“Why did Chas sell his car?”
She blinked a few times. “Uh, what?”
“Chas. He sold the Mercedes right?”
“Yes,” she answered. “He said it drove like a tank and wanted something cooler.”
“But he hasn’t replaced it with anything. I mean, you’ve been taking the SUV a lot. So he still doesn’t have a car.”
“He’s not sure what he wants,” Star said, putting her book aside and looking at me like I was crazy. “Why do you even care?”
“Star, do you think Chas might have money problems?”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous. Chas’s family is loaded. Trust me. His mom and dad are still together. It’s not like our situation. At all.”
No. Our situation was that we, as a family, didn’t have money. What if things were different for Chas. What if his problem washismoney?
I needed to talk to him. Alone. Chas Bingley was the last person I would suspect of something as foul as the Freshman Bait List, but my friends and I had all agreed someone was profiting from the betting. A Mercedes, like the one he drove, was a major chunk of change. If somehow, Chas got indebted to people, the wrong people, and needed cash quickly without having to ask his parents for it, that would be the move to make.
I knew, because it’s what we’d done with the Range Rover.
However, to continue hiding it from his parents, he might have needed to find some other means of making quick money. He would have had access to Fitz’s car Friday night, and he obviously knew about Fitz and Wick’s feud.
It fit. If I was right about why he sold his car and hadn’t replaced it.
“What are you thinking?” Star asked me, pulling me from the theories.
Of course I couldn’t tell her I thought it might actually beherboyfriend who ran Wick off the road and not mine.
“Nothing. I have to get ready for work. I have a late afternoon shift at The Club. Will you drop me off?”
“Sure.”
I left her room. I really did need to get ready for work. Then I needed to figure out a way to be alone with Chas to ask him my questions. Or did I tell Fitz what I suspected? That his friend and teammate was quite possibly betraying him for money.
How to arrange that kind of meeting? With me, Fitz and Chas…
Oh. That was it. We just all needed to go on a double date.
22
Fitz
“You can’t hold me prisoner, Mom. I’m not in jail. Yet.”
I was getting ready to leave the house to pick up Beth and Star. Chas and I decided we needed a break from the drama, so we were going to go have dinner and see a movie. When my mother confronted me in the foyer.
“What if they decide to issue your arrest warrant today? Do you really want to be seen in public being hauled away in handcuffs?” she argued.
“Is that about what I want or what you want?” I asked her directly. “If you’re asking me what I’m okay with, I want to go out and behave normally for a night with my girlfriend. If you’re telling me any video images of my arrest will make your political life difficult, then I’ll call Beth and break the date. I’m not obtuse, Mom. I get it.”
She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest wrinkling her pressed silk blouse. As always, she was perfectly turned out for a casual Sunday at home. Meanwhile, my dad was downstairs in the game room wearing a pair of sweats and a wife-beater, prepared to watch football all day.
There were times I did not understand how they came to be a couple. Not even remotely. But then I supposed there would be a fair number of people who would say the same thing about me and Beth. And here I was, crazy about her.
“You know I never wantmyjob to get in the way ofyourlife,” she said.
I did know that. I also knew it couldn’t be helped. She was the senior senator from the state, extremely high profile and, many believed, a future candidate for president. Reputations mattered. Her son being arrested mattered.
