The pounding in his earbuds suddenly went silent. Chase glanced up and saw Zane standing next to his desk, the jack connecting the earbuds to the computer dangling from his hands.
Instantly he hit three keys in rapid succession, activating the macro that sent a message to Peter telling him, due to adult interference, communication would have to cease for now. All his friends had similar emergency escape messages. Some of them were pretty funny. But looking at Zane’s angry face and the fury blazing in his eyes didn’t make Chase feel much like laughing.
He tried to remember if he’d messed up recently. He’d accidentally broken a couple of plates while cleaning the kitchen last night, but Zane had already yelled at him for that. Plus the level of anger radiating from him wasn’t about two broken plates. Which meant Chase had messed up somewhere else. Somewhere big. But it wasn’t noon. Except for breakfast, he hadn’t even left his room.
Unless Zane had found out about...
Zane didn’t say anything. Instead he moved closer to the desk, then leaned over and typed in an internet address. By the time he punched in the fourth letter, Chase knew he was totally and completely screwed.
He watched the site load in a matter of seconds. A panoramic picture of the town of Fool’s Gold nestled into the Sierra Nevada filled the screen. Text scrolled at the bottom. Come to the Northern California wilderness and experience a vacation like no other.
The picture faded, replaced by one of people riding on horseback. It was a great photo, he thought, remembering how he’d copied it from another site.
“Start talking,” Zane growled as he straightened and fixed Chase with his sternest expression.
When Chase had been little, he’d called it the death-ray look. It used to terrify him. But he’d been a kid then and still unclear on how things worked. Back then Zane had been his big brother and the best part of his world. He’d been too young to know that while he would always think of Zane as his brother, his family, Zane would only think of him as a constant screwup who always got in the way.
“Well?”
Chase unwound himself from his chair and crossed to the bed. While the death-ray look no longer sent him running, he liked a little distance between himself and Zane.
“It’s no big deal,” Chase bluffed. “Peter Moreno and I designed a website for our computer science class. Mr. Hendrix gave us an A. He said someday we’re gonna be better at computers than he is.”
Zane pulled out the chair Chase had vacated and sank into it. After rubbing his eyes, he slowly shook his head.
“Yeah. You got an A in computer science and physics and math and every other subject that interests you. We’ll ignore the C in English and the D in history.”
Chase threw himself back on the bed. Jeez, were they going to go through all that again? No one at MIT was going to care if he didn’t do well in history. It wasn’t that kind of college. Of course if Zane had his way, Chase would never get to MIT. Instead he’d spend his life shoveling cow shit and feeding goats.
“I got a phone call about a half hour ago,” Zane said.
His carefully controlled voice made Chase sit up slowly. Even scarier than the death-ray look was the quiet voice. It meant that Zane was doing the best he could to hold on to his temper before it exploded and took out everyone from here to Sacramento.
“A woman wanted to know if she could get a massage before going on her cattle drive.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes, that. Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Chase swallowed as he remembered what he and Peter had done. It had been a joke that had gotten out of hand. He glanced at Zane and saw a muscle twitch in his jaw. Not exactly a good sign.
“Don’t panic,” he said quickly. “I’ve got everything under control.”
“Tell me the plan, Chase.”
Zane looked like a man holding on to his temper with both hands. Chase wasn’t sure how long his brother’s grip would last. He started talking as fast as he could.
“Like I said, it was our school project. We had to design a website, then put it on the internet.”
“Through the school,” Zane said, his teeth clenched. “But you put yours on a host so anyone could access it.”
“Um, that was an accident. Reese Hendrix did it as a joke.”
Zane’s hands curled into fists. “A joke? You advertised a cattle drive. You took reservations. You accepted money.”
“Just for a little while,” Chase protested. “Look, I know what I’m doing.”
His brother stood and crossed to the window. “So people are arriving on Saturday expecting a six-day cattle drive? Was that the plan?”
“No. Don’t worry, I’ve got that taken care of. It was a mistake. When the money started arriving, Peter and I didn’t know what to do.” Okay, later he’d figured out that sending it back with a letter explaining the mix-up would have been really smart, but it hadn’t occurred to him at the time.
“Peter and I are working on our robot, and we needed parts. Peter put in his share, but you wouldn’t loan me any money or pay for anything.”
“You used strangers’ money for your project?” Zane bellowed, turning back to face him. “That’s stealing. The whole website is fraud, and I’m sure we can throw in theft for good measure.”
Chase sprang to his feet. “I didn’t steal. I’d never steal or do those other things.”
“Then where’s the money?”
“Right here.” Chase moved to his computer and started typing quickly. “Peter and I did some day-trading. We figured we’d just borrow their money for a while. After we made a bundle off the deposits, we’d return them and keep the profits. Which was a great idea until the fourth day when we lost nearly everything.”
Zane made a sound low in this throat. Chase kept typing, logging on to his brokerage account.
