Goddess of Vengeance - Jackie Collins [48]
‘I suppose we should drag our asses up to the house,’ Billy said.
‘I guess,’ she said, worrying about what kind of devastation she’d find.
‘I’d better warn you – you’re not gonna be thrilled,’ Billy said, leaping to his feet and helping her up.
‘Is anyone still there?’
‘A coupla strays.’
She hoped the strays were Cookie and Harry, but she doubted it. Knowing them, they’d both taken off and left her to deal.
‘Is it a mess?’
‘You’d better believe.’
‘What am I gonna do?’ she groaned. ‘How am I gonna fix it?’
‘Don’t sweat it.’
‘Well,’ she said, searching for a solution, ‘at least the housekeepers are coming back at noon.’
‘Gonna take more than a couple of maids to fix this,’ Billy said, shaking his head.
‘You think?’ she asked nervously.
‘Come on,’ he said, pulling her toward the steps that led up to the house. ‘I’ve already called my manager – he’s gettin’ a crew over here.’
‘You can’t do that,’ she said, frowning. ‘I’ve got to keep this under the radar.’
‘Don’t worry, my manager’s a cool dude, nobody’s gonna know whose house it is.’
‘You’re sure?’ she asked, certain that somehow or other she was going to get busted. Oh God! The wrath of Lucky and Lennie didn’t bear thinking about.
‘’Course I’m sure.’
Billy’s amazing, she thought, gazing up at him. He won’t let me down. He’s definitely a take-charge kinda dude, unlike Ace, who’s always vacillating about what he’s going to do with his life.
Still . . . Ace had been her on-again off-again boyfriend for eighteen months, and now she would have to break up with him for sure. She liked him, she’d just never liked him enough for him to be The One. The truth was that even if she never saw Billy again, she was glad he’d turned out to be The One. It was super karma.
As they reached the top of the steps and approached the once immaculate pool area, she let out a gasp of horror. ‘Oh my God!’ she yelled, trying to control a sudden rush of panic. ‘They’ve trashed my house!’
A trail of destruction surrounded the pool. There were overturned loungers, overflowing ashtrays, cigarette butts stamped out on the marble surround by the pool, empty firework boxes everywhere, plus scorch marks on some of the sun umbrellas. Not to mention crushed beer cans, broken bottles, half-eaten burgers, cartons of French fries, tomato ketchup spilled everywhere, and trash, trash, trash.
The pool resembled a garbage dump. What hadn’t ended up around it was in it. A mass of floating debris.
‘Lucky’s going to kill me,’ Max wailed. ‘She’ll freaking murder me!’
‘Stay cool,’ Billy said, in charge and liking it. ‘It’ll all be taken care of.’
Venus had never let him take charge, she’d had ‘people’ to do everything. This situation was refreshing, made him feel manly and useful.
‘When?’ Max demanded, thinking of all the ways she could be punished. ‘How?’
‘They’re on their way,’ Billy assured her.
‘Who’s on their way?’
‘I told you, I called my manager. A cleaning crew will be here any minute.’
‘You think?’ she said, forcing herself to calm down because she had no wish for him to perceive her as a hysterical kid, that would really be lame. After all, he was used to being with Venus – who was not only a worldwide superstar, but the epitome of cool – even though she was old. Well, not exactly old, but certainly older than him.
‘It’s a done deal,’ he said easily. ‘So calm down.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her over to the outside bar where they perched on two tall bar stools.
‘I’m uh . . . going to Vegas later today,’ Max blurted. ‘Lucky’s throwing me a birthday party on Saturday.’
‘No shit?’ he said, picking up a half-full bottle of Evian and taking a long swig.
‘It’s not what I want,’ she said quickly. ‘Not at all.’
‘No more parties for you, huh?’ he said, thinking what a knockout she was with her dark curly hair, olive skin, and brilliant green eyes. So different from Venus, who