Lowball: A Wild Cards Novel (31 page)

The intercom buzzer at the front door went off.

Ana needed a minute to scramble up from the bed of cushions. Her first margarita was already making her wobbly. She really needed a vacation.…

“You expecting anyone?” Kate asked.

“No,” Ana said, and hit the intercom button. “Hello?”

“Ana. It’s John. John Fortune.”

This had to be a joke. Someone had put him up to this. This was too … If it had happened to someone else, it would be funny.

“What?”
Kate said. Both she and
DB
were staring at her. So yeah, they’d heard it.

She didn’t want to argue. “I’ll be right down,” she said, and left before Kate and
DB
could say anything.

He was waiting at the front door, hands shoved in the pockets of a ratty army jacket. She couldn’t say he looked particularly good at the moment. He was a slim, handsome man, with dark skin, pale hair, and a serious expression. The white lines of an asterisk-shaped scar painted his forehead. At the moment his hair was too long and uncombed, and he looked shadowed, gaunt, like he hadn’t gotten enough food, sleep, or both.

“Hi,” he said, his smile thin, halfhearted.

“John. Hi. What’s the matter?”

“I need a favor.” Oh, no, this was not happening.… He said, “Can I stay with you? Just a couple of nights.”

Any other night … “This really isn’t the best time. Can’t you stay with your mom?”

He winced and rubbed his head. “I would, except she’s trying to talk me into coming back to work for her on
American Hero.
And that … I can’t do that. I’m avoiding her.”

“No,” she said. “You sure can’t.”

“I know I should have called ahead … but it’s just a couple of nights, I promise.”

Whatever else she was, Ana was not the kind of person who left a friend standing on the street. She held open the door. “Come on in. Um, I should probably warn you…”

Ana half expected Kate to be hiding in the bathroom, the only spot in the studio with a closable door and any modicum of privacy. But she was standing in the middle of the room, side by side with
DB
, waiting. Ana led John inside and softly closed the door.

John slouched, and his smile was strained. “Hi, Kate.”

“Hi,” she said, her tone flat. That was it.

“Well,”
DB
drawled. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

“Can it, Michael,” Ana said. She drew herself up, hands on hips. She’d stared down diplomats from a dozen countries and addressed the
UN
Security Council. Surely she could lay down the law here. “You’re all my friends and I’m not going to leave anybody stranded. But I would appreciate you all acting like grown-ups. You think you can do that?” Nobody said anything, so she assumed that was yes. “I’ll heat up some food, we can have dinner. Like normal people.” While she pulled food out of the fridge, she listened.

“How you doing?” John said.

“I’m okay,” Kate answered. “You?”

He might have shrugged.

Ana hadn’t been there when they broke up, but she knew it had been bad—Kate walking out while John was still in the hospital, recovering from having a joker parasite with delusions of grandeur ripped out of his forehead. John had gone from being a latent, to drawing a Black Queen, to having his father die to save his life, to having an ace power in the form of a scarab-beetle ace living inside him—to nathood. And then his girlfriend broke up with him.

But Ana had heard both sides of that story, and John had screwed up as well. He’d never trusted Kate. He kept assuming she would run off with someone else, someone with power—someone like
DB
. And he threw that in her face. She’d told him she loved him, and he never really believed her, so she walked. Now, Kate had her first real boyfriend in years. Ana wondered how John felt about that, if he even knew. He had to know—Kate was a celebrity, the pictures had been in the magazines.

They’d all met in the first season of
American Hero
—Ana, Kate, and
DB
as contestants, John working as a
PA
for his mother Peregrine, producer of the show and arguably the most famous wild carder of all time. Those days seemed dream-like, surreal. Part of some fun-house carnival ride that ultimately meant nothing. So much had happened since then, but that was where it all started. The show was still going strong, riding high in the ratings; Ana didn’t pay attention.

DB
paced, pounding a double beat on his torso.

“You in town for anything special?” John said to Kate, as if they were alone in the room.

“Yeah, charity pitching derby at the All-Star Game.”

“Oh yeah? Cool.”

“You?”

“I’ve been traveling, I guess. Here and there.”

This was the most gratingly awkward conversation of all time. Ana wondered if she could fix it by feeding them more margaritas. She went to the kitchen to get started on that.

“I figured you’d be staying with your mom,” Kate said.

John rolled his eyes. “I’d have to spend all night hearing about how I should go back to work for her on
American Hero
.”

“Oh,
no,
” Kate said, with genuine outrage.

The drumming and pacing stopped. “Hey, maybe you can get the Winged Wench to explain
this
. Unless
you
know where it came from.”

He held out a
DVD
case, which he’d retrieved from his coat pocket. Poor quality, low production values, with a photocopied cover shoved behind cheap clear plastic. The title:
AMERICAN
HERO UNCUT, VOL. I.

John gave a long-suffering look at the ceiling. “My mother had nothing to do with that.
I
had nothing to do with that.”

Kate yanked the
DVD
case out of
DB
’s hand and stared at it. “What the hell is this?”

Ana drifted over to Kate’s side, to study the case over her shoulder. The image on the front featured
DB
, all his arms wrapped around the svelte figure of Jade Blossom, another of the first season
American Hero
contestants. Naked Jade Blossom, Ana noted. Her state of undress was obvious even through the shadowed, unfocused quality of the picture. Uncut, indeed—unauthorized footage from the reality show’s seemingly infinite number of cameras.

