Betrayed (The New Yorker) (14 page)

Michael’s head cocked to the side.
He stared at her, amusement dancing in his eyes. He seemed to consider her
proposal for a second, but the mischievous gleam in his eyes told Lisette he
had come up with a counter offer.

“Sleep with me and I’ll consider
it.”

Hell no!
Michael
Mathews was not going to be her first intimate experience. “Not on your life.”

“What are you so tense about,
sweetheart? I’m sure Reno has shown you how it’s done.” Lisette looked away. She
was sure the heat rising in her cheeks would sell her out. “Ha! You haven’t
slept with him yet. I have a better offer, let’s set up a date. You give me
your virginity and I sign the annulment papers.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You can draw them up. Come with
them tomorrow night—”

“In this
roach motel?”

“We can book a hotel, the Waldorf.
We don’t want your first time to be unpleasant.”

“What exactly are you getting from
this?”

“A hundred
thousand dollars—and, bragging rights that I’m the only man who was able to
deflower both Ross girls.”

“You are—”

Lisette bit back the rest of her
statement when the front door creaked open.
Catalella
rushed in, shopping bags in her arms. None of them gave any indication they
were from a grocery store.

“Lisette!”
Catalella
dropped
her bags and rushed to her.

Lisette embraced he sister and had
a hard time letting her go.

“I’m so glad you came. Papa won’t
let Mama come to this neighborhood. Who could blame them? AJ won’t talk to me
either.” Lisette tried to look past
Catalella’s
watery eyes, but couldn’t. “When did Papa say he was getting us an apartment?”

“Soon,
hermanita
.”
Lisette smiled reassuring. Their
father had promised them an apartment. But nothing he had in mind would meet
Michael’s budget. They were better off staying here if they wanted to eat too.
“I’ll talk to him. Maybe you could get something in the school district. That
way you will be able to go to school too.”

“Really!”
The
excitement in
Catalella’s
voice told Lisette that
this was the first piece of good news the girl had gotten since making the rash
decision of marriage. “I would offer you something to drink, but we only have
tap water.”

Lisette could almost laugh at the
frown on
Catalella’s
face. What was more hilarious
was the shame on Michael’s face. It would be easy to get him to accept her
proposition. Lisette couldn’t let her fun end there—she just had to poke at
this disaster one more time. “Did you get any supper?”

“I did.” she smiled. “I just asked
the delivery boy outside to get us something from
De Alma.
I would have gone myself but I’m so tired from shopping.
Daniela and I had a great time.”

“What delivery boy?” Michael’s
harsh tone cut in.

“The ones
outside.
They were waiting with the valet, next to
Lisette’s car.”

“My car!”
Lisette
yelped. She started to run out the door, but the reality of her sister sleeping
hungry slapped her in the face. “How about a girl’s night out? Come with me,
Catalella
. We’ll have dinner and some fun.”

“Sure!” The little girl ran out the
door like someone had lit a fire under her butt.

Lisette chanced a glance at Michael
and laughed. “That’s what you get when you take a baby from her mother’s tit.
Enjoy married life.”

“Tomorrow,
the money for your airhead of a sister.”

“Deal!”

* * * *

Reno hadn’t heard from Lisette for
two days now. He’d heard
Catalella
wasn’t feeling
well but he still worried, at least Michael’s body hadn’t washed up somewhere.
That was a good sign. Maybe she just needed time to deal with everything that
had hit her in the last few days. He walked into his father’s office,
his father,
he was still getting used to
that term, hoping for some news.

“Did you hear from the private
detective you hired?”

“Yes.” The look of hope on Dennis’s
face made Reno smile.
Finally, some good news.

“What did he say?” He took a seat
and eagerly leaned toward his father. He didn’t want a word getting past him.

“There was a girl at your old place
looking for you.” Dennis paused. “She said her name was
Rhyne
.
She was looking for her mother and her elder brother.”

“
Rhyne
.”
Reno brushed away the one
determined tear that rolled slowly down his cheek. He never thought he would
ever say that name without feeling pain constrict his chest. But now he could,
only because there was hope of finding her. “Did she say where she would be,
like an address or a telephone number where she could be reached?”

