Kiss Me with Lies (Twin Lies Duet Book 1)

by S. M. Soto

  Don’t fucking do it. Don’t fucking do it.

  She does it anyway.

  Mackenzie lifts the heavy photograph, revealing my safe that’s built into the wall. My lips curl over my teeth, and my pulse skyrockets.

  If she really is a writer, this is a problem. She’s a problem.

  I glance up at the guys. They pause at the expression on my face.

  “What is it?”

  I glance at Noah and grimace.

  I guess we really do have a problem.

  Mackenzie

  I rifle through the contents of Baz’s file cabinets and desk drawers again, finding nothing. His safe is a little more high-tech than Zach’s with an electronic keypad instead of the dial. With Baz preoccupied and out with the rest of the guys, this is my only chance to get into this safe and see what he’s hiding. I just need to find a paper, anything in his stuff that can give me an idea of what his code is.

  Once again, I’ve tried everything—names, dates, places—literally anything I can think of, and nothing has worked. It won’t even let me try anymore; I’ve been fucking locked out from too many failed attempts. That doesn’t stop me from looking further.

  I stumble upon a locked drawer and blindly fumble for anything on his desk I can use to pry it open. Gripping the scissors and letter opener, I jam the tip of it into the lock, twisting and jiggling until I hear the click. I drop the letter opener and yank the drawer open. I pull out the contents, and my heart bangs against my chest. The effects of it have me feeling lightheaded.

  Money.

  Bundles of money.

  Papers with invoices and gibberish I don’t understand.

  With trembling hands, I pick up a wad of cash and try to read what the paper says.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  My stomach bottoms out at his cold tone, and I let out a surprised squeak, dropping the wad of cash. My eyes fling up toward the door and go wide when I see Baz standing there, watching me like a hawk. I flinch at the unrestrained anger aimed back at me.

  Oh, fuck.

  “I asked you a question,” he grinds out.

  “I-I, uh, I …”

  “They were right.” His nose crinkles with distaste as he stares at me. He’s looking at me as though I’m scum. Shit stuck on the bottom of his shoe.

  My heart shatters.

  A stabbing sensation in my chest makes it hard to pull in a single breath, let alone even think. Pressure builds behind my eyelids and nose as I stumble to my feet.

  “This isn’t what it looks like,” I whisper, placing my hands out between us, trying to calm him down. He takes a slow, predatory step into his office, and my eyes grow round with fear.

  Baz chuckles without humor, growing closer. “Oh, it isn’t? Because it looks to me like you’re sneaking around and digging through my shit, Mackenzie. You’ve been doing it for weeks. And now,” he warns, crowding me into the wall, “you’re going to tell me what you’ve been searching for.”

  “I … I w-was—”

  “Speak up!” he barks, and I flinch, the first tear slipping down my cheek.

  “I’m writing a p-piece on the lives of SoCal’s most eligible bachelors,” I lie. Again. I should’ve come clean with the truth, but not now, not like this.

  “And there it is,” he breathes, tone cold and detached. He takes a step back, out of my space, as if he can’t stand to be near me a second longer. I must be insane because I almost want to reach out to him and beg him not to go.

  My heart splinters with pain, and my chest tightens. I don’t know how this whole situation got so fucked up.

  “So I was your target? Your first bachelor in your long list of many? Or was it just me and my friends you wanted the scoop on?”

  He’s not wrong. And I hate that I can’t defend myself. I can’t stand the idea of him seeing me as a user.

  Tears slip down my cheeks, and I do reach out for him this time. “You don’t understand. Our first meeting, it was real, Baz. I had no idea who you were. It was always them. I went to that club to get information. For my piece. You were never in any of the photographs with them. I didn’t know you were a part of any of this. That night was real. I promise you.”

  The way he glares down at me with disgust written all over his face makes it hard to breathe. It feels like everything is caving in. There’s this unbearable weight on my chest. A vise squeezing around my heart and lungs, making me sick.

  “Let’s say I believe you. When did you decide to use me?”

