Self-Seeker

14

The fact that Carter's smile hadn't faltered since he'd turned around was a definite reason for concern. It meant he was up to something. The light from the spotlight above him shone down on him. His blonde hair and enticing green orbs made up a face that Genesis once found herself in love with. Or rather what she was led to believe was love. Yet - like most of the very few people she found herself trusting - he only turned out to be an addition to her chain of misery.

"So, do your 'friends' out there know of your intentions with all of them in this game you're playing? These are people's lives, love, not your own personal human chess pieces." He tried to antagonize her, but he was forgetting one simple fact - Genesis didn't care about what or who she had to sacrifice to get what she wanted. She had worked far too hard to put everything in place to let emotions distract her from her endgame.

"You see, Carter, that's where you are wrong. These people you see me with - they are my little chess pieces; each day is a new move throughout the game. The final move I make - the one that brings all of this to an end - that is my Checkmate. And we both know that I always win at chess." She replied, what she said may not have been entirely true, but Carter knew just how ruthless Genesis could be so it was essential she made it believable.

"Now tell me, 'love', does Deana know what kind of person you truly are? I'd be more than happy to fill her in, if you'd like."

"Yes, she does. Quite frankly, she loves me more for it - because she can't stand you. So tonight, my love, I will be the one filling people in. I wonder how they'd react to discovering that you and your best friend Auds are sadistic thieves. Oh, this will be good." He shot back cheerfully, brushing past Genesis and heading back to the bar where her friends were sat having casual conversation.

She was not expecting him to have told Deana who he was. That girl was so flipping naïve, Genesis thought. She urgently needed to regain control of the situation. Following Carter back to her friends, Genesis sat on a bar stool just as he was introducing himself.

"Hello there, I'm Carter Woods. Former boyfriend of Genesis here and ex-friend of the lovely Audrey. Great to see you again Auds. Now, who may all of you charming people be?" He spoke with confidence.

Genesis knew what game he was playing. He wanted to expose just enough secrets that it would arouse questions from the others without giving away too much. Then he would leave her to deal with the newly retained information. Of course, he would play this game - she was the one who showed him the rules. Deana's eyes visibly widened as she hadn't anticipated the man she was screwing to have been 'invited' here by the woman she was screwing over.

Genesis quickly cut in. "This is Emily Stanford, Deana O'Conner - though you should probably learn someone's name before you get into bed with them - and lastly, Damon Soldati." Genesis explained, she didn't think she'd ever get used to the way his name rolled off of her tongue.

Genesis couldn't help the sick feeling at the pit of her stomach from when Audrey kissed him earlier. It wasn't their fault, Genesis had practically told him she was unavailable and Auds had no clue that she took a liking to him. Hell, Genesis had no idea what it was that she felt towards him. He was one of the chess pieces she didn't quite want to be eliminated from the board.

"Well, now that we are all properly acquainted. I bet you're all wondering how Genesis, Audrey and I know each other. Before you ask, no we did not conduct a threesome - not to say I didn't try, multiple times in fact, didn't I love?" He paused to look at Genesis, a toothy grin spread across his face. She wanted nothing more than to knock those pearly whites right out of his mouth. Giving the reason for their break-up, it was the worst type of joke to make. 

"Right, I'm going off topic. Back in London I was hacking into a camera at this rich person's party, Marilyn, I believe her name was. Great gal. I was following the movements of a woman who had been seen at various other parties with many different men, this woman turned out to be using her sexual attraction to get money. This woman was Audrey. So, we met one day and decided to form an alliance, there were two others involved, Marcus and Lydia, and we worked together to scam people out of their wealth. It was great fun, really. We became filthy rich." He exclaimed, as everyone listened intently with disbelief. Genesis knew what part of the story was coming next, it was her.

"There had been rumours for around nine months that some girl called Harmonie had been toying around with the lives of upper-class people, just as Audrey did, but she didn't want money, she wanted access. Access to accounts, buildings, transport - you name it, she got it. We'd been trying to track her for a year before we found her at that same gal Marilyn's house - where she had left behind a gift in the form of Marilyn's gagged-and-bound brother -and made her a valuable asset to our organisation. 'The CC', abbreviation for Conman's Circle."

"The name was all his idea, just saying." Audrey added with her hands up in surrender, not wanting to take credit for the ridiculous name Carter had come up with.

"We had eventually managed to catch her in action one night and followed her to a warehouse where she freed a container of kidnapped girls that were to be sold as sex slaves. How fortunate for them. Harmonie tried to escape but the four of us had her cornered, after explaining who we were she finally came out to us as none other than Genesis Sapienti Casanova. The modern-day Cat-woman of the streets of London." Carter enlightened.

All eyes were on Genesis, who for the first time had no idea what to say or do. She hadn't exactly lied to them but withholding the truth was no better. This was not part of the plan - they weren't supposed to find out anything that didn't come out of her own mouth.

"Turns out she only deceived people that she had researched and found out they were secretly criminals. Then she planted herself into their lives; from there everything pretty much went downhill for them. Oh, my love was quite ruthless with her ways, she was fuelled by anger, it didn't matter who she had to take down to get the job done."

He then turned to Genesis, taking her hand in the two of his and looked deeply into her eyes. She had never felt more uncomfortable. Genesis caught Damon's nostrils flare as he caught sight of where their hands were intertwined. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of it – he had no reason to be jealous when he was kissing Audrey not long ago.

"What you didn't know love, is that although you had thought you'd taken down everyone involved in that organisation. You missed one key person - their leader. I believe he goes by the name 'Padre'." He ended, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms behind his head with a smug smile on his face.

Genesis's blood began to boil, and heat rose to her face. Padre - the person she'd discovered Jazmine was working for - was responsible for all the damage caused in her hometown. She had thought she had ended his reign, but evidently, he just packed up and started over there in New York.

For a second Genesis doubted Carter's information, but then again, he was the best at gathering intel out of all of them. She was brought out of her thoughts by Emily's voice.

"Is all of this true, Genesis?" She questioned, she sounded scared to ask and that was the last thing Genesis wanted to hear from her. It would be pointless to lie, if she told the truth now they would believe any lie she fed them later. Genesis released a breath, composing herself to face the mistrusting stares from Emily, Deana and Damon.

"Yes. He's telling the truth about everything." She spoke strongly, her emotions shut off, her voice remained unwavering.

"So, does that mean you're conning us?" Damon then asked. She was glad he was the one to ask, as much as she hated the fact that she had to lie to him, he was much easier to lie to than Emily. Genesis looked him in the eye, the skills she had perfected over years' worth of practise coming into use.

"No, not at all. I moved to the US for a fresh start. My past is behind me. If I wasn't planning on staying, I wouldn't have put in the effort to start a business and make friends. I would not have tried to make ends meet with my sister, who I have yet to earn forgiveness from. I've done many wrongs to a number of people in my life, but never once have I wronged any of you." She lied with clarity and precision.

However, she could no longer sit there and pretend that she was not deceiving these people, all except Carter and Audrey. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to call it a night." Genesis stood, turned on her heel and proceeded to leave the club, the foundation she had built was slowly but surely crumbling and she needed to find a way to put it back into place.