“Lakeisha, did she ever hurt you?”
“Yeah, a black eye— I mean, no, she didn’t.” Lakeisha knew she had said too much. Rule number one, never squeal on an inmate, it’ll get you killed.
The warden looked at her knowingly but didn’t say anything.
Kenny looked at her intensely but Lakeisha had lowered her eyes. Lakeisha, who wasn’t small and didn’t appear to be meek, was the mouse, and Jaylen was the lion. I’m so sorry for what my mother did to you.
As if knowing what Kenny was thinking, Chelsey reached over and patted her arm. She had a small, supportive smile on her lips and Kenny nodded, drawing strength from something so casual.
“I see what you mean about it being a scary six months,” Chelsey stated.
“It got better when she heard about her daughter winning the lottery.”
Kenny’s head jerked up. “What do you mean? How did it get better? How did she even know?”
“Several inmates have family members who play the lottery so we watched the drawing on television, and then the next day, we watched some skinny white girl holding up one of those big, fake checks for two-hundred million dollars. Damn, that’s a lot of money.”
“I can only imagine,” Kenny said breathlessly.
Chelsey covered her smile with her hand.
“Anyway, when they said the girl’s name, Jaylen jumped up on her chair and started dancing and yelling,” Lakeisha continued.
“Yelling what?” Kenny asked.
“That Makenna Whitt was her daughter and she had just made her rich.”
“What happened after that?” Chelsey asked.
“Well, Jaylen kissed everyone in the room, including the guards as they dragged her away.”
Kenny frowned. “Dragged her away? Why’d they do that?”
“Inciting a riot, I guess,” Lakeisha answered. “All hell broke loose and people were fighting and screaming, it was crazy.”
There was a knock at the door and the warden excused himself and opened the door. He left it open as he stepped into the hall.
“So, how did it get better?” Kenny asked.
“Once word got around that the lottery winner was Jaylen’s daughter, everyone bent over backward to kiss her ass.” Lakeisha leaned forward and lowered her voice as she glanced over her shoulder at the door. “Even the guards started being extra nice to her. Yeah, after that, she could have gotten away with murder and no one would have said a word.”
“She didn’t, did she?” Kenny asked, her heart beating rapidly.
“Not that I know of,” Lakeisha replied. “Oh, she had a boyfriend, I don’t know his name, and I never saw him. I overheard her complaining about the sex. Apparently, he had a limp dick, but she could jerk him around by his balls.”
“Any idea what Jaylen was planning on doing or where she was going when she got out?”
“She was eager to spend all of that money so I imagine she headed straight to her daughter.”
“No, actually, she didn’t,” Kenny muttered to herself.
Lakeisha tilted her head and stared at Kenny. “I thought you looked familiar. You’re her, aren’t you? You’re the one who won the lottery.”
“Yeah, that was me,” Kenny admitted with a sigh.
“Damn. Are you sure Jaylen’s your mother? You’re a lot nicer than that bitch.”
Kenny leaned back and studied Lakeisha’s face. She saw no remorse, no fear of being offensive toward her mother. Kenny nodded. “I like you. If you need a job when you get out of here come see me, okay?”
“What’s the catch?” she asked skeptically.
“No catch. I guess I’m feeling guilty for what my mother did to you.”
Chelsey looked at her with concern. “You never even met her, Kenny. Don’t take on her guilt. That’s for her to carry.”
“Yeah, what she said,” Lakeisha agreed. “You should be glad you never met her. She plays mind games, fakes friendship to get what she wants, plus the smallest things trigger her temper and she’s got a violent one.”
Kenny’s blood pressure roared in her ears. Oh, Grandma. Please be all right.
