Lucky Me (32 page)

Unsurprisingly, Jack had been no help through the whole process. He'd come in only twice: once to tell me that the mozzarella sticks in the fridge were “the bomb,” and the second time was to laugh at me when I had my face mask on. He told me I looked like Shrek and I threw a hairbrush at him. Thankfully, I had Aria and Veronica to keep me sane through the whole glamathon, reading magazines, experimenting with Kat's makeup, taking selfies and catching me up on school gossip.

“So, how's my bestie Meghan?” I asked.

I couldn't see my friends because Chloe was doing my eyeshadow and was already annoyed that my eyelids kept fluttering.

“Oh my gosh,” I heard Aria groan. “I almost punched her the other day.”

“What happened now?”

“Now that you haven't been around,” Aria said. “She's running out of lives to mess with. V and I caught her doing her dragon-lady thing on some poor freshman the other day.”

“Seriously?” I scoffed.

“Yep,” Veronica continued. “Some girl called Cecilia something-or-other. Anyway, her dad is
super
loaded. I heard he's like the Simon Cowell of Sweden. Only, bigger!”

“Open your eyes,” Chloe told me. I opened my eyes and watched her as she carefully studied each eye. “Close them.”

I obeyed. “So what did she do?” I asked.

“She was basically threatening her!” Aria cried. “She was all, ‘just remember that this is L.A., and in L.A. you're nobody until Meghan Adams says you are
.'”

We all laughed at Aria's dead-on impression of Meghan's high-pitched, self-righteous voice, and I heard Chloe sigh as she held my head still.

“That poor girl,” Veronica said. “She looked terrified! It was pathetic.”

“Done!” Chloe announced, relief clearly evident in her voice.

My eyelids fluttered open and Chloe studied them once more, pleased. She asked Tom to pass her the eyelash glue just as Jack strolled into the room.

“Speaking of pathetic,” he said, easing into the throne armchair similar to mine. I wondered how long he had been sneakily listening. He had a tendency to do that. “How's Brendan doing?”

“He's doing fine,” I snapped. “He sent me a letter the other day.”

“A letter?” Jack repeated.

“Yes,” I replied, sticking my nose up defensively. “Don't look at me like that. I think it's cute.”

Lord knows why I still bothered defending Brendan around Jack. It was probably just instinct.

“Oh yeah, sure!” Jack said, feigning an understanding look. “I forgot we had traveled back to the 1800s. Silly me!”

Aria laughed and even Veronica smiled. A whole lot of help they were.

“Well, I think it's sweet,” I said.

I looked up at Chloe who was expertly applying glue to a set of fake eyelashes. Her eyes flicked to me and she raised her eyebrows and gave me a little headshake. Clearly Chloe wasn't a fan of letter writing either.

“How's his TV show going?” Aria asked, painting her thumbnail an electric blue color.

“Yeah,” Jack piped up. “How's his great, cowboy adventure going?”

“Good. Fantastic, actually,” I replied. “It got picked up for a season.”

“Seriously?” Aria asked, raising her eyebrows in disbelief.

“Yeah! On selective channels only, of course.”

Personally, I was just as surprised as Aria. A part of me was scared the TV show was actually a huge disaster and no network was willing to pick it up and he was just lying to convince me, and possibly himself, that moving to Texas was a good decision. But as likely as that was, he genuinely seemed happy. Well, at least his writing seemed happy. He even drew smiley faces at the end of each paragraph. In fact, what was more surprising was that he actually paragraphed.

“Jack,” Kenny said, appearing in the doorframe. “They're here.”

Veronica and Aria exchanged looks, and I turned to Jack. “Who?” I asked him.

“Detective Reynolds,” Kenny replied for him, and disappeared back into the hallway.

“Who's that?” V asked.

“Yeah, and why is there a detective in your house?” Aria added, reaching for a nail file.

“Gia, close your eyes. The glue's going to dry!” Chloe told me, waving the fake eyelash lightly in her hand.

I looked at Jack. Too much was happening at once for my brain to function normally. If Detective Reynolds was in the house that meant Milo was in the house. And if Milo was in the house that meant he would have to see me in a silk dressing gown with rollers in my hair and fuzzy slippers on my feet.

