Page 73 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend
“Yeah. In the basement.”
As David drove me back down the hill, my mind was racing. Suppose that Lucien had realized what we were up to? Suppose he was onto us already? I’d known it would be hard to hide the truth from him. But luckily, David and I had been able to plan ahead.
That Sunday, I’d told David my suspicions. Both of us agreed that there was something off about Lucien. David disliked him, and before I hadn’t been able to see. But by now, we’d both come to realize that Lucien Barnes was an enigma, one that neither of us understood.
And the person who’d finally helped me realize that? My mom. She’d initially mistaken Lucien for Conor, and I had to agree. There were eerie similarities between them too. How did he know so much about me? How did he know what I liked, what I wanted? Was it really that he felt so strongly about me?
If I was wrong, then I was being a selfish and cruel person. I was lying and manipulating Lucien for my own interests, and about to cause irreparable damage.
But if I was right…
Then what? Who was Lucien, if he wasn’t who he said he was? Some long-lost relative of Conor’s? A cousin? Maybe they’d known each other in the Navy. Suddenly, I felt uneasy about how close Lucien had gotten to Kyle.
“This is so wrong,” I muttered, as we pulled into the driveway.
“You said it yourself,” David told me. “There’s something weird about him. The secret room. Did you ever get a look inside that diary?”
“No,” I said.
“I’ll bet you there’s something in there,” said David. “Something we need to find out about.”
“David, you’re being crazy. And this isn’t what I agreed to—”
“Agreed to? Laura, this was your idea. You’re the one who came and told me that you thought Lucien might have murdered Conor.”
“I never said that,” I snapped.
“You said he knows things that only Conor would know.”
“He knew about the lanterns,” I said.
“That is pretty sketchy. They haven’t done those for like ten years.” David switched the engine off and I turned to him in the driveway. I wanted to get my thoughts straight.
“A man disappears from a town to join the Navy,” I said. “Ten years later, a billionaire arrives and buys a mansion at the top of the town. He’s also been in the Navy—but maybe not in the same unit. He keeps his past hidden, doesn’t tell anyone about who he is or where he’s from.”
“Except for us,” said David. “He gets close to us. He employs you, and he tries to make friends with me and Kyle.”
“Exactly,” I nodded. “So why us, David?”
“No idea,” David said. “Maybe he just likes you. Maybe he likes Kyle.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe he knows us, David. Maybe he…”
The thought was on the tip of my tongue when David looked away.
“Laura,” he said. “There’s something I need to ask you. I know it’s going to hurt when I say this and you don’t have to answer me. But…”
“Spit it out,” I said. I’d been dreading this question all week.
“You don’t suppose this could have something to do with…with…with whoever Kyle’s dad is, huh?”
I looked at him. David had never come so close to asking me before. But we both knew the question had been on his lips since we got back in touch last year.
“So that’s it,” I said. “You want to know.”
“I just—” said David. But before he could go on, I’d opened the car door and was getting out.
“Laura,” said David, as he scrambled out of the driver’s seat. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But this could be important, it could be—”