The school library was more crowded than usual, but she managed to find a free desk in the fiction area. The place almost felt like home to her. Her classes were all in the afternoons or online, and that meant she came here or to the public library four times a week to use the Internet, especially on Fridays when she didn’t have any physical classes. Even on the days she had to bring Nate, he loved to sit and read books, so it worked out as long as she gave him a snack before they went.
She pulled her old laptop from her backpack, followed by the manila folder. Lenny had included detailed information about the birth and adoption, including the hospital where the baby was born, the name of the adoption agency, and the target’s current relationship status. However, he’d been careful, as usual, to leave out actual names and other easily identifiable information. Along with this information, there was a storyline she was supposed to use, tidbits to drop about her fake life so she would seem more real to the mark. Presumably, Lenny took them from the real birth child’s life, but maybe he actually made them up. Who knew? Only a couple of times had she ever used all of the tidbits. One thing the folders never prepared her for was the uniqueness of each target. Some liked to chat a bit before turning over the funds while others didn’t even want to know her fake name.
There has to be something I can use against Lenny,
she thought. But he’d been careful. There was that line she’d seen before about leaving a note on the car of the target yesterday, which must have happened sometime before he’d met her to give her the picture of Blaine Cooper, but there was no indication of where the note had been left.
Busy little man,
she thought. That made her wonder how many scams he might be running. He’d never mentioned anyone else who did what she did for him, but maybe there were others, or at least her male counterpart. Lenny was obviously profiting more than she was turning over to him. He drove a red Jaguar sports car that made her Sebring look like it came from a junkyard, he lived in one of the better apartments on the north side of Phoenix, his clothes were always new and in style, and the gold jewelry he wore was real. Everything was top notch—except those two rotten teeth which she knew he’d never fixed due to a fear of needles.
She skipped the page with details of the adoption and the birth parent’s current family, focusing on anything that might identify what Lenny planned to do next. Interesting that it was a woman he was targeting this time. Usually the marks were men who’d been married at the time of the birth, and their families knew nothing about the affair. She’d begun wondering if Lenny was reuniting a majority of his clients with their birth mothers and at the same time blackmailing the birth fathers. This case was where the woman’s current husband knew nothing about the child or her past. How did Lenny determine that anyway? Did he question extended family? Bug their houses? Maybe she didn’t want to know.
Makay shut the file, hardening her resolve. The details didn’t really matter. The targets were all liars, and she would do what she had to do. She was in motion before she knew it, sprinting from the library toward her car. She put the top down and drove fast, letting the wind whip her hair into more of a frenzy and dry the frustrated tears that threatened in her eyes every time she thought about her situation with Lenny. At a stoplight, she dialed his number and put in an earbud.
“Hello?” Lenny said into the phone.
“Put me on a different project.”
He hesitated an unusual second before hesitating. “Why?”
“Because I hate hitting up women.”
“This has you written all over it.”
“Please. I know you have others working for you.” It was worth a shot.
“No.”
“Has she replied to the note?” The light turned green, and Makay moved forward.
“That’s none of your business. Look, I have an appointment that I can’t miss and I still have to take a shower, so go and have your conscience attack by yourself. I’ll contact you in a few days with more information. I’m pretty sure you’ll have to do a phone conversation on this one. The woman is a particular bitch. Now be a good girl and go get a drink or something. You should have enough of my money left to do that.” He hung up, but that was all she’d needed. The shower business meant he was still home.
She made it outside Lenny’s apartment in time to see him drive his Jag from the parking lot. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be going far. She’d put up the convertible top so she’d be less noticeable, but he drove past her without even glancing her way. She snapped a picture and followed him into traffic.
He drove to Life Time Fitness in northeastern Phoenix. She glanced at the time on her phone before following him into the parking lot, leaving several car lengths between them. In the next ten minutes she’d have to leave for IHOP if she wanted to keep her job. Pulling into a parking place closest to the road, she watched as he slowly edged his Jag around to the next row of cars. What was he doing? She took another picture.
