She spotted me and visibly perked up. To know that I was the reason she was smiling now made me happy as hell. She waved her hand, motioning me over.
I weaved through the small crowd of people and made my way to her.
She excused herself from the two people she was talking to and pulled me over to a couch along the wall.
“Is this furniture made for sitting?” I asked. The couch looked fluffy as hell, but it sat like I was sitting on two 2x4’s.
“Ha, welcome into the glimpse of my childhood. All the furniture is for show, and the only comfy place was my bed.” Kennedy leaned back in the couch and closed her eyes. “Can we leave? I’m afraid of the bitchiness that my mother is able to unleash on us yet.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me. “Well, do you think it can get any worse than her calling me Dennis?”
“Dennis?” she squawked. “Did she really think she was going to get away with that?”
I shrugged and twisted the cap off my water. “I called her Veronica; she was speechless.” “You didn’t,” she gasped. “I bet she was spitting nails she was so mad.”
“Your dad cut her off before she could sink her nails into me. Your mother sure is everything you said she was and more.’
Kennedy sighed and rested her head on my shoulder. “Feel like making a run for it now?”
I flicked the cap on the seat next to me and chugged down half the bottle of water. “I can handle her, honey. I’ve got a thick skin that can take her barbs.”
She grabbed the bottle from me and took a sip. “I think I’m on glass five or six of wine. You might need to cut me off, handsome.”
“Enjoy yourself. I’m driving your sexy ass home so you don’t need to worry about that.”
She hummed and handed the bottle back to me. “Do you think you could tell me why you rarely drink?”
I sighed and set the bottle on the end table next to the couch. “My parents were struck by a drunk driver when I was fifteen. They were on the way home from a party, and the drunk hit them head on. No one survived.”
Kennedy sat up and turned to look at me. “Jesus. I’m sorry, Dante. You must think I’m a royal bitch for complaining about my mom.”
My hand caressed her cheek, and I shook my head. “Pretty sure anyone would act the same way you do, honey. She is definitely a hard woman.”
“If that ain’t the damn truth.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “I’m really sorry about your parents. That must have been really hard,” she whispered.
“It was, but it got easier.”
She pressed her forehead against mine and closed her eyes. “Strong ninja,” she whispered.
“Sweet Kennedy,” I replied.
“Can we please just disappear and never come back here?” she asked as she sat back on the couch and crossed her legs.
“What time is dinner?” If anything, I planned on us eating and getting the hell out of here. Kennedy and I needed to have a conversation that I had been putting off for too long.
Kennedy cackled, and a huge grin spread across her face. “Dinner, you ask? Dinner at the Kramer house tonight is teeny tiny hors d'oeuvres that will be passed around at seven-thirty.”
“You’re shitting me. How the hell are you going to eat enough hors d'oeuvres to fill you up?”
Kennedy stood and grabbed my hand. “I ran to the store on the way home from work and stocked up on frozen pizza and ice cream. I planned on cooking you a homemade meal after we bust out of here but first stopping at Sonic for ice cream.” She pulled me from the couch and weaved her fingers through mine. “So, let’s mingle our way to the door and slip out.”
“I thought we were going to make a detour up to your room?”
Kennedy laughed and glanced over her shoulder at me. “Once I thought about it, I don’t know how you would fit in my single bed covered with My Little Pony pillows. Plus, I’m pretty sure the walls are still covered with boy band posters.”
“Now this is something I need to see. What did the fifteen-year-old Kennedy find attractive?”
“Now you’ll never find out,” she laughed.
We weaved through a few groups of people. Some of them stopped Kennedy to say hello but most ignored us.
“Dante?”
I looked around, trying to figure out who called my name, and the blood drained from my face. Holy fuck. My past and the only other person in this place who knew the secret I was keeping from Kennedy was headed our way.
“Did someone just say your name?” Kennedy asked, her head whipping back and forth.
“Dante Craig. Jesus man, it’s like seeing a ghost. I haven’t seen you in the boardroom for years.” Peter Monte clapped me on the shoulder and had a huge grin on his face.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Boardroom?” Kennedy asked.
Peter completely ignored Kennedy and had no idea he was screwing me over. “What have you been up to, man? I know you still got your hands in Craig Real Estate, but you’re never around anymore.”
“Craig Real Estate?” Kennedy was picking up on all of the words that were going to give away my secret.
“It’s good to see you, Peter,” I muttered.
“Peter?” Kennedy whispered. She was looking between Peter and me, wondering what in the hell was going on.
I needed to get rid of this guy pronto. “We were actually just on the way out, Pete.” I grabbed out my wallet and pulled out a business card for Powerhouse. “Why don’t you give me a call here, and we can catch up some other time.”
Peter took the card but didn’t move. “Powerhouse M.A., huh? You still into all the Bruce Lee stuff?”
“Uh, yeah. I opened a studio with a couple of friends.” I glanced over at Kennedy who was staring at me. “But we can talk about that when you call me.” Be gone, Peter.
“You still living over in Underbridge?”
