01 Untouchable - Untouchable (20 page)

I shrugged my shoulders, “You never ask
a six-year-old where they want to go eat.”

“
I’ll remember that,” he
said, his level of discomfort rising.

We found a booth in the
back corner and he placed the order for pizza and then seated
himself across from Kimmy and me.

“
Leese, can I get some
tokens and play before we eat?”

“
Yeah sure,” I said opening
my purse and then realizing I didn’t have any money. Before I could
tell her that I couldn’t buy her tokens, Evan had my wallet pressed
into my hand.

“
You dropped that in my
car,” he smoothly inserted.

“
Oh—I—I wondered where that
went.” I lied.

With Kimmy happily occupied
by a big cup of tokens, I returned to the table and tried to hand
it back to him.

“
No, you keep it. I’m
guessing you don’t carry cash.”

“
I don’t, but I owe
you.”

“
Not now. And besides,
you’ve had that card I imagine about seven months and you haven’t
gone on any obvious spending binges.”

I put the card into my
wallet and sat back down. “Did you find anything out last
night?”

“
Some, but I’m waiting on
more information, and I didn’t think you’d want to discuss this
with Kimmy around.”

I waved my palms into the obviously
empty space beside me, “She won’t be back until I go get her, and
with all the noise in here no one is going to hear anything you
say; matter of fact I’ll be lucky if I can hear what you
say.”

He must have taken that
line as an invitation. He smiled and switched sides, slipping in
beside me and placing his arm around me.

“
The people here don’t know
us,” I reminded him.

“
That’s okay,” he said,
squeezing me a little tighter. “I did find out some things about
your step-dad.” The smile faded from his face, replaced with
seriousness. “Has he mentioned anything about the fact that his
business and fortune have been dwindling for the last three
years?”

This was a complete
surprise. Robert never indicated that he had any money problems. I
knew if he had, Mom would have quickly volunteered funds to help
him out, but I also knew that Robert was an intensely independent
and somewhat narcissistic person.

“
Never,” I shook my head.
“He doesn’t discuss his business.” I felt the need to give a little
clarification on our relationship. “Robert has always treated me
just like I was his own. Mom was seventeen when she made a bad
judgment and nine months later I was born and the man she’d fallen
for was nowhere to be found.”

“
That explains a lot,” he
said quietly.

I rolled my eyes, “My
decisions are my own and I’m not going to let someone else make
them for me. Anyway,” I sighed. “Robert came on the scene about a
year later, and within two years they were married. He’s been the
only father I’ve ever known.”

“
Well, Robert has lost
millions in the stock market and his father’s boat business is
heading for bankruptcy. He has been relying heavily on his business
partners, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to pull away from this
with anything left in his or their pockets. Did he and your mother
have a pre-nup?”

“
I don’t know. They never
mentioned it, but why would they?”

“
I’ve got my—an associate,
pulling records. Rich people try their hardest to hide their
personal information, but she is the best in the
business.”

“
It’s okay, you can say it’s
your mother.”

“
Not in this business. You
keep everyone anonymous.”

“
I hate the way you call it
a business.” I was simply being truthful.

“
That’s
what it is, Leese—unfortunately, it’s a
big
business.”

“
So will you be reporting
my one and a quarter million dollar pay off on your income
taxes?”

“
You’d be surprised at what
the government looks the other way on as long as you pay the taxes.
That’s my dad’s specialty. He used to do hits, until he discovered
he was better at creatively paying the government. Now he has a
thriving business doing that for others.”

“
So you think that Robert
might be the person who wants me killed?”

He nodded
slowly.

“
It doesn’t make sense.
What does he benefit by killing me? Mom has the control of the
money. If I’m dead she still has control. If she’s dead, I have
control. He’s not in the picture—unless he’s going to kill us
both—but he’s got to know that would be too suspicious and he’d get
caught.”

“
I have a theory, but I’m
going to wait until I get copies of your grandfather’s will, any
pre-nup that can be found, and any will your mother might have that
you don’t know about. I’m also waiting for some information on his
business partners.”

“
And you said you weren’t a
detective,” I teased.

“
I’ll admit you were right
that this is exactly in my line of work so it really isn’t too
difficult.”

“
See, you could get a real
job…”

“
What I do is a real job,
just not a legal one.”

“
You’d at least sleep better
at night,” I huffed.

He took a breath and then a sip of his
drink, “I sleep just fine.”

“
Will you be sleeping fine
in five weeks? Never mind,” I added quickly, “Please, don’t answer
that.”

The waitress delivered our
pizza to the table and vanished. He just kept looking at me,
evidently contemplating a response. I gave him a gentle nudge,
“I’ve got to go get Kimmy.”

After we had our pizza, I
challenged him to a game of skeeball and then promptly kicked his
butt. I was interested in what his attitude would be, but he ended
up showing me he could be a gracious loser.

Once back at Matt and
Bev’s, I wanted to find some reason to continue our time together,
but school was in the morning. Kimmy ran into the house as we said
our goodbyes.

“
You will be at school
tomorrow, right?” Suddenly I had some irrational fear that since I
knew what he was, the cover of school might not be
needed.

He reached out and touched
my cheek lightly. “Of course I will. Can’t say that I’m enjoying
repeating high school, but…”

“
Yeah, I know, it’s your
job.”

“
No, I was going to say
it’s bearable with you there. The other girls are—well, they act
their age. You on the other hand are mature like no one I’ve ever
met.”

“
You know that’s a question
that I haven’t asked you; how old are you, really?”

“
Do you want to try to
guess?” he smirked.

