This Game Called Life (Kingdom Book 4) (21 page)

Before any comment
was passed, Jackson entered the room and handed Jake a piece of paper. Reading
it in silence, he looked at his father before passing it to Jason who in turn
passed it on to Josh.

“Who is this guy
and can we trust him?” Jason asked his father.

“From what I can
tell he’s Diana’s go to man. I say we test whether he can be trusted,” Jackson
replied.

Chapter 29

The reporters had
been gone for three days, and MacKenzie was relieved they were no longer camped
outside the gate. At least now the Kingdoms could go about their business
without having to face flashing cameras every time they left their home.

MacKenzie had also
begun to think that maybe it was time for her to return to her own home. Having
voiced as much to Jake, he had refused. Although she hadn’t taken kindly to his
dictatorial refusal, she picked up that something was still afoot. Her numerous
questions to gather information had failed. In the end, it was just easier to
stay because, in all honesty, she enjoyed being in Jake’s company.

During breakfast,
MacKenzie couldn’t help but feel that the men were up to something. She thought
it probably concerned Diana. On the occasions, she questioned Jake about his
mother; she had been told not to worry as Diana was no longer a threat to any
of them.

Left to their own
devices for the day; MacKenzie, Aviva and the baby were all in the garden when
Ronson the family butler, approached and spoke to her.

“Miss, you have a
visitor.”

“Me... who?”
MacKenzie asked in surprise.

“He gave his name
as a Mr. Ernesto,” Ronson said, his usual formality in place.

“Please show him
in, Mr. Ronson.” Aviva stepped in when MacKenzie remained silently stunned at
the mention of Carlos’ name.

When the butler
was out of earshot, Aviva turned to her friend with a worried look. “Just try
to stay calm, okay.”

MacKenzie didn’t
bother to answer her. Her mind was already flooded with all the things she had
stored up to say to Carlos. When he finally stood before them and removed his
sunglasses, MacKenzie was shocked. The man looked terrible. His eyes were
sunken and blood shot, and there was a gaunt look to the planes of his face
that hadn’t been there the last time she had seen him.

“MacKenzie,
Aviva,” Carlos greeted them with a nod.

Aviva responded,
what she said; MacKenzie had no idea. All her concentration was taken up with
his appearance.

“I’m going to take
the baby inside so you guys can talk.”

It wasn’t a
question, so MacKenzie didn’t answer. As Aviva walked away holding her
daughter; that Carlos hadn’t paid Noelle the slightest bit of attention wasn’t
lost on her.

Taking a seat,
MacKenzie indicated that Carlos should do the same. When he finally sat facing
her, she allowed the silence to deepen and stretch on. MacKenzie refused to
clear a path into the conversation. He had behaved disgracefully and she owed
him nothing.

“I don’t know
where to begin.” Carlos began in a low voice.

He had only spoken
one sentence and already he was getting on her nerves. “For a start,” MacKenzie
told him, “Do not spout one more damn cliché in my direction!”

Carlos blinked his
bloodshot eyes as though he was surprised at her anger. “It’s like that, is
it?”

“Yeah, it’s
exactly like that,” she threw back.

“I suppose I
should have known you wouldn’t make this easy for me.”

“Easy for you...
are you kidding me?! Why should I make anything easy for you? You’ve put me
through hell, and I should make this easy for you. Boy, you must have lost your
damn mind!”

“You need to cut
me some slack here, MacKenzie,” Carlos whined.

“I don’t have to
do a damn thing, but I’m going to. I’m going to listen to what you have to say.
I want to understand what possessed you to behave like such a jerk. So start
talking!”

“Have you met,
Diana?” Carlos asked.

“No I haven’t, and
what does she have to do with the disgusting way you’ve behaved towards me?”

Taking a deep
breath, Carlos grimaced before he began to speak. “This mostly has everything
to do with Diana. She found out something about me and threatened to expose it
if I didn’t do what she wanted.

