Betrayed (The New Yorker) (2 page)

“Not tonight, he is busy.”

“With a
client?”

“Nope, with
my mama.”

“What the hell is that?” Lisette
turned toward AJ’s mocking bellow. “No shit, piggy, I definitely
cannot
fit in that.”

“When are you going to stop calling
me that?” Lisette’s cheeks burned red from embarrassment, both from the
nickname and for AJ’s disrespect for Michael’s car.

“When you are married and have a
few kids.” AJ closed his distance from Michael with three long strides. He
stood over the smaller man and growled. “And if that happens before she is
twenty-six, you and I are going to have ourselves a little chat.”

“Of course.”
Michael
gulped.

Lisette rolled her eyes when she
saw Michael swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. She circled both
her hands round AJ’s arm and pulled him back.

“Wait for me here,” AJ ordered as
he went into the garage.

When he brought out his jet black
Range Rover Sport, Lisette could really see how small Michael’s car actually
was.

“How can you fit in that thing? How
tall are you anyway?” AJ’s condescending tone rang in the night’s warm air.

“Five-eleven,” Michael called out.
“Plus it’s convenient.”

“For a clown car, I bet.
Five-eleven.
Shit, dude, a few inches shorter and you will
be as tall as piggy.” AJ bellowed out a laugh. “I don’t think that car is safe
for you piggy, get in mine. I will drive you, and
chaparro
over
there can come back
for his clown car at the end of the night.”

“AJ!”
Lisette
muffled a scream. “This car is perfectly safe and I will be going with
Michael.” Lisette couldn’t help but look Michael over, AJ had called him a
chaparro
,
short and squat, but he really wasn’t.
Or was he?

“Fine, but
no speeding.
If I see you trying to accelerate that tin
car I will push it off the bridge with you in it,” AJ warned.

Lisette swallowed the sobs building
in her chest. She got into Michael’s car and folded her hands in her laps. The
night already had a terrible start. There was no way it could get worse. She
watched as Michael got into the car with ease and again his size came into
question. She didn’t exactly like the beefy, body-building types—she loved her
men tall, strong, with shoulders that seemed to be packed with pillows, and
arms loaded with guns. She pulled her lips into a tight, unconvincing smile.

“Are you sure you don’t want to
take your
Evoque
?” She heard AJ yell.

“No, AJ, I don’t want to drive.”

“I could drive it for you.” Lisette
turned and looked into Michael’s eyes once he said that. From an early age she
had learned how to sniff out the gold-digging gigolos, and Michael’s scent
wasn’t getting that great at the moment. There was greed in his eyes.

“No, it’s fine.”

Michael drove out of the street and
AJ followed closely. He never let more than two cars come in between them.

“Is he always this protective?”

“Ever since
the first day of school.”
Lisette laughed at the memory.

“Tell me about your integrated
family.”

“Nothing much to tell,” she lied.
“But AJ has always been protective of
Catalella
and
me.”

“
Catalella
,
that’s your little sister, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Lisette waited for the
praise for her beauty that usually followed the mention of her sister’s name
but none came. “When I started school here, I felt out of place. Then one day a
boy started pulling on my pigtails. Before I knew what was going on AJ had
flown into my classroom and taken the boy down. When the teacher finally
realized what was going on, the boy had a bloody nose.”

“How did he know?”

“AJ says he felt I was in trouble.”

“Felt?
You are
joking, right?”

“Nope.
Ever since
then I have always had this feeling, no matter what’s happening AJ is always
going to come to my rescue.”

“That’s nice, but he’s not very
polite, is he?”

There was no polite word in this
world in any language that Lisette could associate her brother with. He always
said what he meant and meant what he said. AJ never pulled any punches and that
was a trait he had inherited from his father. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to
offend you.”

“It’s fine. Most of my friends
wonder why a rich kid like me drives such a small car.” His lips pulled into a
smile and Lisette could read the untruth hidden there. “I find this car to be
convenient. I didn’t know you drove an
Evoque
.”

“I’ve had it for a while. My father
ordered it early. I was one of the first people to get it. That was about five
years ago.” She shrugged.

“You got it for your sweet sixteen,
huh?”

“Nope, Adrian Ross doesn’t believe
in rewarding for the mere fact that you were born. Sure we had birthday
presents but nothing that cost as much as a car. I got it when I graduated high
school at the top of my class. My brother and sister got theirs on the same
premise.”

“That’s cool.”

* * * *

Reno walked through the crowded
beach, a tall skinny blond on his arm. He didn’t know why exactly he had
decided to come to this thing. Transferring from the university at the Hawaiian
island was one thing, joining co-eds at parties like this was
another.
But he was looking forward to the summer of
investigating he had ahead of him.

He had left the island after his
mother’s death for one thing, to find his bastard of a father and make him pay.
That his father, whom he wanted so much to ruin, was now using his money and
power to find his little sister from whom he had been separated when she was
five and he eight, he found puzzling. They were months apart. Their parents had
been eager to add onto the brood, but just after his sister
Rhyne
was born, his cowardly father had taken off. He didn’t leave them anything to
live on, and after a while, their mother left them too.

“Babe, do you want to get me a
drink?” The girl purred into his ear.

Reno stared at the girl and
wondered why he was still with her. She had been his lone welcoming party when
he had enrolled into NYU late last semester. She had laid it out for him for
the taking, literally, and knowing one person in the city of New York was
comforting. He didn’t feel as lonely.

“Sure.” He smiled at her.

