Drop Dead Beautiful (41 page)

“I’ll have to get a quote from Venus on that,” Florence said, groping in her purse for a lozenge.

“You should.”

“Let me see. What
didn’t
I ask you last time?”

Oh shit! He was so right. It was
definitely
going to be one of those days.

Chapter 64

After spending several frantic days in Vegas, Lucky flew back to L.A. feeling a lot calmer as far as Max was concerned. Her daughter was home, safe, and when she thought about it—as Lennie kept on telling her—that’s all that really mattered.

“Don’t even bother getting into it with her,” Lennie warned over the phone. “She knows she crossed the line and she’s sorry.”

“So that’s it?” Lucky said, perplexed. “
She’s
sorry and I’m not supposed to mention anything?”

“What’s the point?” Lennie counseled. “You’re not about to gain anything by fighting with her.”

After thinking it over, she was inclined to agree. There was so much else going on that getting into a long, drawn-out battle with her daughter seemed redundant. The timing was all wrong.

The Keys was almost ready to open, and for the next ten days she would be consumed by details, and making sure everything went smoothly. She had meetings set with everyone from her general manager to the head of the gambling casino and all the other heads of various operations—security, catering, entertainment, and many other departments. Each person mattered. Each one of them had to be ready to perform at the top of their game. Lucky had plans for the Keys to outshine every other hotel on the Strip, and when Lucky wanted something, she usually got it.

She was psyching herself up for another major event.
Gino’s ninety-fifth birthday party would be nothing compared to the grand opening of the Keys.

There were so many details to take care of, not the least making sure that all her guests flying in for the event would be comfortable. An entire floor of the hotel was reserved for family and friends. Bobby and Brigette were returning from New York with a planeload of New York-based celebrities. Gino and Paige would be coming from Palm Springs. Steven’s wife, Lina, the ex-supermodel, was putting on a lingerie fashion show to rival anything Victoria’s Secret had to offer. Charlie Dollar was bringing a group of L.A. luminaries via private plane. Venus would be making a special one-night appearance.

And then there was Alex Woods, who since the party had taken to calling her on a daily basis to complain about Billy and Ling and anyone else he could think of.

Alex had issues. And she didn’t have time to deal with them, especially as he ended every conversation with, “So … when are you leaving Lennie?”

He thought it was funny. She thought it was not. Alex needed to get himself a woman he could respect and forge a real relationship with. It was patently obvious that Ling was on her way out.

Back in L.A. Lucky finally sat down with Max, who informed her she was major sorry about missing Gino’s party, and how could she make it up to him, and it would never happen again, and she couldn’t help getting robbed and carjacked, but at least she’d held on to her car, so that was good, wasn’t it?

None of it made any sense to Lucky. But instead of staying mad, she gave her daughter a stern lecture about not using the Internet to meet strangers and left it at that.

Lennie added his ten cents. “Your mom’s got a lot going on,” he said. “We both do, so we’re forgetting about your little trip, and you’d better make sure it never happens again.”

Oh man, she was sure. She was also furious that Cookie had blabbed about her meeting a guy over the Internet. Was nothing sacred?

The next day Lucky prepared to fly back to Vegas.

“I’m thinking of staying until we open,” she told Lennie before she left. “It’s kind of insane flying back and forth. Gino Junior’s having a great time in Palm Springs, and you’re here to watch Max.”

“Sure,” Lennie said. “I’ll try to fly in next weekend.”

“That’d be perfect.”

“Perfect, huh?” he said, giving her a lazy smile.

“Yes, you and me in Vegas. We can relive the first time we met.”

“Oh, like the time you fired me, right?”

“Ah, but this time instead of firing you, we make mad passionate love. We christen the penthouse.”

“I like it already,” he said, still smiling.

“Oh!” Lucky exclaimed. “We’re forgetting about Max. This is not the best time to leave her alone.”

“I could bring her with?” Lennie suggested.

“Definitely not. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something.”

Wow!
Max thought, thoroughly relieved after her face-to-face with her mom.
I got off lightly
.

