Lady Boss (41 page)

Abigaile and Mickey sat at a table with several Panther executives. Mickey knew something deadly was up when Ford Werne leaned across the table and said, ‘What's all this about a meeting on Monday morning?'

‘Huh?' Mickey feigned ignorance.

‘I received a communiqué from Abe Panther,' Ford said. ‘Apparently he's coming to the studio on Monday, and has requested a meeting with all the senior executives at noon.'

‘Really?' Mickey was aware of a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Crafty old Abe Panther was finally emerging, and he was up to something serious. Maybe he was coming back to take over.

Mickey decided he'd better call Martin Swanson and find out what was happening with the other deal, because if Abe Panther came back to work, Mickey Stolli was getting the hell out. There was no way he was answering to a decrepit, senile old man. No way at all.

As he was thinking all this, he happened to glance up, and there was Warner, all six feet of her, wearing a short spangly dress, talking to Johnny Romano. Jesus Christ! She was actually talking to Johnny Romano!

Mickey double-taked. What the hell was Warner doing here? He'd gotten her tickets for the movie, certainly not an invitation to the party.

No doubt that stupid secretary of his had fucked up again and left a party invitation along with the tickets. From the perfect replacement, Luce had turned into dumb cunt of the year. He couldn't wait to fire her.

‘Oh my God!' exclaimed Abigaile, spotting Warner a few moments after her husband. ‘It's that dreadful woman.'

‘What woman? Where?' spat Mickey, knowing Abigaile couldn't possibly mean Warner.

‘Over there,' Abigaile hissed, pointing straight at Warner. ‘Talking to Johnny Romano. It's her.'

Mickey looked blank. ‘She's just another one of Johnny's dates,' he said. ‘What are you getting so bothered about?'

‘I should have told you what happened today,' Abigaile said excitedly, her face flushing.

‘What?' Mickey was in no mood to hear about Abigaile's day.

‘I… I called your office,' she said, ‘to find out where you were so I could tell you about Primrose and Ben and the telegram.'

He had a dull feeling he wasn't going to like what came next. ‘Yes?'

‘And your secretary gave me a phone number. I called and this woman answered.'

‘What woman?'

‘The one talking to Johnny.'

‘Get to the point, Abigaile. Make sense, for chrissakes.'

‘A woman answered the phone and told me she was a cop, and she was your girlfriend. Can you believe such nonsense? Anyway, I didn't know what to do.' Abigaile hesitated before plunging on. ‘You're going to kill me for this, Mickey, but I was so confused, I got in my car and I went to see her. She lives in a tacky little apartment. She tried to threaten me. I'm sure it was some sort of kidnapping plan. Of course, I got out of there as fast as I could.'

Mickey scratched his head. ‘I don't fucking believe what I'm hearing. Some woman says on the phone she's my girlfriend, and you buy that? And you go over to a strange apartment?' He shook his head wearily. ‘Abby, Abby, you've gone too far this time.'

Abigaile lowered her eyes. ‘I know, Mickey, it was a foolish thing to do. I'm fortunate to have escaped.'

While Abigaile was talking, Mickey was thinking fast. Once Abigaile got to consider what had taken place she would realize all was not as it seemed. He had to come up with some explanation as to why his stupid secretary had given her Warner's number. And then he had to explain who Warner was.

‘Listen,' he said quickly. ‘I didn't want you involved in this, but now I guess I'll have to tell you what it's all about.'

Abigaile looked alarmed. ‘What, Mickey?'

‘Johnny Romano is heavily into drugs.'

‘Oh, dear,' cried Abigaile.

‘Uh… I've had this uh… private cop following him and uh… obviously Luce got confused and gave you the wrong number. The woman must have thought it was Johnny's girlfriend calling him.'

‘Why would she think that?' asked Abigaile. ‘I told her my name.'

‘What am I, a thought-reader?' he snapped. ‘All I know is you should never have gone over there. Don't you realize your position?'

‘Why is that woman here tonight? Is she watching Johnny?'

‘Yeah, yeah, that's it. She's an undercover drug cop. I have to protect Johnny.'

‘I didn't realize you got involved in these kind of things.'

