(58) Suspicious Looking Government Dudes

"Slow down."

She walked faster.

"Kennah."

They were already late.

"Makennah!" Theo yelled, grabbing her arm and yanking her to a screeching halt. His worried expression broke the barrier that she built up around herself in the last hour. His large hands cupped her shoulders gently but firmly. He held her close to him and stared her in the eyes with a worried expression, waiting for her explosion or her meltdown or her crying or her anything...anything other than silence and avoidance. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

She braced her hands on his chest to stabilize herself in her tall heels that she wasn't quite accustomed to yet. She opened her mouth to answer, but she found out she didn't actually have any words to say.

Theo's frustration became glaring evident the longer she stood there gaping like a fish. "Are...are you mad? Are you sad? Are you so filled with hatred that you can't speak? Do you not know how you feel?" He stammered over his words while holding her tighter, willing her to speak or breathe or do something.

For his sake - and not her own - Makennah attempted to formulate a few words to soothe his frustration. "I...I'm fine."

In the middle of the parking lot, Theo's hands lifted off of her shoulders and moved to the sides of her face. He cupped her cheeks and gently rubbed his thumbs over her smooth skin. He lifted her face so that she was forced to look him in the eyes. She couldn't remember the last time he held her so sweetly. And she couldn't remember the last time someone ever cared about her this much.

It scared her.

It nearly broke her when Theo bent his head and planted a feathery light kiss on her puckered lips. The emotions that she couldn't decipher boiled to the surface. But Theo pulled away, the heat died down, and the roiling emotions simmered. "You don't have to be okay. It's okay not to be okay. You just told your mom you pretty much don't want her to be your mom anymore."

Carefully, she backed away and forced Theo's hands to fall back to his side. She shrugged and tucked her hair behind one ear. "It's not like I haven't told her that before."

Theo recognized that this conversation was over and plugged his fists deep into his pockets. "Not legally. With a lawyer."

She propped her fists up on her hips. Now she was just annoyed. "Last time I saw her, I told her to rot in hell and I meant it. I'm fine."

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She wasn't fine.

Not because of the lawyer or her mom or the fact she had to visit her mom in prison. It wasn't because Theo kept hovering, expecting and waiting for her to break down at any moment. It wasn't because she was back in a funeral home again for the thousandth time.

Makennah wasn't fine because Elizabeth Rothair stood beside her late husband's open casket where her attention should be but instead she stared Makennah down from across the room. Everywhere she went, she felt her beady little grandmotherly eyes haunting her.

However, Makennah reminded herself that they supposedly hadn't met yet. So she dragged Theo and Matt up to the casket to have her older brother introduce her to her lovely grieving grandmother.

"Grandma, this is Makennah," Matt said, laying a hand at her back to usher her forward.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, ma'am," Makennah said apologetically and shook her hand.

Elizabeth frowned deeply and nodded her head, accepting her condolences. However, there was a keen glimmer in her eye, a sense of thankfulness that Makennah remembered their plan. "Thank you, dear. It's a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you." She smiled all grandmotherly and clasped Makennah's hand in both of hers as if she were already so fond of her new fake-grandchild.

Not so fake anymore.

Elizabeth promptly turned to her daughter at the end of their greeting. "Your siblings are running late."

Carolynn sighed and fidgeted with the charm bracelet on her wrist. "They're always late. No one wants to do this."

"The dead can wait I suppose," Elizabeth commented rather crassly.

"Hell, he wouldn't even know if we did this whole shebang!!" Gran yelled, intruding upon the conversation.

Makennah, Matt, and Theo took that as their cue to leave. As they walked away, Makennah whispered, "Do you think Gran knows?"

"Knows what?" Theo asked.

Matt shrugged. "I doubt it. She can barely see. Or hear."

"What does Gran not know?" Theo asked more intrusively, demanding attention for his question.

Matt and Makennah stopped in the archway of the old fashioned funeral home - once a literal mansion, transformed into a grieving place for the dead. The garish gold and maroon carpet meshed in deep chocolate swirls clashed horrendously with the hotel-style heavy gold curtains that blocked out most of the light as if this place wasn't already depressing enough. The Sinclair's rented out the entire funeral home for this occasion. People already milled through the separate rooms that all connected together. Some older individuals shed a few tears and wiped them away on silk handkerchiefs while the ladies covered their hands with delicate lace gloves.

"Elizabeth..." Makennah started.

"Grandma," Matt filled in.

She cleared her throat and tucked her hands behind her back respectfully. "Yes, Grandma, visited me at work and told me that we had to protect Carolynn and the fam from some apparent bad news."

"Guess Grandpa wasn't all that great," Matt tossed in.

Theo glanced between the two of them. "You told him?"

"Don't look at me like that," she rolled her eyes at Theo. "I had no clue what to do."

"Okay, Sassy Pants," Theo bit at her, biting back a smirk.

She gave him the eye. "Anyways, we have to watch out for Carolynn. Make sure no one spills the beans."

"What's up?" Nick asked as he entered their little group clustered in the archway. Soft piano music played over the surround-sound system, lulling all of the half living people to sleep.

"Avoiding Gran," Matt informed him, covering for their private conversation.

"Makennah!" Jonah ran up to their group and threw his arms around her. "I don't want to look!"

She patted his back comfortingly. "You don't have to look, bud."

"Yeah, Mom won't mind," Matt assured him.

Theo also patted Jonah on the back. Such a young kid. Makennah could relate. "You wanna go find some cookies with me?" Theo offered.

