Masks and Lies

by McKechnie, A C J

  “What about … what about Nick?”

  “You mean Mitchell?” Kendra said with a frown as she stood up and started to gather her clothing for the day.

  “Don’t you think –”

  “I think it required trust, Bets, and I don’t trust that man anymore.”

  “You love him, Kenny.”

  “I loved a man who never truly existed. It’s like being in love with someone who’s dead. Nick is dead, Betsy. Dead to me.”

  “Did you ever think that maybe Nick and Mitchell are the same man?”

  “You sound like Notaku,” she grumbled.

  “A man can’t constantly be someone different, Kenny.”

  “If the reward is good enough, sure he can. And I imagine that Howard Powers would likely give Nick a very big reward for completing his task.”

  “Did you even hear the man out?”

  “What? So I could listen to more lies? So I could be deceived again? Or maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d finally tell the truth. I’m not sure what would be worse. Having him lie to me again or hearing that it really was all a ploy to garner my trust and agreement. No, Bets, no, I didn’t hear him out. Either way I don’t want to hear anything that man has to say to me,” she declared before grabbing up her stuff.

  “Now, I’m going to go have a shower and get to work before my boss fires me,” she said with a forced smile before she headed towards her bathroom. As she moved out of her bedroom though something caught the corner of her eye and she noticed that her front door was ajar. “And Bets?”

  “Yes?” the older woman said as she came walking out of the room behind her.

  “Next time, make sure you close the door behind you. It’s one thing not to bother locking anything up, it’s quite another to leave my house open to full view,” she said with a shake of her head as she entered her bathroom and got ready for the day.

  Leaning against the outer wall, Mitchell strained his ears to see if he could hear any movement coming to the door. He’d spent the night trying to figure out his next course of action to take and hadn’t had any idea what to do. All he’d known was that he needed to speak to Kendra. He had until about seven pm before Howard Powers came and dealt with this all himself. Twelve hours to get Kendra to listen.

  To that extent he’d found himself waking up early in the morning, well before the crack of dawn, and heading over to see the woman in question. He’d known it would be tough, but he’d needed her to hear him out. Hear what Howard really wanted from her.

  He’d figured that maybe he could corner her when she left her apartment for work. Instead he’d sat in his car and watched as Growling Bear had left, wearing the same clothing that he’d been in the night before and looking thoroughly rumpled. As much as Mitchell had been telling himself that it wasn’t what it looked like, a part of him was scoffing at his own naivety.

  He’d seen the way that Kendra had embraced the man, knew that she was feeling vulnerable, and knew how she’d behaved with him the first time that they’d met. She’d been in Lucky’s, after all, and there was every chance that Notaku had taken what Mitchell had turned down that first night over two years ago.

  Sitting there, he hadn’t known what to do next. He hadn’t really wanted to barge into her home and catch her in just as much of a disheveled state, he wasn’t sure his heart could cope with that. So he’d sat there, hoping to remain in blissful ignorance with regards to not knowing what had really happened.

  When Betsy had turned up though he’d figured that he had a better chance of being able to speak to the pair without jealousy rearing its head. He’d given them a few minutes to talk, and possibly get dressed in Kendra’s case, then he’d quietly made his way up to her apartment.

  He’d briefly considered knocking on her door, but realized that chances were that she’d just slam it in his face again, so he’d decided to just head inside without an invitation. There’d be less chance of them being able to get him out and avoid him if he were already inside.

  As soon as he had he’d heard their voices talking and had moved towards them. He’d just been about to announce his presence when the subject matter had had him flattening himself against the short hallway wall and pinning his ears back in interest.

  He probably shouldn’t have eavesdropped like he had, but when he’d heard Betsy telling Kendra to bake Notaku some chocolate pies for all he’d done he’d tuned into the rest of their conversation. Which in retrospect had been an incredibly stupid thing to do, because those assumptions that he’d been convincing himself were false seemed pretty dang clear now.