Somehow, Ana couldn’t be entirely surprised that such a thing existed. What did surprise her was not stumbling on the footage online somewhere. Now that she knew it existed, she probably wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

Kate gaped for a moment, then covered her mouth with her hands and spit laughter. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny. But it
is
.” She might have been having some kind of fit, doubled over, holding her gut. “Karma’s a
bitch
!”

“Look at the back,”
DB
said, making a turning motion with one of his hands. “
This
is what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

When Kate turned the case over to look at the back, Ana almost turned away. The back showed three more pictures: two more of
DB
, captured in the moment with two entirely different contestants of the show. And one of Kate, her back to the camera, towel sliding off her shoulders as she stepped into the shower. The picture was a tease, of course. How much did the video actually show?

Ana couldn’t tell if the red in Kate’s cheeks was from alcohol or embarrassment. When Kate set her jaw and hefted the
DVD
case as if to throw it, all three of them reached for her, making halting noises. Glancing at them, Kate sighed, and merely tossed the
DVD
back to
DB
, without her ace power charging it.
DB
fumbled it out of a couple of hands before managing to catch it.

Kate said, “At least I can say there aren’t any sex tapes of me. Unlike some people.”

“You had your chance,”
DB
muttered.

Kate glared. The
TV
played through the pause; two characters were making out in a hospital supply closet.

“Volume I,” Ana said. “So how many of those are there?”

“Who the fuck knows?”
DB
said. “The guy wanted me to
sign
it for him.”

“Whoever’s doing these has to have access to the show’s raw footage.” She looked at John, inquiring.

He said, “Could be anyone with access to the editing process. Mom and Josh have a pack of lawyers working on it—you can imagine what it’s doing to the
American Hero
brand. But there’s not much they can do about it once the videos hit the web.”

Ana went to the kitchen and stuck a plate of burritos in the microwave. Food. Food would make everything better. And more margaritas. If she could just get everyone commiserating over the shared trauma rather than making accusations, maybe she could salvage the party.

“I do
not
need this right now,” Kate said, and started pacing. “Oh my God, I should tell Tyler … but if he doesn’t know about it already maybe I shouldn’t tell him.…”

“Who’s Tyler?”
DB
said.

John smirked. “Haven’t you heard? It’s been all over
Aces!
. Kate’s new boyfriend—she’s dating nats now.”

“John, don’t be an asshole,” Ana said. She’d had no intention of bringing this up while the love triangle from hell was in her five-hundred-square-foot apartment. She’d kill John for poking Kate like this.

Kate plowed on. “I told you then, I didn’t break up with you because you lost your powers. I broke up with you because I couldn’t keep … propping up your self-esteem. You kept making the whole thing about you.”

“Wait a minute, boyfriend? What boyfriend? Who is this guy?”
DB
said.

Kate didn’t answer, and Ana sure wasn’t going to say anything.

DB
continued. “No, really—we can settle this. Tyler, huh? I don’t care if he’s a nat or the king of Persia, I want to meet him. You know, just to make sure he’s a nice guy.”

“I can pick my own boyfriends, thank you very much,” Kate said.

“Apparently not,”
DB
said, pointing three arms at John.

Kate growled and cocked back her arm. Despite watching for it—hoping to minimize damage to the apartment—Ana hadn’t seen whatever projectile she picked up; but then, Kate always kept a few marbles in her pocket, for whenever she lost her temper.

“Kate!” Ana yelled. “Cool it! No throwing in the house! Nobody uses
any
powers in the house! Got it?”

The ace pitcher froze, a static charge dancing around her hand. For their parts, John and
DB
had both ducked, because she kept turning back and forth between them, unable to decide who to target first.

Then her hand dropped. “You know what’s real rich? That neither one of you can figure out why I won’t go out with you.” She stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door.

The microwave dinged, and Ana said, with false brightness, “Anyone want burritos?”

DB
and John circled each other, but finally settled down,
DB
on the sofa and John on a chair in the kitchen. Ana shoved plates of food at them both, and miracle of miracles they ate. She decided against giving them any more margaritas, but took an extra-long drag on one herself before heading to the bathroom to knock on the door.

“You okay?” she said to Kate, angling herself away from the rest of the apartment, hoping the boys weren’t listening even though she knew they were.

The door wasn’t locked; Kate was sitting at the edge of the bathtub. Ana slipped in and closed the door. Leaned against it, just in case
DB
or John decided it was a good idea to try to sneak in.

Kate didn’t look particularly angry or upset. She did look thoughtful, her brow furrowed and face scrunched up. Finally, she sighed. “It’s better knowing it’s out there than not knowing, right? I’m not really surprised, I guess. It’s just … annoying.”

Ana quirked a smile. “That’s the worst thing you can come up with? Not murderous rage?”

“I’m too tired for murderous rage,” Kate said.

“I’ll kick them out. Say the word and they’re gone,” Ana said.

Kate sighed. “You can’t kick them out. They’re still friends. Let’s go get some food.”

They hugged, and Ana liked to think some of the tension went out of Kate’s shoulders.

When they emerged from the bathroom, John was there, holding a glass full of margarita, which he offered to Kate. Giving him a thin smile, she took it.

DB
was sitting contritely—as contritely as he could, anyway, slumping, his hands still in his lap—on the sofa. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you—I just thought you should know that these are out there.”

“No, it’s okay. You’re right. Better to find out from a friend than in some random interview.”

“Do I even need to ask if there’s any footage of me on those tapes?” Ana asked.

DB
winced. “They got everybody with that shower cam.”

She thought for a minute. “Would it be wrong of me to be insulted if I
didn’t
show up on an
American Hero
bootleg sex tape?”