False Pretenses

Part 12

Chapter 11

It didn’t take Genna long to pull me into the crowd.  When she said that there was a party we needed to liven up, she meant it.  Every person that she walked by was graced with one of her smiles.  If they looked sad, she would pair them up with an equally bored person.  It seemed as if her years of dealing with parties came in handy.  I never would have been able to play the crowd as she was.  It was something that I could learn from her, how to play the rich girl.

“Oh,” she said, stopping a couple feet away from a group of women.  “I think I should warn you before we go over there that they’re a bunch of bitches.”  Her eyes widened, and she laughed a little more.  “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“I’m thinking alcohol is something that you don’t drink much of?” I asked as Kyle just smiled up at Genna as if he found the entire situation humorous.

She shook her head, making her already messy hair fall apart more. “Nope; I’ve never enjoyed the taste, but I was upset that Dorothy was such a back-stabbing  wh—”

“Horse,” I interrupted.  She frowned at me, but when I nodded towards Kyle, a little bit of understanding made it to her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said.  I knew she meant for her words to be a whisper, but her tone was still loud enough to make a few people glance in our direction.

Grabbing her hand, I started easing her away from the group of young women who stared at us.  One turned to the other, whispering something that had the entire group laughing.  Genna froze and stared at the group with tears filling her eyes. 

“What’s wrong?” I whispered, keeping my eyes on her and not towards the group.

She gestured angrily at them, causing me to drop her hand.  “They’re laughing at me.  They always laugh at me.  My hair is always a mess.  My dresses are too bold.  Name something about me, and they’ll laugh at it.”

My eyes cut towards them and their laugher immediately died down.  What surprised me the most was the smiles on their faces.  They looked proud of themselves; they looked as if making fun of a person, sending them almost to tears was something that they had accomplished.  Glancing down at Kyle’s hand in mine, I gave it a little squeeze.  He snapped his head up towards mine, connecting his eyes with mine.

“Will you stay with Genna?” I asked.

He hesitated a minute.  “Why?”

“I just want to talk to them for a minute,” I promised.  “After that, I’ll be right back.”

“Promise?”

Leaning down, I smiled at him.  “With that puppy dog face, how could I not?  Count to three hundred, and if I’m not back by then, you have permission to come and get me yourself.  Deal?”

“Deal,” he mumbled as his hand slipped from mine.

Straightening, I walked towards the group with a warm smile on my face.  Any of the people who saw me walking towards them would think that I was walking towards a group of friends.  Once I got closer though, I allowed the façade to slip.  I let a little bit of myself shine though, the part of me that I was supposed to keep hidden from everyone but my victim list.  The smiles on the women’s faces slipped as I approached them.

As I stopped, I didn’t give them time to talk.  “If,” I whispered, leaning closer so that only they could hear and not the others surrounding us, “you do not leave Genna alone, your fathers will wake up with no money in their accounts.  Your house will be taken, your cars, your boats, your clothes, anything you might hold dear.”

One of the girls rolled her eyes at me, and I wished that I could have slipped one of the chopsticks from my hair and nicked her just a little, just enough to scare her.  Instead, I had to count on my intimidation skills.  “What’s your name?” I asked, a small smile on my face.

She smirked back.  “Angelica Davos; my father owns Davos Banking.”

“Angelica, do you happen to have a phone on you?”

She reached into the small clutch she had in her hand.  Pulling a phone out, she handed it to me as if she were expecting me to do a magic trick with it.  Little did she know; that was exactly what I was going to do.  I was going to make her money disappear.  Sure, only for a couple of hours at the most, but it was enough to prove my point. 

Flipping the phone open, I dialed Mitch.  “What number is this?” he snapped, not even asking whom it was that was calling.

“Angelica Davos,” I replied, before ending the call.  Before handing her phone back, I deleted her call logs, already knowing that Mitch would delete any phone company records that the call occurred.  Tossing it towards her, I let a large smile fly onto my face.  “Give it a second or two, and then call your daddy’s bank.  See how much he has left.”  I went to turn, dismissing the women, but before I did, I paused.  “By the way, tell your friends the same thing.  If I even hear about you whispering negative things about Genna, I’ll end you.”

This time, I did walk away, knowing that I kept adding to my list of mistakes, but not caring.  Why would I care when the worse that could happen was Mitch taking me off the case.  To be honest, I wanted off the case.  I didn’t want to keep getting attached, but I knew that I would never be strong enough to pull myself away.  I needed Mitch to tell me to back off; I needed him to tell me I had crossed a line.

Shaking my head, I made my way back through the crowd.  My eyes scanned the group of people, looking for the familiar faces of Genna and Kyle.  Finally, I spotted Kyle standing next to his mother, but as I glanced around, Genna was nowhere in sight.  Panic flew through me.  Something had to be wrong.  It was the only reason why Genna would let Kyle leave her side.  The woman may have drunk a little too much, but she wasn’t an idiot.  She knew how much the kid meant to me, and she knew that leaving him alone was unheard of.

An arm wrapped around my upper arm, and without thinking, I drew my elbow back, connecting with the person’s stomach.  A whoosh of air flew onto my neck as the person let out a little gasp of air.  Turning, I winced when I saw Gabe’s glare.

“Do you think that you could try not hurting me for at least a couple of minutes?” he growled out before snagging my hand. 

Pulling me through the crowd, he ignored the shocked stares of the nearby guests.  “What are you doing?” I hissed, trying to pull away.  “You’re going to break my cover.”

He laughed.  “Like you haven’t already done a bang up job of that yourself.  There is trouble,” he whispered.  “Someone took Genna.”

“What?” I asked, stopping in my tracks.

He tugged me along, not letting me stop for long.  “I don’t know what your boss told you, or who you work for, but Dorothy was never the target.  Genna was.”