Dangerous Kiss (24 page)

Chapter Forty-two

'Is Steven coming?' Venus Maria asked.

'He's not,' Lucky said. 'I invited him, but he feels it's too soon.'

They were talking in the gym of Venus's ultra-modern house in the Hollywood Hills. Lately Venus had been on Lucky's case about working out with her. 'I hate exercise,' Lucky had said. 'It's boring.'

'You're not twenty any more,' Venus had pointed out. 'You have to work out -

unless you want to turn into a fat slob.'

'Ha!' Lucky had replied. 'All you want is company in your quest for perfection!'

Now they were sitting on a bench in their workout clothes, waiting for Sven, Venus's personal trainer.

'You've gotta tell Steven that it's never too soon to get back into life,' Venus said briskly. 'Look at me after that horrible experience with the stalker at my house. I was back doing things immediately.'

'Yes,' Lucky said, 'but that was only a stalker. This is the murder of Steven's wife we're talking about. And, of course, he's broken up about the baby - who wouldn't be? He didn't even know Mary Lou was pregnant. I can understand why he doesn't want to go out.'

'Maybe I should go talk to him myself,' Venus decided. 'He's always liked me.'

'No,' Lucky corrected. 'You've always liked him. If you didn't have Cooper, I'm sure Steven would've been a contender.'

'He is gorgeous,' Venus admitted. 'Didn't you tell me that when you first met, and you had no clue he was your half-brother, you had kind of a big flirtation?'

Lucky chuckled at the memory. Nineteen seventy-seven. The big New York power outage, and her and Steven trapped in an elevator together. Pure fate.

Neither of them had had any idea they were related. 'It could have been a lot more than a flirtation,' she said, 'but Steven's always been so straight. Apart from when he was married to that Puerto Rican maniac'

'Can you imagine,' Venus said, 'if anything had happened between you and him?'

'No, I can't,' Lucky said briskly, reaching for a cigarette. 'Mind if I smoke?'

'You know I do,' Venus retorted. 'Anyway, I thought you gave it up.'

'I give it up, then I do it again,' Lucky said, gesturing helplessly. 'It's kind of a see-saw deal.'

'Smoking is bad for you,' Venus said sternly.

'You're becoming such a boring health nut,' Lucky replied, lighting up and taking a long, deep drag. 'You've even got Cooper working out, and he was the run-around stud of all time.'

'Ha!' Venus exclaimed. 'How about Lennie? In his movie-star days he didn't exactly keep it zipped up.'

'Ah… but he wasn't Cooper Turner,' Lucky responded, with a mischievous grin.

'Cooper's legendary in this town. Him and Warren Beatty.'

'I suppose he is,' Venus said, smiling proudly. 'Of course,' she added, after a thoughtful pause, 'I wasn't exactly hiding in a convent.'

'True,' Lucky agreed. 'Miss If-it-moves-I'll-fuck-it!'

'I like being married though,' Venus said, stretching her arms in the air. 'It's…

comfortable.'

'That's 'cause you're never peering out of your marriage to see what you're missing,' Lucky said wisely. 'You and I both experienced everything, so did our husbands. Which means we never missed a thing.'

'Been there, done that,' Venus said, with a crazed giggle.

'There should be a law against getting married too young,' Lucky said. 'Thirty for women. Thirty-five for men. Seems reasonable to me.'

'According to Gino,' Venus said. 'You were so wild he had to marry you off at sixteen. The other night he was telling insane stories about you.'

'Here's the thing about Gino,' Lucky said, stubbing out her cigarette after two drags. 'Never believe a word he says. Gino likes to embellish.'

'Seems you had almost as much fun as me.'

'Nobody had as much fun as you,' Lucky remarked drily. 'You invented the word party!'

'Hmm…' Venus said, savouring the fond memories. 'Sometimes I miss being single…'

'Do you really?'

'Nope. But it sounds good.'

Sven arrived, cutting short their conversation. He was a tall well-built Swede with muscles to spare. 'Ladies,' he said, with what Lucky considered to be an evil sneer. 'Are we ready to be tortured?'

'No,' Lucky said irritably, 'I'm ready for another cigarette. I had a hard weekend.'

'How hard?' Venus asked provocatively.

