Chapter 28
Worst Wingmen Ever
CALEB
The sounds of the New Year's party are pulsing through the floor beneath me as I stare at my ceiling. After failing to talk to James, I couldn't stomach going back to the celebration to watch everyone after they all paired up for midnight kisses. So here I am, hiding like a coward.
Except I'm not wallowing. I'm on a mission.
Flipping open my laptop, I crack my knuckles. What I'm about to do crosses several ethical lines I've always respected, but my father crossed them first. I need to know if he dug into James's past and used it to manipulate me.
Accessing my father’s home computer isn't particularly difficult. Over the years, I've set up all his security systems, installed his firewalls, configured his VPN, and created his passwords. He thinks I did it to protect him. I did, but I also left myself a backdoor, just in case.
"Don't you dare…" I click through his mess of folders. “Lecture me about integrity ever again." I’m talking to an empty room like he could actually hear me.
Starting with his email, searching for James's name. Nothing. Then I try "Hunter" and "Rainbow Haven," with the same result. Either he was careful, or I'm wrong about it. Wait.There's a folder labelled "CH3 Potential Concerns." CH3. Caleb Huntington the Third.
A folder about me. Fucking Lovely.
The door swings open, and I quickly minimize the window as Jaren bounces in, looking flushed from the party.
"Man, it's after midnight! Come back downstairs!" He tilts his head when he sees my expression. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing... Research." I wave vaguely at my laptop.
Jaren flops onto his bed, eyeing me suspiciously. "Dude, it's New Year's Eve and you're what... hacking into government servers?"
Pausing for a second before I decide I can trust him. "No, just my family's computers. There's a difference."
"Yeah, one gets you arrested, the other disowned."
A snort escapes me.Dammit.Jaren may be perpetually cheerful, but he's not stupid.
"So let me see if I’ve got this straight," he continues, sitting up. "You broke up with a guy you're in love with because your dad said some stuff, and now you're breaking federal laws to prove your dad's a liar?"
"It's not federal?—"
"That's not the part you should be focusing on, man."
He has a point. I close my laptop with a sigh.
"Look," Jaren says, his usual pep replaced with surprising seriousness, "I don't want to overstep, but you've been miserable since it happened. I should know, I live with you. And the way you look at him when you think no one's watching..." He shrugs. "That's not 'I want to be friends' territory."
"I know." Saying it out loud is scary, but it’s what I want. "I messed up. I apologized tonight, but it's not enough."
"Why not? What did you even fight about?"
My fingers drum against my thigh. No one's heard the whole story yet. "My father basically investigated James's backgroundwithout telling me, then fed me information designed to make me doubt him. And I..." Swallowing hard. "I believed it."
Jaren whistles low. "Damn. That's cold."
"It gets worse." My nails bite into my palms. Physical pain's easier to deal with than this. "I accused James of using me to get to my family's money and connections." The memory makes me wince. "I was so afraid of being used that I didn't stop to think about who I was actually accusing."
"Man, that's rough," Jaren says, and somehow the understatement makes me laugh.
"Yeah, it was a stellar moment in the Caleb Huntington relationship playbook."
Jaren studies me. "So what now? You apologized, he didn't accept...?"
