The rain was long over with and the sun was trying to peek out from the straggly gray clouds so I wasn’t surprised when we got in the car and he pressed the button for the top to come down.
Kimmy hadn’t realized the car was a convertible and I heard her cry out when she saw it, “I want to go with them!”
He looked at me and asked if I would mind letting her come along.
I didn’t have to debate the question whether it was safe or not, I was certain that there was no danger posed to her by him. Bev and Matt agreed to let her come with us and she happily climbed into the back seat and buckled up.
“All right, Kimmy, do you have a favorite place to eat?”
“Of course I do,” she answered smugly. “Chuck E. Cheese.”
He looked at me strangely, “What’s a Chucky Cheese?”
“You’ve never dined at the famous Chuck E. Cheese? Wow, you haven’t lived.” I heard Kimmy burst out giggling. “Head up one-ten to I-ten and I’ll show you where it’s at. You’re really in for a treat; I hoped we’ve dressed up enough.” By this point Kimmy’s giggles had turned to shrieks of laughter.
He glanced at me as we pulled out on to the street, “She certainly seems excited.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
We pulled into a packed lot at Chuck E. Cheese and headed inside. As soon as the doors opened and the sounds of hordes of overly excited children reached his ears, he looked at me and scowled.
I shrugged my shoulders, “You never ask a six-year-old where they want to go eat.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said, his level of discomfort rising.
We found a booth in the back corner and he placed the order for pizza and then seated himself across from Kimmy and me.
“Leese, can I get some tokens and play before we eat?”
“Yeah sure,” I said opening my purse and then realizing I didn’t have any money. Before I could tell her that I couldn’t buy her tokens, Evan had my wallet pressed into my hand.
“You dropped that in my car,” he smoothly inserted.
“Oh—I—I wondered where that went.” I lied.
With Kimmy happily occupied by a big cup of tokens, I returned to the table and tried to hand it back to him.
“No, you keep it. I’m guessing you don’t carry cash.”
“I don’t, but I owe you.”
“Not now. And besides, you’ve had that card I imagine about seven months and you haven’t gone on any obvious spending binges.”
I put the card into my wallet and sat back down. “Did you find anything out last night?”
“Some, but I’m waiting on more information, and I didn’t think you’d want to discuss this with Kimmy around.”
I waved my palms into the obviously empty space beside me, “She won’t be back until I go get her, and with all the noise in here no one is going to hear anything you say; matter of fact I’ll be lucky if I can hear what you say.”
He must have taken that line as an invitation. He smiled and switched sides, slipping in beside me and placing his arm around me.
“The people here don’t know us,” I reminded him.
“That’s okay,” he said, squeezing me a little tighter. “I did find out some things about your step-dad.” The smile faded from his face, replaced with seriousness. “Has he mentioned anything about the fact that his business and fortune have been dwindling for the last three years?”
This was a complete surprise. Robert never indicated that he had any money problems. I knew if he had, Mom would have quickly volunteered funds to help him out, but I also knew that Robert was an intensely independent and somewhat narcissistic person.
“Never,” I shook my head. “He doesn’t discuss his business.” I felt the need to give a little clarification on our relationship. “Robert has always treated me just like I was his own. Mom was seventeen when she made a bad judgment and nine months later I was born and the man she’d fallen for was nowhere to be found.”
“That explains a lot,” he said quietly.
I rolled my eyes, “My decisions are my own and I’m not going to let someone else make them for me. Anyway,” I sighed. “Robert came on the scene about a year later, and within two years they were married. He’s been the only father I’ve ever known.”
“Well, Robert has lost millions in the stock market and his father’s boat business is heading for bankruptcy. He has been relying heavily on his business partners, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to pull away from this with anything left in his or their pockets. Did he and your mother have a pre-nup?”
“I don’t know. They never mentioned it, but why would they?”
“I’ve got my—an associate, pulling records. Rich people try their hardest to hide their personal information, but she is the best in the business.”
“It’s okay, you can say it’s your mother.”
“Not in this business. You keep everyone anonymous.”
“I hate the way you call it a business.” I was simply being truthful.
“That’s what it is, Leese—unfortunately, it’s a big business.”
“So will you be reporting my one and a quarter million dollar pay off on your income taxes?”
“You’d be surprised at what the government looks the other way on as long as you pay the taxes. That’s my dad’s specialty. He used to do hits, until he discovered he was better at creatively paying the government. Now he has a thriving business doing that for others.”
“So you think that Robert might be the person who wants me killed?”
He nodded slowly.
“It doesn’t make sense. What does he benefit by killing me? Mom has the control of the money. If I’m dead she still has control. If she’s dead, I have control. He’s not in the picture—unless he’s going to kill us both—but he’s got to know that would be too suspicious and he’d get caught.”
“I have a theory, but I’m going to wait until I get copies of your grandfather’s will, any pre-nup that can be found, and any will your mother might have that you don’t know about. I’m also waiting for some information on his business partners.”
“And you said you weren’t a detective,” I teased.
“I’ll admit you were right that this is exactly in my line of work so it really isn’t too difficult.”
