Betrayed (The New Yorker) (6 page)

“I think if you brought your
boyfriend to your brother, and he got to meet him and see what a nice guy he
is, DJ would feel much better,” Reno offered.

“If only. How about I trade you for
my brother?” Daniela teased.

“I would like that,” DJ offered.
“He sort of looks like me though. Imagine that—another guy to help me handle
you, Daniela.”

“Don’t say that. I don’t think I
would be able to get away with anything with two of you.”

Reno smiled, wishing he could tell
both of them that he was their older brother. He knew for a fact that if he had
grown up with
Rhyne
, all her boyfriends would have
gone through a vetting system and those he didn’t like he would scare away.

“Hey, I want my boyfriend back.”
Lisette dragged an unwilling Reno from his siblings.

Reno turned just in time to see
Dennis watching them as Adrian whispered something in his ear. He could have
been wrong but he thought he saw a look of pride and joy in Dennis’ eyes.

Chapter
Four

“Thank you for bringing me.” Reno
pressed a kiss on Lisette’s temple.

“Thank you for coming.” Lisette
stopped and stepped in front of him. She toyed with his fingers, unsure of how
she should approach the subject of his family. In the few weeks that they had
been dating, Reno hadn’t mentioned them once. When she had brought up the topic
of spending the Fourth of July with her family, he didn’t say anything about
his family. “Reno, I don’t know anything about your family, but I want you to
know that you can always share mine.”

Lisette swallowed hard, her heart
trembling under Reno’s intense gaze. There seemed to be tears in his eyes, but
she restrained herself from trying to catch them before they fell. He was a man
and maybe it was a matter of pride for him. She laid her hand on his chest and
rubbed on the muscles she found there. “I know you’re big and strong, but I am
always going to be here if you need someone to lean on.”

“You promise?” he choked out.

“I swear.” Lisette rose on her
tiptoes and nibbled on his bottom lip. She heard a groan rise from deep in his
chest and she smiled. The next thing she felt was Reno’s arms around her and
her feet leaving the ground. She pulled back and stared into his eyes, cupping
his jaw in her palm. He was beautiful inside and out and Lisette knew that as
long as he made her heart quiver with just a look in his eyes, she would always
be hooked. She was like a junkie and Reno was her drug of choice.

“I am in like with you,” he
whispered against her lips.

“Just like?” Lisette teased.

“The like is growing into something
stronger and soon I will never be able to let you go.” There was a serious
earnestness in his voice that scared Lisette. Was he thinking of leaving her?

“I am never going to let you go. I
am going to stalk you and follow you to the ends of the earth.” She grabbed his
chin in her hands and placed a firm kiss on his lips.

“I hope so.”

Before Lisette could ask him what
he meant, Dennis and her father stepped out of the massive Hampton house,
quizzical scowls on their faces. Reno put her on the ground and cleared his
throat before walking toward the two men. “Good afternoon Mr. Kent, Mr. Ross.”

“Good afternoon,” the two men
grumbled.

“What took you so long,
mija
?
” Adrian pulled Lisette into a hug and
kissed her forehead. “I missed you. You know seeing your little face makes my
whole world.”

“Hey, what
about
my
little face?”
Catalella
stepped
out of the house with a pout on her face.

* * * *

Reno swallowed the lump forming in
his throat as he watched
a father
shower affection on
his children. He stared down at Dennis and the primal feeling of ramming his
fist in the old man’s face overcame him. How would he explain this act of
violence to Lisette? He stood back, his hands behind him.

“I missed you too, my little
Lella
. My babies,” Adrian cooed. “So where is the other
one?”

“He’s on duty, but he said that if
you send him the company helicopter tomorrow morning he will be able to get
here and back much faster,” Lisette said in the cutest voice Reno had ever
heard her use. “He also said
,
you were the one who
wanted a doctor in the family. Apart from the legal liars and financial cheats,
you wanted a son with an honest career.”

