It was her way of showing that she cared about me.
“Well, how was it?” Jude’s voice drew my attention back to her.
“How was what?”
“Your first time?”
“Seriously? You want to talk about it?” I leaned back and rested my head against the wall. Maybe it had been the alcohol. Or us caught in the moment. Whatever it was that made me do it, that night was the only thing I didn’t regret about Chase Wright.
“It was good,” I said quietly. “And before you ask the next question, the second time wasn’t bad either.”
Or the third time that followed shortly after.
“Unfortunately,” I added quickly so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.
“I gather he wasn’t small or anything?” she asked nonchalantly, as though she didn’t care, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Jude always cared about the tiny details, or rather the not so tiny ones. She had never made a secret out of the fact that men came with tools she liked to compare and rate.
“What?” I frowned at the empty space. “No, Chase isn’t small. I doubt there’s anything about him that is small—including his ego.”
And ability to lie.
The telltale heat of a blush covered my cheeks as my thoughts trailed back to our one date in his car when I undressed him. That very night I had kneeled in front of him, eager to take him into my mouth and learn all the ways I could please him.
I could still taste him. He had been bigger than I ever imagined, and pulsating with energy—ready to burst, for all the world to see.
Nothing had given me more pleasure than pleasing him—until we fucked.
That had blown my mind completely.
“Why did you break up, Laurie? Just tell me because you’re killing me here.”
Closing my eyes, I sighed.
That was going to be so difficult.
“Jude,” I whispered. “Chase isn’t who he says he is.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “No one’s ever who they say they are.”
“No, this is different.” I paused, preparing my words. “He’s involved in some real bad ass shit,” I said, remembering the call he received. “I don’t think he’s an actor. All the information we found on Google was fake.”
“Of course he’s not an actor.” She didn’t even sound surprised.
My heart gave an almighty thud as the realization dawned on me. I opened my eyes, disbelief flooding through me.
“You knew?” I asked, taken aback.
I could almost hear her nodding. “Yes, I knew. Or how else do you think I made up his ad?”
My heart stopped, then started to race.
I pulled myself up from my lying position.
“What—” I started slowly, my voice breaking. “What ad? Jude, what are you talking about?”
“His online profile,” she explained. “I set it up to get you interested enough to hire him. He’s not a professional; just some guy.”
I sucked in a sharp breath.
Jude was behind it.
The truth hit me like a train.
Hard.
Fast.
The entire situation felt so surreal, it seemed like a bad dream.
A nightmare from which I’d wake up and realize Jude hadn’t betrayed my trust.
“Why would you do that?” I whispered. “And behind my back?” My voice was quivering; my body was shaking. My head was pounding so hard, it felt like a sledgehammer was crushing my skull from the inside.
“Laurie, that was the only way,” Jude said.
“The only way for what?” My voice broke again.
“To help you,” she explained.
“What the fuck!”
“I’m sorry I did it, but you needed to get married,” she explained. “When you just wouldn’t shut up about needing a husband, I decided to do something about it. It was my duty as your best friend. If you knew what I was up to, you wouldn’t have hired him, but someone needed to get you a fake fiancé to help you out. It needed to be convincing and yes, I thought if he pretended that he was an actor you’d think he was a professional and that it would all work out.” She took a deep, loud breath and let it out slowly. “My point is, I was just trying to help you, so don’t be mad.”
I shook my head and closed my eyes, feeling like everything I had known in my life was a lie. Here I’d thought I couldn’t trust Chase. Turned out I couldn’t even trust my own best friend.
“Laurie, are you still there?”
I pulled up my knees and buried my head between them, letting the phone drop to the floor.
My own best friend had set me up with Chase behind my back. I had no idea who was more stupid: Jude or I?
Chapter 5
“Laurie, say something. Please don’t be mad at me. I tried to help you, I really did,” Jude said, sounding emotional when I picked up the phone again.
Was she crying?
Because it sure sounded like it.
“I’m not mad,” I whispered, feeling weak. “I’m just trying to figure out why you did it. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” My grip around the phone tightened so hard, I feared I might just snap it in two.
“Laurie,” she repeated my name as if it was some kind of mantra. “I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t know what happened between Chase and you, but I’m sorry for meddling in your affairs. I thought the letters were important to you.”
“They are.”
It was true. They weren’t just important to me. They were all I wanted.
For years, it had been my priority to acquire them. To get them, I had been willing to give up my inheritance just to have something personal from my mother, to read something about her, from her.
“So.” I let out a deep breath. “Let’s get a few things straight. He’s not an actor?”
“No. I created a false profile and linked him to a real actor.”
“Well, how did you find him?”
“Through Facebook.”
Where all the creeps hung out and you could chat with any one of them at your convenience.
Nice one.
My throat tightened as I felt like another bomb had just been dropped on me and an avalanche was about to bury me alive.
“I was just trying to help you,” she repeated. “You would never have approved if you knew what I was up to.”
Damn right, I wouldn’t have.
I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart.
“On the bright side, you’ll get the letters,” Jude said. “So it wasn’t all for nothing, right? Plus, you got rid of your V-card.”
She made it sound like everything was fine.
I shook my head, my fingers tearing at the fringes of the pillow.
“Stop it,” I said at last. That instantly shut her up. “You have absolutely no idea what you’ve done.”
Through the awkward silence, I took a long breath as I prepared my next words carefully.
“Chase is Mystery Guy,” I whispered. “He’s the guy I got stuck in the elevator with.”
The silence on the other end of the line barely lasted three seconds. “That’s great. At least you found him and the mystery’s solved.”
“No, nothing’s fine, Jude. Please listen to me.” My heart crashed against my chest as the image of being trapped in an elevator with no means of escaped flooded my mind. “Chase is the one responsible for the entire floor crashing.”
The line stayed silent. A minute passed. Then another.
“You don’t know that,” she whispered after what felt like an eternity.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
“How?”
“Because I found a folder. It’s the reason I left him.” I wet my lips nervously. It all happened barely a day ago, so I still felt raw—as if someone had just hurled a bag of rocks at me.
“A folder?” Jude asked. Her voice carried a worried undertone.
“Yes.” I paused and cleared my throat to get rid of the shaking in my voice. “It was all in there. My bank account details. Everything about my mother and the estate. The email I received about the interview and the time I would have to be there. I don’t think it’s a coincidence we got stuck in the elevator. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that the floor crashed.”
The line remained silent. I took another breath as the memories came hard and violently—exactly how the last day of my life had been.
“The folder is all the proof I need that Chase was after my money from the start.” I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped one arm around them, hugging myself. “I didn’t give him a chance to explain, but I have proof that he lied to me, and to you, to get me to marry him. To gain my trust. Who knows how far he’d go to get what he wants.” The sudden realization sent a shiver through me. I knew nothing about Chase Wright. He could be dangerous. Heck, he probably was. Everything I had held back came crashing down. My hands began to shake. A throbbing sensation settled in my head.
“One hundred people, Jude. That’s how many got hurt. I’m so happy… I’m so grateful no one got killed that day, or else I wouldn’t know how to live with myself.” I wiped a stray tear off my cheek and looked at the moisture on my finger, my mind a million miles away. “He had it all planned. I know he had. If I hadn’t found the folder, I would never have discovered that he was behind it.”