It seems that Diana
wanted to cause the Kingdoms as much trouble as she could. Your relationship
with Jacob Kingdom meant that by association, she had the tools to blackmail
me–”

MacKenzie cut him
off. “You’re not making any sense at the moment. You need to stop talking in
circles!”

“This isn’t easy
for me, MacKenzie. Please, just hear me out and let me tell this in my own way,
okay?” Carlos pleaded.

MacKenzie
immediately felt a feeling of dread settle on her shoulders. Although she was
furious with him, she could see he was struggling to tell his story. “Okay, I
won’t interrupt you.”

“Thank you,”
Carlos said with a nod. “Diana first contacted me through my mother. What she
had to say was something we as a family had decided to keep hidden. She
threatened to expose me if I didn’t do what she wanted, when she thought the
time was right. She deemed the time to be right the night I took Noelle for a
visit. Everything was planned ahead of time. Don’t ask me how. All I know is,
that woman is the devil!”

MacKenzie kept her
word to remain silent even as Carlos broke off and shook his head as though in
remembrance.

“I had to do it
MacKenzie. I didn’t have a choice. I have my career to think about,” Carlos
pleaded with her for understanding.

No longer able to
stay quiet, she asked the question that should have been of concern to them
both. “What about Noelle, Carlos, didn’t she mean anything to you?”

“Yes, she means
something to me, but she’s a baby. My career is happening now. By the time
she’s grown, nobody would care about what happened to you.”

MacKenzie wasn’t
sure if Carlos understood the level of selfishness he directed towards her and
Noelle; either way, she was done with the conversation. “If you have nothing
else to say, I suggest you leave.”

Carlos licked his
lips and hung his head, which told MacKenzie he wasn’t finished.

“There’s one last
thing. I’m leaving for Europe tonight. I won’t be coming back to the States for
the foreseeable future. They love me in Europe,” Carlos said, his face lighting
up with pleasure.

“When I get there
I’ll be making a statement. I wanted to give you a heads-up before it reaches Stateside.
MacKenzie I’m gay... or maybe bisexual,” Carlos shrugged. “I don’t hate
intimacy with women exactly, after a while it just leaves me unfulfilled
sexually. I’ve hidden that side of myself for so long I want it out in the
open. That’s what Diana found out about me.”

MacKenzie was more
than a little surprised. Then she began to place together bits of forgotten
scenes, all of them with his manager. A sharp pulling apart when she entered
the room. Them ensconced in his locked office, and so many other incidences
that should have been obvious but at the time were not.

“Say something,”
Carlos pleaded.

Looking at him,
she could see he was under enormous stress. Yes, Carlos was a selfish bastard
who had treated her appallingly, but he had a right to his happiness, as did
they all.

“You treated us
very badly, Carlos, and it’s going to take some time for me to forgive you for
that. Nevertheless, I wish you well. You go on and do what you have to do. I
also think you need to take some time to consider whether you want to be a part
of Noelle’s life. When you’ve made up your mind, let me know. Whatever you
decide, will be fine with me, and I’ll have formal documents drawn up.”

“Thank you. I
thought this was going to be much more difficult than it turned out to be,” Carlos
said with a smile of relief.

“Yeah, well
telling me was the easy part. There’s going to be a lot of people out there who
won’t wish you well. For my part, I hope you find your happiness. I think I may
have found mine.”

An awkward silence
followed them all the way to the front door. With each step she took, MacKenzie
wondered if this would be the one where he asked to see Noelle before he left.

Stepping outside,
Carlos turned back to MacKenzie and kissed her on the cheek. “That was for
Noelle. Tell her I love her. I just need some time, MacKenzie, okay?”

With one final
nod, he was gone.

**********

When Jake received
the call that Carlos was at the house, he instinctively knew why he was there.
Rushing back to the house his only concern was how MacKenzie would take the
news.

The first person
he saw was Aviva. “Where is she?”

“She said she
needed some time; she’s outside,” Aviva said, showing signs of concern for her
friend.

