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We got back into the car. The last time, after dealing with Mr. James, it had been Char to question me, to blurt out his thoughts. This time, it was my turn. “It’s after six o’clock. The money you extorted from Mr. James went to these people, didn’t it?” Before he could answer, I added on, “And don’t lie to me. Consider it payment for my help today—I want the truth this time.”
He sighed and kept his gaze locked on the building instead of at me. He didn’t smile, didn’t wear the costume of someone else. “Mr. James runs a personal finance business. He’s made a big chunk of his funds by defrauding the elderly. People end up in homes like these and need help managing their finances, and Mr. James sends people there, promising to help them, only to drain them dry. By the time the people realize there’s a problem, it’s too late, and they have lawyers good enough to make everything appear legit. I found out about it a couple months ago when the manager here let me know about a few residents who were making large payments to Mr. James’ company. I looked into it and figured out he was doing it to a lot of people.”
“So you blackmailed him to get the money back?” I paused, then thought about the man’s expression when he’d seen the card. “And Mr. James knew it was because of this, didn’t he?”
“He should have. The name of the account I had him pay the money into was ‘Carrington,’ which was the code name he used to talk about the project.”
“So it was a warning to him not to do that anymore?”
Char nodded. “I don’t like having to deal with the same problem more than once, and a good threat tends to make me not need to.”
I stared down at my hands, unable to ignore my guilt. I’d been wrong about him, hadn’t I? I’d said cruel words because I hadn’t taken the time to try to understand what he’d done or why, labeling him bad just because I’d jumped to conclusions.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“No need to apologize.”
“Of course there is. I called you a conman and a criminal.”
He turned finally, but when he looked right at me, I wished he hadn’t. His gaze was angry and somehow cold at the same time. It chilled me, making me want to move away.
“Iamboth of those things, Kenz. You weren’t wrong about me. I con people out of their money, their property, their information, even their lives when it suits me. I break the law to do the things I want to do. I’ve left plenty of victims in my wake, so don’t take one moment where I look good and think that’s all of me. You were right, and you should keep that in mind when dealing with me. I will use and discard anything I need to in order to get what I want—that includes you.”
With that, he looked away and turned the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life as though to end the conversation.
He’d meant those words to be a threat, but I struggled to hear it like that, to accept it. Instead, Claire’s words ran through my head.People who keep others away do it because they’re afraid.
Char did things to help others, showed them a false face to create distance, didn’t even admit to what he’d done. Just like those times, he’d spat these words at me to push me away, to hide himself behind harsh threats and truths twisted into knots so tight they were hardly recognizable.
Char might have been a conman and a criminal, but I had a feeling he wasn’t the bad person he wanted others to think he was.
Chapter Ten
Vance
“What is this?” Kenz peered at me with a look full of so much suspicion that it made me laugh.
Women didn’t tend to be all that suspicious of me, at least not at first. Later, sometimes, after they realized they couldn’t manipulate me into whatever they wanted, they started to look at me like that. Usually, though, they fell in line the moment I smiled and offered them a few sweet words.
Kenz was far too smart to fall for such things, though, which was why she peered around the space then gave me a look that said she didn’t trust me in the least.
“It’s a gift,” I said. When she didn’t soften, I laughed softly then gestured toward the aisle set up in the center of the open space. “You don’t have that much time before your exhibit, right? I thought that standing in the room where the work will be displayed might give you some inspiration.” I crossed my arms, thinking back to my exhibits in the past, when I’d feel that same rush of deciding what to enter, where to place it, how it would all fit together. “Seeing how the light in the room is, feeling the energy of the space, the way the spots sit, it helps to work out what would work best.”
“Did you used to do this?”
I shook my head. “Not usually, no. Most of my exhibits had my manager picking pieces already done. If I did pieces just for a show, they were usually commissioned, so I already knew what I’d do. The last time I got to just paint what I wanted was back before I’d started selling it, I guess.” I shuffled my foot against the hardwood floor of the art gallery. “I didn’t go to college, so I never really got the chance to work on whatever I wanted. I’m sort of envious of that.”
Kenz said nothing, and when the silence became too much to sit through any longer, I turned to find her staring at me. “What is this really all about?”
The laugh I let out was empty because she really was difficult to deal with, wasn’t she? “You won’t just let me move on, will you?”
“I don’t like half measures. If you want to say something, you should say it.”
I miss women who fall all over themselves for me.
“Fine. I’m sorry, okay? I called ahead to find out where the exhibit would be held, then asked the gallery if I could rent the space for the evening. I wanted to apologize for what happened last time, and this was the only thing I could think of.” Putting it all on the board didn’t sit well for me.
Normally, people accepted gifts with smiles, all too willing to move on from whatever had bothered them. I didn’t give the gifts because I was sorry, usually, but because it was easier to deal with people who were properly appeased.