Just as they made their way to the
bar, Reno’s eyes were pulled in by raven hair flying with the cool ocean
breeze. There was something comforting about it. He just wanted to bury his
fingers and his face in it. He froze as he waited for what seemed like an
eternity as she turned around. Her eyes locked in with his, and he got lost in
the abyss of them. Her eyes were just as dark as her hair. She had dark skin
and looked like she was of Latina descent.

He was about to take a step toward
her, but a gentle tugging in a different direction reminded him of his blonde.
The spell was broken and Reno noticed the girl blushing as she hid her gaze
from him. All he wanted to do was to cup her soft jaw in his palm and lift her
face up to his for a kiss. But the guy next to her wrapped his arm around her
waist and he knew she was taken.

“Sorry, I’ll just get out of your
way.” Reno wasn’t blocking them but he was prompting her to speak. He needed to
hear the voice that accompanied the beautiful face that alone would give him
warmth for the rest of the night.

“It’s all right.” Her voice came
out in a soft whisper, and when he saw the color burn in her cheeks, he knew
that wasn’t how she intended it.

He watched for a long time as she
walked away with her boyfriend beside her, wondering if he would ever get to
see her again. “Who was that?”

“Michael Mathews and Lisette Ross,”
his companion said. “We don’t like her by the way.”

You don’t
but I definitely do, and the pulse in my pants proves it
. “Why?”

“She is an opinionated and self-righteous
little bitch. Plus she has all the guys lusting after her. It’s not because she
is good looking. It’s only because her step-daddy and godfather control all the
money in New York.” She sneered as she spoke

“Her stepfather is Adrian Ross?”
Reno couldn’t believe his luck. Cautiously he asked. “Who is her godfather?”

“The
biggest financial guru in New York, Dennis Kent.”

Reno couldn’t shake off the ringing
in his ears that the name had left behind,
Dennis
Kent, finally.
Reno took a step forward in the direction that Lisette and
Michael had disappeared in, but his conscience and something else held him
back. He could not and would not use Lisette to get to Dennis. He would have to
ignore each and every nerve in his body that urged him to claim her. If they
were going to meet again, it would be by chance and not because he had sought
her out for his own purpose.

But just as he was about to turn
away something else came to his mind. “What do you mean they are only after her
for her money?”

“Her money
and everything else that her mama gave her.”
The girl
let out a sardonic laugh.

* * * *

“Why are we here?” Lisette looked
around the deserted part of the beach. Michael had pulled her away from
everyone, including AJ. She should have known that once AJ had seen that blonde
girl with the strange eyes he would be lost to her forever.

“I thought we could have some alone
time.” Michael’s lips curled into a sly smile.

“Why?” That was the dumbest
question that she had ever asked in her twenty-two years of existence. Of
course she knew why he had brought her to a secluded part of the beach. But
what he didn’t know was that AJ wouldn’t walk away unless he knew she was
capable of defending herself.

“I wanted us to have some time for
romance, before your brother comes after us.” His hands rubbed up and down
Lisette’s
bare
arms and immediately she felt her body
cringe.

Michael leaned in for a kiss.
Lisette’s eyes were focused on his face, the way his eyes closed and how his
lips, puckered, drew closer to hers.
Hell
no!
She heard the defiant yell in her mind. She took a step back and that
knocked off Michael’s balance.

“Why the hell did you pull away?”
His lips had turned into a hard white line, as rage from the rejection burned
in his eyes.

“I don’t want to kiss you.” She
wanted to kiss someone else, but Lisette kept that part to herself. Ever since
she’d first seen that guy at the bar, her mind couldn’t shake off the smile he
had given her. Plus, the tribal tattoo turned her on. “I don’t think you and I
will work out.”

“What? Why? We’re so good
together,” Michael whined.

“I have only known you for a day.
I’ve known our pizza boy longer than that.” Lisette paused and tried to think
of how AJ would handle a situation like this. “It’s not you—it’s me. I’m just
not into you.”

“In other words I am not good
enough for the snooty, little rich girl,” he spat out.

“If you want to put it that way—”
Lisette shrugged and turned away. She knew when it was time to make an exit,
and the angry look on Michael’s face told her that it was time. As she started to
walk away she felt him grab her arm. She stiffened with a shocked gasp as she
was forced to turn to face him.

* * * *

“You are an idiot Reno,” he
chastised himself as he walked toward the deserted part of the beach. He
couldn’t get Lisette out of his mind, and knowing that boy only wanted her for
her piggy bank, he felt like he needed to get her away from him. His heart
stopped and his legs froze when he approached an unfolding violent scene.

He watched as Lisette tried to walk
away from Michael but he grabbed her arm. He was just about to run in to defend
her, when he saw her pull a karate move. Lisette had twisted Michael’s arm and
hauled him over her shoulder. He landed on his ass with a distinguished thump.
Reno laughed—this was his kind of girl. But he had to intercept before Michael
got up, Lisette was only five-six and Michael had a height and weight
advantage, whereas Reno was six-four and built of pure muscle. There was
nothing Michael could do against him.

“Is there a problem here?” he
barked.

“Look, Michael, your nanny is here
to rescue you,” Lisette mocked.

Reno watched as Michael grew
angrier. Lisette was like a little girl poking a lion. Either she was oblivious
of the danger she was in, or his presence had made her surer of herself.

“Maybe he has a hanky you could use
to wipe your sniffling little nose.” Reno held back a laugh as she went on. “Do
you want to cry, Michael? Do you want to cry because I won’t let you in my
pants, or because I won’t let you near my papa?”