“See, you could get a real job…”
“What I do is a real job, just not a legal one.”
“You’d at least sleep better at night,” I huffed.
He took a breath and then a sip of his drink, “I sleep just fine.”
“Will you be sleeping fine in five weeks? Never mind,” I added quickly, “Please, don’t answer that.”
The waitress delivered our pizza to the table and vanished. He just kept looking at me, evidently contemplating a response. I gave him a gentle nudge, “I’ve got to go get Kimmy.”
After we had our pizza, I challenged him to a game of skeeball and then promptly kicked his butt. I was interested in what his attitude would be, but he ended up showing me he could be a gracious loser.
Once back at Matt and Bev’s, I wanted to find some reason to continue our time together, but school was in the morning. Kimmy ran into the house as we said our goodbyes.
“You will be at school tomorrow, right?” Suddenly I had some irrational fear that since I knew what he was, the cover of school might not be needed.
He reached out and touched my cheek lightly. “Of course I will. Can’t say that I’m enjoying repeating high school, but…”
“Yeah, I know, it’s your job.”
“No, I was going to say it’s bearable with you there. The other girls are—well, they act their age. You on the other hand are mature like no one I’ve ever met.”
“You know that’s a question that I haven’t asked you; how old are you, really?”
“Do you want to try to guess?” he smirked.
I was afraid to try, afraid to actually know, but I was the one who asked. “I�
��d rather not.”
“Twenty-three.” The smirk became a mild smile. He put the car in drive and pulled out.
CHAPTER NINE
Monday morning found me sitting in the school parking lot trying to understand how I could be going through normal functions knowing that my life had been turned completely upside down only days prior. I listened to my music, trying to gleam some hope for my situation.
Jewels pulled in after me, rapping away to music too loud with a huge smile on her face. Once again, she was trying to get me to come over and sit with her. I put my fingers to my ears and made a face as if I were in pain. She rolled her eyes and turned down the volume. I gave her the thumbs up signal and opened my car door. She reached over and pushed her passenger’s door open, but before either of us could speak, the sound of tires screeching at the far end of the parking lot could be heard. I looked up and could see Ryan’s Trans Am racing against a red Pontiac convertible.
“Idiot boys!” I snapped.
Jewels opened her door and stood on the car’s frame to get a better view. When she saw Ryan’s car she began to scream and cheer for him to win against his opponent. Without his little Z, Evan had lost the advantage of a faster engine, a manual transmission, and a lighter weight. Now the race was equalized. All I could think was that both of them were flying at break-neck speed and were either going to wreck or, if seen by administration, officer Martin would have a field day writing tickets.
It was too close to call as they both braked for the turn to take them to where Jewels and I were watching wide-eyed. Ryan had the inside lane and took the advantage to cut Evan off as he made the turn. Ryan’s bumper missed Evan’s front fender by inches. They pulled into the parking spaces on either side of us. It was only then that Jewels realized who was driving the convertible.
“Ah! Where did you get this?”
Her excitement seemed to steal Ryan’s victory thunder as she ran to Evan’s passenger’s door and opened it to get a better view of the interior.
As Jewels babbled on about how cool the car was, Ryan decided to reclaim his bragging rights by draping his arms around me. “Leese!” he said far too loudly for the tiny distance to my ear. “How’s my ninja girl?”
“Get off me, Ryan.” I was trying to make sure he didn’t grab my still very bruised arm hidden under my over-shirt.
Jewels paid no mind to Ryan, but Evan was out of the car and standing next to us in an instant. Just as I was slipping from Ryan’s grasp, Evan’s arm wrapped firmly around me and pulled me to his side. I was hoping that I wouldn’t turn into the object of a macho tug-of-war.
Jewels finally turned her attention toward us and asked again, “Where did you get the car, Evan?”
“It’s a rental,” he finally answered, but was still glaring at Ryan.
“Rental?” Ryan asked with a laugh, “What’d you do; wipe out you’re Z?
“No, it got a…”
“I scratched up the roof,” I interjected.
“Oh,” Ryan said, clearly confused as to how I managed that feat.
Evan leaned into me and placed a warm, slow kiss on my cheek—right there in front of both of them! “But it’s okay, I forgive you.” I was without the ability to speak, and apparently so were Jewels and Ryan. “Come on, Baby,” he crooned to me. “We don’t want to be late.”
I might as well have been a mindless zombie at that point because he literally had to turn me and point me toward the school. “You—you guys are lucky Officer Martin wasn’t in the parking lot!” I got it out, but it was horribly delayed.
He walked me all the way to my English classroom doorway. Ryan went on in, somewhat disgusted by the whole affair. Evan smiled broadly as he watched him walk past.
“You are pouring on the whole boyfriend thing a little thick, aren’t you?” I ground out my quiet words.
“What?” he said innocently.
“You are going to make them think we’ve…” I growled again, “You’re gonna ruin my reputation, so back off a little!”
He smiled and left.
I took my seat in front of Ryan and it didn’t take him long before he leaned close to my back and whispered, “Just what exactly happened after we left you guys Saturday night?”