"Cookies?" Jonah peeked his head up.

"Yo!" Josh barged into the group. "Guess who's here!"

"Shh!!" Nick shushed him and smacked him on the backside of the head. "This is a funeral home! Use your manners!"

"You are all strangely okay," Makennah commented. "This is your grandpa."

"Dead people creep me out," Josh said, assuming that covered the basis for him.

Nick nodded. "Same."

"Wait, who's here?" Matt asked, turning to Josh.

Through the throng of boys crowding together rather impolitely and rudely considering the somber mood, the sun shone through the door of the funeral home as it opened slowly and two long legs walked inside. Two long legs attached to a whore.

"Oh heck no!" Makennah almost screamed.

Theo glanced up and spotted her too. "Cookies! Let's go!" Theo commanded to Jonah, prying his body off of Makennah and dashing away to provide a little cover for what was about to go down.

"You're kidding me," Matt groaned.

"I've got this," Makennah assured him. "Go stay with, Grandma," she told him. Then she pointed her two fingers at Josh and Nick. "You two. You two will go by Carolynn's side and do whatever she asks. You will get her whatever she needs the second she asks for it. Make sure she's okay. But don't hover. Just be there."

"I'm waiting for Meredith," Nick countered.

Makennah crossed her arms over her chest while trying to keep one eye on the intruder. "Does it look like I was joking? Did I ask a question?"

Josh wrapped his arm around Nick's shoulders even though he was taller. "Come on, let's go. She's got angry eyes," he whispered, hoping Makennah hadn't heard.

She ignored that as they walked away. She would use those angry eyes to her advantage.

Without another second going by, Makennah stalked over to the intruder and stopped directly in front of her, halting any plans she may have had in her mind.  "Cassandra."

Her eyes widened when she recognized Makennah and her angry eyes. That's right - angry. She was practically spitting daggers out of her eyeballs and piercing Cassandra's soul. "Makennah. I've come to pay my condolences."

"You don't have any condolences to pay," Makennah said shortly.

Cassandra stepped back, intimated by Makennah's closeness. "I knew Matt's grandparents well. I'm genuinely sorry."

"Well now you don't."

Cassandra sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear. She wore a tiny pearl necklace with matching pearl earrings. According to all the other patrons at calling hours, pearls were the appropriate funeral attire that Makennah forgot. She also wore a clean black dress with straight lines that still managed to flatter her curves. "I'm not going to bother Matt."

Makennah crossed her arms over her chest and stood tall. With her heels, she and Cassandra were the same height. "You bother him just by being here."

"I..."

Makennah raised her hand to halt her. "I don't care what you have to say. I don't care how you feel. I don't care what you think your intentions are. You came here to try to see Matt. This is a private affair. So you will leave or you will be escorted from the premises."

Cassandra clenched her jaw angrily. But said nothing.

"So leave." Makennah waved a hand towards the door, gesturing for the proper way to dismiss herself. When she didn't move, Makennah pointed her finger and stepped in her direction. "Scram!" She threatened.

Cassandra tucked tail and run like a scared pathetic puppy.

Makennah sighed. Crises averted.

The second Cassandra disappeared, Theo returned to her side. "What did she say?"

She shrugged casually and accepted the piece of mint gum that he offered to her. He smoothed his hand down her back comfortingly. "She speaks and it goes in one ear and out the other. She's gone."

Theo snickered. "She's afraid of you."

"She should be!" Her blood boiled. "I can't believe she dare show her face here."

Theo fingered the ends of her wavy hair, curls completely faded. "Well I have another task for you if you're up for it."

She raised her eyebrows. A distraction? Heck yes. "What is it?"

"There's some suspicious looking men in suits loitering outside. Won't come in. Aren't really speaking to anyone," Theo informed her. His eyes glanced over her face, drinking in her featured. Watching her carefully.

"That is suspicious." Glancing around the room, she saw that Nick and Josh guarded Carolynn as she instructed them. "I just...don't know enough about this family. I don't know about to expect."

Theo brushed her hair out of her eyes. His eyes never left her face. "Why's that?"

She sighed. "I expect high people to show up. Drunk people. Hysterical people. Crying teenagers. Rock music. Weird things. This is so...normal. Do normal loiter outside of funeral homes at normal calling hours?"

Theo laughed lightly. "No, I wouldn't have told you if it was normal."

She nodded. "You're right. I'm going to investigate."

Theo nodded as she walked away. "I hoped you might," he commented under his breath.

Makennah tossed him a smile over her shoulder as she walked away and shouldered open the big oak doors with intricate carving details and frosted windows. As the crisp late-November air nibbled at her exposed skin, Makennah wondered if Theo was providing her with this information as a distraction. Did he think she needed a distraction? Was he worried about her? Was she presenting signs of anxiety or worry?

She didn't think so.

But she definitely spotted the suspicious looking men in the parking lot, leaning against the hood of a black car with government tags on their license plate.

"Makennah!" To her right, Meredith waved her down as she exited the passenger side of Grace's car. Both girls presented themselves in black dresses, black stockings, and high heels. Apparently Will wasn't kidding. Stockings were a must at fancy people funerals.

Before she welcomed her friends, Makennah decided on a course of action for the government dudes. Makennah raised her arm and waved her friends over. "Follow me over here and look mean."

"I'm already confused," Grace said, swishing her blonde long hair over her shoulder.

"Great!" Meredith agreed without question.

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Part 2 of this chapter is coming ASAP!

Also this chapter is unedited so sorry for any mistakes!

Xoxo

W. Carolina