She knew for sure that Lucky would go totally nuts if she ever found out the real story of what had happened to her. There was no way Lucky would allow Internet Freak to get away with it—she’d track him down and punish him big time. Truth was the creep deserved to be punished, but who could find him now? She’d tried to see if his e-mail address was still in use on the house computer, but just as she’d thought, it was gone. Internet Freak had vanished.

It disturbed her that he’d taken her laptop with all her personal stuff on it. He was probably jerking off over her pictures—that’s what freaks did, didn’t they?

Lucky had arranged for Leonardo’s nanny, Greta, to come back from her vacation early so there would be someone other than Philippe to watch Max when Lennie took off. Max didn’t mind; staying around the house for a few days was no great hardship, especially after what she’d been through.

Before Lennie left for the weekend, she tentatively approached him while he was working on the script of his upcoming movie.

“Hi, Dad,” she said, hovering beside the computer.

“What can I do for you?” he said, distracted.

“I was wondering, uh … am I still grounded?” she asked, going for the innocent approach.

“For a couple more days,” he answered vaguely, too busy with his script to take much notice.

“So … can I like go out to the drugstore and stuff?”

“Sure. But come right home after.”

Lennie’s so easy, she thought. I can get away with anything when it comes to my dad
.

Lately, all she could think about was driving back to Big Bear to see Ace. She wanted to pay him the money she’d borrowed. And she wanted to buy him a new watch since it was her fault the one he had got broken. She also had to buy the kid—Jed—a CD player and send it to him.

She’d called Ace a couple of times on his home phone, and both times she’d gotten an answering machine. Since she’d left the number of her new cell phone and he hadn’t called back, it was frustrating. Didn’t he care to find out if she was okay after their harrowing ordeal?

Then she thought that maybe he was too busy with his girlfriend, Miss Kmart, and she started wondering if the girl was pretty, and if they were having sex.

Hmm … he probably had sex with plenty of girls. He was nineteen and too hot for his own good.

One thing she knew for sure: she had to see him again, even if he
did
have a girlfriend.

Lennie made it to Vegas for the weekend, and Lucky couldn’t have been happier, even though they were surrounded by total chaos as everyone got ready for the grand opening. The residential part of the complex was finished, every detail down to fully stocked luxury state-of-the-art kitchens and closed-circuit TV in every room.

“This is ours,” Lucky announced, giving Lennie a tour of the penthouse she’d had built to her specifications. “It’s got one bedroom—
our
bedroom, ’cause this apartment is a no-kid zone, a special place where we can spend time alone.”

“You’re too much!” he exclaimed, checking out the huge terrace and amazing view—the city sprawled out like a mosaic of twinkling lights.

“I know,” she responded. “And don’t you love it.”

“I love
you.”

“Come,” she said, taking his hand. “I want to show you the rest of the apartment.”

“The bedroom?” he said.

“No,” she said laughing. “First, your room.”

“My room? What’s that?”

“Somewhere you can create while I keep a watch on the hotel,” she said, flinging open the door to a wood-paneled den set up with a big-screen TV, a sophisticated computer editing console, a state-of-the-art sound system, and all of his former movies and scripts leatherbound and stacked high.

“You’re an amazing woman, Lucky Santangelo,” he said, checking everything out. “How’d you find the time to organize all this?”

“Because,” she said, smiling, “it’s for you, and I always have time for you….”

Ever since Max had gotten back, Cookie and Harry were behaving like major assholes. All they wanted to do was lock themselves in Cookie’s room and sit around getting stoned. She was away a few days and suddenly both her best friends had turned into major potheads. Drugs didn’t tempt her— she’d tried coke once, hated it, and smoking pot made her sleepy and desperate for chocolate.

At the age of twelve her mother had given her a strong lecture about drugs, and it had obviously stuck. “Only morons and losers enjoy getting high,” Lucky had informed her. “If you want to go through life in a daze, then start taking drugs, but if you’re smart, you’ll soon realize it gets
you nowhere fast, so don’t fall for that peer pressure crap. And don’t smoke nicotine either. I’ve been an on-and-off smoker all my life and I hate it. It’s a filthy habit, but I can’t seem to quit for any length of time. So do not start and you won’t find yourself in that pathetic position.”