Peter was killing me. With each word he spoke, he gave away everything that I hadn’t told Kennedy. Underbridge was an expensive ass neighborhood that was even ritzier than where Kennedy’s parents lived. “No, I moved from there.”
Kennedy started backing away from me, and I knew that she had just put everything together.
“We should grab a drink som—”
I patted Peter on the shoulder. “I gotta go, bud. My date is leaving without me, so I’ll talk to you later, Peter.”
Peter kept talking, but I didn’t give a rat’s ass because Kennedy was halfway across the room and gaining distance from me.
She headed toward the kitchen, and I passed Kennedy’s parents whose mouths were agape. Jesus.
“Kennedy,” I called. I came to a skidding stop in the kitchen and saw Kennedy frantically searched through a drawer. “What are you doing?” I demanded.
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and glared at me over her shoulder. “I’m leaving as soon as I find keys.” She turned back to the drawer and started pulling everything out.
“You’re not fucking driving. You’ve been drinking.”
She slammed the drawer shut and tossed her hands in the air. “Then I’m calling a damn taxi.” She ripped the phone off the wall and started pressing random numbers.
I grabbed the phone from her and tossed it on the kitchen counter. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, hell no, Dante. You don’t have the right to tell me what I can or can’t do. You’ll never have that power over me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded. “I don’t want to have any power over you.”
She laughed maniacally and lunged for the phone. “That’s bullshit. Of course, you do. That’s what everyone like you wants. All you want is power and money.”
I grabbed the phone before her fingers wrapped around it and shoved it in my back pocket. “You need to calm down and listen to me.”
She shook her head and looked around the kitchen. “Where did I put my purse?” she muttered.
“I don’
t know what exactly you are thinking right now, honey, but whatever it is, it’s wrong.”
She shook her finger at me. “You don’t have the right to call me honey anymore, Dante Craig. You lost that when I found out you’ve been lying to me since the day you knocked on my door.”
“I haven’t been lying to you, Kennedy.”
“Really?” she shouted. “You don’t think not telling me that you have a pile of money the size of this house isn’t lying? Hell, since you lived in Underbridge, your pile of money is ten times the size of this house.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m so fucking stupid,” she hissed.
“Can I talk?”
Kennedy shook her head and spotted her purse on the island. “Oh, you had about four weeks to talk, Dante, and you apparently couldn’t find the words then. But good ol’ Peter spit ‘em out just right.”
“Peter is a tool. You shouldn’t listen to what he says.”
She looked up at me and tilted her head to the right. “So you’re saying everything Peter just said is a lie? You aren’t Dante Craig, heir to the Craig fortune? For Christ’s sake, I don’t know how I didn’t put the two together. You have more money than the Queen of England,” she babbled.
I snatched her purse off the counter before she could get her hands on it and hid it behind my back. “What Peter said is true, but it doesn’t mean what you think it does.” I wasn’t going to touch the Queen of England comment.
“I know it means I’m going to go back to my apartment alone to forget about you. That’s what it means to me.” She held out her hand. “Give me my purse. We’re done talking.”
She wasn’t thinking clearly at all. “I’m taking you home, and we can talk about this there. I don’t want to talk about it here.”
She turned a full circle with her arms outstretched. “You should feel at home here,” she exclaimed as she spun around. “Who would have thought my decoy was exactly what my mother wanted? Hell, when my mother finds out who you are, she’s going to be over the moon that you stepped foot in her house.”
“I don’t give a fuck about your mother, Kennedy.”
“But I do, Dante. And I’ve tried my whole life to break free from her, and be who I want to be.”
“And why can’t you do that with me? When have I ever acted like money is important to me?”
“I can’t do that with you, Dante, because you’re exactly what she wants for me. A man with money who can hide me away in his house and take away everything I love.”
“What the fuck, Kennedy? You really think that was something I would do?” Her dad was right. She was falling back onto the stereotype that she clung to about anyone with money.
Tears were streaming down her face, and she angrily wiped them away with the back of her hand. “I can’t do this, Dante. I was already terrified being with you, and now finding out you’ve been keeping this huge secret from me, I know I can’t be with you.”
“You’re not giving us a chance, Kennedy.”
She shook her head. “But I did. I gave you a huge chance when I stood in front of you and offered decoy with benefits. You had every opportunity to tell me.”
“How do I tell you the one thing that you hate more than anything is what I am? I understand why you have problems with your mom, but that doesn’t mean anyone who has money in the bank is the same way. I’m the same guy I was yesterday as I am today.”
Kennedy hung her head. “But you’re not,” she whispered. “You’re a man who lied to me from the second you met me.”
Her words hit me one by one, and they felt like bullets striking my heart. I lied to her, I know I had, but she couldn’t see anything but that.
“Kennedy, what on Earth is going on in here? Everyone can hear you two screaming.”
Jesus Christ. Just what I needed to make this even shittier.
Kennedy raised her head. “Let me introduce you to Dante Craig, Vivian. Heir to the Craig Real Estate empire.”
Vivian clutched her hand to her chest and gasped. “Oh, my God.”
