Page 50 of Off the Grid
“Well, she went full lioness on my partner, and now they’re head over heels for each other, so I guess it worked out.”
“Did it?”
Leo stared at her, trying to read the unspoken message in those words. “How do you mean?”
McKenzie paused, glancing down to her chili then stirring it twice without taking a bite. Finally, after a few quiet seconds, she looked back up. “Can I ask you something, Leo?”
“Shoot.”
“It’s just, I don’t trust very many people. After everything that happened with my dad, some of the people who I thought were my friends acted in ways that, well, hurt me. After that, I kept people at a distance.”
He could imagine. Middle school was as much of a war zone as Iraq, more so in some ways. At least his battles were physical—it was the mind games that could really do a number on a person’s health. Hell, he should know.
“But Jo and Addy,” McKenzie continued softly, “I trusted them. Trust. Trusted? I don’t know anymore, with everything that’s happened. Jo lied to me for years. She put my life in danger. She—” McKenzie paused to take a deep breath. “Do you think she’s a good person, Leo? A few days ago, I would’ve said yes without a doubt in my mind, but now I’m not so sure.”
“I think”—he sighed—“it’s complicated, like everything in life is. On paper? I don’t know. She was a professional hacker. She stole private information. She aided in the theft of countless works of art, which then went on to help fund some really illicit activities. But in her heart? Yeah, I think she’s a good person. As soon as she found out the truth of what her father and her partner were involved in, she turned herself in to the FBI to help undo the damage she’d helped create. She’s fun and loving and the sort of person whose enthusiasm makes everything around her brighter. She makes my partner happy. There’s a light in him that’s never been there before, and the sort of weightlessness inner peace brings. I think maybe she was a girl who loved her father, who was raised in a life that a lot of people would never understand, who wanted out but wasn’t entirely sure how to make that happen until just recently. We’ve all been guilty of that, right? Of doing things we know might not be the best for us, because they’re easier than facing the truth?”
He knew he had. Isolating himself, putting on a brave face, shoving the bad times to the back of his mind and powering through—it was easier than facing the truth that maybe he was a little bit broken and maybe he didn’t quite know how to put the pieces back together on his own.
“Thanks, Leo. That helps… That helps a lot.”
He found her gaze again, wondering what she saw in him—an agent like the ones who took her dad, a man who’d saved her life, a jerk who never let her win? If she knew the truth, would she still look at him with adoration in her eyes? Would she like the broken man he was inside, or did she only like the hero he tried so hard to be?
“I think you should know you’re a member of that very exclusive club, by the way,” McKenzie continued, as though she could see all the doubts whirling through his mind. “After everything we’ve been through these past few days, I trust you. And I hope after all this is over, we can still be friends.”
Friends…Something within him wilted a little at the word, but he shoved the feeling down with all the others. “I’d like that.”
“Good,” she quipped, tone changing back to playful with a biting edge as she finished her second glass of whiskey with one long sip. “Because if we don’t get out of this alive, you’re back on my shit list.”
“I’ll take those odds.” He lifted his glass, inclining it toward her as he raised his brows, and then poured it down the hatch. The burn washed all those pesky doubts away.
- 18 -
McKenzie
McKenzie had no idea how much she’d had to drink. She remembered Leo regaling her with the story of his herculean home run in eighth grade to win the final game of the season. Apparently, he spent the entire summer thinking he would become the next Alex Rodriguez, puffing his chest out for all his friends, only to get a total reality check the first time he stepped foot in their high school. So McKenzie told him about her massive lesson in humility during the transition from being the best in her class at culinary school to the lowest rung on the ladder in a New York City restaurant. She’d actually had the gall to correct the head pastry chef on his sugar work, which led to late-night dish duty for about a month straight. Though, she couldn’t help but notice a difference in his sugar molding after that.
They spoke about their families a little, which mostly consisted of Leo telling her more about his brother, Manny. Since he’d been a bit of a nerd, Leo, the older jock brother with muscle mass to spare, became his protector, which didn’t surprise her in the least. When someone broke Manny’s glasses, Leo broke them—he was just careful not to do it on school grounds where he could get in trouble. They were jealous, he said, because everyone in their town knew Manny with his big brain would go places, places they wouldn’t dare dream of. And he had. But so had Leo, though he didn’t seem to give himself very much credit for the honorable, admirable life he’d carved out for himself. McKenzie tried, but he wouldn’t hear it, so they moved on. She begged him to tell her more, because she had no sibling stories to share, and hearing his made her feel better somehow, a little less alone.
They drank.
And they talked.
And they drank some more.
The world moved forward in disjointed spurts. One moment she was telling Leo about her first trip to Europe as a little girl, how she still remembered walking into an authentic French patisserie and marveling at the brilliant colors in the display, the endless rows of pristine desserts, the delectable smells. The next he was telling her about the time he and his family had gone to Disney World on their first true vacation, driving all the way from Texas in a road trip he would never forget. Then suddenly, they were arguing about their favorite TV shows. McKenzie would defendFriendsuntil her dying days, but Leo said the character development ofBreaking Badcouldn’t be beat, especially by a sitcom. The argument shifted to the merits of a classic American hamburger versus fine cuisine, then to which of theHarry Potterbooks was the best (the third one, obviously), and then they were thumb wrestling.
She must’ve won, because the next thing McKenzie knew, she was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen island with a refilled whiskey in one hand as she pummeled her other fist into her thigh and demandingly chanted, “Thriller! Thriller! Thriller!”
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“Thriller! Thriller! Thriller!”
“McKenzie.”
She didn’t care. She’d waited long enough. Ignoring his plea, she sang the opening notes. “Do-do-do-do-do.”Clap!“Do-do-do-do-do.”Clap!
“It’s not happening.”
