Lies in Love (6 page)

Camey
stared after Talia in disbelief. She’d never acted this bitchy
before. Camey returned to the cooler, where Reina was silently
shaking her head. “Not a word.” She grabbed one of the
completed arrangements and carried it to the van.

Landon
had been feeling off all day and heading to his mysterious job had
him feeling no different. The information Quincy gave was minimal.
All he had to prepare for the evening was the location of their
date
,
his expected attire, and that the woman was to be called Lady Vanna.
The name alone made him groan in annoyance. When had his job become
so mind-numbing?

As
Landon pulled into a quiet, run-down neighborhood, he began checking
addresses, finding the darkest, most dreary house on the block was
the home he was searching for. It was a bungalow style, but it was
painted in a dark, dismal gray. Every window was darkened by
black-out curtains and there was no semblance of light that he could
see.

Landon
reluctantly pulled his bike to the curb as he checked the address
again. The darkness of the home and unkempt yard made the place look
vacant, but it was the address he’d been given so he wandered
to the door. He could hear the faint hum of what sounded like
chanting coming from somewhere inside as he knocked and waited for an
answer.

“Come
in,” a seductive voice called.

Landon
looked down at the all-black ensemble he had been advised to wear
before opening the door to step inside. The door creaked open and a
room full of candles sat before him. He could hear the chanting
resonating from the back of the house as he stepped inside. “Hello?”

“Back
here," the voice called.

Landon
had nothing to go on, no face, no real name, not even expectations
for the date. As he made his way through the darkened home, he
wondered just what he’d gotten himself into. When he rounded
the corner to what appeared to be a kitchen, he found a table for two
lit by candlelight and a willowy woman looking to be in her early
thirties sitting stark naked at the table. “Lady Vanna?”

“Sit
down.” Her seductive voice had grown commanding and Landon did
as he was told. “I’ve fixed you something to eat.”
As she spoke, she lifted a silver serving lid from the table to
reveal a black plate containing a large T-bone steak.

Landon
stared at Lady Vanna a moment, examining her obviously dyed black
hair and dark-as-midnight eyes. If the house hadn’t been
disturbing enough, her appearance did the trick. He wasn’t
certain what Lady Vanna had in mind, but he wasn’t sure how
keen he was on finding out. Unsure of whether she’d tainted the
food, he decided to decline eating. “I’m sorry to say I’m
not hungry. I wasn’t aware I’d be---”

“Don’t
be rude. Eat.” Her eyes were squinting, staring him down.

Landon
quickly cut into the steak and saw blood oozing at the edges. He was
all for a medium-cooked steak, but this cut was practically mooing.
“Honestly, I just can’t.” He was trying to be
polite, to meet her expectations, but virtually uncooked meat was
just something he couldn’t endure.

“Fine.”
Lady Vanna threw down the napkin she’d had in her lap and
grabbed Landon by his collar as she passed. “But you must be
cleansed.”

“Okay.”
He was utterly confused. Was this some kind of joke the guys were
playing on him? Did he really look like he hadn’t taken care of
himself? Lady Vanna guided him through a bedroom and, along the way,
Landon couldn’t get the pungent odor of copper out of his nose.
“What is that—”

“Do
not speak again until you’ve been cleansed.” Lady Vanna
pulled harder at his shirt, dragging him closer to the smell.

In
Landon’s six years as an escort, he’d dealt with his
share of crazy, but this woman seemed completely off her rocker. As
nuts as he accepted her to be, nothing prepared him for what he saw
inside the candlelit bathroom. “What is that?”

“Do
not speak.”

“Is
that blood?”

Lady
Vanna whipped around to face him, covering his mouth with her hand.
“I won’t ask again. Now get in the bath.”

Removing
her hand, he uttered, “Look, there are some things I’ll
do and some I just won’t. Getting in a pool of blood is not
something I’ll even consider.”

“I’ve
paid my money, now be cleansed.” She shoved at his back,
knocking him closer to the blood.

Landon
looked at the thick red pool before him and weighed his options. He’d
done things before that he wasn’t proud of, but he just
couldn’t fathom this. It was too much.

“Stop
thinking. Turn off your emotions and get in already.”

“No,
I can’t. I’m not built that way.”

“You’re
an escort. Of course you’re built that way. Isn’t that
what being an escort is? You turn off your emotions to avoid
attachment. Just pretend for an hour you’re someone else. Isn’t
that what your job is all about?” She changed her tactic from
a forceful approach to trying to reason with him.

“What?
No. I’m not pretending.”
Am
I?
“I
have to go.”

“You
can’t.” Lady Vanna ran past him and slammed the bathroom
door shut, throwing herself in front of it. “This is my
fantasy. I’ve paid you. You can’t say no.”

“I
just did. Now let me go.”

“What
kind of escort are you? You can’t even handle a little blood?”

“A
little blood would be a scrape on the knee, this is a fucking
homicide.”

“Is
that what you’re worried about? You think I killed someone?”
Lady Vanna placed her hands on Landon’s face. “It’s
just pig’s blood. It’s really not that bad.”

“Oh
my God, you’re insane. I’m out of here.” Landon
pushed Lady Vanna out of his way.

“You’ll
be back. They all come back,” her voice echoed throughout the
hallway.

He
bolted out of the house, leaving the naked lunatic inside with her
blood bath.