'Hard enough,' Lucky replied, smiling. 'Lennie has returned to the land of the living. And how!'

'I'm glad to hear it.'

'So am I.'

'After we've worked out,' Venus said, 'I think I'll call Steven. In fact, I might even visit him at his office.'

'That'll cause a riot,' Lucky said. 'You - walking into the law offices.'

'Steven represented me on a couple of things,' Venus said. 'They're used to me.'

Lucky shook her head. 'Nobody's used to you, Venus. You're an original.'

'That is true,' Sven said, flexing his considerable muscles. 'Now, ladies, enough time wasted. Let us get to work!'

Steven was gazing out of his Century City office window, when his secretary announced that Venus Maria was there to see him. 'Does she have an appointment?' he asked.

'No, Mr Berkeley. She said she'll only take five minutes of your time.'

'Okay.' He nodded, knowing that if Venus was on the premises there was no getting rid of her. 'Show her in.'

Venus entered his office in a body-hugging Claude Montana purple dress, platinum hair in a straight bob, huge black shades obscuring her eyes. 'I'm here,'

she announced.

'I can see that,' he said, getting a whiff of her exotic perfume.

'I'm a walking, talking personal invitation,' she said, with a seductive smile.

'For?'

'Our party tonight,' she said, removing her sunglasses. 'You're coming,' she added, perching on the edge of his desk.

'Venus,' he said patiently, 'I explained it to Lucky. It's too soon.'

'You'll bring Carioca,' she said, matter-of-factly, as if it was a done deal. 'There'll be a special kiddies' table. Chyna has personally requested Carioca's presence.

You're not going to deprive your daughter, are you?'

'Stop making it difficult for me,' he said.

'I'm not making it that difficult, Steven. I want you there. Anyway… I'll be hurt if you don't come.'

'Well…'

'Good,' she said, getting off his desk and undulating her way to the door. 'We'll expect you both at seven.'

On her way back to the beach Lucky stopped by the police station. She paced impatiently around Detective Johnson's office, waiting for him to put in an appearance.

He arrived a few minutes later, styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand, the traditional jelly doughnut in the other.

'I do hope I'm not disturbing your breakfast,' she said sarcastically, annoyed because in spite of everyone's efforts there were still no results.

'Glad you're here,' he said, not meaning it. Lucky Santangelo was on his case day and night. The woman was slowly driving him nuts. 'The plate numbers are a help,' he said, taking a swig of coffee. 'We're narrowing down the list.'

'How about the reward?' she asked. 'What's going on with that?'

'We're snowed under with false information,' he said, settling behind his desk and clearing off a stack of papers so he could put his coffee down. 'There was one interesting phone call, though.'

'From?'

He paused, took a bite of his doughnut. 'A girl claiming she knows who did it.'

'What makes this phone call different?'

'She had details other people wouldn't know.'

'Like what?' Lucky said, staring at him.

'Well,' he said, a dribble of jam making its way down his chin, 'she knew exactly how the car was positioned, the dress Mary Lou had on…'

'Are you bringing her in?'

'She told me she could give us the shooter, but first she wants to make sure she gets the reward. I informed her that's not the way things work.'

'How did you leave it?'

'She'll call again.'

Lucky attempted to curb her anger. 'You mean you had her on the phone and you let her go?'

'We tried putting a trace on her call, but by that time she'd hung up.'

'Did you get her name… anything?'

'No. But we'll hear from her again,' Detective Johnson said confidently. 'She wants the money.'

Lucky was furious. What kind of detective work was that? People were just plain incompetent, including the police - especially the police.

She drove to the beach breaking speed records, checking in on her car phone with the private detective firm she'd hired. They were also useless. In spite of plenty of time and unlimited money they'd come up with nothing.

The house was quiet when she arrived home; the children weren't due back from Gino's until later.

'Lennie,' she called out, throwing down her purse.

'In here,' he yelled.

She went into his office and was delighted to find him positioned in front of his computer - an excellent sign, considering he hadn't gone near it since the shooting.

Walking up behind him, she began massaging his shoulders. 'Working on something good?' she asked.

'I'm planning a film about violence,' he announced. 'Random violence on the streets today. What do you think?'

'Terrific idea.'