Chapter Fourteen
Back on the highway headed for Little Rock, Kenny’s eyes were watching the road, but her mind was lost in thought. She knew her mother wasn’t a saint, but the picture she had created of her mother in her mind before was nothing compared to what she was envisioning now. All her life, she had loathed her mother for deserting her. Now, more certain than ever that her mother had kidnapped her grandmother, she hated the woman with every fiber of her being. At one time, she thought perhaps they could connect, maybe become friends. Kenny would never allow herself to believe they could be mother-daughter, but she secretly wanted to know her mother… until today.
“Want to talk about it?” Chelsey asked, breaking the silence.
“There’s nothing to talk about. You heard her. My mother is a low-life scumbag who likes hurting people.”
“That’s funny. I thought you told me that your grandmother was your true mother.”
Kenny frowned at her. “You know what I meant.”
“Then stop calling her your mother,” Chelsey said tersely. “She may have given birth to you, but she was never a mother to you.”
Chelsey knew just what to say to make Kenny feel better about the situation. She let her words sink in for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right. Thank you for that.”
“I’m happy to point out the obvious to you any time.”
Laughing, Kenny replied, “As I recall, you did that before you even knew my name.”
“I’m quirky that way,” she joked, causing Kenny to laugh harder.
“Good thing I love quirky women, then.”
Chelsey’s mouth dropped open and she stared at Kenny.
Kenny looked at Chelsey and suddenly realized what she had said. “In general. I meant that’s a trait I love in women in general.”
“Yeah, I knew that,” Chelsey responded.
Kenny thought she sounded disappointed. Wishful thinking gets you nowhere.
“So, do you still think it was Jaylen who kidnapped your grandmother?”
“Oh, yeah. More than ever now. Don’t you?”
Chelsey shrugged and then looked out the window. “I’m not so sure. Why would she risk just getting out of prison to commit another felony that would land her right back in prison again?”
“Because she’s crazy.”
“If she was that crazy, why did they let her out? She’s mean, no doubt about it, but I don’t think she’s crazy.”
“She came up to me at the plant the day I asked Sophie to work for me.”
“Oh, my God. That was her?”
“Yeah, I recognized her from the mugshot the warden printed out for me.”
Chelsey turned in her seat and asked, “What did she say?”
“The usual stuff. That she really was my birth mother. I blew her off.”
“She came up to us that day, too, and we didn’t believe her, either.”
“I told her she was a selfish drug-whoring bitch and then I tossed a twenty-dollar bill at her and drove off.”
“You told her the truth.”
Kenny glanced at her and grinned. “Yeah, I guess I did.” But then her smile evaporated as she looked back at the road. “Do you think that’s what drove her to kidnap Grandma?”
Chelsey thought about it for a moment and then replied, “I’m still not convinced that she’s the kidnapper. There are too many unanswered questions, but for argument’s sake, if it was her, how did she know your grandmother was at the hospital? Is she working alone or does she have help?”
Kenny tapped her finger on the steering wheel. “Even if it wasn’t her, those are the questions that need answering.”
“If you can convince the commissioner to let you use the files, than we can use her prison record to track her down.”
“Plus find out who her parole officer is. He would know where she’s at.”<
br />
***
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” Kenny said to her reflection in the full-length wall-mounted mirror. She was wearing a dark purple silk shirt, an unbuttoned silver vest, black slacks, and polished purple shoes. She had decided to forego the bowtie because it irritated her neck. “I’d like to… uh… take this opportunity to, uh… remember my damn speech.” Practicing her speech in front of the mirror was making her nervous and forgetful. “Ah, hell. Just forget it,” she mumbled and picked up her jacket from the bed.
“Here, I took the liberty of having these made for you,” Felisha stated as she walked into Kenny’s bedroom without knocking and handed her a card.
“Why the hell do I need business cards?” Kenny asked, clearly annoyed with the intrusion. She looked at the small card with her name written in Dragonflight calligraphy on the front and her phone number and email address on the back.
“You hand them out to the people at the party if you want to do business with them,” Felisha explained as she put the box of cards on the table.
“But that’s not my phone number.”