“That's Jack's father,” I told my friends, and from the corner of my eye I saw Jack's jaw drop. “We're just going over some basic security stuff. The paparazzi have been nuts lately.”

Aria's eyebrows rose so far up her head, they practically disappeared into her hair. “Jack's father?” She repeated slowly. No one seemed to be bothered about the police anymore.

“Yep.”

Veronica and Aria turned their heads toward Jack, who was doing some heavy breathing. I shot him an apologetic look, and he shook his head ever so slightly.

“Um, yeah. That's my old man.”

“Seriously?” Chloe asked, lowering her hand that was holding the eyelashes. She had temporarily replaced her annoyance for shock, by the looks of it.

Tom and Ruby, her fellow assistants looked at each other with light shrugs, and went back to looking busy.

“Uh, yeah,” Jack said, rising from his armchair. “Gia, a word?”

“Nah, I'm good.”

“Gia!”

“Fine, jeez.”

Jack glared at me and left the room. I gave Chloe and her eyelashes my best
sorry I'm such a pain
look and rose from my chair.

“Gia!” Aria hissed.

“What?”

“Jack and his dad are . . .” Veronica said quietly. “Different.”

I straightened my back and shrugged casually, as if I couldn't tell why they were so surprised. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I haven't really noticed.”

“You haven't noticed that his dad looks like a professional wrestler?” Aria asked incredulously. “Or that he's African American?”

“Aria,” I said. “Jack's from Guam, remember?”

“Yeah, bu—” Veronica began, but I cut her off before the questioning could deepen.

“I'll be right back, guys!” I exclaimed, my rollers bouncing around on the top of my head.

“I'm pretty sure Guam isn't in Africa,” I heard Tom say as I left the room, and bit my lip.

I knew that wouldn't be the end of that discussion. Veronica was definitely smart enough to pick up on something being wrong, but at least I was safe with Aria. She once asked me if the Burj Khalifa was a rapper, so she'd believe anything. I followed the sound of voices coming from the kitchen and found Jack standing outside the room with his arms crossed.

“Kenny's my
dad?”
he exclaimed, grabbing onto my elbow and pulling me closer to the wall.

He dropped my elbow and I rubbed it where his fingers had dug in. “Ow! Sorry! It's all I could think of in the moment.”

Jack gave me a frustrated look, like he was trying to train a disobedient puppy. “Okay, fine whatever. Can we just sort this security stuff out now please?”

“Calm down! You're so hyped up all the time.”

And he thought
I
was high maintenance! Jack and I were about to walk into the kitchen when my parents emerged, ushering me toward the front door. Behind them I could see Detective Reynolds, Milo, and a man in a suit I didn't recognize.

“What's up?” I asked as my dad led me out the front door. “What are you doing? I'm in my robe!”

“Gia,” Mom said. “We're just going over security details for tonight. We can't do it in the house if there's still a listening device somewhere.”

We all gathered around in a circle, as if we were holding a daytime séance in the front yard. Thank God our house was gated, or else I'd be dying of humiliation. I hadn't entirely been lying about the paparazzi situation, particularly after the parking lot incident. But we seemed to be covered pretty well by the expertly landscaped bushes.

“The driveway? Really?” I mumbled.

Jack smiled, taking a spot beside me. Of course he was finding this whole thing hilarious. Jerk. Detective Reynolds did a quick scan of the immaculately trimmed garden to make sure it was safe. By now it was probably just reflexive.

“Gia, good to see you again,” he said, giving me a nod.

“Hi,” I replied, giving him a small wave. I glanced at Milo, who was trying to hide a smile by looking at his shoes.

Oh no, my rollers. He was probably smiling just to be polite, but there was no way my alien hairstyle wasn't freaking him out a little. I was in fuzzy slippers for God's sake!

“Gia, this is agent Joseph Walker from the FBI.” Dad motioned to the man in the suit.

Agent Walker extended his hand so I could shake it. “Nice to meet you, Gia.”

I surveyed him quickly. He was definitely balding and he looked like the type of guy who complained about his salary a lot, but he seemed nice enough. I put my freshly manicured hand in his and shook it.