“I said that, did I? Fine, tell him
to call Marie and tell her what time he wants to be picked up. She’ll organize
it.”

Reno was smiling down at Lisette so
he didn’t realize Adrian was staring at him.

“We’d better get in. How are you at
the grill, young man?”

Startled he looked up and said the
first thing that came to mind. “I went to luaus. I handled the pig section.”

“Good, then you can help your
fa
—
pah
! You can help Dennis and
me
man the grill.” Adrian cleared his throat. “DJ is useless
when around girls, and AJ is at the hospital.”

“Sure,
sir.”
Reno watched the two men carefully. Adrian was about to let
something slip a few minutes ago, and Reno could swear that he was about to
call Dennis his father. Did they know? Was he idiotically planning revenge
against a man who already knew who he was?

“Oh plus, there is flag football
and Reno is on my team,” Lisette yelled out.

“No fair.” He heard
Catalella
whine as she ran into the house.

“Son.”

Reno’s head shot up and Dennis
cleared his throat nervously. “I heard that NYU is finally starting a football
team and you are on it.”

“Yes.” Reno pushed the word out of
his stuffy throat.

“Lisette tells us you are really
good.”

“Lisette is biased.”

“She’s there with you every day,
during practice that is.”

“Yep, sort of what a parent should
be doing, right?” Reno stalked past a stunned Adrian and Dennis. He knew
something was up. He felt stupid thinking that he could actually try and stay
under the radar with those two. They had all the money in New York and could
easily hire someone to investigate him, especially since he was working at
their company and dating Adrian’s daughter.

Reno had the impulsive feeling of
just getting back into Lisette’s car and driving straight to the airport. He
thought of going back home, and letting this charade end. Lisette would be
better off without him anyway. He didn’t think his bruised heart was capable of
loving, not while it still harbored all this anger and resentment.

Reno walked to the backyard and
true to Adrian’s word, DJ was distracted by a little blonde. He shook his head
and chuckled—DJ was the lady killer in the Kent family.

“Come here, dear. Let me give you
something to eat.” Rosalinda beckoned him. But before he could get anywhere,
Daniela had rushed in to hug him. Reno held her in place wondering what had
brought on the sudden impulse for affection, but thanking God that he felt the
warmth of her.

“Reno, I’m glad you are here,” she
rushed on. “I brought my boyfriend over for everyone to meet, like you said,
but DJ is distracted by that blonde bimbo and Daddy just seems preoccupied.
Mommy likes him.”

“That’s good.” Reno stared down at
her with a smile.

“I thought you could come and meet
him too.”

“Sure, but tell him to come over
here. Mrs. Ross called me and it’s not right to keep your elders waiting.”

“Really?
You are so
cool.”

Reno laughed as he watched his baby
sister run to retrieve her boyfriend.

“She’s going to be stuck on you now.”

Reno turned around and faced
Issadora
. He wanted to hate her, to resent her and for the
better part of his twenty-four years he had. But the woman seemed soft spoken,
kind and loving. Reno didn’t know how long he would be able to keep the wall
between them up; not when she was the kind of mother he’d wanted while growing
up.

“I don’t mind.” He shrugged and
walked to Rosalinda and Lisette who were preparing a plate of food for him.

Reno took a seat at one of the
tables in the backyard, and watched this extended family as they interacted.
His heart ached as he watched the loving scenes unfold before him.

“Hey, man!” DJ walked over to him.
“Long time no see.”

“Work and football are keeping me
busy. I wish my teammates looked half as good as your blonde over there.”

“Who?
Her?” DJ
chuckled. “This is the first time I’m meeting her. I found her at the beach and
I reeled her in. It helped that I had my dad’s Ferrari.”

Reno glanced at DJ and saw the same
sad look he had seen on Lisette’s face when she told him the reason guys wanted
her. He felt terrible that his brother was put in this position. “So why do you
give them the time of day if they are only after you for your money?”

“It’s hard to weed out the genuine
ones from the gold diggers. Anyway I am only twenty and in no position to be in
a serious relationship.”