The thing that Max really admired about Lucky was that she wasn’t really like a mother figure. Sure, she could be stern at times, but she was very up on everything going on in the world and totally open about sex and stuff. At fourteen Lucky had handed her a pack of condoms and said, “You won’t be needing these for a couple of years, but when you do, make sure you use ’em. You’re a smart girl. You’ll decide when the time is right.”

Max had already decided.

The time was right and her potential victim was Ace.

All she had to do was get him to call her back.

Chapter 65

Henry Whitfield-Simmons drove back to Pasadena in a simmering state of frustration and anger. After hitting the coyote and running the Volvo off the road, not only had he lost sight of the car with Maria inside, but the front tire of the Volvo was damaged, forcing him to change it himself. Since he was no mechanic, the mountain road was deserted, and there was nobody around to help him, it ended up taking him hours.

By the time he’d managed to make it to Big Bear, it was much later. He drove into town wary of getting caught in a trap. It was quite possible the two of them could have gone to the cops.

No, he’d immediately corrected himself.
Not the two of them. Maria wouldn’t do that—her cousin would
.

Her cousin was a son of a bitch.
He
was the one who’d persuaded Maria to leave. He’d obviously forced her to do so, and she’d left because he’d given her no choice. Maria had wanted to stay with him, he was sure of it. They’d just started getting to know each other and things were going well between them.

Damn the cousin. Damn him to hell
.

After checking out the parking lot and discovering her car was gone, Henry had driven back to Pasadena in a white-hot rage thinking about Maria all the way.

He’d arrived at the mausoleum late in the afternoon to find that his mother was in the middle of one of her charity
tea parties. Dozens of women were wandering around the mansion in their ridiculous hats and expensive outfits. On top of everything else, Penelope decided to humiliate him. “Here comes Henry, my little computer nerd,” she’d informed anyone who would listen as he’d attempted to slink upstairs unnoticed. “Did you have a pleasant time, dear? Did you meet any suitable girls?”

Why did she do this to him, when all he’d wanted to do was escape to his room where he could log on to Maria’s laptop and find out even more about her?

That was almost two weeks ago, and after checking out Maria’s e-mail, he’d discovered that Lucky Santangelo was opening a new hotel in Las Vegas, the Keys.

Naturally Maria would be there. So would Lucky, Billy Melina, even Alex Woods.

Henry checked out the Keys online and discovered that there was a grand opening party planned. Tickets were expensive, but that was no problem.

Ah … this would be his opportunity to reconnect with Maria. And this time he’d be better prepared to take her away forever.

Nobody was coming between him and Maria again. The two of them were destined to be together.

And that was exactly the way it should be.

Chapter 66

Anthony was not happy. Over the last week he’d fielded three calls from Detective Franklin in Vegas.

He called up Renee to complain.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Renee said, stoic as usual. She was experiencing her own problems regarding Detective Franklin. The woman was like a bulldog hanging on to a bone with her incessant questions. And Susie was on her case too.

“What
did
happen to Tasmin?” Susie kept on asking. “And why can’t I say she left with Anthony?”

“Because you can’t. If you do, it will make
me
out to be a liar.”

“So where
is
Tasmin?”

“Nobody knows.”

This answer did not satisfy Susie, who every so often continued to question her.

“Whaddya mean, nothin’?” Anthony demanded over the phone. “Why’s she still callin’ me? Askin’ the same dumb questions.”

“Tasmin’s ex-husband is kicking up a big stink about her being missing, apparently he has connections in the police department,” Renee explained. “I’ve been questioned three times, the detective has talked to Susie twice, and half the hotel staff have been interrogated.”

“Pay the bitch off,” Anthony growled. “Offer her fifty thousand in cash. She’ll go for it.”

“No, she won’t.”

“Give it a try, Renee. Money talks.”

“It’ll look wrong if I even attempt to pay her off. She’ll take it as a sign we have something to hide,” Renee said, impatient to get him off the phone.