Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79253 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Mr. Hathaway gazes inside the house, his nose wrinkling. “That’s very kind of you to offer, but I have some Perrier in the town car. Perhaps you could bring Harry to our Chicago residence after school tomorrow?” He hands her a card. “Here’s the address.”
“Of course. Harry will be there with bells on. Anything’s better than that damned creek!”
“Wonderful. Thank you, ma’am. You and your husband are welcome to come as well. I can have our housekeeper prepare some light hors d’oeuvres. Perhaps we’ll open a bottle of Champagne to celebrate your son’s bravery.”
“That would be lovely, sir. Thank you!”
“Thank you, Mrs. O’Rourke.” Mr. Hathaway turns around and steps into a limo—yeah, a freaking limo—parked outside our home.
Ma claps her hands to her cheeks. “Harry! My sweet little boy. So brave! So wonderful!” She peppers kisses all over my cheeks. “We’re going to have to buy you some new clothes. If you’re going to be friends with a Hathaway, you’ll have to dress the part.” She walks toward her bedroom. “I’m going to call your father, see if we can’t find a few extra bucks in our bank account to buy you a nice tie!”
“A tie, Ma? For a playdate?”
“Of course, sweetie. I’d rent you a full tuxedo if we could afford it.” She goes into the bedroom where the phone is. We only have one.
Harold and I are still in the living room. He scoffs.
“What?” I ask.
“You realize what that was, don’t you?”
I wrinkle my forehead. “No. What?”
He rolls his eyes. “Do you really think Henry Hathaway gives a flying fuck about you? About Ma and Dad? About any of us?”
I shrug. “I mean, I did save his son’s life.”
“Yeah, and I don’t doubt he’s grateful to you. But he’s a politician, Harry. People like him see everything in terms of the news cycle. And this is a big win for him.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what they call the Hathaways, don’t you? The Kennedys of Chicago?”
“I’ve heard that, yeah.”
“Yeah. And with the Hathaway name comes the stink of elitism. They’re rich beyond belief.” He flops down on our worn-out couch. “You saw that limo. That’s probably one of half a dozen they’ve got lying around in their garage. Imagine how people will look at him when they see him letting his son hang out with trailer trash like you.”
“We’re not trailer trash.”
Harold chuckles. “Doesn’t matter. To them, it’s what we are. But when people see the photographs of Maddox Hathaway—and I’ll bet you on Ma’s life there’ll be photographers there—slumming it up playing fucking choo-choo trains with a boy from the other side of the tracks, he might just secure the vote of a new demographic. He’s just like us, they’ll think.”
My lip trembles. I thought I found a true friend yesterday. “So it’s all a big political stunt?”
Harold grins. “Aw, buck up, bud. It’s not all bad. Ma and Dad need money bad. Six kids in a mobile home… That’s pretty fucking sad. We’re already sleeping three to a bedroom. If you play your cards right, you might just be able to secure a nice little donation in exchange for your heroism from the Hathaways. If they’re going to use us, we can use them right the hell back.”
I scratch my head. “He hates your guts?”
Bianca nods. “We were friends the first several months I worked at Aces. But then we had this big fight, and we haven’t spoken since.”
“How could you speak with him at all?” Alissa asks. “The waitstaff aren’t allowed to speak.”
“I mean outside of Aces. He’d hang out at my apartment sometimes after the evening was up. We’d watch old movies, hang out. He learned a lot of English that way, so it worked out nicely. And I was in desperate need of friends after coming back from New York.”
“Okay…” I rub my temple. “Well, even if the two of you aren’t exactly on the best of terms, I’m sure he doesn’t want to be killed and then have his organs ripped out of him. So he might still be interested in our help.”
Bianca bites her lip. “God, he’s going to kill me.”
“I’m sure whatever kind of row you had will be water under the bridge once we explain to him what’s going on,” Alissa adds.
“You don’t understand. The reason we started fighting in the first place was because he suspected Rouge was up to something nefarious. And I didn’t believe him. I took her side.” She buries her face in her hands. “And now it’s years later. Who knows how many countless lives could have been spared if I’d just listened to him then?”
I wrap my arm around her waist. “Babe, you can’t think that way. Hindsight is forever twenty-twenty. What matters is that we can help the Jack of Hearts now. And everyone else at Aces, and at Jade, Second Star, and the rest.” I pace the room again. “I don’t love that more people I care about are going to have to put their lives on the line to get this done. Who knows what we’ll run into if we follow Jack back to the Caterpillar Hotel after his last night at Aces? Hell, this wasn’t even my escapade to begin with. It was Maddox’s. He was the one who dived down the rabbit hole in the first place with you, Alissa.”