Masks and Lies

by McKechnie, A C J

  Pulling away from her, he stared down at her and was shocked at what he saw on her face. Those emotions that he hadn’t been able to pinpoint were crystal clear to him in that moment. Rage. Incandescent rage burned in her eyes. Rage and betrayal.

  “What’s the matter, Nick?” she said with a sneer. “Couldn’t go through with it, after all? Couldn’t make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that you garnered my trust?” she spat at him, and Mitchell found himself cautiously sitting up and moving away from the venom shooting from her eyes.

  As she sat up she kept her gaze focused on him with pinpoint accuracy. Mitchell wasn’t sure what was about to happen but he had the very bad feeling that he wasn’t going to like it. Not at all.

  Breathing in heavily, Kendra continued to stare at the man across from her and attempted to center her mind. It was difficult though. She was so angry, so bloody angry, that it made it difficult for her to order her thoughts cohesively.

  Realizing that she really wasn’t going to be able to structure any sort of sentence beforehand, she decided to just let it all pour forth. Let it all out on a wave of fury.

  “Or maybe your remit didn’t state that you should bed the gullible little girl,” she spat at him. “Are we going outside of your bounds of employment, Nick? Or wait, it’s not Nick, is it? It’s Mitchell,” she fired at him and noticed him flinch. Good. He should feel guilty. She wished she could make him feel a bloody lot more than guilt. Like pain. The shredding pain of betrayal that she was currently feeling.

  “Well, Mitchell? Was that it? You were allowed to string me along? Try to get into my life? But what? My father put a stop at you getting into my bed?!” she yelled. “Was that too much for you?! Too much of a sacrifice to make for your career?!”

  “Kendra –,” he tried as he started to stand but she didn’t want to hear another word out of his lying mouth.

  “You think I’m going to listen to anything you have to say to me?!” she yelled as she stood up herself and faced him straight on. “After all of the lies that have spewed forth from that mouth of yours, you really think that I’ll give you the time of day to say anything else to me?! You really must think I’m bloody stupid, mustn’t you, Mitchell?!”

  “Would you let me –”

  “What?! Explain?! No! No, I don’t think I will let you! Why should I?! Why should I give you anything more?! I’ve given you almost everything I had! I gave you my trust, I gave you my body, I gave you my heart! Now you want me to give you a fair hearing?! Not bloody likely!” she roared at him.

  “You’ve had two months!” she continued to rail as he stared down at her mutely. “Two months to explain it all to me! You’ve missed your opportunity, Mitchell! Whatever it is you wanted to say you should have just said at the start. You’d have found me more amenable to listening at the time,” she ground out at him and watched as he eyed her cautiously.

  “No, you wouldn’t,” he said simply, and Kendra continued to glare at him. “You wouldn’t have listened, Kendra. You didn’t want to listen. You were so wrapped up in yourself at the time that you wouldn’t have considered what your father had to say on it all.”

  “So your grand plan was to trick me into listening to what you had to say? That was the scheme, was it? Send the errand boy to get little Kendra to do what they wanted without Howard Powers having to get his hands dirty, without him even having to see me face to face! He sent you to do his dirty work! What do you want, Mitchell? Huh? What does the great Howard Powers want? He wants my promise to stay silent? He wants my word that I won’t go to the press? That I won’t go cap in hand to him? That I won’t make a claim on all of his money? Is that what you’ve been sent to persuade me to do? Sign a bunch of papers?

  “My pleasure,” she growled at him. “You can tell your boss that I want nothing from a man who would do this to his own daughter. You can tell your boss that he doesn’t need to worry about me darkening his doorstep, because you couldn’t get me to go anywhere near him if you paid me!” she said fiercely. “You go back to him and tell him that as far as I’m concerned he’s dead to me. As far as I’m concerned my father was a waste of space who I have no desire to know or even admit to knowing.