  My face crumples, and I suck in the sob that’s threatening to escape. “When I came back to LA,” I whisper, suddenly ashamed of myself.

  Baz searches my expression, and without a word, he turns on his heel toward the door. I jolt, dodging the mess I made to go after him.

  “Wait, Baz, please don’t go!” He pauses. Every part of his body is stiff and wound tightly as if he’s barely restraining himself. “I never wanted to hurt you. You have to believe that,” I choke through the tears streaming down my face.

  “I don’t have to believe anything, Mackenzie.”

  He starts walking again, and this time, I grip onto his arm. “Wait, please.”

  He shrugs off my hold.

  “See yourself out.” Once he passes over the threshold, he shoots me a glare. “Don’t ever show your face at any of my resorts, Mackenzie. You’re no longer welcome here.”

  He disappears, and the sobs I was desperately holding back break free. I drop to my knees, letting the tears come fast and hard. Gut-wrenching sobs fill the space around me, echoing off the walls and the mess I’ve made of his office.

  Oh, God.

  What have I done?

  All of this for nothing.

  With my face in my hands, I hear my sister tsking me, telling me what a failure I am.

  “I told you this would happen, Kenzie. Did you really think you’d be able to keep him? After all your lies and deceit?”

  “I did it for you!” I sob out angrily.

  “There’s still work to be done. The money, Mackenzie? Why does he have so much money? And the safe? You have work to do still.”

  Feeling lightheaded and unsteady, I push to my feet, forcing myself to get it together long enough to gather whatever possessions I have left in Baz’s penthouse. I don’t know if he’ll even be in there, but in case he is, I wipe the tears from my face and pull myself together as best as I can.

  When I push inside, I pause over the threshold, suddenly feeling like an outsider who doesn’t belong here.

  I guess I never really did.

  I make my way into his bedroom and freeze when I glance at the dark silhouette on the bed. Baz is resting on the edge, a blunt hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He looks up at me and smirks.

  “Came to see what else you could find, Mackenzie?” he taunts.

  I flinch, my chin quivering with emotion.

  “I just came to get my stuff.” My voice doesn’t even sound like mine. Baz doesn’t say anything, just takes a hit, watching me as I finally move toward the walk-in closet. It’s a struggle not to break down as I gather everything, but I refuse to look any weaker than I already do in front of him.

  With one suitcase trailing me, my other still in my suite on the tenth floor, I pause when our gazes clash. Everything about his posture and outward expression remains cold and aloof, but as I stare into his eyes, I see I’ve hurt him. The one thing I wanted to avoid, and I did it anyway.

  I open my mouth to tell him how sorry I am again, but I know it won’t help. So I snap my mouth shut, tighten my grip on my luggage and start to walk away. My feet suddenly halt midstride, just over the threshold of his bedroom.

  “I know you don’t owe me any explanations, but why do you have all that money?’

  “Plan on using my answer in your piece?” he counters, and my lips thin.

  “You were never a part of my piece. They were.”

  “I was merely a pawn, right?”

  My
face falls. “You’re more to me than a pawn. You’ve become my safe place, Baz. I’ve told you things I’ve never told anyone.”

  That crease between his brows is back again. He takes a drag from his blunt and pinches it between his fingers, looking back up at me.

  “You want the truth? Here’s a story for you and your piece, Mackenzie,” he drawls, pushing to his feet, striding toward me with a lazy, cavalier posture. He stops a few inches in front of me. It’s close enough I have to crane my neck back to stare at him.

  “That money? It was extortion money. Zach and Vincent were being extorted with pictures of the two doing coke and other drugs. It’s not a shocker they’re playboys or party guys, but seeing as we had a business opening together, they came to me with their problems, just like they always do, and I took care of it. Took care of the extortionist and kept the money in my desk if he ever tried to come around again. People like that don’t play by the rules, but I still saved the money in case. Is that what you wanted to use in your piece? SoCal’s hottest playboys and club owners are druggies? Go ahead. Use it. I don’t give a shit. Just as long as I don’t have to see you again.”