He turned down another aisle and finally pulled into a parking spot. Exiting the car, he began striding toward the gym. She studied him through the camera, zooming up so she could see him better. She clicked record. The camera wasn’t top model, but it did well enough.
She almost missed it as he walked by a metallic brown Beetle. His hand went out and took something from the windshield. Continuing on, he disappeared inside the gym.
Had she imagined it? Maybe he had just been stretching. Or stroking the shiny paint. He seemed to like shiny things. Well, there was no time to rewind and watch the recording now. If she didn’t get on the road, she’d be late for her job. As it was, she’d have to change her shirt in the bathroom there. She certainly wasn’t looking forward to acting as if everything in her life was perfect as she cheerily served people their food, but it was a legitimate way to support herself.
She waited another minute to see if Lenny would appear. He didn’t. Maybe he was just going to the gym. But why shower at home before a workout? If he’d been telling the truth about showering.
Sighing, she started the engine. Of
course
he wouldn’t lead her straight to a target the very first hour she followed him. What had she been thinking? She would have to continue on a different day when she had more time. Maybe if she put enough food and books together for Nate, he wouldn’t mind driving around with her. The only problem was the gas. A big problem.
Feeling cold, she rolled up her window. As she drove from the parking lot, she had the odd sensation that someone was watching her.
<><><>
H
ours sped by as Makay tried to remember menu items and customer orders. “You learn pretty quick,” said Peg, her trainer, whose white teeth gleamed brightly between plump red lips. The stocky girl had straightened black hair, smooth skin the color of milk chocolate, and brown eyes framed by bright blue shadow and far too much mascara. Makay thought she was the nicest employee she’d met so far. She’d even given Makay an elastic to hold back her hair.
“Thanks. Maybe you’re just a good trainer.” It was all relatively easy compared to her math problems and accounting classes. Besides, bluffing her way through any situation and thinking on her feet were probably her best talents. No one had seemed to care that she messed up a few orders. Unfortunately, Peg hadn’t shared her tips, though Makay had taken most of the orders and delivered the food. But she couldn’t blame the woman. If she hadn’t been training Makay, the cash would have been hers anyway.
“Well, we’ll see you on Monday morning at nine.” Peg started back into the dining room.
It was well after two, but Makay had an hour to kill before heading over to the school to pick up Nate. She wondered where Lenny was, but resisted the urge to call him. Even if she found out where he was, an hour wouldn’t be enough time. Instead, she stopped off at Winco and picked up some canned fruit that with her coupons was a fourth of its regular price. It was a good backup for when she didn’t have money for fresh fruit, and the old people at the apartments loved it.
She was studying a textbook in the car and waiting outside the school for Nate when a tapping caught her attention. Dread flooded her before she recognized Tessa Braxton outside the window, the red highlights in her hair looking orange under the sunlight. Makay unlocked the door and slid from the car. “Hey, Tessa. What brings you here?”
“You, of course.” Tessa rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I’d drive all the way over here for nothing.”
“I thought you said the school was on your way home.”
“When I’m coming from the office. But on Fridays I have class and work from home. Look, the reason I’m here is because I’m worried about you. Both Lily and I are worried.”
“I’m fine. I got a grant you know. Or will soon. Things are looking up.”
“Oh, then why are you sitting here with your car door locked? And why do you keep looking around the parking lot like you’re afraid someone’s following you?”
Makay laughed. “You’re imagining things.” The school bell rang, and she almost jumped.
“Maybe so.” Tessa eyed her doubtfully. “But I tell you what I think it is—stress. When was the last time you did something fun for yourself? When was the last time you went out to a nightclub and danced the night away? Probably last year when we took you out for your birthday.”
“It’s been a busy few months,” Makay said over the joyful shouts of children disgorging from the school.
“You mean a busy few years.” Tessa gazed over Makay’s shoulder, presumably at the crowd of students.
Makay didn’t look around, afraid Tessa would really start to think she was paranoid. “Well, I am in school again.”
“Yeah, I know. At least accounting is a good field.” Again there was that tone of doubt in her voice that had Makay bristling inside.
