Party Girl (West Coast Girlz: Book Three) (2 page)

Dressed in an old-fashioned pin-striped suit and a 1920s Fedora, he turned around and Casey was hoping to see a nice smile. Instead, she was greeted with a full-faced Venetian mask. Whatever was going on behind it, she could only fathom a guess.

“Bonnie Parker.” Rosanna introduced them. “Meet Clyde Barrow.”

White-hot terror flashed inside Casey’s head and quickly found its way out in her voice. “There’s another Bonnie Parker here besides me?”

“It’s just you, honey,” Rosanna said.

Holy
... “What are the odds...?” Casey wished she could see behind
Clyde’s
mask.

“Tell me about it.” Rosanna pushed them together. “You guys
have
to dance.”

“Definitely.” Veronica giggled. “And I want pictures.”

Clyde’s dark eyes—the only part of his face Casey could see behind the mask—looked her over with a flirtatious gleam. In her carefully planned attire, she felt practically naked. She was about ready to wilt when he gave a grand gesture. “Shall we?”

Casey moved to the edge of the dance floor with Clyde right behind her. They’d only danced a few bars when the fast-paced music ended, morphing into a slow number.

“Guess I should’ve asked for the next two dances.” His laughter was as mysterious as his voice. Anonymity was a powerful charm.

Casey shrugged, tilting her head to one side. “I’m game if you are.”

Clyde wrapped her in a traditional hold for slow dancing and guided her effortlessly around the dance floor. “So why did you choose this costume?”

“I guess I chose Bonnie because she’s my polar opposite.”

“You’re a cop?”

“No.” Casey shook her head. “I just mean that everything I do is on the up-and-up. Bonnie though, she was somewhat of a rebel, and rather heartless.” She felt her cheeks burn, and was thankful that the mask hid more than her identity. “
She’s
my ticket to cutting loose for a little while.”

“Going to be a party girl this evening, huh?” he asked with a slight chuckle.

“I’m going to try.” After an awkward bit of silence she added, “So what prompted you to come as Clyde?”

“I just wanted to be
reckless
for an evening. Or at least appear to be.”

“You don’t get to be reckless in your normal, everyday life?”

Clyde shook his head. “I spend my days making decisions for those who can’t or won’t do it for themselves. I can’t afford to be reckless.”

“Are you a cop?”

“No.” He laughed. “I’m not a cop.”

“Just another law-abiding citizen then?”

“Pretty much.”

Trying to escape his bounds for an evening
. Casey understood that.

As the last few notes of the song faded away, Clyde stopped and released her with a smile. “I hope you’ll save another dance for me before the evening ends.”

“Of course,” she said with a demure nod.

“Any chance I could get you to give me a name?”

Casey was sorely tempted, but it never hurt to play a little hard to get. She smiled, and said, “Bonnie Parker.”

He knew the rules as well as she did. If he wanted to know her identity, he’d wait until the end of the evening for the grand reveal—when everyone took off their masks.

Casey knew when to walk away gracefully. She took two steps back and turned away. Even though she couldn’t see him, she still felt his eyes on her. It made her feel vulnerable.

She’d best go find Rosanna. See what kind of information she could pry out of her about Clyde’s true identity. It wouldn’t hurt for him to wait until the end of the evening, but Casey wanted to know who Clyde was, and she wanted to know now to see if it was worth sticking around.

She found Rosanna just outside the front door. She and Jase were catching a breath of fresh air.

“Hey…” Casey stopped in front of Rosanna. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“What’s up? You and Clyde having a good time?” Rosanna asked with a hint of mischief in her tone.

Casey sucked in a breath and cut her eyes at Jase, momentarily. This was girl talk. She was sure he saw it, even behind her mask.

Beneath his half-mask he smiled and leaned toward a patch of Rosanna’s unmasked face, kissing her cheek. “I’m going to head back inside. You’ll join me in a bit?”

“Sure thing.” Rosanna nodded.

Casey waited until Jase was nearly at the door before she looked back at Rosanna. “Who is he?”

“Who? Jase?”

“No, not Jase.” Casey bit back her frustration. “I’m talking about Clyde.”

“You don’t know?” Rosanna asked, shaking her head.

“No, I don’t know.”

Rosanna laughed.

“He’s somebody I know.” It was more of a realization than a question for Casey. She lifted her mask up and gave Rosanna stern look. “Who?”

“I can’t believe you don’t know who he is.” Rosanna snickered.

Casey gave an impatient hand-wave. “Come on, out with it.”

“It’s Chase.”

“Chase?”

“My cousin Chase.” Rosanna raised her mask and propped it on top of her head. “The guy you argue divorce cases in front of.” Rosanna gave Casey one of those shrugs that said she was about to get annoyed.

“Oh, no…” Casey said with a groan. “That’s just my luck.”

“What do you mean?”

“A couple weeks ago, he summoned me to Mario’s for
lunch
, but he didn’t show up.” Casey sucked in a breath and paused, hoping to mask how much it bothered her, even if it didn’t make sense.

“Maybe he got tied up in court, or something.”

“That could’ve been so...” Casey rolled her eyes. “If I hadn’t seen him sitting at the bar on my way out.”

“Maybe he was waiting in there for you.”

“An hour and a half
after
we were supposed to meet?”

“Did you talk to him?”

“He didn’t even know who I was.”