“I know what you’re thinking. That we were screwed, right? But then we overheard this tourist at the Fourth of July Festival in Fool’s Gold talking about a tech company that was going to announce a new kind of motherboard, and their stock would go through the roof. So we bought as much as we could with what we had left. The announcement is going to be at five today. We’ll sell the stock and send back the deposits. I figured we’d tell everyone the ranch burned down or something so they won’t show up.”
He risked a glance at his brother. “So I’ve got it covered. I’ve even written up the letter telling everyone not to come and that we’ll be sending their deposits back overnight mail. Pretty good, huh?”
Zane’s expression remained unreadable. “You stole their money, lost it day-trading, plan to get it back through insider trading and you’re canceling their vacation with less than a week’s notice. You think that’s pretty good?”
His voice rose with each word. Chase had the feeling he was trying to control himself, only he wasn’t doing a really great job.
“These people are expecting a vacation. They’ve taken time off work, bought tickets. You want me to give you an idea of how much they could sue you for?”
“Not really,” he muttered.
At that moment his brokerage account popped up. He scrolled down to the value and nearly passed out when he saw it was less than two dollars.
“No!” he yelled. He frantically clicked on the stock trading code of the company to check on recent news articles. A big headline flashed onto his computer screen.
Company President Arrested for Stealing Proprietary Information from Rivals.
He felt more than heard his brother approach. Zane touched the screen. “There seems to be a problem with your plan.”
Chase didn’t know what to say. This was bad. Really bad. Probably the worst thing he’d ever done. He felt nauseous. He couldn’t think. People were going to be arriving for a cattle drive. He didn’t have the money to pay them back, and if Zane didn’t bail him out, he was probably going to be arrested. Or worse.
“I really blew it,” he said more to himself than his brother.
“Looks that way.”
Heat flared on Chase’s cheeks. He stared at the floor, studying the scarred wood beneath his feet and the scuffs on his worn cowboy boots.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry?” Zane swore loudly. “You’ve pulled some pretty boneheaded stunts in the past, but you’ve never gone this far before. I expected better.” He clenched his hands, as if trying to keep from punching something...or someone. “I always expect better of you. After all this time, you’d think I’d learn.”
No punishment, not even a good beating, could ever hurt worse than those words. They made Chase feel small and afraid. His throat tightened, as did his chest. For the first time in years, he thought he might actually cry.
“Now what?” Chase asked.
Zane walked to the door. “Good question. You have a backup plan?”
Chase shook his head. “I g-guess—” His voice cracked, and he had to clear his throat before continuing. “I guess I need to borrow the money so I can pay those people back.”
Zane didn’t say anything for a long time. When he finally spoke, Chase knew it was going to be bad.
“A loan would be too simple,” Zane said. “I’m going to call Raoul and Pia to tell them what you and Peter did. Then I’m going to try to figure out what to do with you. This isn’t going to be an easy punishment. I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”
He walked out of the room without saying another word. Chase watched him go. For the first time in his life, he wondered if Zane was going to send him away. Chase tried to tell himself it wouldn’t be so bad. He hated the ranch. He wanted to go away, to study computers and lasers and all kinds of cool stuff. Not cattle breeding.
But leaving on his own terms and being kicked out by his only living blood relative were two very different things. He sank back on the bed, feeling alone and scared and a whole lot younger than seventeen.
CHAPTER TWO
TWO HOURS AFTER her court hearing, Phoebe had cleared out her desk, left her pending files on April’s desk, purchased a large quantity of chocolate and candy from the See’s store and driven to the tall Century City high-rise where her best friend, Maya Farlow, was a producer for a TV entertainment news program.
She smiled at the assistant Maya shared with two other producers, sitting at a desk in the wide hallway. Phoebe tapped lightly on the paneled door, then stepped into a tiny office with a floor-to-ceiling window.
Maya was on the phone, but she motioned for Phoebe to take a seat in front of her desk. Instead Phoebe crossed to the window first and stared out at the north-facing view. To the west lay the Pacific Ocean, to the east, the barely visible high-rises of downtown Los Angeles. And somewhere north was the San Fernando Valley—a suburban mecca everyone loved to mock but that Phoebe actually enjoyed visiting from time to time. The June gloom had burned off, leaving behind brilliant blue skies only possible in Southern California. New York might be the frenetic city that never slept, but LA was cutting-edge cool with a dash of sass.
“Zane,” Maya said, her voice tight, “he’s young. He did something stupid, but—”
Zane. Which meant Maya was talking to her stepbrother. From what Phoebe could tell, the two had never had an easy relationship.
“When does it start?” Maya scribbled something on a sticky pad on the corner of her desk. “Fine. I’ll be there. No, I’m coming. I can’t get out of here today, but I’ll be there. Just go easy—”
She stopped talking as Zane apparently had hung up on her. She made a face at her phone.
“A room with a view,” Phoebe said, taking the seat across from her friend’s. “I haven’t seen your new digs since you moved. Congrats.”