Twenty?
Reno
realized that DJ and
Rhyne
were the same age and that
meant Dennis senior was seeing both his mother and
Issadora
at the same time. He was probably married to
Issadora
when he got
Kono
pregnant the second time. “When is
your birthday?”

“February second, why? Do you want
to get me a present?” he teased.

But Reno could not share his
amusement. His chest constricted as he realized that his father was a double
dealing bastard.
Rhyne’s
birthday was also on the
second of February and the only thing left for him to ask to cement this
revelation, was the time he was born. It wouldn’t have shocked him if they were
born at the same time too. He bit back an oath as he tried to rein his anger
in. He was about to stand up and leave when he spotted Daniela heading his way,
tagging a teenage boy in shorts and a T-shirt behind her.

“Here
comes
prissy princess and her meathead,” DJ groaned.

“I am going to teach you a lesson
on how to handle girls. Even if they are related to you, they still fall under
the same principle,” Reno whispered.

He got to his feet to greet the
boy, introduced to him as Brian, and urged DJ to do the same. Reno invited
Brian to sit with them and he listened to Daniela talk about their
relationship. It was then he realized his little sister wasn’t that different
from Lisette. She chatted on as Brian sat quietly twiddling his thumbs. Reno
sent Daniela away for a while and waited to see if Brian would reclaim his
voice.

“She’s pretty determined isn’t
she?” Brian said.

“That she is,” DJ scoffed.

“So tell us about your relationship
with Daniela.” Reno reminded himself not to call Daniela his little sister.

“I love her, but I don’t want her
to sacrifice her dreams for me. I already got a couple of scholarship offers
but I am afraid to tell her. I don’t want her to get mad or anything. I
wouldn’t mind her coming with me, but I want to go pro—”

“And you want to focus on your
football and your girlfriend might get in the way?” Reno finished. He could
understand his plight. He wanted to ruin Dennis Senior but Lisette had been in
the way since the beginning. If he blindly went forward with outing Dennis as
the creep he was, he risked losing Lisette.

“I just don’t want to lose her, or
make her feel like I don’t appreciate her. I don’t think she will understand if
I tell her I need to practice instead of hanging out with her.”

Reno nodded in agreement.

“So what do you think?” Daniela
appeared from nowhere, the squeal in her voice an octave higher than it should
be.

“I like him, he’s a good guy,” Reno
said and shot DJ a look that asked him to back him up.

“I agree, great guy. He’s got a
bright future.” DJ cleared his throat and went on. “The two of you should do
what is best for each other, when it comes to this college thing.”

Reno brought his hands to his ears
when Daniela squealed once more. He watched as the football player was dragged
around by his tiny sister.

“Your trick is to be agreeable?”

“Yep, if you don’t resist and put
up a fight, sooner rather than later they will come to their senses. It’s the
forbidden fruit trick.”

“Did you do that with Lisette?”

“No, I always do what Lisette tells
me. It’s much safer.” Reno smiled as he watched his brother laugh at him.
Somehow these few moments with his siblings made up for the years they were
apart, and softened the disappearance of
Rhyne
.

* * * *

“Where is your family, Reno?”
Rosalinda asked.

Reno was taken aback by the
question. He chanced a glance at Dennis and they locked gazes.
They are here.
He wanted to shout, but
he didn’t. Instead he decided to tell the truth and watch Dennis squirm when
reality slapped him in the face. “My mother died a few months ago, my sister
disappeared when she was two. Actually she was the same age as DJ and they even
have the same birthday.” He watched as Dennis tugged on his polo collar. “My
father abandoned us when I was six and my sister was two. I have been alone
ever since then.”

He heard Daniela say, “That’s so
sad.”

“I’m strong because of it.” Reno
gave her a reassuring smile.

“If you want I can talk mum into
dropping DJ off at an orphanage and you could be my new big brother.”

“I’m too old to be a ward of the
state, princess.”