Page 162 of Creeping Beautiful

THREE MONTHS LATER

I’ve been lucky. I’m not too proud to admit that. The fucking stars aligned for me many times over the years.

I was born into the Company.

Into a family of Untouchables.

I was given Core McKay as a gift.

I was withdrawn from the Zero Program and the Negative Program and given a second and third chance.

I have a trust fund, ten mansions, fifteen warehouses, and eight-hundred leftovers doing my bidding.

I have three partners and a little girl.

I have everything.

And he knows I have everything. So of course, he’s gonna try and take it from me.

But I’m only gonna say this once, Carter Couture.

It’s mine. And you can’t have it. Not one fuckin’ bit of it.

The day Indie drugged us and we all had sex was just one more fortuitous event in a long line of good fortune as far as I can tell.

Yeah. Shit went wrong that day. Pretty much everything went wrong that day. But Maggie and me? Everything about that went right as far as I’m concerned.

I didn’t mean to make McKay and Donovan think she was dead. It’s just… Indie tried to kill us. What was I supposed to do? What choice did I have?

I knew all about Carter Couture. I knew all about their little Negative Program they ran on that island. I knew Indie was fucked from the first moment I saw her and I knew Donovan was in on it.

I knew he was looking for Carter.

I knew McKay was my double. Oh, I know what people think about that. How could McKay be your Negative, Adam? He’s not your twin. But come on, people. Keep up, OK? Why do you think Donovan wanted to go into plastic surgery? I mean… fake tits? Plump lips? Face lifts? Really? Is that the line of work Untouchable Company Boy Geniuses go into?

Please. Give the boy some credit. He never fooled me. Not for one second. When you go into PSYOPS and then you transfer into plastic surgery, there is only one reason for that.

To make double negatives for Company kids. To take their minds and twist them all up and then change their faces to match what’s inside.

I knew that if the Company fell, McKay’s family would be among the dead. They were keeping one of our secrets. My father told them why he needed McKay.

I knew my father was heading for an early grave. Hell, I helped Sasha Cherlin set it up. Who the fuck do you think got those drug lords to crash that wedding in Santa Barbara and shoot the place all to hell?

Her? Really? Twelve-year-old Sasha Cherlin? She’s good, but… no. She’s not that good.

OK. I will give Nick Tate some credit for that, I suppose.

The real Nick Tate, that is.

Not the Double Negative I met with down in Daphne, Alabama.

I cannot, for life of me, understand how anyone fell for that shit-show double. Didn’t they see those tattoos for what they were? A way to hide the Double Negative scars? I mean, come on. Oldest trick in the fuckin’ book, right?

Didn’t they notice his voice? His accent? How could they not know?

Jesus Christ. That makes me laugh.

Nick Tate had a twin, just like the rest of us. And her name was Harper. At first glance you gotta feel sorry for the Admiral, right? All that genetic planning and plotting to make twins and what does he get for his trouble? A boy and a girl?