RISK(36)

Of what, I want to ask, but I don't. I can't. He brings the phone to his ear and he brusquely tells the person on the other end to hold as he waits for me to leave the room.

***

"Ellie Madden?" he literally screams my name at me. "Are you f*cking kidding me right now?"

I wish I were. There are a lot of Uber drivers in Manhattan. What are the chances that the one that I get is the boy I used to sit behind in eighth-grade geometry class? It's the same boy who was in virtually every one of my calculus classes in high school. He's not a boy now. He's a man with thinning light brown hair and hazel eyes. "It's me."

"You remember me, right? Rick Jones. You don't look the same."

"Neither do you," I counter. From what I can remember he does look the same, except for the hair that is trying to grow on his chin. Those few whiskers are determined, but they're apparently losing their battle. Rick is still the same hairless wonder he was when we graduated high school.

"I drive an Uber for a living."

"Really?" I scratch the top of my cheek. Of course, he drives an Uber. It's the only reason we're having this mini high school reunion in his car outside of Nolan's apartment.

If he takes twelve minutes to pick up every customer he has waiting for him, he might not be driving people around for money much longer. I got so frustrated after waiting on the sidewalk for ten minutes that I almost canceled the ride so I could flag down a taxi. That's when I saw him finally creep around the corner at a speed I could beat while hopping on one foot.

"It's a temp thing. My goal is to be a surgeon."

"Are you studying for that?"

"I'm pacing myself," he begins, and then it ends. He doesn't add to that. I don't ask because I don't care. "So you're headed uptown?"

I glance at the GPS unit of his car. The address for my building is already programmed into the screen. I look carefully at the red line that is charting the technology calculated route Rick will take. "It's faster if you go through the park."

"There's only one filly I follow and it's this beauty." He taps his finger on the corner of the GPS monitor. "We'll take her lead."

I type out a quick text message to Adley telling her I'm finally on my way. When I look up, we still haven't moved.

"Are we heading out soon, Rick?"

"You could have sat up front with me, Ellie." He cranes his neck so he can stare at me. "It would make it easier for us to talk."

"I'm in the middle of an emergency right now." I gaze out the car's window at Nolan's building. "I'm not all that talkative."

"Is there anything I can do for you?" he asks with actual emotion in his tone. "I've had it rough at times too. I get that we all need a friend once in a while."

I smile at the offer. It's kind, even if the look in his eye is making me uncomfortable. "If you could just get me to that address as soon as possible, that would help a lot."

"That I can do." He waves his left hand in the air. "Consider this your chariot, Princess Ellie and I'm your trusty stead."

Um, no thanks.

I look back at my phone and the message Adley just sent telling me to hurry. Since I can only travel as fast as this chariot moves, I don't text her back. Instead, I open my phone's camera wondering how I can snap a stealth picture of Rick to send to her. I know she'd remember him but the last thing I want to do right now is prompt him to say cheese and smile for me.

I sigh as the car finally starts to pull away and he focuses on the road.

We don't make it three feet before he slams the brakes on. Luckily we were moving at a snail's pace, so the abrupt stop barely registered.

"Is something wrong?" My head snaps up in time to see a black Mercedes Benz pulling up to the curb directly in front of us.

"New York traffic," Rick mutters. "That idiot cut me off."

The driver side door of the Benz opens and a man in a dark suit steps out. I know him even though we've never met. I wasn't introduced but I recognize him immediately. He's Nolan's driver and just as he rounds the back of the car, Nolan Black himself comes out of his building, dressed just as he was when we went in hours ago.





Chapter 24


Ellie




"You have to speed up, Rick." I tap him on the shoulder. "We're going to lose them."

The car jolts as he gives it some gas. "We can't get too close, Ellie, or they'll make us."

Make us? Rick's giving his all for this adventure I coaxed him into.

Truthfully, it didn't take much more than a plea to get him to follow the Mercedes. He hesitated briefly before telling me that old friends have to stick together. Since I never once considered Rick a friend when we were in school together, I took it as a compliment, and I thanked him for ignoring his car's GPS and throwing caution to the wind.

"Who is he to you?"

How the hell do I even answer that after tonight? Is Nolan just a one night stand? I can't say there's potential for anything more at this point because I don't know. I go with the only logical answer I can think of. It's the truth. "He's my boss."

He keeps his eyes trained on the road. "You work for that guy? I thought you'd be a detective working for the NYPD by now."