  The amusement he’d felt over figuring out Kendra’s strange comments with regards to Betsy’s chocolate pies had been quickly wiped out by Kendra’s recital of how wonderful Growling Bear had been the night before. How she’d been taken care of by him. How she’d finally done something she’d never done before. And Mitchell had had to close his eyes on the pain that had lanced through him at the thought that Kendra had gone to bed with the man.

  Then he’d had to stand there and listen to her telling Betsy about all of her thoughts and feelings with regards to himself. He had to admit that he’d been taken by surprise that Notaku seemed to be in his corner and had defended him to her, he was even surprised that Betsy was, but the fact that Kendra was determined to have nothing to do with him again was what he was left with.

  She’d clearly moved on, and Mitchell was just going to have to accept that. As difficult as that was, he wasn’t going to have Kendra in his life anymore.

  With the pain in his heart debilitating him he knew that he’d been in no state to address the other issue between them; that of her father. So instead of confronting her like he’d planned, he’d bolted. And just in time as well.

  He could even now hear her telling Betsy to remember to close the door when she entered, and Mitchell stayed stock-still while he waited for his chance to escape. Things had gone so incredibly wrong, so amazingly pear-shaped that he wasn’t sure how to make anything right.

  He needed to though. The only thing he could salvage out of this whole fiasco was his career. And if he didn’t get Kendra onside, he wouldn’t even have that.

  “How much did you hear?” a voice said from the side, and Mitchell jumped before turning his head to fix his eyes on Betsy as she stood on the threshold and crossed her arms at him.

  “Enough.”

  “What do you want, Mitchell?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “I don’t understand you. I could have sworn that you really cared for her, but then you go and do something like this to her,” she said as she waved behind her, and Mitchell closed his eyes on that thought. As much as he couldn’t stand the idea that it had happened, it was ten times worse to think that he’d driven Kendra to turn to another man.

  “I didn’t mean for this to get so complicated, Betsy,” he said. “I didn’t mean for things to go this far. I didn’t mean to –”

  “You didn’t mean to fall in love with her. I can see it in you, Mitchell. I can see it and it makes this whole thing so much more difficult to understand. You used her. You abused her trust. You lied to her and deceived her. You knew what had happened in her past with her mom. Did you really think that the best thing to do was to lie to her again? Didn’t you think that she might have had enough of that? Didn’t you think that you’d have been better served by being honest with her?” Betsy said fiercely, and Mitchell stood there taking it. He’d been wrong. He knew that already.

  With a heavy sigh, Betsy looked around and swallowed hard. As she put a hand to her chest Mitchell looked at her in concern until she snapped her gaze back to him and he saw the anger in her eyes aimed at him.

  “Get out of here, Mitchell. Get out of Granville and leave that girl alone. She don’t need all of this crap. She don’t need you. And she don’t need to feel pushed into doing something that she’ll later regret,” she said fiercely, and Mitchell’s gaze shot back to Kendra’s door.

  “I didn’t want her hurt in all of
this.”

  “No. But you managed it just the same, didn’t you?”

  “I still need to talk to her, Betsy,” he hazarded.

  “Haven’t you done enough?! What else do you want from her?!”

  “It’s not me that wants something,” he said and watched as the woman’s eyes narrowed.

  “Then I suggest that whoever it is takes the time and effort it requires to ask her themselves,” she said even more angrily before she stormed down the stairs, leaving Mitchell to his own thoughts.

  Getting out his cellphone, Mitchell brought up the one number that he didn’t want to call, the one man who would make this whole nightmare even worse. Knowing that there was no way to avoid it though, he dialed Howard Powers’ number and waited for the man to answer.

  “Astley? What’s the news?”