I was afraid to try, afraid
to actually know, but I was the one who asked. “I’d rather
not.”

“
Twenty-three.” The smirk
became a mild smile. He put the car in drive and pulled
out.

CHAPTER NINE

Monday morning found me
sitting in the school parking lot trying to understand how I could
be going through normal functions knowing that my life had been
turned completely upside down only days prior. I listened to my
music, trying to gleam some hope for my situation.

Jewels pulled in after me,
rapping away to music too loud with a huge smile on her face. Once
again, she was trying to get me to come over and sit with her. I
put my fingers to my ears and made a face as if I were in pain. She
rolled her eyes and turned down the volume. I gave her the thumbs
up signal and opened my car door. She reached over and pushed her
passenger’s door open, but before either of us could speak, the
sound of tires screeching at the far end of the parking lot could
be heard. I looked up and could see Ryan’s Trans Am racing against
a red Pontiac convertible.

“
Idiot boys!” I
snapped.

Jewels opened her door and
stood on the car’s frame to get a better view. When she saw Ryan’s
car she began to scream and cheer for him to win against his
opponent. Without his little Z, Evan had lost the advantage of a
faster engine, a manual transmission, and a lighter weight. Now the
race was equalized. All I could think was that both of them were
flying at break-neck speed and were either going to wreck or, if
seen by administration, officer Martin would have a field day
writing tickets.

It was too close to call as
they both braked for the turn to take them to where Jewels and I
were watching wide-eyed. Ryan had the inside lane and took the
advantage to cut Evan off as he made the turn. Ryan’s bumper missed
Evan’s front fender by inches. They pulled into the parking spaces
on either side of us. It was only then that Jewels realized who was
driving the convertible.

“
Ah! Where did you get
this?”

Her excitement seemed to
steal Ryan’s victory thunder as she ran to Evan’s passenger’s door
and opened it to get a better view of the interior.

As Jewels babbled on about
how cool the car was, Ryan decided to reclaim his bragging rights
by draping his arms around me. “Leese!” he said far too loudly for
the tiny distance to my ear. “How’s my ninja girl?”

“
Get off me, Ryan.” I was
trying to make sure he didn’t grab my still very bruised arm hidden
under my over-shirt.

Jewels paid no mind to
Ryan, but Evan was out of the car and standing next to us in an
instant. Just as I was slipping from Ryan’s grasp, Evan’s arm
wrapped firmly around me and pulled me to his side. I was hoping
that I wouldn’t turn into the object of a macho
tug-of-war.

Jewels finally turned her
attention toward us and asked again, “Where did you get the car,
Evan?”

“
It’s a rental,” he finally
answered, but was still glaring at Ryan.

“
Rental?” Ryan asked with a
laugh, “What’d you do; wipe out you’re Z?

“
No, it got a…”

“
I scratched up the roof,”
I interjected.

“
Oh,” Ryan said, clearly
confused as to how I managed that feat.

Evan leaned into me and
placed a warm, slow kiss on my cheek—right there in front of both
of them! “But it’s okay, I forgive you.” I was without the ability
to speak, and apparently so were Jewels and Ryan. “Come on, Baby,”
he crooned to me. “We don’t want to be late.”

I might as well have been a
mindless zombie at that point because he literally had to turn me
and point me toward the school. “You—you guys are lucky Officer
Martin wasn’t in the parking lot!” I got it out, but it was
horribly delayed.

He walked me all the way to
my English classroom doorway. Ryan went on in, somewhat disgusted
by the whole affair. Evan smiled broadly as he watched him walk
past.

“
You are pouring on the
whole boyfriend thing a little thick, aren’t you?” I ground out my
quiet words.

“
What?” he said
innocently.

“
You are going to make them
think we’ve…” I growled again, “You’re gonna ruin my reputation, so
back off a little!”

He smiled and left.

I took my seat in front of Ryan and it
didn’t take him long before he leaned close to my back and
whispered, “Just what exactly happened after we left you guys
Saturday night?”

I crossed my arms and stared at the
white board, “Not what he’s trying to make you think!”

Mr. Schultz began the class
with the poems he had decided should be read for his Poe-etry
contest. “Annalisa, I believe your poem was my favorite. Would you
please recite yours first?”

He handed me back my poem.
A large, red ‘A’ marked across the top. I had written this on
Thursday, but it now suited me so well that I didn’t even need to
look.

“
Insanity,” I began. “Oh
sweet insanity, your hands are very cold. You take my mind and
twist it, bend it until it’s old. You started small within my mind,
like a child within the womb; then grew into an ugly thing with
laughter rich, a deadly ring. I hear you inside laughing, and it
rips at my soul, looking for an opening to take my body whole.
Please, oh please, leave me now with the damage that you’ve done.
Don’t continue to eat away—it’s futile, you’ve won.”

“
Now that,” Mr. Schultz
commented as the class reaction died down, “is something Poe would
have been proud of.”

He moved on to the next
person. The chair behind me creaked lightly. Once again Ryan was
whispering at my back; his voice blending with the iniquitous words
of the next poem. “You might as well replace Evan’s name for the
word insanity if you keep dating him.”

What he said infuriated me,
but for the rest of the period my mind couldn’t help but to
rearrange the words of my Insanity to suit what was really going to
happen between Evan and me—and unfortunately, no matter how I
tried, the last four words stayed the same.

After an hour of poems
about mental incapacity, dead lovers, tortured minds and words from
the grave, my mood was as bruised as my arm. Ryan, on the other
hand, was as happy as if we had been doing Browning instead of Poe.
He followed along beside me down the hallway that led to gym
expounding what made for ‘good’ bad poetry.