  My heart shatters. It’s laying at my feet in a million jagged pieces.

  That’s it? That’s the big secret he’s been hiding?

  “And the safe?” I choke.

  Baz leans into me. He tucks an errant strand from my bun behind my ear. His fingers graze the skin of my cheek in the process. I find myself leaning into his touch, craving him and hating myself all in one breath.

  “It’s for important documents. Social security card, passport, jewelry. Everything I have to keep hidden from vultures like you.”

  My eyes spring open at his harsh words, and his severe face swims before me. God, what have I done?

  I should’ve kept him out of this. I just ruined every beautiful thing I shared with this man over passports and extortionists. And none of it had anything to do with my sister.

  “Now,” Baz whispers, placing a soft kiss on my forehead, “get the fuck out.” With that, he turns on his heel and disappears into his ensuite bathroom. It feels as if he’s ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on the organ. I’m bleeding from the inside out. He’s tearing me open. He’s found my open wound, and he keeps stabbing there repeatedly.

  A sob rips from my chest as I let myself out. I’m only half-surprised when I see Dan waiting for me by the elevators with a not so pleasant look on his face. We ride down in silence, save for my sobbing and sniffling.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

  The elevator dings, and it opens to my floor. He ushers me out, back toward my suite to gather my stuff. Just as I’m entering, he says in passing, “They never do, ma’am.”

  I gather all my stuff from the suite quickly. I place everything from the room safe in my purse to keep close to me at all times. Before I leave, I look out at the room one last time and sigh.

  Dan escorts me off the premises, and once I’m outside, there’s a car—an Uber more like it—waiting to take me wherever I need to go. I should take the hint and go back home. I should just go back to New York and never show my face on the West Coast again.

  It’s what I should do.

  But I’m sick and tired of doing everything that’s expected of me.

  I listen to my sister, her constant voice in my head, telling me to keep going.

  “We’re so close, Kenz. Can’t you feel it? Don’t you feel me?”

  “Can you take me to the nearest motel, preferably near the Sunset Strip.”

  The driver grunts. He’s a young kid who looks like he’s in college, driving on the side for money. “You sure?”

  “Preferably one I won’t die at, but yes, it’ll do.”

  He sighs and shakes his head, throwing the car in drive while I look out the window, slowly watching the resort fade behind me into the night as I go.

  I slurp noodles straight from the Chinese takeout container, staring at the screen. I push my reading glasses up the bridge of my nose with my knuckle since my fingers are holding the chopsticks.

  With my index finger, I scroll through the latest gossip rags. Over the past week, Baz has already been seen out countless times with women. And even though I tell myself it’s still part of my research, I know it’s not.

  I’m jealous.

  Unreasonably fucking jealous.

  Blowing out an agitated sigh, I click out of that tab, then move back to Zach’s Instagram. He just checked in, tagging all the guys at the Nobu Hotel in Las Vegas. They’re all gone. Out of town.

  “It’s your last chance, you know.”

  When I glance to my left, I spot Madison leaning against the wall and do a double take. Her normally blond hair is now the same shade as mine, perfectly coiffed and curled around her shoulders. She’s been coming around more lately. I can’t tell if it’s really her, or if I’ve suddenly gone batshit crazy from being so lonely, and my mind is just playing tricks on me, but I swear she’s here, constantly telling me not to give up. Constantly pushing me to find justice for her.

  “I know,” I mumble through a mouthful of chow mein. “But this is breaking and entering we’re talking about here, Madison. I can’t just walk in and open the safe. He probably has an alarm service. Something high-tech, I’m sure.”

  She rolls her eyes and pushes off the wall with her normal sass. “So just cut the power. Problem solved.”

  “The house is probably a smart home. If you even know what that means.”

  “Your point being?”

  “Fucking forget it,” I growl, tossing the food container on the table. Switching out of that tab, I move back to my word doc. I have everything written. Everything that matters, at least. Now I just need to include my proof.