Maya leaned back in her chair and grinned. “Thanks, but I’m hoping I won’t be here for long. There’s a job coming up at a network. On camera and talking about real news, not these Hollywood fluff pieces. If I have to do one more story about an actress’s new hairstyle...” Her smile faded as she studied Phoebe. “Tell me what happened in court. I didn’t get a frantic phone call, so I assume you’re okay. I still have access to cash if you’re going to need bail money.”
Phoebe knew her friend wasn’t kidding about the cash. Maya would be there for her, no matter what.
“No jail time, no punitive damages.” She sighed softly. “The earnest money is to be returned. I’m suspended for a month, without pay, although April says she’s going to pay me herself.”
“She should.” Maya swore. “Let me guess. April just watched the whole thing and didn’t utter a word to the judge.”
Phoebe nodded. “I’m such an idiot. I actually thought she would say something.”
“You mean like the truth?”
“That would have been nice.”
“How upset are you?”
Phoebe smiled ruefully. “There’s a half-pound box of butterscotch squares from See’s in my car. I’m also planning to stop by the grocery store on my way home and buy a bottle of wine.”
“Liquor and sugar. That’s pretty bad.”
“It’s as close as I’ll come to a life of crime.” Phoebe rested her elbows on her knees and covered her face with her hands. “I know better. That’s what kills me about this. What is it with my personality that says I have to earn my place in the world? How many times do I have to be burned before I’ll learn to stop helping people? Every time I do, it gets me in trouble.” She thought about her unexpected meeting with Jeff outside the courtroom.
“Oh, and the Bureau of Real Estate is considering revoking my license. Jeff stopped by to give me the information himself.”
“Did you kick him in the balls?”
“I didn’t think about it in time. Bummer.” She looked at Maya. “Why am I such a sucker?”
“You’re a good person who likes to help people. So what are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know. I have a month off. If the board suspends my license...”
She didn’t know what would happen then, nor did she want to think about it. After college she hadn’t had a clue as to what she wanted to do with her life. Then she’d stumbled into real estate, and for the first time ever, she felt that she’d finally found a place where she belonged. She loved showing houses and getting people good financing and watching their faces light up the day they moved in to their new home. It was her whole life.
“April’s a bitch,” Maya said.
Phoebe sighed. “She’s a single mother with three kids, one of whom is chronically sick.”
“You’re making excuses.”
“I’m telling the truth. She’s right. If she’d taken any more time off to stay home with Beth, she could have been fired. So she asked me to fill out the paperwork for the Bauers. My mistake was in listening to her. I knew the paperwork was wrong.”
Phoebe had fought with her boss, and a frustrated April had finally yelled at her to just do what she was told and file the stupid things. Which Phoebe had done, even though she’d known better. But through a series of unfortunate events, what should have just been a mistake had ended up starting a lawsuit and a subsequent criminal investigation—the consequences of which had landed her in court. Rather than tell the truth, April had let her take the fall, explaining that Phoebe could afford to be a screwup. If April got fired, there were three kids on the line. Phoebe hadn’t come up with an argument to refute that one.
“I didn’t think the real estate board got involved in paperwork mix-ups,” Maya said.
Phoebe thought about the letter in her purse. The one she’d read while consuming four pieces of almond truffle and a double latte from Starbucks.
“They don’t. However the Bauers were April’s clients, and I did the paperwork. They’re accusing me of taking the credit and money for her sale.”
Maya’s green eyes widened with sympathy. “Which you didn’t do.”
“But who’s going to believe me?”
“April knows the truth.”
“April won’t risk telli
ng it.”
“So what happens now? You could haul her into court. I could do an exposé.”
“Thanks, but I’m looking for a different sort of option.” Although what it was, Phoebe couldn’t say. “I guess I have a month to find myself a new job.” Depending on what happened with her license, maybe a new career. “I love selling real estate. I don’t want to stop doing that.”
Maya shook her head. “No, what you love is rescuing people. You’re the only Beverly Hills agent I know who specializes in starter homes for the financially challenged. You could be making truckloads of money with movie stars and Hollywood execs, but instead you work with newlyweds and single moms on a budget that wouldn’t support a rodent family.”
Phoebe thought about protesting, but she knew her friend was right.
“I know what it’s like to be desperate for a place to belong,” she said. She’d lived with the feeling most of her life. One day, she promised herself. One day she would find it, and then she would never let it go.
“Oh, wait.” Phoebe brightened. “I do have one movie-star client, but Jonny Blaze doesn’t want to buy a house here in LA. He’s looking for a vacation paradise home complete with room for a helicopter pad.”
“Could you at least sleep with him and take your mind off things?”
For the first time that day, Phoebe laughed. “I wish, but the man actually ruffled my hair and told me I looked like his kid sister.”
“That’s a drag.”
“Tell me about it.” Phoebe rose. “I have chocolate calling my name, and you have the rich and famous to stalk. I’m going to get out of your way.”
“No way.” Maya rose, came around her desk and gave Phoebe a hug. “I’m not leaving you alone. Let’s go out for Mexican.”
“Are you sure you have time?”
“For you? Always.”
* * *
Kiss Me (Fool's Gold series) Page 2