It was almost nightfall by the time they made it to Sacramento, and Eric had already forked out almost a hundred dollars for food and gas. Candice promised that she'd pay him back, and for now, he said he still had some money. The fear of running out of dollars was new to Candice, and this gave her a headache she hoped she never had to experience again.

Candice directed them towards her friend Bianca's apartment, hoping that she'd let them crash without any warning.

"I'm going to say that I'm distraught and you drove me up, and I forgot my cards back at my dorm," Candice repeated their backstory as they waited outside the high-security lobby. She'd usually go inside and wait, but her beer-stained top wasn't really going to win her any favors.

"Hello," Bianca's voice came through and Candice sighed in relief. She needed a shower bad and she was close enough to Bianca that she could rob some outfit off her.

"B, it's me," Candice spoke. There was statics for a few seconds before Bianco squealed and the buzz of the door opening filled their ears. So far, so good.

Bianca was waiting for them when they stepped out of the elevator, her brunette hair perfectly placed and curled. She enveloped Candice with a hug.

"Care, I heard what happened and I am so sorry!" she said, enveloping her in a hug. She opened her mouth to say something again but paused when she caught sight of Eric. She immediately straightened up and tugged a lock of hair behind her ear. "Hi, I'm Bianca."

"Eric, nice to meet you," Eric said with a polite smile. Candice noted with satisfaction that he didn't seem quite as interested in Bianca as he did with her. Bianca, on the other hand, hadn't seemed to notice.

"I'm glad you come to me instead of some crappy hotel, those places just drive you crazy when you are not in the mood," Bianca started. Candice resisted the urge to run to a guest room or use the internet with her laptop, knowing that if she did, it would be out of character.

"We'll be on our way soon anyway, but I—I just need to see a friendly face," Candice lied. Bianca put her hands on her chest, obviously touched. In truth, Candice liked Bianca and her other rich friends enough, but they never had a habit of going to each other in the face of a real crisis. They were always comparing themselves against each other that it was exhausting. But given the circumstances, even the wicked Victoria wouldn't have suspected Candice.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Bianca whispered to Candice, but she had no volume control and Eric surely would have heard them. "He is delicious."

Candice gave her a tight-lipped smile, feeling possessive of Eric all of a sudden. Besides, it wouldn't make sense if Eric was anyone other than her boyfriend to be here with her right now.

"Here's your room," Bianca led them to her best guest room with a flourish. Candice nodded in satisfaction. She had made some upgrade, too.

"We came over so fast that I didn't get a change of clothes..." Candice said sweetly but didn't miss the eye-roll from Bianca nor the shocked face from Eric. The room was smaller than her bedroom in White Falls, but it had enough room as well as a flat-screen TV. With any luck, they could do internet search from it.

"Fine, but you better buy me back some new ones," Bianca said before disappearing. No doubt she would get one of her staff to delivery her clothes. For now, they were safe. This building had top of the line security and anyone who attempted to scale to the twenty-eighth floor would surely be spotted.

"Wow," Eric said, looking around the room in awe. "This is even better than a hotel room."

"Bianca's family owns like half of Sacramento's real estate," Candice said with a shrug. Despite the urgent need for more information, she collapsed on her bed, sighing at the softness.

"You do realize there's only one bed, right?" Eric said and Candice shushed him quickly as Bianca storms back in herself with a pile of clothes.

"I don't have a lot of choices for men, but I found these," Bianca cooed, handing some mismatched designer outfits. No doubt some of her boy toys had left their clothing here, somehow. Typical.

"Thanks." Eric seemed touched by Bianca's effort. Candice tried not to sound possessive; wait, if Eric was really her boyfriend, she'd be possessive.

"Thanks, Bianca," Candice cut in between the two and giving Bianca a forced smile. Bianca gave her a barely perceptible frown before leaving.

"Let's start digging," Eric said. And just like that, her normal moment was over. She settled back on the bed and watched Eric turn on the TV and navigate to the internet browser.

"Argh, this is difficult," Eric mumbled as he used the remote to type out the words they wanted to search. Candice watched in wry amusement as he failed at it.

"You know there is a speech function, right?" Candice asked, then laughed at Eric's expression. She took over the remote, "Richard and Linda White."

The speech to text filled up the search box and a search result place came up. The first one was the same article that Candice saw earlier that day, of their demise during a robbery in Sacramento. The next one was a Wikipedia page.

"You dad has a Wikipedia page?" Eric blew a low whistle. Candice remembered reading that page out of curiosity when she was in high school, but it had been a while ago. Eric clicked in and the page loaded, displaying a photo of her father that she had never seen before. The tables of content seemed longer, too.

Eric clicked on the last title, which was Death, and Candice's heart started beating wildly. Her parent's death still seemed unreal, and seeing it on a Wikipedia page had a certain sense of finality to it.

The investigation is still ongoing, but it is believed that Richard White died from several gun wounds.

It sounded so simple on paper, but Candice's white blanched as the image of her father being shot multiple times formed in her mind. Eric, meanwhile, had clicked on a source link to a video.

"We are live at the scene of the charity ball and it is absolute chaos. The police have arrived and according to witness reports several people have been shot and believed to be dead. One of whom was identified as Richard White, the CEO of White Jewelry, who was giving a speech at the time. His wife, Linda, is also in attendance but her fate remains unclear..."

Eric exited the video as the scenes shifted, Candice wanted to say something but it felt as though a wave of coldness had settled around her, making her immobile. Her father, who had taught her how to ride a bike, gave her first boyfriend the awkward father talk, who had taught her of their proud legacy, was shot on a stage in front of many others in cold blood. For money.

"It says the investigation is currently being handled by the Sacramento Police Department, so no FBI or CIA is involved. They think it's just a standard robbery gone wrong," Eric said. Candice felt fury rise in place of the cold. A standard robbery-gone-wrong? Her parents were dead! How was it standard?

"You are family, we can go down to the station tomorrow and see how much information we can get out of them," Eric continued. Candice wasn't stupid, she knew police gave little information away regarding an ongoing investigation. If she wanted to find out what really happened, she needed to do more than just talking to someone at the station. She needed to get her hands on their files.

"Sure," Candice replied absentmindedly, a plan already hatching in her mind. She started to pull her jacket off when Eric's cough caught her attention.

"You might want to change in the bathroom, and I'll take the couch," he said, gesturing towards the sofa in front of the window. Candice paused. Wasn't he going to try and sleep in the same bed as her?

Candice studied Eric's face and noticed a blush. He couldn't be... Was he embarrassed? Surely not!

She pulled her cardigan off completely and took a step towards Eric, who almost leaped up like a rabbit confronted. Candice fought to keep her smile down. He was embarrassed! How cute.

"The bed is big enough, we can share. That way, no one would suspect anything," she said and patted the bed for good measure. Eric's face was definitely red by now, and he mumbled something incoherently before storming off to the bathroom.

Candice smiled and finished changing into the silk pajamas that Bianca had loaned her. It must have taken her a while to find this conservative set. She must have really liked the sight of Eric to go out of her way to find it. Tiredness seeped through Candice's body and she rejected the idea of a shower. She was sure that she'd fallen asleep in the tub.

With half a mind to taunt Eric some more, she sank under the sheets with the intention of just closing her eyes for a few seconds. But when Eric stepped out of the bathroom, she was already fast asleep.

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Third chapter is up - I'm being lazy and not updating here while I'm dumping ideas to words for NaNoWriMo - how are your ones doing?