now. They were probably not supposed to have told us that…
“That’s what they told us,” I confirmed. “But who knows if they were telling us the truth. All I know is that they were totally psycho and that Chase got shot as we escaped.”
“He got shot? Is he okay? Do you know?” Before I could answer any of her questions, she chuckled happily. “Well, you probably don’t care. I mean, the guy’s a pain in the butt, so he totally deserved it, right?”
I stared at her, waiting for her to tell me she was just kidding. She couldn’t be serious, could she? Plus, surely she knew that Chase was okay since he’d been with me in L.A.
Or didn’t she know that he’d been with me? I froze as it suddenly hit me. Maybe she hadn’t been behind that snake incident after all… Maybe we had just thought so, because who else would do such a thing? We already knew the snake hadn’t just crawled into my closet on its own. It was a rare, highly poisonous species that didn’t live in California. Someone had definitely put it there.
But maybe it hadn’t been Chrissy. She didn’t even seem to know that Chase was totally fine. Or was she just faking that? Somehow, I didn’t think so.
As she kept looking at me with that fevered look on her face, the only thing I was clear about was that she’d been completely serious about assuming that I’d be thrilled if Chase had gotten seriously hurt. To see with my own eyes just how crazy she was threw me for a loop that made my legs weak. But I forced myself to regain my bearings. Besides, I had learned something very important—she obviously didn’t know that Chase and I had long since gotten over our animosity and were in a… relationship of some kind. We hadn’t been sure how much she knew regarding this, thought that maybe she just assumed we’d made a truce until we caught our abductor or something. I was even beginning to question if she was aware that Chase and I had gone to L.A. at all. The only thing I felt entirely sure of was that she hadn’t had our room bugged in that house or she couldn’t possibly think I’d be pleased that Chase was hurt. Suddenly, this phase of our operation had gotten a lot easier, as I wouldn’t have to keep bitching about how I was suffering having to hang with my hated boss still. Unless she was the best actress in the world, the person in front of me definitely thought I still despised Chase.
I smiled back at her, feeling recharged. Finalizing this deal would be a piece of cake now. “Honestly, I was hoping that he would die in the hospital we went to. That way I wouldn’t have to go back to work and have him as my boss still.” I lowered my voice. “I truly do hate that guy.”
“Yeah, too bad he survived, huh.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Wow, that’s so crazy what happened to you! You poor, poor thing. I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been to be abducted by whackos—with the boss that you hate so much! What a terrible nightmare.”
“You could say that again. And we still have no idea why they took us either, which is even more annoying. Or who these people could be.”
“That must be so infuriating. You went to the police of course?”
“Yeah, but there’s nothing they can do since we ourselves can’t figure out why anyone would want to get rid of us.” I rolled my eyes. “Well, I can imagine quite a few people who’d love to see Chase gone—I’m one of them—but personally, I don’t think I have any enemies. They didn’t find any fingerprints of the thugs in my apartment.” I huffed, annoyed. “Considering how they’d trashed it, you’d think the cops would find something they could use.”
She narrowed her eyes at me again. “Your apartment was trashed? Really?”
She looked genuinely surprised by having learned this. Why is she so surprised by that?
“Yeah, the thugs were obviously looking for something,” I explained.
“Huh,” she said and again she clenched her teeth, not looking happy. Her nostrils were flaring with what could only be fury. Well, I thought. I suppose that was another thing those thugs shouldn’t have done…
“Yeah,” I said, “so to answer your initial question whether I love New York, I have to say that I don’t. I’ll be moving back to L.A. soon.”
“I don’t blame you. I’d probably do the same if those things had happened to me.”
I threw another glance over my shoulder. “But before I move, I’d love it if I could stick it to Chase. He was so mean to me even as we were in that room together and in deep shit.”
I held my breath, praying that I’d been correct in my assumption that she really had no idea how well Chase and I got along these days. If I had been wrong after all, I’d know now.
The way she instantly brightened told me I had nothing to worry about. I highly doubted an actress as bad as she was could fake that look of true joy on her face now. My words must have been like beautiful music to her ears. I was giving her exactly what she needed in order to get to Chase. So I allowed myself to breathe again and relaxed.
“Really?” she asked. “What did he do?”
“Just being his general dicky self. Snapping at me or criticizing me every time he opened his mouth.” I laughed and shook my head. “It’s amazing we managed to get along long enough to actually get out of that damn place…” I sighed. “It would be so great if I could get him in trouble somehow before I left. He doesn’t deserve to be a managing director at Goldman. I’m sure lots of people would be grateful to me if I could somehow get him demoted or even fired. But I don’t see how I could ever make that happen.”
Chrissy looked pensive. Then she grinned deviously. “Maybe I could help you with that…”
I made myself light up a little. “Really?”
“Well, we could start by you telling me some of the deals you guys are working on. Clients you’re courting and what you’re promising them. Any particular strategies you might be using that other companies aren’t aware of. Company secrets. I’m sure you have access to all kinds of information Morgan Stanley could use.” Her grin grew wider and she leaned closer to me. “Information Chase is ultimately responsible for … Get what I’m trying to tell you?”
I nodded slowly as I pretended to process what she was telling me. “Yeah, I do. And I do have all kinds of info he’s in charge of that I’m not allowed to share. Especially not with competing firms such as yours…” I smiled at her. “Actually, the more I think about this, the more it seems to me that you’re the perfect person to help me stick it to Chase …”
Chrissy was looking increasingly pleased as I kept talking about things she could do to help me get back at Chase, things he was responsible for. Things that would get him fir
ed.
“ Wow,” I said when I’d finished, grinning big myself now. “You and I running into each other here seems preordained almost. Hey, how about we meet somewhere very private later and I can give you more specific details of everything? I have access to all his files.”
“Sounds good to me,” Chrissy responded. Winking at me, she added, “I will of course not tell a soul how I found out about them.”
“That would be good. Though, honestly, it doesn’t even matter as I won’t be working in finance any longer. I can burn as many bridges as I want to in that world. I’ll be giving my two-week notice in the next few days. No more corporate world for me. When I get back to L.A., I’ll just be living off of my trust fund and focusing on becoming a writer. I’ve always wanted to become a writer and here’s my chance.”
Fortunately, very few people knew about the arrangements my parents had for the money my brother and I would inherit from them—and Chrissy was definitely not among the ones in the know.
She grabbed my arms and squeezed them affectionately. “That sounds like a great plan. If I didn’t love finance so much, I might’ve done the same! When and where do you want to meet?”
“Are you free tonight? Like around ten or so?”
Even if Chrissy wasn’t free, I was sure she’d make it so that she was to get her hands on info she could use to get Chase fired.
“Sure,” she replied. “Where?”
“Are you familiar with Nikkei Sports Club on the Upper West Side?”
“Yeah? You want to meet there?”
“Yeah. There’s a roof deck at the top of Nikkei. No one is ever there at that hour. We can sit there and talk on the comfy sun chairs while enjoying a great view of New York. How does that sound?”
“Perfect!” She threw her arms around me and hugged me. “I’m so glad we ran into each other here, Elle! This is going to end so great for the both of us.”