‘Honey, when you run a studio, you get to watch over everybody and everything.'

Mickey figured he'd covered his tracks, for now anyway. He shot a quick glance at Warner. She was still all over Johnny Romano, and was it his imagination or did Johnny seem to be responding?

In all the time they'd been together Mickey had never seen Warner dressed up before. She didn't look bad. She certainly had the longest legs in town, and although she wasn't pretty she had a certain style of her own. Come to think of it he'd only ever seen her in her cop's uniform or in the nude. This was a new, exciting Warner. He experienced a sharp twinge of jealousy.

‘When can we go home?' Abigaile whispered. ‘I hated the movie. I hate this party. I hate the fact we don't know what's going to happen at the meeting on Monday morning. Let's go now.'

‘You're right,' Mickey agreed. ‘Give me five minutes and we're out of here.'

‘Where are you going?'

‘I gotta go stroke ego, tell Johnny he's the greatest thing since banana yogurt. It'll take me two seconds.'

‘Shall I come with you?'

‘No, stay here. You'll send him over a gift from Cartier's tomorrow.'

Mickey walked over just in time to hear Johnny Romano say to Warner, ‘Hey, baby, baby, you got the longest legs I ever put my eyes on. They about measure up to the height of my date. Bet you can do things with those legs I've never even imagined.'

Warner, the six-feet seen-everything done-everything hard-knuckled cop, gazed at Johnny Romano as if he was God.

‘How about you an' me gettin' together later?' Johnny suggested, bored with his actress girlfriend, who was busy scanning the room.

Mickey made his presence felt. ‘Hey, Johnny, we've got another big money-maker here. Congratulations,' he enthused.

‘The biggest,' Johnny replied modestly.

Mickey kissed ass. He knew how to do it when he had to. ‘No doubt about it.'

Johnny stroked Warner's arm. ‘Have you met… um… What did you say your name was, babe?'

Warner threw Mickey a filthy look.

He was infuriated. What had
he
done?
She
was the one at fault, talking to Abigaile on the phone and telling her to come to her apartment. He couldn't wait to have it out with her. But not now, not while Abigaile was present and probably tracking his every move.

‘Warner Franklin,' she said, cool as you like.

‘That's a pretty name, baby,' said Johnny with a sexy leer. ‘Warner, huh?'

Mickey shook her hand.

She squeezed too hard, favouring him with a real bone-crusher.

‘Hey, baby, this here's Mickey Stolli, the head of the studio.' Johnny nudged her and winked. ‘This guy's an important man to know. What do you do, honey? You an actress?'

‘No.' Warner loved to shock. ‘I'm a cop.'

Johnny thought this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. ‘A
cop? You?
Oh, baby, baby, I wouldn't mind gettin' myself arrested by you.'

She shot Mickey a triumphant look. ‘Maybe you will be. Later.'

Seething, Mickey returned to Abigaile, yanked her by the arm, and said, ‘Let's go.'

The Stollis made their exit – head of a studio and his Hollywood princess wife.

Who knew what Monday morning would bring?

It was three o'clock in the morning when Lucky, accompanied by Boogie, finally arrived on the sidewalk outside Lennie's rented New York loft. She looked around. ‘God, Boogie, this is a real dump. Why didn't he stay at our apartment?'

Boogie shook his head. ‘Beats me. I suppose he felt he could hide away here.'

‘He did a pretty good job,' she replied, feeling nervous and excited at the same time. Tracking Lennie was an adventure, and this little caper had her adrenaline pumping. She took a deep breath. ‘OK, Boog, exhibit your skills and let's break in here without anybody knowing.'

‘You're going to surprise him in bed?' Boogie asked.

‘That's exactly what I plan to do.'

It was unlike Boogie to offer a comment, but he did so anyway. ‘You're pretty confident.'

‘Oh, you
know
I'm confident.'

Boogie shot her a look.

Hmmmm, she thought. Did he honestly imagine she was going to find Lennie shacked up with a woman? Her husband might be mad at her, but he certainly wasn't that mad. Their relationship was based on trust, and the last thing she expected was for Lennie to break that trust. Not that she imagined he wasn't attracted to other women. But being attracted and doing something about it were two different things.