  “Mr Powers, uh, we have a problem,” he said then slumped down onto the top step of Kendra’s staircase and explained that he’d failed. Spectacularly.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The day had gone smoothly for Kendra. She’d expected any number of things to happen, and none of them had. She’d thought that Nick/Mitchell would try to speak to her again, but he hadn’t. She’d expected the word to have spread and people’s pity to manifest itself, but it hadn’t. She’d expected to be inundated by questions, but that hadn’t happened either. It was almost as though none of it had happened at all.

  Except for the ache in her heart, it was almost like Nick had never been there. She had a feeling that people knew he’d been a fraud, but nobody was mentioning it. The only reason she figured that people were aware of the situation was because nobody had asked where he was. It was as though the man had never existed. Which he hadn’t of course.

  “Another refill, Kendra,” the Sheriff requested while he held his mug out to her. Topping him up, Kendra waited for what would happen next. She could see the man wanted to say something and she wasn’t entirely sure what was on his mind.

  “He left this morning, you know,” the man finally said, and Kendra kept her face impassive.

  “Probably for the best.”

  “He didn’t seem too happy though,” he added warily, and Kendra put one hand on her hip to look at the man in question. “I know that he weren’t honest and had ulterior motives, but the boy did look cut up, Kendra,” he added hesitantly.

  “He’s a good actor, Sheriff.”

  “Except there weren’t nobody around to see it.”

  “What are you trying to say, Bobby?”

  “Just that … maybe things ain’t quite so black and white. That’s all.”

  “For a lawman you’re being awfully forgiving. Don’t you usually work in black and white?” she asked with a raised brow and resisted the urge to wrap her arms around herself.

  Chuckling, the man answered, “In a small town you learn that there are shades of gray, Kendra.”

  “I can handle shades of gray just fine, Sheriff. What I won’t put up with is the black. The man lied to me. Lied to me and deceived me. He hid behind a mask. You expect me to forgive that? What if he’d done it to Joanie, Sheriff? Would you be so forgiving then?” she asked before turning around to head back to the counter and Betsy.

  “What was that about?” the older woman asked, and Kendra shrugged.

  “Of all people, the Sheriff seemed to think that I should give the man a chance,” Kendra explained and watched as Betsy stared at her. “Not you too, Bets,” she groaned.

  “No. I just think that maybe you should have listened to what he had to say. I think it’s gonna haunt you, Kenny. You might think he’s out of your life, but he won’t be until you hash it all out with him. A part of you will always wonder what he had to say on it all.”

  “The stupid part of me,” Kendra grumbled, and Betsy snapped a sharp look her way.

  “The compassionate part, Kenny. The same part that reaches for that phone whenever it rings in case it’s your mom. The part that wants the chance to let people back into her life, that wants the chance to forgive and forget. The part that still loves them.”

  “Why is everyone pushing this?” she asked angrily as she wrapped her arms around herself.

  “Because we love you,” Betsy said with a gentle hand on her folded arms. “And we want to see you happy. You ain’t been truly happy since you landed here, Kenny. You and I both know that.”

  “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said with a shrug as she battled against the rising tears. “He’s already gone.”

  “Gone?” Betsy said in shocked surprise with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Bobby said he saw him heading out of town. He left, Bets. He’s gone. I told him I’d sign whatever was required to ensure that I wasn’t a part of my father’s life, and he obviously realized that he had everything he needed. He’s gone,” she reiterated before turning around and heading back to the rest of the room and the welcoming faces there.

  Betsy might think that there was an acceptable reason for his behavior, the Sheriff might suppose that the man had truly cared, and Notaku might believe that Nick hadn’t been a complete act, but the fact that the man had left town as soon as he could would prove otherwise. He’d done what needed to get done, achieved what he needed to achieve, then hot-footed it out of there, back to his own life. One that didn’t include her.

  As much as she’d said that that would be the case all along, the fact was that she’d been almost desperate to find herself proven wrong by him, to find out that she’d had him pegged inaccurately. She knew it was irrational, but it was that part that Betsy had referred to. That part that had held out hope that he’d be back for her, that he’d say the right things to make her understand, make her able to forgive him.