“Yes, she is working at a hotel
there. Look, we could leave today and be there—”

“No.” Reno swallowed the lump that
formed in his throat. He watched as Dennis’s excited face fell. “I’m going
alone.”

“What?” Dennis shot to his feet and
paced the length of his office. “My youngest daughter won’t speak to me, my
wife can’t stand me and DJ has disappeared. I need to do something good for my
family.”

“And you have.” It was
uncharacteristic for Reno to afford his father this win, but he had to. “You
found
Rhyne
. As for Daniela, she’s not one to keep a
grudge. She’s probably following
Issadora’s
lead. And
DJ, he hasn’t disappeared. He’s just gone to Paris. He’ll be back when he’s
sorted his thoughts and feelings out.”

“What about law school?”

“Don’t try looking for him,” Reno
warned. “I know where he is. I’m keeping tabs on him just as an older brother
should. He’s not giving up his law career; he just needs time out from your web
of lies.”

“I’m his father!”

“Yet, I’m the one he came to for
help.” Reno exhaled, the rage and tension releasing from his body as he did. “I
don’t want to fight. I have a handle on things. Right now, all I want is to go
and get
Rhyne
.”

“Fine.
That’s
good. I’ll have my secretary arrange everything for you. You can leave
tonight.”

“Thank you.”

Reno had tried his hardest to get a
hold of Lisette, but she was still ignoring his calls. As a last resort he left
a message with AJ. She would probably be pissed that he left for the island
without telling her, but it was her fault. Reno took a breath from his parking
spot. His hand rubbed on the left side of his chest. He had a bad feeling. It
wasn’t anything physical, but emotionally he felt that something was terribly
wrong. It was like his heart was preparing itself to be broken. He had to find
Lisette before he left. A quick glance at his watch told him he had three hours
before he had to leave for the airport. That had to be enough to track down the
woman he was in love with.

Reno was just about to leave his
apartment when he received a message. A slow smile crept on his lips when he
read it. It seemed like Lisette was thinking about him too. She must have heard
about his trip. He grabbed his car keys and made his way to the Waldorf.

Chapter
Eight

Reno had his key card in hand. He
didn’t know what waited for him on the other side of the door. Part of him
expected Lisette to jump out of a cake dressed in a red, silk teddy, but she
wasn’t that cliché. So she was probably waiting on the bed in nothing but black
lace.

The little beep went off when the
door opened. He was certainly not going to turn Lisette away tonight. He would
make love to her for as long as he could. If he had to he would postpone his
trip to Hawaii for the next day. Or maybe, he could convince Lisette to go with
him.

Did he have
any condoms?
Hopefully she did. Though, he wouldn’t
mind getting her pregnant. There was nothing he wanted more than to start a
family with Lisette.

“Lisette?”
Reno took
a step into the room and was assaulted by the undeniable sexual sounds of a man
grunting.
What the hell? Was she watching
porn?
He chuckled. Of course his Lisette would be doing research. Reno
rushed in the room hoping to catch her unaware. But it was him who was caught
unprepared.

Everything around him seemed to
blur out, as the bed was highlighted in his mind. There was no way of denying
it was Lisette in the bed. Her long black curls poured over the edge. Her eyes
were closed, but he could swear he could see the intensity in their deep sunset
color. Her arms fell to the sides as Michael sat on his haunches and smiled at
him.

Reno couldn’t account for his next
actions,
all he knew was that his fists were meeting
Michael’s face. Michael fell off the bed and tried to get on his feet, but Reno
wouldn’t let him. He kicked, punched and kicked him some more. The only thing
that brought him out of his angry haze was the sound of Lisette’s voice.

“What’s…what’s going on?”

Reno had only turned away from the
worm for a second, but Mathew had managed to scramble to his feet and fly out
of the room. No matter how hard he tried, Reno couldn’t turn back to the bed
where Lisette was. He followed the worm out and shut the door with a loud bang.
There was no louder sound than the sound of his heart building bricks around
itself. He was never going to fall victim to love, ever again.

* * * *

Lisette thrashed around the bed.
She could hear the steady beep of a machine. She didn’t know where she was. The
last thing she remembered was walking into the hotel room at the Waldorf. She
had brought the cash and the annulment papers with her.

“It’s time
to sign, Mathews.”

