ringing broke me out of my self-loathing. Because I assumed we were far from cell service in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the sound surprised me.
What wasn’t surprising? The number of the caller on the small display. Well, this punishment couldn’t get any worse than what I was currently putting myself through.
“Hey, Bas. How’s it going, man?” I answered as nonchalantly as possible. Never mind that I just skipped town two days ago after breaking his sister-in-law out of the mental health facility his soon-to-be wife had her committed to.
Yep. Just another day in the Shark universe.
“Not like you to ditch work, Grant,” my best friend said with an eerie calmness to his voice.
“Didn’t you get the voice mail I left you?” I asked, nodding at my casual tone.
“Oh yeah, I got it.” There was a heavy pause before he spoke again. “See, here’s the thing, though, my friend. We are still friends, Grant, aren’t we?”
“Of course we are. Why would you even ask me a question like that?”
Crap. My tone wasn’t so casual anymore. Because the thing was…I already knew the answer to my own question. And was pretty damn sure Bas did too.
“Well, I’m having a hard time separating the truth from the deception at the moment. Seemingly at every turn.”
Damn it. Despite the steady underline of his tone, there was no mistaking the bolder strokes of his remark. The determination—and the accusation. With the same collection of words, he was both pissing me off and making me edgy.
Maybe it was time for me to peel my own gloves off.
I elevated my volume a couple of notches while demanding, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Stop,” Bas bit back. “Just stop and cut the shit, Twombley. The damage is already done. Although usually when I find out that a person has lied to me, that’s it, you know? I cut him off at the knees. Done.”
I drew sharp, incensed air through my nose. “I’m familiar with your standard flow, man.” Along with just about every figurative body he’d ever buried on his rise to corporate success. But clearly, His Majesty Shark didn’t care to remember that right now.
“Good,” he spat. “Because you’ll also remember that I don’t have room for backstabbers in my life. But when that cut has come from my best friend? No—worse than that—my brother? Well, I don’t even know what to do with this information. Not yet, anyway.”
“Okay, seriously, man. I’m going to ask you one last time; what the fuck are you talking about?” I huffed in response to his derogatory grunt. “Honestly? You sound like a paranoid prick right now. I haven’t lied to you—”
“Ah-ah,” he tutted as if chastising a child.
My anger rose another notch as a result of his condescending admonishment. But he didn’t even notice the spike in my breathing over the phone. He couldn’t see me clenching my free hand into a fist, ready to deck him in his smug face. No, he just continued with his sage advice.
“You may want to think about that claim before making it so emphatically. I warned everyone I’d get to the bottom of what really happened at the Edge job site the night Sean Gibson died. No one fucks me over and gets away with it.” His voice grew quiet and full of pain. “I just never thought it would be you, man.”
All the shitty events of that night came rushing back to me—in horrifying detail. Racing to the scene to find Rio about to torch the place. Watching her have some sort of psychotic breakdown. Then tackling her to the ground just before she did catastrophic damage to Sebastian’s burgeoning building. Finally, trying to clean up the mess she made and enlisting Elijah’s help to do so…
Shit. Elijah.
I needed to call and warn him before Bas figured out he had any part in this ruse, too. Because like the hunter he was, once Sebastian Shark picked up the scent of blood in the water, he wouldn’t stop circling until all the bodies involved were devoured.
“Bas, listen. I can explain. There’s so much about that night—”
Click.
A few seconds passed before I was blasted with a dial tone from the other end of the call. The asshole had actually hung up on me!
I sat for long minutes after that, motionless and speechless. Completely lost and beyond confused about what to do with the situation.
My cell seemed to triple in weight as I felt the impact of my best friend’s accusation. I