Chapter 6
BECKY (KENZIE)
Ihad not been back to Jersey since my mother moved us to Pennsylvania when I was six.
My mother loved it, the greenery, the proximity to New York.
She would tell me stories about her adventures growing up just across the Hudson.
She was only nineteen when I was born. I remembered how much she had experienced in twenty years of life.
I got the feeling that when she moved to Pittsburgh, her life was much easier.
But she still gave off the feeling it could all end in a second, and she was right.
Morristown’s streets rolled past as I got a feel for the place, then I turned back toward Newark Airport.
The van stayed behind in long-term parking, and a shuttle dropped me at a hotel close by.
Better to keep my distance from the Infinity Kings’ turf.
With my luck, I’d run into Reid at a gas station and have to deal with him.
I needed to stay far away from him. Maybe I should target Patrick.
It would be better for me to get closer to Sonny.
“Yes, can I help you?” The woman at the front desk didn’t hide her disgust. I had one credit card in my name and was going to use it to have a home base for three days until I could put my plan in action.
I wanted to be near the airport because as soon as this mess was over, I was going to take my trusty passport courtesy of the US government and my fake name and hop on the first plane out of the country.
On to a new life. One thing my mom taught me was how to take care of myself.
“Can I get a room?” I gave her my passport and the credit card.
“Do you have a reservation?” She blinked her eyes like there was something stuck in them. It was probably the pound of mascara she had on her fake lashes flaking into her eyes.
“No.” I blinked myself and conjured up a few tears.
“My stupid boyfriend was supposed to meet me in New York, but he called and said he couldn’t make it, but then I saw his ass tagged in an Insta story in Miami, feeling up on some chick.
” I bit my lip and let a tear fall. “I can’t change my flight and go home early, so I thought I’d camp out near the airport for three days. ” A lower lip wobble sold it.
Her face instantly softened at the mention of my shitty-ass boyfriend.
“Girl, I get it. Men suck.” She typed away at her computer. “Don’t even worry about it.” She ran my credit card and gave it and my passport back. Then she gave me two keys. “I gave you a nice room on the sixth floor with a distant view of New York.” She grinned.
“Thank you, girl.” I appreciate it.” I grabbed my bags and headed for the elevator.
The room was clean and warm, with its king-sized bed, desk, and a chair over by the window. I placed my stuff on the bed and opened the drapes.
“Oh, there it is?” New York in the distance. I kind of wished I had another day to explore, but I had business to attend to. I unpacked, took a hot shower, and then crawled under the covers and slept for sixteen hours.
When I woke, the sun was high in the sky. Dressed and moving through the lobby, I snagged a cup of free coffee from the cart. Outside, the pool glittered, and I sank into a lounge chair. A father and his two kids—a boy and a girl—sent water flying with their laughter.
The kids looked so innocent, and their father so attentive. Fuck, did those types of families really exist? I couldn’t imagine Sonny taking Patrick and me to the pool and tossing us in while we squealed and giggled. I wiped a tear from my cheek.
I sat up and fished my phone out of my pocket. No time for fake memory lane. I needed a costume for the Halloween party.
I searched on my phone and found a shop ten minutes away.
I hopped into an Uber and arrived at the storefront.
Several costumes lined the front window.
I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
The young salesclerk looked bored, scrolling through her phone.
“I was wondering if you could help me.” I tried my ‘men suck’ angle again.
“So, I need a costume to wear to a party.” I leaned against the counter. “My stupid-ass boyfriend just dumped me for some girl he met in Miami a few weeks ago, and he’s flying her up. I need to look amazing.”
“Oh, my goodness, girl.” She looked me up and down. “I have just the thing to make him regret not picking you. Come on.” She waved me to the back and understood the assignment and gave me several options.
“See, this one is more like Zoey Kravitz cat woman.” She held up the worn leather catsuit.
She pointed to another one. “That’s more Anne Hathaway but might be a little too wholesome for the mission.
Or you can go with Halle Berry.” She licked her lips.
“It shows a lot of skin; you could totally pull it off.”
I settled for the first one she suggested. I tried it on and stared at myself in the mirror. Something about being all clad in black leather made me stand taller. I looked like a badass, and it was exactly the attitude I needed to pull off this impossible mission.
My costume came with a mask that covered the top half of my face, a collar, and a whip. I had my own boots to complete the look. I paid for it in cash and headed out.
I grabbed a sandwich from the shop next door and took a car service back to the hotel.
I laid my outfit out on the bed, tore into my sandwich, and opened my laptop to do more research.
My plan came together nicely. I could waltz into the party undetected, find Sonny, and put my plan in motion.
Every detail had to be perfect. There was no contingency I hadn’t thought about.
I was focused and sure that nothing could go wrong.
A knock on my door pulled me out of my pep talk.