  “You tell him,” she said as she stormed up to Nick, Mitchell, whatever his bloody name was, and planted two firm hands on his chest to push him back, “that his lackey did one bloody hell of a job. You tell him that you succeeded,” she added as she continued to push into him with all the rage inside of her fueling her. “You tell him that you deserve a bloody promotion for all of the sacrifices you made to get me just where you wanted me,” she continued as she yanked open her door.

  “You tell him that you’re one hell of an employee, Mitchell Astley. That you sacrificed a girl’s heart and trust to get exactly what you were after,” she added quietly before she shoved him hard one last time and watched as he stumbled over the threshold before she slammed the door shut and locked it.

  “Kendra!” he said as he pounded on the door to get her to open up. “Kendra, open up!” he yelled as he tried the doorknob, finding it locked.

  “Don’t worry, Nick. I’ve learned to lock my door. I don’t make the same mistake twice!” she yelled back at him before storming off to her bedroom and collapsing into a sobbing heap.

  She could still hear the banging taking place out front of her apartment but she grabbed up a pillow and shoved it over her head as she tried to block it out. As she lay there crying, the only thing she could think was how much she itched, how much she craved oblivion, how much she didn’t want to deal with the pain she was feeling. And how easy it would be to achieve that state.

  When the banging finally stopped, Kendra straightened up, wiped her face, and grabbed up her shoes, coat, and purse before making a beeline straight for the one place that she’d promised herself never to go to in town.

  Looked like she’d be going to Lucky’s after all.

  Chapter Twelve

  Walking into the dim light of Lucky’s, Kendra found her steps faltering momentarily. What was she doing?

  Closing her eyes, she considered the course in front of her. As she did so an image of Nick exploded in her mind and a rolling tide of fury swept through her again, followed closely by a piercing hurt, and she opened her eyes abruptly. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was burying the hurt, burying the pain.

  With sure steps and a straight backbone, she marched straight up to the bar and didn’t even give any more thought to what she was about to do.

  “Kendra,” the man behind the bar greeted in surprise as he studied her closely. “Don’t usually see you in here. What brings you ‘round?” he asked as he leaned down on his hands on the wooden top.

  “First time for everything, Jeff,” she said with a smile as she settled herself down on the stool there. “Shot of vodka, straight,” she said as she nodded to the bottles lined up behind him.

  Vodka had always been Kendra’s drink of choice. The high alcohol content made it that much quicker for her to reach that blessed state of oblivion. She’d tried various spirits but vodka had always been the one that she’d preferred. A good vodka didn’t have much taste to it, just that burn that meant it was doing its job well. She’d never taken to alcohol that had a flavor, could never really get used to any of the tastes.

  Vodka also had the advantage of leaving no stains. A must when your coordination was absolutely shot. She’d wasted enough items of clothing by spilling various drinks on them when she’d first started on her quest to find the best drink for her.

  Kendra could feel her hands starting to shake and honestly didn’t know whether it was in anticipation, excitement, or fear. Probably a bit of each of them if she thought about it.

  When she noticed that Jeff hadn’t moved she looked up into the man’s face. He was studying her, and Kendra didn’t like the knowing look in his eyes as he did so.

  “I can’t do that, Kendra,” he said softly, and Kendra found her mouth gaping wide.

&nbs
p; “What?” she managed to get out.

  “I’m not helping you with this,” he said softly again, and Kendra felt her anger gathering around her.

  “With what?” she ground out at him.

  “You know what, Kendra. I’ve spent enough time behind this bar to know what’s going on with you. I’ve seen that look too many times to count. And I won’t be responsible for helping you with this. I’m not going to let you end up back where you were when you first arrived,” he said solemnly, and Kendra clenched her fists in anger.

  “You saying my money’s no good here, Jeff?” she gritted out through clenched teeth.

  “I’ll happily take your money, Kendra. But not if it’s to purchase alcohol. I won’t let you do it to yourself.”

  Standing abruptly, Kendra glared at him before spinning on her heel. She stopped when she heard his voice carry over to her though.

