Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas (A Sophie Katz Novel) (22 page)

“When I threw that cognac on him,
the cognac that temporarily blinded him, it was like I threw it on both of
them. When it set on fire…” she faltered for a moment. There weren’t many
people in the waiting room now. A drunk in the corner had a magazine lying
limply on his lap as he snored; a teenager by the wall bit her cuticles while
watching some video on her phone. Dena’s eyes drifted over them as she
considered her next sentence. “I’m not some kind of medieval monster. It’s not
like I want to burn people at the stake.”

“I know that.”

“But…I’m glad I was there to
fight him and…and what
they
represent. And I’m glad that
we
won. He was evil and I’m not sorry
about what happened to him.”

I nodded. Dena hadn’t been
helpless this time. That cane that was supposed to represent her disability had
disarmed one man and knocked another unconscious. As brutal as the night had
been I could see that this was a multilayered victory.
 
I had meant it when I told Anatoly that
he
and
Dena
had saved me. I owed my life to them.

But the thing is, I also sort of
owed my life to Alex. He had tackled Margarita even when his skin was burned
and the pain must have been unbearable. Dena and Anatoly had saved me out of
love and maybe even virtue. But Alex? I suspected he had saved me due to
something that resembled obsession. So I couldn’t exactly be grateful to him
for that…and I didn’t really feel sorry about his pain.

But I wasn’t exactly happy about
it either.

And there had been another loss
too. I raised my fingers to my temples as I thought about my lost manuscript.
Maybe my MacBook had survived the fire. Maybe it would be retrieved by the
authorities…

And maybe they would hold it as
evidence for months on end. That would take me way past my deadline. I squeezed
my eyes closed and silently cursed at myself. Anatoly was back with me and he
was safe. All my friends were safe.

If someone gives you the moon you
can’t complain because they didn’t think to throw in the stars.

It was at that moment that Leah
and Mary Ann burst in. “Oh my gosh, you’re okay!” Mary Ann squealed and threw
her arms around Dena who yelped in pain.

“Wait, you
are
okay, aren’t you?” Mary Ann asked
quickly stepping back.

“A little bruised and battered.
Nothing that won’t heal with time,” Dena said with a dismissive wave that was
completely contradicted by her wince.

“I thought you were going to call
me when you needed my help!” Leah snapped.

“You did help. You sent me the
information mama sent you. Why did she call you and not me, anyway?”

“Because she wanted
me
to tell
her what was really going on!” Leah put both her hands on her hips, perfectly
channeling the disapproving principle from any number of cartoons. Even the
snoring drunk woke up and sat up a little straighter.
 
“She trusts
me.
She knows that when things get a little crazy
I’m
the one
who’s going to stay sane!”

That wasn’t quite true. Leah was
never exactly sane. She just didn’t take the same over the top risks that I
did…but there were extreme sports enthusiasts who wouldn’t take the same kind
of risks that I did so that wasn’t saying a lot.

“She called me because she
expected me to be rational with an eye toward propriety, caution and prudence
and you know what I was doing when she called me, Sophie?”

I shook my head.

“I was gambling! While you were
burning down a house full of people I was playing blackjack!”

I repressed a smile and tried to
give her a solemn stare. “Leah, I’m shocked.”

Leah blinked and then immediately
fell into the seat beside me and buried her face in her hands. “I have a
problem.”

“How much did you lose?” I asked.

“I won $39,000.”

“
What
?”

Dena leaned forward, with effort,
so she could see past me to Leah. “Did you say $39,000?”

“I kept thinking,
this is it
!
I’m going to do something totally irresponsible and reckless! I’m going to lose
a whole bunch of money and I was going to go home and tell everybody how crazy,
irresponsible and out of control I was but then I won like, a whole bunch of
hands of blackjack! And the worst part is that when the dealer pushed me to
keep playing…you know, because the whole idea is to gamble away your winnings,
that’s what people
do
when they’re being irresponsible… I couldn’t do it! I cut my
loses! I can’t even gamble irresponsibly, Sophie! What is wrong with me?”

Dena leaned back in her chair.
“Yeah, you’ve definitely got issues.”

“How’s Anatoly?” Mary Ann asked
taking the seat next to Dena.

“He was shot and he’s going to
need a bit of healing time but he’s going to be okay,” I said.

“Oh wow, well at least he’s going
to be okay!” She smoothed the fabric of her skirt before adding, “How are
you
and
Anatoly?”

I thought about that for a second.
“We’re going to need a bit of healing time but we’re going to be okay.”

Mary Ann clapped her hands
together. “I knew you’d get back together! I knew it! True love always
prevails! Ask Disney!”

Dena gritted her teeth. “You
know, maybe I’ll take that Vicodin after all.”

I turned to Leah, who still had
her head in her hands. “Where’s Marcus?”

“On the way in here we ran into
that man…um--”

“Bo-Bo,” I supplied.

“I don’t think that’s his real
name.”

“I keep telling people, once a
Bo-Bo, always a Bo-Bo.” I got to my feet. “Come on, let’s find him and get Dena
back to the hotel.”

Everyone got up and filed out,
with Leah and me taking up the rear.