The loft he'd chosen was on the eighth floor of a run-down building. Boogie sprang the street door with ease, and the two of them entered the lobby, where they were confronted by a row of mailboxes. Lennie's was marked with a cryptic L.G.

The elevator didn't appear to be in great shape. ‘We'll take the fire stairs,' Lucky decided.

‘You feeling energetic?' Boogie said. ‘It's eight floors up.'

‘You're full of questions tonight, Boog. What's with you?'

‘I don't approve of this,' he said dourly.

She sighed. All she needed was an uptight Boogie. Why couldn't he get into the spirit of the adventure and enjoy it? ‘How come?' she asked lightly.

‘It's not your style.'

‘That's where you're wrong. It's exactly my style.' And it was. Vanish for six weeks. Come back with a bang. What was wrong with that?

They traipsed upstairs, Lucky making better time than Boogie. When they reached the top and let themselves through the fire door to Lennie's floor, they were faced with a steel front door.

Boogie frowned. ‘I can get through a lot of things, but this looks like a no-go.'

‘How about the back door?' Lucky suggested brightly. ‘There must be an easier way to get in.'

‘I don't know.' Boogie shook his head uncertainly. ‘What if he's not living here? What if a new tenant's moved in – a new tenant with a gun?'

‘Are you frightened?' Lucky teased. ‘I always considered you such a macho man.'

‘I'm protecting your ass,' Boogie reminded her pointedly.

‘
I'll
worry about
my
ass,
you
worry about
yours
.'

The back door turned out to be an easier proposition. It took Boogie about five minutes, but eventually he clicked it open.

‘Shhhh.' Lucky held a finger to her lips as they made their way stealthily into a small, dark kitchen.

Once inside she turned around and whispered to Boogie, ‘You can go now. I'm OK.'

‘I can't leave you here,' he objected.

‘Sure you can,' she whispered. ‘Wait downstairs in the car. If I'm not out in ten minutes, take off.'

‘I shouldn't go,' he repeated stubbornly.

‘Will you get out of here?' she said impatiently. ‘You'll spoil the surprise.'

He didn't budge.

‘Split,' she hissed, ‘or you're fired.'

Reluctantly he departed.

She closed the kitchen door behind him and made her way into a huge studio. In the middle of the open space was a winding flight of stairs leading to a gallery. Since this appeared to be the extent of the apartment she imagined the bedroom must be at the top of the stairs. Pulling off her sneakers, she crept stealthily upstairs.

In the centre of the gallery there was an enormous circular bed, and in the middle of the bed was Lennie, fast asleep on his stomach, a sheet half covering him.

Lucky couldn't remove the smile from her face. She stood there for a moment just staring at him. Her husband! Her gorgeous husband!

Quietly she began to remove her clothes until she was naked. And then, without a sound, she edged her way into bed next to him.

Lennie groaned in his sleep and threw an arm across her.

She snaked closer, wrapping her body around him.

In his sleep he started to become aroused.

She smiled, trying to decide whether to be insulted or pleased. Was he getting hard because he knew it was her? Or was he merely in the middle of a wonderful dream?

It didn't matter, because she was just as horny as he was. ‘Lennie,' she whispered, rubbing against his back. ‘Wake up.'

He let out a groan and slowly opened his eyes. ‘What the—' he began.

‘Shhh.' She held her finger to his lips, attempting to silence him.

‘Hey – I don't believe this,' he mumbled, still half asleep.

‘Believe it, baby. It's me. I'm back!' she exclaimed delightedly.

He rolled over. ‘How the hell did you find me?'

She laughed softly. ‘Who did you think you were dealing with here, a wife?'

He propped himself up on one elbow. ‘You're too much, you know that?'

‘Uh huh.'

‘Jess told you where to find me, huh? I always knew she had a big mouth.'

‘My sources are secret. I'm here – isn't that enough?' As she spoke, her hands caressed his body.

He attempted to push her away with very little real intent. He was mad, but losing the battle. ‘Jesus, Lucky. What happens next? Another great sex scene so you can take off again when it's over?'

‘No way,' she replied indignantly. ‘I never repeat myself. You should know that by now.'

‘The only thing I know about you is that you're crazy.'