“Shit,” I said under my breath. “Just a minute.” I shut my laptop down and gathered my notebook and shoved it in a drawer. I grabbed the costume and threw it in the closet, then I ran to the door, but before I opened it, a piece of paper slipped under the door.
Hi Mackenzie,
We need to talk. Meet me in the lobby.
Reid
KENZIE
I read the note a few times before I noticed.
“Mackenzie.” I said the name out loud. No one had called me that in years. How did they know?
I threw on my sweatshirt, grabbed my phone and the room key, and made my way down to the lobby. I half expected a SWAT team of police to be waiting for me, but I hadn’t done anything wrong—yet.
I checked in under Becky; my passport said Becky. Mackenzie no longer existed. I found Reid sitting in the bar at one of the four semicircular booths near the window. It looked out onto a pool area. The light was dim in the bar, and a few people sat at the counter.
I stopped at the entrance. He’d yet to see me. I could take off. I looked over my shoulder at the lobby exit. If I ran and made it to my van, I’d be home free, and I could forget all about my stupid plan and go on living my life.
“Becky,” he called and waved me over. My eyes darted around, but no one paid any attention to me.
I slid into the booth but kept my distance.
“You want a drink?” He waved a waiter over.
“What can I get you?” The waiter set a cocktail napkin on the table in front of me.
“Uhm, a club soda.”
He nodded and scurried away.
“I figured you’d want something stronger for this conversation.” He took a sip from a small glass packed with ice and a brown liquid. I sat with my hands in my lap, my face neutral. I wasn’t giving anything away, but at the same time, I needed to find out what he knew.
I didn’t get angry vibes from him. If anything, he seemed amused, like he knew the whole story, but he couldn’t know all of it. The waiter delivered my drink. I took a sip, placed it back on the table, and waited.
“Well, I guess I’ll start.” He winked. I wanted to smack the sexy smirk off his stupidly handsome face. I sighed.
“Before we get into it, let me assure you, no one else knows I’m here except Patrick.” He took another sip and let me contemplate his statement.
My bullshit radar was dinging, but I remained quiet. Ready to hear him out, and if my plan needed to pivot, then so be it.
“You’re Mackenzie Peterson. Your father is Sonny O’Connor, president of the Infinity Kings.” He wasn’t asking a question; he was stating facts. He crossed his arms over his chest.
I opened my mouth, but he spoke before I could.
“It’s been eating me up since stepping into the diner about why you seemed so familiar, and then it hit me.” He pointed. “It’s the eyes.”
My eyes narrowed.
“You and Patrick and Dana have the same eyes.” He nodded.
“Who’s Dana?” I took another sip and waited for his answer.
“Dana is your younger sister.”
I blinked and inhaled a deep breath. “I have a younger sister?”
“You didn’t know about her?” He frowned but then relaxed. “Yeah, she’s fourteen. Sweet kid with a mouth like yours.”
I tried to speak again, but he interrupted with a raised hand.
“She’s beautiful, like you, too.”
I looked away.
“A lot of people have brown eyes.” I picked at a loose string on my pants. “And I don’t think attitude and intelligence are inherited traits.”
“True.”
“So why do you think I’m his daughter?” It was taking too long to get to the plot.
“Well, because I asked one of Sonny’s oldest friends.”
My eyes grew wide.
“Don’t worry, he and Sonny haven’t spoken in fifteen years. He’s not about to run off and tell him we spoke. Besides, I am good at getting the information I need without the other person knowing why I need it.” He gave me a cocky grin.
I sipped my water and remained silent.
“I have to take at face value that us walking into your diner a few nights ago was a coincidence, but I am assuming you’ve been working your way across the country to reconnect with family or with Sonny or both.”
“How do you know all this?” I tried to hide the panic in my voice. He knew too much.
“We all thought you were a rumor. Back when you were born, your mother and Sonny were a thing, and it almost broke up his marriage.” He shifted in his seat. “You and your mother disappeared when you were around six years old, and you ended up somewhere in Pennsylvania.”
“Okay.”
“But then a friend of mine, who is good with computers, did some research and after the age of fourteen, you no longer existed.” I felt his eyes on me. “That was right around the time your mother died, right?”
A shiver ran through me. I wanted to set the record straight about a few things but bit my lip and held back the urge to speak.
Like my mother didn’t move away. We ran away to get out from under my father’s control, and how she didn’t die; she was murdered.
I feared that if I opened my mouth, I wouldn’t be able to stop.
“The only question now is why?”
A tear dropped down my cheek. I’d like to say it was on purpose, but the tightness in my chest and my racing heart clued me into it being genuine.
The whole situation made me sad and made me miss my mom.
I drove across the country, worked at one shithole after another to get back to the place where it all began.
I gave the most dishonest answer I could find in the swirl of words and emotions I had going on in my brain.
“Because I have no one else.”
But the line was delivered brilliantly.
I deserve an Oscar for that shit.