I crossed my arms and stared at the white board, “Not what he’s trying to make you think!”
Mr. Schultz began the class with the poems he had decided should be read for his Poe-etry contest. “Annalisa, I believe your poem was my favorite. Would you please recite yours first?”
He handed me back my poem. A large, red ‘A’ marked across the top. I had written this on Thursday, but it now suited me so well that I didn’t even need to look.
“Insanity,” I began. “Oh sweet insanity, your hands are very cold. You take my mind and twist it, bend it until it’s old. You started small within my mind, like a child within the womb; then grew into an ugly thing with laughter rich, a deadly ring. I hear you inside laughing, and it rips at my soul, looking for an opening to take my body whole. Please, oh please, leave me now with the damage that you’ve done. Don’t continue to eat away—it’s futile, you’ve won.”
“Now that,” Mr. Schultz commented as the class reaction died down, “is something Poe would have been proud of.”
He moved on to the next person. The chair behind me creaked lightly. Once again Ryan was whispering at my back; his voice blending with the iniquitous words of the next poem. “You might as well replace Evan’s name for the word insanity if you keep dating him.”
What he said infuriated me, but for the rest of the period my mind couldn’t help but to rearrange the words of my Insanity to suit what was really going to happen between Evan and me—and unfortunately, no matter how I tried, the last four words stayed the same.
After an hour of poems about mental incapacity, dead lovers, tortured minds and words from the grave, my mood was as bruised as my arm. Ryan, on the other hand, was as happy as if we had been doing Browning instead of Poe. He followed along beside me down the hallway that led to gym expounding what made for ‘good’ bad poetry.
“You must have a little Goth in you—and, do you dye your hair that color?” I’d never have asked such a question had I been in a better frame of mind. But it didn’t alter his mood, it only seemed to encourage him because I was willingly making conversation.
“Actually, my hair is black, just not black enough to suit me, so, to answer your question, yes I do. But my eyes are all me—no contacts; everyone usually asks me that first.”
“So are you and Jewels getting serious at all?” I was hoping he’d say yes and then I’d have no reason to feel an odd sense of guilt over talking with him. If Evan were watching, I’d want to be able to tell him that Ryan and I were discussing her.
“She is a lot of fun, but I don’t think she could be loyal to one guy. It may take her a decade or so before she reaches that level. For instance, I could tell her today that you and I were going on a date and she’d probably ask if she could bring someone along and make it a double.”
I tried hard not to laugh and spoil my rotten mood, but he was absolutely correct, and I couldn’t stop the smile that covered my face. He gave me a surprised look as he turned to go to the boys’ locker room. It didn’t dawn on me until I was slipping on my gym shorts that he may have taken my smile as having to do with he and I going on a date instead of the honesty about Jewels.
I left my tank and over-shirt on for gym because I certainly couldn’t take it off in the dressing area. I just hoped my deodorant would make it through the day.
Coach was organizing us for a soccer match, but I didn’t want to add any more sore spots to my body, so I opted for the four-laps-around-the-track alternative. Evan told coach he’d pulled a side muscle over the weekend and he too would opt to walk the track. A few others did likewise but most of the class stayed on the field.
He put his arm around me, but I was too mentally exhausted at this point to care what anyone thought. I leaned my head agains
t his shoulder and we moved at a slow pace. I’m sure we looked quite cozy to the onlookers, but he actually spent most of the period telling me about additional information he was getting about my step-dad and his business partners.
“So you think some of their business is a front for criminals?” I could hardly believe what he was telling me that Robert had been dabbling in.
“It’s not what I think, it’s what I know. This is how they’ve managed to stay afloat, but if he doesn’t get some capital back in the company pretty soon, he might find himself to be the one with the contract.”
“And this is your best guess? Robert is the person that’s doing this to me and Mom?”
“I got something else late last night,” he added, glancing around to make sure none of the others were near us. “My associate found a copy of a pre-nup. Your parents had agreed to keep all funds completely separate. I think at the time, he felt his wealth might exceed hers and he didn’t want your mom to get her hands on it. You were specifically mentioned as being her only benefactor. It isn’t a will, but the courts will follow it in lieu of a will. If your mom doesn’t make a will and include Kimmy in it, your da—I mean, Robert, will be out of luck. Talk about a back fire.”
My stomach rolled at the knowledge that there was a very strong chance that he was right; the man I called ‘Dad’ had a good reason for getting rid of me. Could he be trying to rattle Mom so bad that she would make out a will? If she did, she’d leave everything to Kimmy and I. With me out of the picture, and Kimmy being a minor, he could gain access to the money.
“Are you okay?” He asked as I digested the reality of what he’d told me.
I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, shaking my head no, but the tears wouldn’t come. “I can’t even cry; I feel so empty inside, like it doesn’t matter to me anymore—nothing matters.”
A look of pain so vivid crossed his face that I thought he’d done something to his side. “What’s wrong? Did something just tear open?” I glanced at his tee-shirt for any signs of bleeding.
01 Untouchable - Untouchable Page 14