  “I care about you, Kendra. You might be mad as hell at me right now, but you and I both know that you’ll thank me for this in the morning.”

  “Not bloody likely,” she said under her breath before she continued to storm outside.

  What did she do now? Scrubbing her hands down her face, Kendra tried desperately to keep the tears at bay. Her one avenue of escape was gone, taken from her, and she didn’t know how to cope now.

  It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. How did she get over it all? How did she cope without that familiar comfort and oblivion? What did she do to purge her thoughts and leave everything behind her?

  As she was thinking through her options a noise from behind caught her attention and she turned to see a familiar figure approaching her.

  “Kendra?” he said in concern. Maybe this was her solution. If she couldn’t lose herself in one form of self-gratification, maybe she could do so in another.

  Anything right now was worth a try to stop the pain from tearing her apart. With no further thought on the matter she promptly flung herself at the man across from her, hoping that she could finally forget about everything that had happened in her crappy life so far.

  * * *

  Mitchell had finally stopped banging on Kendra’s door when he’d realized that the woman wasn’t going to open it for him. He’d screwed things up. Big time. He was going to end up in so much hot water as well. From so many different sources.

  She seemed to think that Howard Powers would think him an ideal employee. She couldn’t be further from the truth. The man would kill him. Maybe not physically, but professionally he was a dead man. Physically he didn’t want to think of what the man would do to him when he found out what had happened between Mitchell and the man’s own daughter.

  Mitchell had always known that Kendra could be a fierce adversary when pushed, and she hadn’t disappointed, she was fierce all right. And right now she definitely viewed him as her adversary. He’d made such a monumental mess of it all. Everything had gone wrong. Everything.

  He needed to fix it but had no idea how. The woman wouldn’t even let him speak to her and put his side of things across. How did he manage to sort it all out when she wouldn’t be anywhere near him? What could he do to fix it?

  He didn’t know, but all he did know was that it wouldn’t happen tonight. There was no way that she was going to be anywhere near him for the moment, she was hurting, and rightly so. He couldn’t deny her accusations that he’d lied to and used her. He had. And he’d done it purposefully. She had every right to be angry at him. He’d deceived her. Hurt her.

  And that knowledge hurt him in turn. He’d told himself that things with Kendra were strictly business but that wasn’t true at all. He’d fallen for the woman. He’d tried not to, tried to keep an emotional distance, but she’d sucked him in, and now he was paying for it. And paying dearly.

  He could still see her face, so full of anger and hurt. He’d done that to her. He’d been the cause of so much pain that she almost vibrated from it. She’d been so angry that she’d managed to get him out of her home with the strength of her pushes.

  He’d been such a monumental ass to her in all of this. And he’d done it all willingly.

  Mitchell had always known that there would never be a future between him and Kendra, he’d known that she wouldn’t exactly be happy when she found out that he’d been lying, but he hadn’t realized how crushing the reality would be. He hadn’t taken into account the fact that she might fall for him, and that he’d break her heart and trust.

  He’d known that there was a chance that he’d end up heartbroken, but hadn’t considered that the same could be said of her. Heck, he’d had the love of a good woman, a woman he loved in turn, and he’d destroyed that, he’d destroyed her.

  To top it all off though he hadn’t even done what he’d originally been sent to do. He still hadn’t managed to succeed in fulfilling Howard Powers’ wishes. Not only was he going to end up without the girl, but there was a very real chance that he was going to end up without a job after all this too. Not to mention no self-respect for his own actions in everything.

  Trying to figure out what to do to fix at least part of the mess that he’d made, Mitchell concentrated on getting back to the little boarding house that he was staying at. He’d have a good night’s sleep, then he’d manage to work on a plan to undo at least some of the damage that he’d done.

  Before he made it to the quaint little cottage though, his cellphone rang, startling Mitchell and making him pull over to the side to answer it.

  Looking at the number, he found his brow furrowing, he didn’t recognize it. Who could it be?