By Friday afternoon Talia
had spent the better part of the week trying to come up with an
excuse to avoid her weekly visit to
Satin
.
She couldn’t risk seeing Landon again. He was the only thing on
her mind lately and she’d become much more volatile for it. She
knew the girls were tiptoeing around her trying to avoid any
confrontation, but Talia just couldn’t keep her emotions in
check. She was so desperate to clear her mind that, after endless
hours of cleaning each evening failed, she finally succumbed
to mindless hours of television.

Her
first choice was a comedy about a family in turmoil over their
teenage daughter’s pregnancy. It had some witty parts, but all
Talia could wrap her head around were the sapphire eyes of the
teenager’s boyfriend. This was not sitting well with Talia. She
flipped channels to a vampire drama, remembering their eyes tended to
be of a red or amber color, but the hair of the lead vampire was
wheat blonde and sat messily atop his head. Her attempts were not
going well. Finally she settled on the lifecycle of a caterpillar and
was pleasantly surprised by her interest in their eating habits just
before they would spin their cocoons. She had actually become
surprisingly engrossed when a commercial played
on the screen and the announcer’s voice set her off with his
deep raspy tone. She cursed, turned the television off, and threw the
remote across the room in sheer frustration. “That’s
enough of that.”

She
began rearranging knickknacks on her lone bookshelf in the living
room, but the task didn’t last long, leaving her mind to wander
yet again. She remembered it had been a week since she’d
bleached her bathroom so she took to scouring all of the surfaces,
making quick work of removing any stubborn stains.
The job was soon completed, so she took to the spare bath in her
father’s old bedroom. Before long, that bathroom too was
sparkling and Talia was left wondering what to do next to occupy
her time. She was surprised when a knock came at her door and swiftly
realized it was nine o’clock. She knew it must be the girls
ready to pick her up half an hour earlier than expected and she
wasn’t anywhere near ready. Before she could get to the door to
open it, Sara came barging in.

“It’s
freezing out there.” Sara stopped dead in her tracks, taking in
Talia’s state. “Please tell me you don’t plan to go
out like that.”

“Well
hello to you, too. You’re awfully early.” Talia dropped
onto her couch, focusing on her folded hands in front of her.

“Did
you forget we’re going out to eat beforehand? Hurry up and get
ready.”

“I’m
not feeling up to it.”

“You’ve
been pulling this shit all week. Get your ass up, go put something
decent on, and let’s go.” Sara marched across the room
and gripped Talia by the arm, dragging her into their once shared
closet. She began pulling various items from within, then returned
them to the rack.

“This
is ridiculous. It’s going to take me forever to get ready.”
Talia tried for empathy.

“Bullshit.
You know the only thing you ever do to get ready is get dressed in
your most pissed-off outfit and brush your hair, although I’m
not sure you even do that half the time.” She stopped to pull a
V-neck black shift dress from the closet and matched it with a wide
tan belt. “Here, put this on and shut up.”

“I
wore that dress to our grandmother’s funeral.” Talia
stood in her bedroom in disbelief as a pair of tan cowboy boots came
flying at her. “Where did these come from?”

“Nice,
Talia. I bought them for you last Christmas.” Sara stared
derisively. When Talia stood firm in place, Sara added, “Are
you going to get ready or what?”

“A
little privacy please.” Talia shoved Sara out of the room and
heard Sara bellow as she shut the door.

“I’ll
be in the car so hurry your ass up.”

Talia
rolled her eyes, slunk
into her bathroom to wash up, and got dressed as quickly as possible.
She grabbed a black scarf and denim jacket on the way out to slightly
ward off the cold. When she walked out of the door into the early
spring chill, she pulled her jacket tight around her then locked her
door behind her to head downstairs. At ground level, she saw that
Sara was the only person in the car. As she got in she questioned,
“Where are Camey and Reina?”

“They’re
going to meet us at the diner. Camey made some excuse about wanting
to drive herself.”

“Whatever.”
Talia dropped back in her seat and rolled her eyes, looking out the
window as Sara pulled away. She hoped if she ate slowly enough she
could postpone the inevitable.

Landon
arrived to
Satin
already in full swing. The line wasn’t as long as the previous
Friday, but he assumed that was in part to his arriving earlier. When
he reached the door, he entered the dark anteroom to pay and followed
an inseparable couple into the riotousness of the club. He perused
the faces around him and journeyed to the bar for a beer. The wait
was bearable to say the least as he took a seat at the bar and
watched the faces passing by in search of a familiar one. He wasn’t
sure why he made the effort to come out this evening, but he had to
do something, because he couldn’t stomach taking another escort
job after the nightmare encounter with Lady Vanna. It didn’t
hurt that he knew Talia would be here. There was something so
intensely fascinating about her; whether it was her sass, her
gorgeously sexy hazel eyes, or those long stunning legs that had him
needing to readjust himself every time they came to mind, he wasn’t
sure, but throughout the week she continually popped into his mind.
He could tell by the clothes she wore that she wasn’t trying,
but damn her ass looked good in those jeans. When he finished his
first beer and was well on his way with the next, he saw that
smirking face walk into the club. She was in a dress, her legs on
display. They were even more attractive than he’d imagined. And
he delighted in how tiny her waist looked tied off with her leather
belt. He watched her walk through the club and make her way up the
stairs, her body doing terrible things to him below the belt. His
hands were shoved meticulously in his pockets when a head full of
strawberry-blonde hair filled his vision.