  A soft touch settles on my shoulder, and I clench my eyes shut.

  “We’re almost there, Kenzie. Almost,” she whispers. There’s so much hope lacing her voice, and it brings tears to my eyes. When I look around again, she’s gone.

  The shrill sound of my cell ringing cuts through the silence. When I glance down at the screen, I blow out a relieved breath.

  “Jack,” I answer, my voice filled with gratitude.

  He sighs down the line. “Just shut up and open the fucking door, would ya? I think someone is getting their cock sucked around the corner.”

  I toss my phone on the bed and throw the door open, letting Jack in. I called him after everything went to shit at Baz’s resort. It was reckless to bring anyone else into this mess, but I needed his help. I don’t have the means or the skill for breaking and entering. And Jack? Well, let’s just say he’s quite literally a jack-of-all-trades.

  He offered to fly out here to help me under one condition: I tell him the whole truth. So that’s exactly what I did. From the night of the bonfire until now, I’ve explained everything in painstaking detail. Jack isn’t afraid to speak his mind, and he’s made it more than clear that he believes I’m making a mistake. He thinks the Savages are harmless. He says nothing about their pasts or their records would suggest otherwise, but I know better.

  They are guilty. I just need to prove it.

  Jack starts his pacing the second I shut the motel door. “You sure you want to do this?”

  I perch on the edge of the bed, nodding. “There’s no other way, Jack. I need to do this.”

  He suddenly stops pacing and rakes his hand through his hair. “Why, Mack? Why is this so damn important to you?”

  I glance down at my hands resting in my lap. My nails are shit, what with how often I’ve been biting them, and with a mind of their own, my thumbs twiddle anxiously. I trap my bottom lip between my teeth, contemplating how to answer that.

  Why is this so important?

  Inhaling a deep breath, I trail my gaze back up to his. “Because they ruined my life. They tore my family apart. They murdered my sister, Jack. I’ll never be able to let it go. Not until I’m six feet under.”

  His lips thin into a grim line
. “You know how stupid I think this plan is, right? I just … Fuck, Mackenzie, we’re talking jail time if we get caught.”

  I nod, energy building at the base of my spine. “I know.”

  He jabs an angry finger at me. “You do everything I say, understand me?”

  A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. I cross an X over my heart, fighting back my grin. “You have my word.”

  “Fucking hell, let’s do this.”

  Not willing to waste any more time, I save my work on my laptop, exiting out of everything I’ve found in my recent internet search, and get dressed. I find a pair of black yoga pants and a black top that’ll do just fine. I stuff everything I’ll need for tonight into my backpack—all Jack’s suggestions—and we hurry down the rickety steps of the motel out front.

  I didn’t think I’d be able to find a room here in LA so close to Sunset that was this cheap a night. For seventy-nine dollars a night, I’ve been staying in the single cot room that reeks of urine, cheese, and quite possibly death. I haven’t run into any issues with anyone else who’s staying on my floor. I’m pretty sure most are prostitutes and drug dealers, what with the screaming and sex-crazed noises drifting through the thin walls.

  Jack and I hop into his rental, his own bag for the night is tossed in the back seat. When I slide into the passenger side, I can feel him glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, likely trying to figure out if I’m on the verge of chickening out.

  I’m not.

  The entire ride there is in silence as both of us prepare ourselves. I’m pretty sure Jack is used to partaking in illegal activities, but I’m not. Part of me feels like I’ve stuck my finger into an electrical socket, and I’m going to vomit, and the other part of me is, dare I say, excited.

  Excited that tonight, I might actually have a chance to find what I’ve been searching for.

  Adrenaline vibrates in every cell inside me when Jack parks a few houses down from Zach’s house.

  “Let’s do this,” he breathes as he pushes out of the vehicle.

  Now for the hard part—finding a way in without alerting the authorities. With covert glances over our shoulders, I follow Jack down the silent street and up Zach’s driveway. We stay toward the edge, trying to keep hidden by the shadows.