  “Hello?” he answered in confusion as he waited for the caller to speak.

  “Where is she?” a woman’s voice said, and Mitchell realized that somehow Betsy had gotten ahold of his number.

  “Betsy?”

  “Where is she?” the woman demanded, and Mitchell could hear the anger in her voice. He had a fairly good idea that the older woman had found out about his identity fraud, judging by the tone in her voice, and Mitchell struggled with what to say to her.

  “So help me, Mitchell Astley,” she sneered, and Mitchell cringed at the venom in her voice as she said it. At least he knew that she was in the loop as well. “If you don’t tell me where the hell that girl is and what’s happened, I’ll call Bobby and Walter to hunt you down like the dog that you are!”

  “She’s at home, Betsy,” he finally said and heard her snort.

  “You think I’m dumb, boy? Kenny ain’t at home. Where the hell do you think I am?”

  “What do you mean she’s not at home? I left her there no more than twenty minutes ago,” he said in confusion as he looked down at his watch.

  “What do you mean?” she asked more warily.

  “She was locked inside her apartment. She wouldn’t let me speak to her. So I left.”

  “You left?!” she screeched at him, and Mitchell looked at the phone in confusion.

  “What the hell did you expect me to do?!” he roared back and found his mouth gaping open as Betsy just called him a name that he hadn’t expected to ever come out of the grandmotherly type’s mouth. With that last scathing comment she disconnected the call, and Mitchell continued to stare at the phone in surprised confusion.

  Something was going on. Something to make Betsy worry about Kendra. She had been locked up tight in her house when he’d left, but clearly she’d left afterwards. Where to though? He’d have originally thought that if she was going to leave, that she’d head over to Betsy’s, but obviously that hadn’t happened.

  Where else was there to go? It wasn’t like Granville had a lot of places open this late at night. In fact, he could think of only one. But there was no way that Kendra would head there. She’d refused to go anywhere near the place only hours before, she wouldn’t head back there now, would she?

  Mitchell didn’t know, but he was going to find out for sure. He’d caused this mess, after all, it was his responsibility to make sure that no further damage occurred because of it.

  S
tarting his car again, he turned it around and headed towards Lucky’s. For some reason that he couldn’t understand, Mitchell was desperately hoping not to find Kendra there. He had no idea why but something inside of him seemed to scream at him that it would definitely not be a good thing for her to turn up there.

  It was most likely her strange reaction to the place earlier in the evening. She’d been so adamant about not going anywhere near it that he figured there must have been a pretty good reason why she was avoiding the place.

  With that in mind he was driving towards the establishment with crossed fingers, hoping that maybe she’d just gone for a walk and would return back to her apartment soon enough.

  As soon as he neared the place though that fanciful thought was knocked on its head. She was there. She was outside the front of it and looked awful. Pulling over to the side of the road opposite the bar, Mitchell was about to get out and go see to her when movement behind her stopped him.

  Coming out of the bar and heading straight for the woman was Growling Bear. Mitchell was too far away to be able to hear what they were saying but he could watch their interaction, and he did. He watched every single second of it as though it were the most interesting sight he’d ever beheld. He watched, and he hated it.

  He watched as Notaku obviously called out to her. He watched as she turned and studied the man as he neared her with concern etched onto his features. And he watched as she promptly flung herself at the other man and kissed him in that passionate manner that Kendra had kissed him with so many times before.

  He watched, and gritted his teeth. He watched as the other man took the opportunity offered to him and promptly responded to Kendra’s advances. And he watched until he couldn’t watch any more. He couldn’t sit around and torture himself with it all.

  Part of him wanted to storm out of his car, to rip the pair of them apart from each other and take the man down, but another part of him screamed at him that this was what he deserved. This was what he’d brought upon himself. He had no right to interfere. He had no right to Kendra. He’d blown it. It was no longer his concern who she kissed. It was no longer his place to tell her that she shouldn’t be cared for by a man who was better than him.