“I can’t believe I couldn’t get
myself to gamble at least some of it away,” she moaned.

“Well,” I said carefully, “at
least you got it on with an octopus. Not very many people can say that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” Leah said, her volume a little louder than necessary, “but it sounds
absolutely vile.” Then she added in a hushed voice, “I wasn’t kidding when I
said I’ll kill you if you tell anyone! Unlike some people here, I have a
reputation to maintain!”

I smiled to myself. Yeah,
she
was the
sane one.

I went back to the hotel with my
friends. The sun was almost up and they had a flight to take them back to San
Francisco later in the afternoon, but everyone needed a nap first. Dena took my
room and Bo-Bo agreed to hang out with Marcus in his room…just for added
security of course. I had booked a flight back the following day, when Anatoly
would be able to fly.
 
As soon as I
had made arrangements with the hotel to stay an extra night I was ready to go
back to the hospital to be with him. But before I was able to leave Bo-Bo
pulled me aside in the hall outside my room. “You’re still going to testify,
right?”

“You just give me the whens and
wheres and I’ll be there. I want to be sure Margarita and Alex are put away for
the rest of their lives…or at least for the rest of mine.”

“Yeah,” Bo-Bo muttered. I watched
him shift his weight from foot to foot.

“What’s going on?” I asked,
suddenly feeling a little paranoid.

“Look, Margarita’s locked up and
she’s not going anywhere, ever.”

“And Alex?”

Again, Bo-Bo shifted his weight.
“We didn’t find him.”

“What!”

“We will!” Bo-Bo added quickly.
“But it was a chaotic scene, you know? There was a fire, there were dead bodies
and we didn’t know at first how many we were looking for and then, somehow in
all that, he managed to slip out.”

“He was burnt! His right arm was,
like, crispy!”

“That’ll just make it easier to
find him, ‘course guys like that always know unlicensed doctors who will see
them in some backroom for cash payments, if you know what I mean. Still, we’ll
find him.”

My heart was beating a little
faster again. “I’m going back to Anatoly. Find him soon, okay? Like really
soon.”

“We got all our best guys on
this. We’ll get him and you’ll put him away.”

I nodded and went back to the
hospital to see Anatoly.

* * * * *
* * * * * * *

When I got back to the hospital I
found that they had moved Anatoly out of the emergency room and put him in a
room on a higher floor that was marginally less cold and sterile. He was sound
asleep when I got there and I took a moment to confer with the nurse in the
hall about his condition. She didn’t really want to talk to me since I wasn’t
technically family but she gave me a very basic rundown before briskly walking
away. I took a deep breath and turned to go back into Anatoly’s room.

“Excuse me, are you Sophie Katz?”

For a second I panicked, thinking
about my first meeting with Natasha. Slowly I turned around. But of course it
wasn’t Natasha at all. This woman had a
  
chestnut bob and obviously fake boobs.
 

“I’m Sophie,” I said, trying to
push aside the déjà vu feeling.

“Some guy just paid me $250 bucks
to give you this.”
 

And that’s when I noticed my
MacBook carrying case over her shoulder. I stood stock still as she handed it
to me along with an envelope.

“Is he here?” I asked quietly.

“I don’t think so. He handed it
to me when I came in and told me where I’d find you. He seemed like he was in a
hurry to get some place and he kinda looked like he was in pain too. But hey,
for $250 I don’t ask a lotta questions.”

I opened the carrying case. That
was my computer all right. I opened the envelope and pulled out a 3x5 note
card.

“
I meant to tell you that I read your
unfinished manuscript. It’s quite good. Can’t wait to see how the story ends.

‘til next time.

--A

I stared at the note.

‘til next time.

Swiftly I walked back to
Anatoly’s room. Was he really okay? Had Alex been here too?

I walked right up to his bedside
and considered waking him up. But as I watched his chest rise and fall in the
even breathing patterns of sleep I found myself becoming almost mesmerized
and...calm. Anatoly was fine. As Marcus would say, he was so very, very fine.

How many times had I lost myself
in his arms?

How many times would I do it
again?

At least once…every day for the rest of my life.

I put my purse, the MacBook and
the note on a chair and carefully crawled into bed with him, choosing the side
that wasn’t injured. Without opening his eyes, he pulled me to him, allowing me
to gently put my head on his shoulder.

“Are you awake?” I whispered.

“If I am will you get out of
bed?”

“Maybe.”

“Then I’m asleep.”

I smiled as he pulled me closer
and kissed my hair.

If I had to, I’d deal with Alex
later. But right now…

My smile widened as Anatoly’s
hand moved down to my butt.

Right now I had the only man I wanted
and he was wearing nothing but a thin paper gown that didn’t even cover that
perfect ass of his.

 
Yeah, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Kyra Davis
is
the author of the critically acclaimed Sophie Katz Mystery series and
So Much For My
Happy Ending
.
 
Her books have
been translated and published in eight different countries.
 
After spending the majority of her life
in the Bay Area, Davis now lives in Los Angeles County with her son and his
endearing but occasionally moody leopard gecko. Find out more about Kyra Davis
and her books at www.kyradavis.com