'Yeah,' he said, nodding vigorously. 'Y' know, one of the things that struck me most about what went down was the unbelievable hate in the girl's voice. How did she get like that? What made her learn to take off on total strangers? It's something worth exploring.'

'I'm so happy to see you working again,' Lucky said, kissing the back of his neck.

'How about you?' he said, turning around. 'What are your plans now that you've given up the studio?'

'It's not that I've given it up,' she explained. 'It's simply that I'm not interested in doing that any more. Eight years running a studio, dealing with everyone's egos on a daily basis. It's a goddamn lifetime, and frankly I've had it.'

'I know you, Lucky,' he said. 'You'll never be happy sitting around doing nothing.'

'I do have kind of an idea…' she said, wandering over to the window and gazing out at the ocean.

'Tell me,' he said.

She turned around and faced him. 'I was thinking I might produce a movie.'

He laughed derisively. 'You don't know anything about producing.'

'I ran Panther for eight years,' she said, frowning. 'I know plenty.'

'Physically producing a movie is completely different from sitting in an office greenlighting other people's projects,' he pointed out.

'Are you saying I can't do it?' she said, narrowing her eyes.

'You can do anything you set your mind to, as long as you realize it's not as easy as it seems.'

She hated it when Lennie tried to tell her what to do, but since she was on a mission to make him feel better about himself she held back a snappy retort.

'Hey,' she said, being nice, 'how about you write me a movie and 'I'll produce it?'

'Oh, no,' he said, shaking his head like it was the worst idea he'd ever heard.

'Working together, the two of us - bad, bad idea.'

'Why?' she said, trying to stay reasonable even though he was beginning to irritate the hell out of her.

'Because I hate every producer I've ever worked with,' he said shortly. 'They try to cast people I don't want. They're always trying to cut my budget - not to mention screwing with my actors. They get in my way. No, no, no, let's not get into that?'

'Then how would you feel if I produced a movie with someone else?' she asked, thinking of Alex.

'Hey, that's your decision.'

It was always her decision until he didn't like it. Lennie was difficult that way. 'I'm trying to discuss things with you, see how you feel about it,' she said calmly.

'Whatever you want, sweetheart.'

'You're sure?'

'Absolutely. Oh, and, Lucky,' he said, giving her a little more attention, 'thanks for this weekend. It was beyond great.'

'Yes, it was,' she said, smiling at the memories of wild hotel sex. 'When we're good, we're very, very good.'

He began to laugh. 'And when we're bad, we're a freaking mess?

She laughed too. 'No, you're a mess.'

'No, you are.'

'No, you,' she countered, playfully punching him on the chin. 'I'm hungry,' he said. 'Think you can fix me one of your great tuna sandwiches?'

'What am I? The cook?' she said, exasperated.

'You do know that in most civilized countries wives fix husbands lunch?'

'Screw you!' she said affectionately. 'Make your own sandwich.'

'Love you, too,' he said, grinning. 'Easy on the mayonnaise.'

'Lennie!'

'Please?'

'Okay,' she said grudgingly. 'Just this once.'

'Thanks, babe,' he said, turning back to his computer. And, as much as she loved her husband, Lucky knew that being a homebody was not for her.

Chapter Forty-three

Lunch with Carlo, and Brigette thought that she played him pretty smoothly as they sat side by side in San Lorenzo, a fashionable Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge.

What are you doing?

Getting my revenge. Just as Lucky taught me. Because revenge is sweet. And then I'll worry about being pregnant.

Carlo was continuing with his well-worn line about how the moment he'd set eyes on her he'd known his engagement was a sham and that he would have to end it immediately. He wasn't exactly smooth, corny was more like it.

But she pretended to fall for it, all the while watching him carefully, wondering how such an attractive man could be such a rat.

'Fiona seems nice,' she said carefully. 'However, if you're sure this is the way you feel…'

'When I returned to London after meeting you,' he said, 'I knew I must finish with Fiona and move to New York.'

'But first you had to break your engagement,' she said, twirling spaghetti around her fork.

'I'll do it now.'

'What about her father and the business you were discussing?'

'It is not important.'

She picked up her wine-glass and took a sip. 'Will you tell her what happened between us in New York?'