“FBI?” I repeated.

“Yes.”

“That sounds intense. Is everything alright?”

Agent Walker dropped my hand, giving me a reassuring nod. “Everything's fine, Gia. Our involvement is purely on a worst-case-scenario basis.”

“The bureau decided to lend a helping hand for tonight,” Detective Reynolds told me. “Just to be safe. Frank Parker's location is still a question mark, so we need all the security we can get.”

“So you didn't find anything at his house then?” Jack asked.

“Nothing,” Detective Reynolds replied. “Neighbors said they hadn't seen Frank for almost two months, and nothing in his apartment seemed too out of the ordinary. The amount of dust on his possessions would indicate that he hasn't been in there for a couple of months, like the neighbors said, and there weren't many clothes in his closet. Lots of bills under his door though.”

“We think it's safe to conclude Frank hasn't been in his apartment since he's starting harassing Gia,” Milo finished.

Sweet lord Milo looked hot in that LAPD uniform, and whenever he said my name my heart would do its break dancing thing. At the rate I was going, installing a pacemaker might prove to be a necessary precaution.

“So where has he been staying all this time?” Mom asked.

“Probably the Dumpling Hospital,” Detective Reynolds replied. “But we did another check of the place and it's been closed this entire week. We didn't find any sign of him living in the restaurant.”

“So then where is he?” Kenny said.

“It's most likely,” Agent Walker said, “that he's living in his car. He may have been at the restaurant on and off for the past few months, but this week he's definitely been on the move.”

“We've managed to identify his car, and we've got everyone's eyes open for it,” Detective Reynolds assured Dad, who looked like he was going to faint from all the stress. “It wouldn't be surprising if Ao Jie Kai was with him.”

“So what can we do in the meantime?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, nothing for now,” Agent Walker replied, and my eyes flicked to him. “Frank Parker clearly has a plan for tonight. It's our job to stop him from carrying out. It's your job to let him come to you.”

“Security will be tight,” Detective Reynolds added. “We've got a good number of men assigned to help out tonight.”

I looked at Milo, as if asking if he was a part of that assignment. He gave me a nod that was so small, I would have missed it if I had blinked. Somehow knowing he'd be there was a huge comfort, even if he wouldn't be close.

“Plus we'll be there,” Kenny said, motioning toward Jack.

“And so will I,” Agent Walker added, and I gave him an appreciative nod. “Don't worry, Gia. We're going to get this guy.”

“Thank you.”

“Where will your son be tonight?” Agent Walker asked, directing the question to my parents.

“He'll be staying at my sister's house tonight,” Mom replied. “His bodyguard Chris will be with him for security.”

“We'll have a police car patrol up and down the street every hour just in case,” Detective Reynolds added. “I doubt we'll need it, but it's better to be safe than sorry.”

“Smart decision,” Agent Walker said with an approving nod.

Yeah, it was a smart decision! How the hell was Chris going to take down a crazed psycho if something were to happen? Every time Famous barked he would jump up so high in his seat, it looked like a cartoon. Besides, Mike and I may not be besties for life, but he was still my brother and I loved him, even if it was just out of obligation. I looked at my parents, who were actually holding hands. Hopefully in a way that was friendly and said
I'm so concerned for my daughter's safety, but I'm consoling you because she's your daughter too.
If it was a
let's go rekindle the fire
type of thing, I would have to call an emergency family meeting. That is, of course, if I made it through the night in one piece.

“We'd better let you get back to your grooming,” Detective Reynolds said with a chuckle, and I put a hand to my rollers with an embarrassed laugh. “Sit tight. We'll see you at the venue in a few hours.”

Agent Walker gave everyone his card with his phone number on it, as if he was an air-conditioning salesman and everyone was burning in the L.A. heat. Everyone shook hands, signifying that our little ritual had been successfully completed, and my parents walked the men to their cars. Milo and I exchanged looks before he walked away, but nothing more.

“Gia,” Aria said, appearing suddenly at the front door. “That chick with the lashes is getting real antsy. Should I tell her you're coming, or should I just kick her out?”