“Yeah, who would have thought, huh? I mean, I basically hired him to come with me to this dinner tonight to get you off my back, and in reality, I was bringing you the exact man that you kept thrusting at me.”
“We’re going home. We need to talk about this with no one else listening.”
“No!” Vivian and Kennedy shouted at the same time.
“You must stay and enjoy the party,” Vivian purred.
“What the fuck? Are you God damn serious right now?” I shouted. “I don’t give a damn about your fucking party. All I care about is your daughter. Do you fucking care about her?” I was fucking fed up with this woman.
“Well, of course,” she whined. “I hate seeing her so upset.”
“Really? You hate seeing her upset? I hate to break it to you, lady, but you are the main source of her being hurt and upset all of the time. She didn’t fucking hire me, but she asked me to pretend to be her doting boyfriend to shut you the hell up.”
Vivian huffed. “I don’t understand what you mean. All I want is for Kennedy to have a good life. She doesn’t see it now, but once she settles down with a good man, she’s going to thank me.”
“Good man?” Kennedy screeched. “You want a good man for me? All you want is for me to marry some old geezer and spend my days counting his money and acting like my shit don’t stink. That’s what you did, right Vivian?”
“Your father is not old,” she replied.
This woman was a piece of work. Kennedy threw her head back and laughed.
Henry walked into the kitchen and glared at me. Oh shit. Now I was going to get her dad involved in this. “What in the hell is going on in here?”
“Dad, have you met Dante Craig? I’m surprised you didn’t recognize him since I’m sure he runs in the same social circles as you,” Kennedy drawled.
“Oh, for Christ's sake,” he grumbled. “I didn't really think you were going to tell her tonight,” he said to me.
“Holy hell, you knew,” Kennedy shouted. She ran her fingers through her hair and paced the length of the kitchen. “Give me your phone, Dad,” she demanded, holding her hand out to him.
He took his phone out of his pocket, and she snatched it from him. “What are you doing, Kennedy?” he demanded.
“I’m going home. Just as soon as I find a ride.” She angrily punched in numbers and put the phone to her ear. “You three can go, I’m sure you’d much rather be out there with all of your friends.”
“Henry,” Vivian hissed. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me?”
Henry glared at Vivian. “I found out fifteen minutes ago. And it was none of your business.”
“Kennedy, I will give you a ride home,” I insisted.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want anything more from you. You can save your lies for some other woman because I am not going to be a fool anymore.”
“Would you just—”
She shoved her hand in my face and shook her head. “Just stop, Dante.” Her eyes had no life left in them, and the girl I had fallen in love with was gone. “Karlton?” she spoke into the phone. “I need you to come get me.” She moved the phone from her mouth and held out her other hand to me. “Give me my purse,” she demanded.
“You’re not thinking clearly, Kennedy.” I put the purse in her hand but didn’t let it go. Her fingers gripped the purse, and she tried to wrench it from me. “Look at me, honey.”
She clamped her lips shut and shook her head.
Son of a bitch. I was getting nowhere with her. I let go of her purse, and she snatched it away. “I’m at Vivian’s. Can you come and get me?”
Please say no, please say no, I chanted in my head.
“I’ll be waiting outside.” She tossed her the phone back to her dad and waltzed out of the kitchen.
“I’m still at a bit of a loss on what is going on here,” Vivian muttered. “You’re the elusive Dante Craig, and you’re dating my daughter?”
“But you are Dante Craig, right?”
I sighed and pulled my car keys out of my pocket. “I’m Dante Craig, and I’m in love with your daughter who wants nothing to do with me anymore.”
Fucking Christ.
I really screwed that one up, and I didn’t know how the hell to fix it.
**********
Chapter 25
Kennedy
“I’m not hungry, sugar.”
“You’re leaving. I’m eating and going to bed.”
Karlton stood in the middle of my kitchen, and I stepped around him to grab a pizza from the freezer. “Don’t you think you need to tell me what is going on?”
I shook my head and popped a cheese ball into my mouth. “There isn’t anything to tell. Dante lied. Dante and I are over.” I stabbed the pizza with a knife, cutting the plastic, and pulled it off.
“But what did Dante lie about? You’re missing the main part to your story, sugar. I need the damn why.”
“Do you know who Dante is?”
“He’s Silver Fox. Ninja. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Did you know he owns part of a rock climbing and smoothie place?”
“Smoothies?” he asked, perking up. I couldn’t really blame him, I was the same way when it came to smoothies.
I snapped my fingers at him. “Yes, smoothies, but try to focus. Did you know he owns those things?”
“Well no, because if I did, you know I would be all up in that smoothie place demanding free smoothies.” Karlton would totally do that. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was camped out there in the morning.
“Ever heard of Craig Real Estate?”
“Yes, sugar. They sell all of those mansions around the area. You can’t drive a mile without seeing one of their signs.” He propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “You are all over the board on this. Get to the point,” he insisted.
“Craig Real Estate is Dante.”
Karlton’s jaw dropped. “You are shitting me. He has to be loaded!”
Black Belt in Love (Powerhouse MA Book 3) Page 17