Goddess of Vengeance - Jackie Collins [93]
Too bad if he did. It wasn’t as if they were married or anything.
Wow! she thought. Where does marriage enter into this equation? It’s certainly not on my mind.
Leon had also texted her, but his text was all about work. She appreciated him giving her a heads-up on what she’d be getting involved with the following week. She was looking forward to working with Leon, he was dedicated to getting drugs off the streets – especially the smalltime dealers who set up shop near high schools – targeting kids as young as ten and eleven. Leon was a solid guy, and after working at a top-level Beverly Hills law firm defending the probably guilty, it was refreshing to know she was finally getting into something that really mattered.
* * *
So there he was. Ace. Her boyfriend. Standing in front of her with a big proud grin on his face, which meant she wasn’t about to be alone on her birthday. Ace had apparently skipped out on his job and driven all the way to Vegas to be with her. Ace was fully present. Ace loved her. Yippee!!
Then why wasn’t she happy? Why was she suddenly suffused with guilt? Why was she wishing he hadn’t made the trip?
‘Wow!’ Max exclaimed, as he moved forward to hug her. ‘This is crazy. What are you doing here?’
‘What do you think I’m doing here?’ he responded. ‘Making sure I’m with you for your birthday. Wouldn’t miss it.’
‘That’s so cool,’ she managed, extracting herself from his hug.
‘Yeah,’ he said, still grinning. ‘Had a feeling you’d want me to be here.’
‘I do,’ she insisted. ‘Only we’re not alone. Harry’s downstairs with some new friend. And Cookie’s hanging out somewhere, and I know you’re not wild about being around either of them.’
‘Thanks for warning me,’ Ace said. ‘But we can sneak off somewhere by ourselves, right?’
‘Can’t do that,’ she said. ‘They’re here for me, so it wouldn’t be cool to desert them. Anyway – you know they’re my best friends.’
‘And what does that make me?’
‘Uh . . . my boyfriend,’ she said, almost choking on the word.
‘That’s exactly why I’m not into getting caught up with the crowd,’ he said restlessly. ‘Haven’t seen you in weeks, don’t wanna share you.’
Thoughts were flying through her head. Thoughts of Billy, and the offhand way he’d treated her. Thoughts of their one night together on the sand. The way he’d touched her, the blue of his eyes, his kind of half-crazy laugh, and his hard abs.
How could she tell Ace that she wasn’t a virgin any more? Oh man! He’d be so bummed that she’d done the deed with someone else after he’d waited forever.
Bad girlfriend.
Cheating girlfriend.
She wanted to cry.
‘Look,’ Ace said, touching her arm. ‘Dump the miserable face. If it means that much to you we’ll hang with Cookie and Harry, s’long as they don’t start doing drugs in front of me. You know I’m not into that crap.’
Mister Straight. Her boyfriend. He wouldn’t fit in with Frankie, for sure.
‘You know what?’ she said. ‘Since we’re gonna see them all tomorrow night at my party, I guess we can escape an’ do something on our own.’
‘Now that’s my girl,’ Ace said. ‘Knew you’d see it my way.’
* * *
Lying on the bed, smoking yet another joint while thumbing through a Vegas magazine, Frankie was startled to see that Gerald M. – Cookie’s dad – had a one-night engagement at The Cavendish that very evening. ‘Shit!’ he exclaimed, sitting up, wondering why Cookie hadn’t told him.
‘What?’ Cookie asked, entering the room with her key card, fresh from a four-hour session at the hair salon where she’d had them remove her dreadlocks. A lengthy process but hopefully worth it.
Frankie barely glanced up. ‘Didja know your old man’s appearing at The Cavendish tonight?’ he demanded. ‘A one-off sold-out performance.’
She marched over to the bed, stood in front of him with hair that curled softly around her pretty face and said, ‘Screw my old man. Whattya think of my new hairstyle?’
‘Oh yeah, your hair,’ he said vaguely, giving her a cursory once-over. ‘It’s lovely, doll. Told you, no regrets.’
‘It took forever,’ she complained, flopping down on the end of the bed.
‘I