Michael
took the papers from her and walked to the tiny table in the room. She watched
him put his signature on the papers and almost broke out in a triumphant dance.
She had done it. Obviously
Catalella
would be upset,
but with time she would see that Lisette was acting in her best interest. The
girl already couldn’t bear living in the shit
hole
Michael called a home.

Michael
gave her the papers and she handed him the briefcase stuffed with her trust
fund advance. Her father would have to forgive her for using her money this
way. She understood the old man was trying to teach
Catalella
a lesson, but it seemed to be too harsh.

“How about a drink to celebrate the closing
of our first business deal?”

She stared
warily at the contents of the glass. She never drank, but maybe she could make
an exception this once. She was celebrating a major victory after all.

After the
initial bitter taste of whiskey on her lips, the burning of the liquid as it
made it down her throat, Lisette couldn’t remember anything else.
Nothing, except the sound of Reno’s voice.

Lisette struggled to open her eyes
against the pounding of her head. She groaned as she brought the palm of her
hand to her face, covering the glaring light. “Close the curtains,” she
mumbled.

“Lisette?”
She
recognized her mother’s voice.
“
Mija
!”

“Mama.
The lights
are too bright.” Lisette’s hand fell to her neck. She felt a plastic like
covering on it. She swallowed hard. The inside of her throat felt scratchy and
painful, it was like she could taste blood. She tried to raise her other arm to
block out the sunlight, she assumed was streaming into her room, but couldn’t.
Her arm felt heavy and restrained.

“Don’t
move
,mija
. I’ll go get your papa and your brother.”

Lisette tried to turn toward the
sound of her mother’s voice but couldn’t. She couldn’t move at all, but she
could feel her legs. That was a good sign. What the hell had happened that
resulted in her being so immobile? The stiffness in her back told Lisette that
she needed to move from the position she was in now. She tried to lift herself
off the bed with her one good arm but couldn’t. That was the moment her
mother’s words chose to rush into her mind all at one. Why would her mama need
to get her papa or AJ? Where was Reno?

The beeping noise assaulted her
ears once more, followed by the pungent smell of sterilization. Lisette moved
her head as far as she could, and the monitor at the side of her bed confirmed
her suspicions. She lifted her free hand to her face and there she saw an IV.
She was in the hospital, but why?

Help me!

Reno!

Mama!

Papa!

AJ,
Catalella
!

Lisette’s body went rigid. Punch by
punch, gruesome scenes filled her mind.

Then…

She was
trapped. She could smell the
gas,
taste the coppery
scent of blood on her tongue. She couldn’t move. Lisette stared down at her
body,
her lower half was out of sight. All she could see was
the steering wheel pressed up to her chest. She tried to push it away, but
Lisette couldn’t find her other hand. That too was buried beneath the steering
wheel. Lisette tried to move around, but each action brought with it a stab of
pain. She couldn’t feel her legs or her left arm. But the pain bursting from
her chest claimed her. If she couldn’t already feel the rest of her body, the
pain would have paralyzed her.

At least
I’m alive, she said to herself. No pain meant death. So she welcomed the pain,
fought to keep herself from passing out, fought to keep herself alive, for her
family for Reno.

Fear
wrapped its fingers around her heart and squeezed. The last voice she heard was
Reno’s. Did that mean Reno was in the car with her?

“Hey
Piggy?”

“Re—Reno?”
Lisette
didn’t realize she was crying until her words came out as gasping breaths and
her chest heaved. It was then she felt the warmth of a tear rolling down her
temple. Why was she so flat on her back?

“Reno is in Hawaii. We haven’t been
able to reach him but Uncle Dennis is working on it.”

Lisette cried out in relief. Reno
was all right. She closed her eyes as exhaustion took over her body. If Reno
was all right nothing else mattered. She would find out why she couldn’t move
once she woke up. Right now, she just needed to sleep for a while.

* * * *

Reno had turned his mind off
everything and everyone in New York. That didn’t mean that at night when he was
alone he didn’t cry his heart out. The deep cut left there by Lisette didn’t
seem as if it was mending at all. He had turned his phone off the whole week,
giving people the number to his hotel if they had any news of his sister. He
had decided to stay at the hotel his sister worked for.
Past
tense.
Apparently he had missed her by a day.

