Fearless Like Us (Like Us 9)

Banks stares through me. “You do know something about the two of them, don’t you?”

I bite my bottom lip to keep from spilling the fucking beans.

“Did they fuck?”

I make a you-smell-that-fart? face, more at myself.

Banks laughs a little. “Alright, maybe it’s better if I know nothing.”

“Yep.”

He nods to himself. “Head in sand.”

“You feel any bet—” I’m cut off by another ringing.

Fuck.

I answer the next call on speaker. “Beckett?”

“Sulli,” he says. “Are you sitting down?”

Still on the public bathroom floor, I’m knelt on either side of Banks, and my ass has dropped to his lap. “Sort of.”

Beckett would be drowning himself in hand sanitizer if he switched places with me and my boyfriend.

“My dad just called me. Apparently, the SEC are investigating our families.”

My face falls. “For what?”

“They think we might be behind the leaks in order to manipulate the stock market. It’s bad, Sulli.”

I stare in a daze at my phone. Un-fucking-believable. Why would we be tanking Fizzle’s stocks and Hale Co. and Cobalt Inc.? What good does that do us?

Banks shakes his head at me like he can’t believe it either.

“I have to go,” Beckett says in a rush. “I just wanted to let you know in case you hadn’t heard yet.”

“Thanks, Beckett.”

We hang up.

Silence stretches between me and Banks, a single thought in the air.

“You first,” I tell him.

He takes a breath. “Akara didn’t call us.”

My chest hurts. “I was thinking the same thing.”

Akara would definitely have known about the SEC investigating our families before even Beckett. I’m sure Uncle Connor speed-dialed Akara right after he learned the news. We’re not even on Akara’s need-to-know list anymore. He’s just wiped us out like our triad never even existed in the first place.

Some of the public think it was all a lie.

Maybe Akara’s starting to believe it too.

52

BANKS MORETTI

Cold feet. I felt that towards my dad. Now I’m feeling that feeling again. I’m usually not the one running away, but I’m dreading tomorrow. I shouldn’t be wishing for a natural disaster to yank me away from a doctor’s visit. But that’s where I’m at.

Hoping for a fuckin’ tornado.

Hurricane.

Maybe a little tsunami.

While Sulli is showering, I go into the living room and find Farrow lounging on the rug with an apple in hand. He watches Baby Ripley, who waddles into an uneasy stance and giggles before walking like a torpedo.

Farrow is quick on his feet and snatches up his son, stopping him from colliding into the corner of the coffee table. “Where are you headed so fast, little man?”

Ripley giggles as Farrow swings him in a circle.

“You trying to run after wolf scout?”

He kicks his legs out and giggles more.

“He makes me laugh too, but we’re not going to tell him that, are we? No, we are not…” He trails off, seeing me come further into the room and lingering.

Farrow gently places Baby Ripley on the rug beside a few of his toys. Ripley plops down and grabs an interactive, educational book. He had his first birthday a few days ago. Only recently has he started walking and racing through the penthouse like an obstacle course.

I even helped baby-proof the penthouse better with Sulli and her roommates.

Babies are fucking cute.

I’m still hoping my brother has one. Or three or four.

Thinking about him reminds me of my family. My mom is over-the-moon elated that my relationship with Sulli is now confirmed to the public. Seeing as how she thought I’d never really settle down. Can’t really celebrate with her when it feels like we’re two-thirds of a whole and still missing a piece.

“Hey,” Farrow nods. “You okay?” He lowers next to his son and helps him flip a page that’s stuck together.

I upnod and try to vocalize my feelings. Not always that easy. “You talk to my brother recently?”

After Farrow bites into the apple, he leans back on one hand and swallows. “I talk to him basically every day. Hazard of our spouses being best friends.”

Farrow and Thatcher talking every day. I’ve seen stranger things, but clearly my brother has a new best friend that’s not Akara. I never would’ve thought it’d be Farrow.

Ripley giggles at an animal noise from the book.

Farrow smiles. “That one’s an elephant.”

His son babbles back.

Just so I go through with this conversation, I force myself to sit on the mod couch.

Farrow sees.

I speak before he can. “Thatcher never told me he planned to do the cheating leak with Jane. Probably because he knew I’d give him hell for even thinking about it. Let alone putting that shit into the universe.”

“He didn’t tell me either, and Jane didn’t even tell Maximoff. I don’t think they told anyone but each other.”

I nod, knowing that my brother and his wife only conspired together. Thatcher and I talked about the whole thing after the fact.

I crack a crooked smile at a thought. “My brother went rogue. You must be rubbing off on him.”