“Of course, it isn’t. You’re rich now. If you handed out your personal phone number, you’d be inundated with calls, so I also took the liberty of getting you this.” She pulled out a slick, black cell phone from her portfolio. “I recommend to all my clients that they carry a second phone.”
“Thanks, I think, but I ain’t carrying two phones.”
“Fine, it’s your headache,” Felisha huffed. “The guests will be arriving in approximately an hour. I’ll have them gather in the foyer and cue you when it’s time for you to make an entrance.”
“Seriously? I thought I would just greet them at the door?”
“God, no. You want to make an entrance so they’ll know whose party it is. You have to own it.”
“Why don’t I just throw thousands of dollar bills over the balcony? That’ll get their attention.”
“Not really. They’d probably think you’re an immature brat who doesn’t deserve that money.”
Kenny’s mouth fell open, empty of a comeback retort.
“That’s what they would think. I certainly don’t think that,” Felisha quickly explained.
“No, of course. Fine, I’ll make a proper entrance with my lady on my arm.” Kenny envisioned Chelsey without her clothes on. What a dream come true that would be, to have Chelsey beside her as her girlfriend. Still, just having her as a friend was worth all the money in the world.
“Actually… you need to enter by yourself and then—”
“No, not going to happen. I need her with me for… well, for so many reasons.” Her intelligence. Her compassion, her sexy legs.
“I strongly suggest—”
A tap at the door interrupted her. “Kenny, my son is here. Didn’t you want to talk with him before the party?” Sophie asked as she walked in.
She paused, searching her memory. The mischievous glint in Sophie’s eyes gave her the answer. “Yes, I do, thanks!” Kenny squeezed Sophie’s arm and rushed out the door. She didn’t need to talk with Tobias and Sophie knew that. She must have overheard Felisha badgering her and came to her rescue. Still, Kenny wanted to check the surveillance camera’s feed one more time, so she went looking for Tobias anyway.
“Wow, you look really sharp,” Tobias said when Kenny walked into the game room.
“Thanks. This is only the second time I’ve had to wear a monkey suit, and I hope it’s the last.”
Tobias shook his head. “Don’t get your hopes up. You’re in the big leagues now.”
“That’s something else I never wanted,” Kenny replied, walking over to the row of monitors crowding the wall. They had added a few more cameras inside the first floor of the house so they needed more computers and monitors to record the high-quality screengrabs. “Everything working all right?”
“Perfectly. I’ve got backup drives for the backup drives and plenty of ink and photo paper for the printers. We are good to go.”
“Good man. I guess we’re ready then.”
“Well, there is one thing,” Tobias said, standing up and walking over to the bar. “I had a couple hundred bucks left over and—”
“Keep it. You’ve earned it.”
“Actually, I used it to get you a wireless mic and earbuds so we can communicate.”
Kenny shrugged. “Uh… okay.”
“I can rotate the cameras so if you see someone you want a picture of, just talk into the mic and I’ll capture them.”
“No, I want photos of everyone, so—”
“Yes, and I will do that, but singling out a specific person because something registered with you will tell us who to look at first.”
“Damn, I’m not paying you enough,” Kenny joked.
“The opportunity to work a real case in the real world is overpayment if you ask me.”
“Well, you’re very good at this stuff. I’m glad you’re on my team.”
“I’m glad you rescued my mamá from the trash heap.”
“Your mom is a remarkable woman and a wonderful friend. She was the first person I thought of when I needed help.”
“Then promise me you’ll treat her right and not let her work herself too hard.”
“Absolutely, I promise. Your mom does tend to work too hard, but as soon as we get my grandma back Sophie won’t have to lift a finger other than to boss people around.”
He looked at her intently and then exhaled. “Thanks. She loves to be bossy.”