Rhyne
had left
her job and no one knew where she went. All they knew was that she went with a
woman claiming to be her cousin.

Reno knew they didn’t have any
cousins from both sides of the family.
Kono’s
brother
had been killed in a drug war and didn’t leave any kids. Dennis was an only
child. Maybe
Rhyne
had found a new family. But the
probability of that hurt Reno more than ever. What if someone had replaced him
in her life?

Reno didn’t have any other choice
but to retrace
Rhyne’s
steps as best as he could. He
was going to find this
cousin
and
figure out if anyone one else knew of their plans. He had to find
Rhyne
, and at the moment, she was the only thing keeping
him sane.

Reno went back to the hotel at the
end of the day. He picked up his messages from the front desk and went up to
his room. He dreaded the silence the room offered. There was nothing keeping
the thoughts of Lisette from bombarding his mind. He needed to get the memories
of that night out of his mind.
Maybe a lobotom
y?
Anything was better than the pain that
night inflicted on his heart.

Reno flipped through his messages.
He was surprised to find some from his father. He hadn’t told him that he had
changed his hotel, but then again a man of his means could track anyone down.
Reno reached into his pocket and took out
Rhyne’s
employment photograph. She had beautiful hazel eyes, just like Dennis’, shining
through her dark skin. Her hair was long and dark, just like
Kono’s
. And that smile—that smile only belonged to her. He
was happy to see that the innocence in her expression was still there. That
life hadn’t robbed her of it.

He took out his phone and decided
to call his father. Being MIA for a week was long enough. He had to break out
of his solitude and return to the real world that was New York.

Immediately he turned on his phone
it went crazy, announcing the hundreds of message notifications—literally
hundreds. He expected ninety-nine percent of them would be from Lisette, but to
his surprise they were mostly from AJ, and some from his father. Reno stared at
his phone and tried to make up his mind. He could listen to all the messages or
just call his father and get a shorter, direct version.

“Hullo!”

“Where the hell have you been?”

Reno held the phone away from his
ear and frowned at his father’s tone. Since when did Dennis think he could talk
to him in that tone? “Well, hullo to you too,
Father.
”

“I told everyone you were in
Hawaii,
then
the hotel said you hadn’t checked in. I
was beginning to think you were in the car with Lisette after all. I’ve had the
coast guard searching for your body. Why would you scare me like that? I’m your
father, I love you.”

“What’s going on?” Reno tried to
stop the trembling of his hand. Something had to be wrong if Dennis told him
that he loved him.
Wait a minute—

“What happened to Lisette’s car?”

“It’s wrecked.” Dennis paused. Reno
could feel the tension radiating from his father’s body through the phone.
“There isn’t much of a car left. Hell, there isn’t much of Lisette left either.”

“What?” The tremble began in his
heart and flowed outward until his legs quaked and teeth chattered.
There wasn’t much of Lisette left…what the
hell did that mean?
Reno felt his body give in to unseen pressure. His
shoulders slumped and he raked his fingers through the thick mane of his hair.

“Son.”

Oh shit!

“Lisette was in an accident.”

“Is she dead?”

“God no!
That girl
isn’t likely to leave you without a fight. But you need to come back.” The
pause in Dennis’ voice, the silence, spoke volumes. And the more silent he was
,
the greater Reno’s fear grew. The pain in his heart wasn’t
from Lisette betraying him, it was from the fact that she was leaving him.
Lisette was dying. A piece of his heart died with that thought. “I’m on my way.
Tell her to hold on. Tell her I love her.”

* * * *

Reno could feel himself slowly
going mad. The long flight back had made him irritable. He barked at the
airhostess every time she approached him a seductive smile on her lips. Reno’s
last straw was when she decided to sit next to him, taking every opportunity to
rub her gigantic tits against his arm.

“My girlfriend is dying and you’re
here trying to get me to fuck you?”

That warranted him a visit from the
air marshal.

The two men were able to reach an
agreement—Reno would keep his cool if they kept the horny attendant away from
him. Reno had left his bags behind when he didn’t think he could handle waiting
for them to come through the conveyor belt. It was a good thing Dennis had sent
one of his men with the helicopter. In the air once more, Reno thought he could
run faster that the chopper. The sound of the blades cutting through the air
seemed to calm him down.