“Huh…?” Now it was Rosanna’s turn to plaster on a confused look. She added, shaking her head, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, well…I’m out of here. I’m not participating in any more of his high school antics.” Casey flagged her driver over and stepped back, away from Rosanna. “I’ll see you around, okay.”

“What about Chase—I mean Clyde?”

“Well…if we’re lucky, he’ll get ambushed on the way home.”

“You like him.” Rosanna took great pleasure in goading Casey. “Want me to pass him a note?”

“Seriously?”

Rosanna shrugged. “You just going to leave without saying goodbye?”

“No. You can give him a message for me though.” The limo rolled to a stop just feet away from Casey. “Tell him that just like Cinderella, Bonnie has a curfew.” Casey loosened her silk scarf. “I don’t have a glass slipper to leave him with, but maybe this will suffice.” She shoved the scarf into Rosanna’s hand just as her driver opened the car door. Casey slipped inside, ready to make her getaway.

The driver closed the door without another word from Rosanna, and Casey blew her relief out in a soft sigh. She didn’t need or want the humiliation of unmasking herself at the end of the evening in front of Chase Hamilton.

It was official. Casey Roberts was the unluckiest girl in the whole world.

CHAPTER 3

REMASKED AND BACK
INSIDE
Leslie’s, Rosanna scouted the crowd for Jase, finding him on the outskirts, chatting with Niko and Veronica.

“Where’s Bonnie and Clyde?” Veronica asked, eyeing the silk scarf in Rosanna’s hand.

Jase glanced around. “Casey leave?”

“She wasn’t feeling well.” Rosanna shrugged.

“Is that right?” Veronica finally lifted her gaze away from the scarf and met Rosanna’s eyes. “Did she leave you with a parting gift?” One would think Veronica was the lawyer, asking all these questions. Rosanna supposed there was a fine line between talk show host and attorney.

But she had other matters to attend to. “Have any of you seen...Clyde?” She used his masquerade persona in lieu of his true identity. She wasn’t sure anyone knew he was her cousin Chase.

Niko shook his head. “Can’t say that I’m familiar with
Clyde
.” He glanced at Veronica. “She keeps talking about him, but I’ve yet to see him.”

“You seem awfully interested in Clyde.” Jase looked at Rosanna and laughed. “Should I be worried?”

Rosanna rolled her eyes behind her mask and shook her head.

Veronica stepped forward. “Are you sure Casey’s okay?”

Rosanna scanned the crowd. “She’s fine.” Right now Rosanna needed to find Chase. She wanted to know what had possessed him to play such childish games with Casey.

This wasn’t like Chase at all. His whole life he’d always been so serious. Why the change now?

Why, indeed?

“I’ll talk to you in a bit. Right now, I really need to find my cousin.”

“Have you tried the bar?” Jase asked.

The bar?
Why hadn’t she thought of that? She looked at Jase. “Walk me in?”

He gave her a sweet smile as he laid his hand at the small of her back and nudged her inside. As suggested, Rosanna found
Clyde
at the bar. She stopped a few feet behind him and looked at Jase. “Can you give us a minute? My cousin and I need to set some things straight.”

“Sure, love. You check on your family and I’ll go check on mine. I need to make sure my father and uncle aren’t strangling each other.”

* * *

Chase Hamilton felt the delicate elbow, most probably of a woman, jab into his side. Turning toward the intruder, he hoped it was
Bonnie
but alas it was only his cousin Rosanna. He felt a twinge of disappointment.

“Why are you assaulting me?” He took a drink of his bourbon and water, and looked at Rosanna. “Say, what happened to my partner in crime?”

“She left.” Rosanna’s quick, aloof reply chilled the space around him.

Damn
. He was hoping to get Bonnie’s number—not to mention her real name.

“Disappointed?” Rosanna asked, almost goading.

“Well, yeah.”

“So why’d you stand her up?”

“What?” Chase struggled to keep his mouth from falling open.

“Yeah, okay. I guess
stand up
isn’t quite the right term. Why’d you
blow her off
is a more accurate depiction.” Rosanna’s tone was hard, cold even. Chase wasn’t sure what she thought he’d done, but whatever it was, she was pissed.

“Stand her up? I don’t even know who she is.” Chase couldn’t figure Rosanna’s angle, but she wasn’t hanging
jerk
on him.

“Her name is Casey Roberts. And you damn well know who she is.”

“Casey Roberts?” He chased the familiarity of her name around in his mind.

The attorney? Was she Rosanna’s friend? And hadn’t he had a run-in with her at Mario’s a few weeks ago? She’d dumped peanuts in his beer. Why, he had no idea.

A knowing smile tipped the corners of Rosanna’s mouth. “Ringing a bell, huh?” She laughed. “How could you do that to her? She’s my friend.”

Chase knew Rosanna had a friend named Casey. Even though they’d been introduced several years ago, she was so young that Chase hadn’t given her much thought. Truth was, with a ten-year age difference between him and Rosanna, they rarely traveled in the same social circles.

These days, he’d never put it together that Rosanna’s friend and the attorney who often appeared in his courtroom were one and the same—even though she oftentimes felt oddly familiar.

“I had no idea that Counselor Roberts was your friend Casey.” Maybe now, Chase could get to the bottom of that mysterious encounter. “I had a run-in with her a few weeks back. Do you know anything about that?”

Rosanna gave Chase a hard stare. “What the hell do you think I’m bitchin’ about?”

“Well then...maybe you can tell me why she did that.”