Not everyone can afford to have fun all the time,
Makay wanted to retort, but she didn’t because she knew Tessa’s life hadn’t been exactly easy, despite her wealthy parents, and that after going against their wishes to marry her husband, Gage, she’d returned to school under her own steam precisely so she could complete the psychology degree that would allow her to help others. Besides, Tessa and Lily might be the only real friends she had these days, and she didn’t want to offend either of them. She couldn’t really count the old people at the apartments as friends. She never hung out with them or exchanged invitations to go places. Anyway, she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of crunching numbers all day, so Tessa was right about whatever she wasn’t saying regarding Makay’s choice of a career.
“Everyone needs a night out,” Tessa said with a teasing grin. “And since you have all day tomorrow to stick your head in those books or clip coupons or wash Snoop’s slobber off your clothes—or whatever else you customarily do over the weekend, you should come dancing with me tonight. My treat.”
Makay cocked her head to the side. “What? You and me? What about Gage? I don’t think he’d like you dancing with other men.”
“Yeah, well, he’ll be there, too.” Tessa held up a freckled hand. “Now before you go on about being an extra wheel, my friend Brette is coming along.”
“Oh, no. Not a blind date.”
“No, silly.” Tessa threw back her head and laughed. “Brette Silvan’s a friend of ours—well, more Lily’s—and her mom just died last week and she’s having a rough time, so she’s been crashing at Lily’s. She recently broke up with a guy she was dating, and I want to take her out to get her mind off everything.”
Makay remembered the sleeping bag and suitcases next to Lily’s couch. “Sounds tough.”
“She doesn’t have a father, either.” Tessa shook her head, lowering her voice. “There’s something weird about that, a secret her mother apparently took to the grave. I thought you two would hit it off.”
“Because my parents are dead? Is this some of your psycho mumbo jumbo?”
Tessa pursed her lips in a shushing motion, her gaze flicking behind Makay to the right. “Anyway,” she said, her voice loud. “Lily and I thought Nate could come over and play while you and I and Brette went and had a good time with the most handsome man in Arizona. As long as you realize he’s mine, of course.” Her eyes slid completely to the right. “Wouldn’t you like that, Nate? Me taking your sister out for a little grown-up fun while you go over to Jonny’s to play? Lily’s making sugar cookies tonight for a fundraiser we’re having, and she needs help cutting out the shapes. What do you say to that?”
Makay looked down to see Nate staring up at them. “Makay really needs to go,” he said, sounding far too mature for her liking. “All she does is work.” His eyes went to her, looking exactly like Snoop when he was begging for a treat. “Pleeeease, Makay. I really, really want to go to Jonny’s.” Without waiting for an answer, he said to Tessa, “Can I bring Snoop? Because you have a lot of land out there for him to run around. Besides, Jonny doesn’t even remember Snoop, and he wants to see him.”
Tessa laughed. “Snoop can run outside to his heart’s content.” She hesitated. “I mean, if that’s okay with Makay. She might have too much homework.”
Picturing a long night reading her textbooks or following Lenny around in her car suddenly made Makay want to weep. She couldn’t even remember what it was like to go dancing, to be a woman instead of a single “mom” struggling to get an education and pay the bills. She wanted to dance, to talk, to laugh like those little girls in the park yesterday.
“Okay,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You win. I’ll go with you tonight, and Nate and Snoop can go to Lily’s and play with Jonny.” To Nate she added, “Just make sure we remember to feed him or Lily will have a problem on her hands.”
“Yippee!” Nate punched a fist in the air. “I can go, I can go!”
“Hey, what’s up, Nate?” a little girl called from down the sidewalk.
Nate waved. “My mom’s taking me to my friend’s house. There’s a horse there, and we’re making cookies!”
“Cool! I love making cookies.” The girl waved and climbed inside her mother’s car.
Makay stared after the little girl. Had Nate just referred to her as his mother? Tessa’s curious glance testified that he had, but she didn’t comment, and Makay took her cue from her friend to not make a big deal of it.