Gone Read Free

you do, stay the hell away from Chris. He’s sick in the head. The whole family is.”

poster child
    EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE RODKE building knew Chris. Every secretary, every janitor, and more importantly, every security guard. It was part of their job—knowing when the boss’s son was rolling through, knowing which butt to kiss to get their Christmas bonus. Chris sped through a chorus of obsequious helios as he made his way through the gilded revolving doors of Rodke Industries, straightthrough the metal detectors, and into the elevator, banging on the button six or seven times, as if that would somehow speed things along. He had absolutely no time to waste. He was doing damage control here, and that meant moving swiftly and keeping his mounting anxiety to a minimum. Which wasn’t so easy at this particular moment. Because the proverbial cat was out of the bag.
    Jake had seen him in the park and Chris knew it. God’s identity had been revealed. Chris was sure that Jake was sitting somewhere right now feeling quite proud of his successful little spy job, but that didn’t matter to Chris in the least. Dealing with Jake would be easy. He surely had no idea what God was capable of. There were a hundred different ways to shut Jake up. The problem was his father. Chris had to be the one to tell his father about this unfortunate development before he heard it from anyone else. And when his father heard the news… he wouldn’t be happy.
    And screw him for being such a pompous, neglectful son of a bitch,
Chris thought as he tapped his foot incessantly and waited for each floor to race by.
This is my father’s fault anyway. If he’d given me just an ounce of additional support—a couple of lookouts, a little protection—this never would have happened. And isn’t Skyler just going to love this?
Chris gnashed his teeth together as the elevator opened on the executive floor. This was just what Skyler needed to prove that Chriswas nothing but a screwup. Wouldn’t this just support every little snide comment and obnoxious insult his brother and father had not so subtly thrown at him? “You’re not careful, Chris.”
“Your tasteless flare for drama just embarrasses us.” “One more of your stupid stunts and you’ll ruin the Rodke name permanently.”
    That phrase had always stuck in Chris’s head like black tar:
“Tasteless flare for drama…”
He knew exactly what it implied, no matter how much his father and brother denied it—no matter how many times Chris had denied it himself. It was a veiled code for “gay.” Of course, his family had always insisted to the hilt that they had no problem with his sexuality. They’d made Chris a poster child for “acceptance” in all the society magazines and press releases, and Chris had always tried to believe the party line. He’d convinced himself that his own flesh and blood were too enlightened and intelligent to be prejudiced. And as far as his mother and Liz were concerned, he still believed it. But if he was being completely honest with himself, then he had to face his serious doubts about his father and Skyler. They could
appear
as enlightened as they wanted, but there was at least one category where Chris knew his sexuality was an issue: the Family Business. He’d tried to deny it a hundred times before, but it was getting harder and harder to turn a blind eye. Never in a million years would they have come out and said it, but now Chris could feelthem thinking it: “We don’t want the gay boy running the company”
    The fact was, his mother and Liz were the only ones in this family who’d shown Chris the realest kind of affection and respect. They were the only ones who’d treated him with love and kindness even when they
didn’t
have guests over or the paparazzi flashing away at some horrific promotional event. That’s when his