*
Kenny could hear glasses clinking, talking, and laughter coming from the foyer. She paced the hallway outside of Chelsey’s bedroom, nervous about the party. About talking to the commissioner and about the possibility of meeting her mother for the first time. And just floating on the surface of all that was a twinge of nervousness about going on a date with Chelsey. True, it wasn’t a real date, but if she played her cards right and somehow impressed Chelsey even in the midst of everything else going on, she might score a real date after she got her grandmother back. After her life got back to normal. Well, as normal as a twenty-four-year-old multi-millionaire’s life could be.
If anything, the weight of Deidre’s kidnapping brought Kenny back down to earth. Back to being who she was before the millions came pouring in. Using the money to buy equipment to work the case was the only reason she was glad she had money at the moment. If she hadn’t won the lottery, her grandmother wouldn’t have been kidnapped. A harsh reality check, to be sure.
The door swung open and Chelsey stepped out into the hallway, wearing an off-the-shoulder lace flare dress that came tantalizingly high above the knees and was in the same deep shade of purple as Kenny’s shirt. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a French braid, bringing focus to her hazel eyes, beaming with specks of gold. Her pale skin was smooth and soft and her lips innocently enticing in their delicate glossy red lipstick.
Kenny took a step back on wobbly knees and drank her in. “Oh, wow. You… you take my breath away.”
Chelsey took a moment to enjoy the desire swimming in Kenny’s eyes. “Thank you for my dress. I love it,” she said, twirling around.
“I love it more,” Kenny replied, lasciviously admiring the view.
“You look amazing.” Sexy. “Dashing, handsome, beyond gorgeous in that suit.”
“What, this old thing?” Kenny joked. “So… uh…”
“What?”
Kenny shrugged. “I know this isn’t a real date and that we have to put on a show at the party, pretend we’re friends and—”
“I don’t know about you, but you are my friend.”
“Yes, of course, I’m your friend. I meant more than friends. We have to pretend to be lovers.”
“Well, we’ve already done that and were quite convincing, if I do say so myself.”
“Oh, yeah. Very convincing. But I wanted to kiss you, you know, just for me. Without the pretense. Would that be okay? I mean, I don’t want to ruin your lipstick
or anything.”
“Don’t worry, I have a brand new tube of lipstick.”
“Well, I’ll be gentle—”
Chelsey grabbed her by the shoulders and smothered her words with her moist, glossy, red, hot lips.
Their lips crashed together and Kenny sighed. She slipped her hand around to the nape of Chelsey’s neck and pulled her closer, hungry for more. It was everything she had fantasized, except for the sound of footsteps coming toward them.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Felisha said. “But it’s time.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Kenny stammered, stepping back, still a bit dazed. She looked into Chelsey’s eyes swirling with desire and wished she could grab her up and carry her to the oversized featherbed in her bedroom. But Felisha made her presence known by clearing her throat.
Kenny grabbed Chelsey’s hand and said, “Showtime. Are you ready?”
“Ready. Let’s do this,” she replied, interlacing her fingers with Kenny’s.
They walked to the end of the hall and stood against the stair railing overlooking the foyer.
Chelsey leaned in and whispered, “I feel like a royal. Should I wave?”
Chuckling, Kenny kissed her on the cheek. “You’re my favorite princess.”
Felisha, who stood behind them in the hallway, cleared her throat again.
Sighing, Kenny put her hands on the railing and shouted, “Hello, everyone!” All heads turned to look up at her. “Thank you for coming tonight. As you know, I’m Kenny Whitt, and my gorgeous date for the evening is Chelsey Kendrick.” Kenny laughed when Chelsey waved. “As you have probably heard, I won a few bucks in the lottery recently.” Kenny paused as everyone laughed. “And you may have heard that I immediately blew a couple million on cars, women, and Vegas.” A few people gasped, including Chelsey, and a few more nodded. As Kenny continued, she looked for her mother in the crowd. “And now it’s time to grow up and pay it forward. So, as you enjoy the party, I’d like to come around and talk with each of you about how I can help.” The guests applauded and held their drinks up in salute. “All right. Let’s get this party started,” Kenny shouted and pointed at the band, who immediately filled the room with throbbing music.
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