“Where’s the
baby?”

“She’s taking a
nap. Go find our girl, Jake. Take as long as you need. I’ll look after Noelle.”

Giving Aviva a
kiss by way of his appreciation, Jake headed out to locate MacKenzie.

As though by
instinct, Jake headed towards the pool. As he approached, he saw MacKenzie
sitting facing the water. The figure she presented was so forlorn it broke
Jake’s heart. Folding his body down beside her, he too stared out over the
water. Jake didn’t initiate a conversation. He wanted to give her all the time
she needed with her thoughts. As the silence between them stretched on, all he
could hope for was that his presence offered her some comfort should she need
it.

“Did you know?”
MacKenzie asked.

“Yes, I knew.”

“Why didn’t you
tell me?”

“I said nothing
because the information wasn’t mine to impart.” Jake turned to look at her as
he spoke to enable him to gauge her reaction. “What are you thinking?”

“That I make very
poor choices when it comes to picking men.”

“Well, you could
always give me a go.” Jake held his breath and waited for her to look at him.
He recognized the enormity of the moment; he had just given her an opening to
accept or reject him.

“Are you sure
about that? I managed to turn a straight man gay,” MacKenzie quipped.

“You and I know
that’s not true. Carlos is who he is and that has nothing to do with you.”

“I know, and
you’re right.”

Jake was a little
surprised at her response. He hadn’t expected her to capitulate so readily, but
he was unprepared to look too closely into her agreement. “I’ll probably drive
you crazy, but you’ll be the happiest crazy woman in the world.”

MacKenzie didn’t
smile at his joke. There was a sadness about the way she looked at him that
hitched at Jake’s heart. Of late, her life had been filled with one
disappointment after the other. Unprepared to allow the sadness to take hold;
Jake took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

“I have something
I want to show you,” Jake said as he began walking with her in tow.

“What is it?”

“Just a little
further and you won’t need to ask me that question.”

Soon Jake came to
a stop, and MacKenzie glanced around with a skeptical look. “What am I supposed
to be looking at?”

Removing his shoes
and socks, Jake turned to MacKenzie with a secretive smile. “Close your eyes.”

“Why? I swear to
God, Jacob if you dunk me again–”

“MacKenzie, you
need to trust me on this. I promise you won’t regret it,” Jake coaxed. After a
momentary hesitation, she did as he asked.

Stooping down,
Jake swung MacKenzie off her feet. Her eyes popped open. Jake lowered his brows
with a mock frown. “Keep them closed!” He ordered with false severity.

MacKenzie’s eyes
fluttered close. Holding her securely in his arms, Jake teased. “Wow, if I had
known how much you weighed, I would have made you walk.”

MacKenzie gasped
at his comment, collected herself and sallied back. “Surprisingly, for such a
big dude, you’re a wuss!” MacKenzie delivered her teasing insult while still
following his order of keeping her eyes closed.

Stepping into the
water that ran over his feet, Jake walked around an outcropping and then
stepped back onto dry land. When he came to a stop, he looked at MacKenzie to
ensure her eyes were still closed, they were.

Lowering her to
her feet, Jake took hold of her shoulder and turned her around. “Okay, you can
open them now.”

As MacKenzie took
in the view before her, Jake tried to imagine how she was feeling seeing this
place for the first time.

Laid out before
them was an expanse of land overhung by trees that formed a canopy over the
enclosed space. The trees grew so densely as to give the impression that
nothing but more woodland lay behind it.

Scattered around
as though Mother Nature herself had designed it, were wild flowers of every
hue. Turning around, MacKenzie looked out over the water. Then she spun in a
full circle taking in every aspect of the enclosed space. Finally she looked
back at Jake.

“It’s perfect,
Jake, just perfect!” MacKenzie spoke in a soft reverent voice, as though
unwilling to disturb the serenity of the setting.

“I thought so
after I completed it.”

“You did all
this?” MacKenzie asked in surprise.