  She was pathetic. Pathetic and even more heartbroken now than she had been the previous evening when she’d first found out. Hope, what an awful word when it wasn’t fulfilled. It could utterly destroy somebody when it was proved to be futile.

  And right now it was destroying Kendra.

  * * *

  “So let me get this straight,” Howard Powers said as he stared straight at Mitchell, and Mitchell couldn’t help but flinch under the older man’s gaze. Howard Powers was still considered relatively young, forty-one, but the man demanded respect. There was something about him that screamed at you to bow to him, to honor him, to hold him in high regard.

  Of course it didn’t help that Mitchell was staring into almost identical eyes of the woman he’d just turned his back on and before that had spent almost two months staring down into with such emotion. That was unsettling as well. Especially considering that the last emotion he’d seen in them had been searing rage.

  “You spent two months getting to know and befriending my daughter, two months in almost constant company with her, two months telling me that everything was in hand, only to have an argument when it most mattered, leaving her furious with you? That’s what you’re telling me? That after all this time, you failed?” the man asked, and Mitchell cleared his throat nervously.

  “Yes,” he said honestly and watched as the man’s jaw clenched at the blunt response.

  “About what?” he asked tightly.

  “She found out that I worked for you,” Mitchell answered.

  “What do you mean she found out?” he asked with a puckered brow, and Mitchell cleared his throat again.

  “I made a mistake, Mr Powers,” he admitted.

  “And now she wants nothing to do with you anymore,” he said angrily, and Mitchell flinched again. Father and daughter were incredibly similar.

  “Yes.”

  “Where does that leave me? Where do I stand in all of this?” he asked through a tight jaw, and Mitchell inhaled deeply to relate what Kendra had told him about what she expected from her relationship with the man opposite.

  He could see all of the emotions on the man’s face as he listened to everything that Mitchell had to relate to him and waited for the fallout. A fallout that was taking a long time in coming
, he realized as the man continued to stare at him.

  “And that’s how you left things, is it?” he asked, and Mitchell nodded in response.

  “What a fantastic job you managed to do, Astley. Amazing, in fact. Truly amazing,” he said before standing up and abruptly leaving the room they’d been in.

  Mitchell sighed and slumped down as the tension left his body now that he wasn’t in the presence of his employer. He had no idea how things were all going to turn out, he had no idea what was going to happen next, but for the moment he wasn’t going to worry. For the moment he was going to try to forget about everything. Especially Kendra.

  * * *

  A knock on her door had Kendra groaning. If it was another visit from one of her friends who ‘just happened to be around’, she was going to scream. So far this evening she’d had visits from Betsy, Joanie and Mark, the Sheriff, Notaku, and even Falling Eagle had deemed to come into town to check up on her.

  She could accept the visit from Notaku, after all, he’d been on hand to deal with the aftermath of everything last night, he’d earned the right to check and make sure that she was alright. The rest of them, however, weren’t quite as welcome. All she wanted to do was hide under the covers. Maybe soak in the bathtub in an effort to relax. What she didn’t want was to have to convince them all that she was fine. That everything would be okay.

  Kendra knew that they all did it because they cared, but she honestly didn’t need them to hover around her at the moment. What she needed were some moments of peace and quiet to sort out her thoughts. Not in relation to Nick, but rather in relation to her mom.

  She’d been surprised earlier in the day when Betsy had brought up her mom, and she’d had thoughts of the woman flitting about inside her head ever since. Was she being childish? Selfish? Should she give her mom another chance in her life?

  Kendra loved her mom, there was no denying that. She’d never stopped. But she’d been so hurt at the woman’s actions that she hadn’t wanted to let her in. She hadn’t wanted to risk being hurt again by her. But was she really keeping her mom at arm’s length because of self-preservation or was she actually trying to punish her? That had been the thought that had been swirling through her mind all day. And it was one that she didn’t know the answer to, or maybe just didn’t want to admit the answer to.