Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge
Read Vendetta: Lucky's Revenge Online
Authors: Jackie Collins
Vendetta
Lucky’s Revenge
For my Italian hero,
Ti amo,
Jake
1987
DONNA LANDSMAN’S ICY SLATE EYES DARTED around the expensive mahogany…
LUCKY SANTANGELO GOLDEN STEERED HER RED Ferrari through the ornate…
ALEX WOODS HAD A SMILE LIKE A CROCODILE—wide, captivating, and…
“HOW OLD ARE YOU, SWEETIE?” THE FIFTY-FIVE-year-old lech in the…
VENUS MARIA WAS IN SPECTACULAR SHAPE. SHE worked at it…
DONNA LANDSMAN, FORMERLY DONATELLA Bonnatti, resided in a fake Spanish…
“I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE AN HOUR FREE BEFORE my…
“WHAT’S YOUR MOTHER LIKE?” TIN LEE ASKED.
“HI, GORGEOUS,” COOPER TURNER SAID, ENTERING Venus Maria’s all-white, luxurious…
“LET’S STOP FOR A DRINK,” ALEX SUGGESTED, HIS nerves already…
“HOW COME YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN TO SEE ME?”
NONA’S BOSS, AURORA MONDO CARPENTER, WAS a tiny, brittle woman…
LUCKY SLEPT MOST OF THE LONG FLIGHT TO Europe, not…
VENUS DIDN’T HAVE A HOT DATE WAITING AT HER house…
LUCKY SAT VERY STILL, GAZING STRAIGHT AHEAD. She knew she…
Two Months Later
“HI,” LUCKY SAID. SHE WAS SEATED BEHIND HER massive desk…
VENUS HAD A LOT ON HER MIND. SINCE THROWING Cooper…
LUCKY FINISHED OFF MOST OF THE PITCHER OF margaritas before…
“YOUR FANS, THEY MUST DRIVE YOU CRAZY,” Rodriguez remarked, lazily…
“AW, JESUS!” ALEX GROANED AS HE APPROACHED the bar and…
MORTON SHARKEY MET WITH DONNA LANDSMAN in the privacy of…
IT WAS PAST TEN WHEN LUCKY AND ALEX DROVE up…
LYING NEAR THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF Sicily—high above the dusty…
IT WAS FIVE-THIRTY IN THE MORNING WHEN Lucky awoke. Her…
MORNINGS WERE ALWAYS A BUSY TIME AT Venus’s house. Anthony…
LUCKY DID A LOT OF THINKING ON THE DRIVE back…
A CHANEL SUIT SEEMED APPROPRIATE. NAVY blue with white braid…
“YOU’RE LATE,” MICHEL GUY SAID STERNLY. “BY about eight weeks…
SURFACING FROM YET ANOTHER NIGHTMARE, Lennie imagined he heard a…
THE ONLY THINGS LUCKY BOTHERED TAKING WERE the silver picture…
ABE PANTHER HAD NOT LEFT HIS CRUMBLING old mansion for…
ROBERTSON HAD MALEVOLENT VIOLET CAT’S eyes. They followed Brigette wherever…
MORTON’S WAS THE INDUSTRY HANGOUT. IT WAS always packed with…
“MORE CHAMPAGNE?” MICHEL SUGGESTED.
BOOGIE AMBLED INTO HER HOUSE EARLY IN THE morning.
BRIGETTE AWOKE IN HER OWN BED IN THE BEDROOM of…
PALM SPRINGS WAS A PLEASANT HAVEN. GINO WAS crazy about…
EVER SINCE THE NIGHT AT MICHEL’S APARTMENT, Brigette had managed…
IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. GINO HAD BEEN SHOT.
AFTER WALKING OUT ON HIS MOTHER, ALEX drove directly to…
GINO WAS RELEASED FROM THE HOSPITAL A WEEK after being…
WHEN WAS THIS TORTURE GOING TO END? LENNIE didn’t know…
THE FACT THAT MICKEY STOLLI WAS A MAJOR prick was…
WHILE KYOKO WAS TAKING CARE OF THE MAIL, Lucky studied…
ABIGAILE SET A GOOD TABLE. SHE LOVED ENTERTAINING stars, it…
“HI,” SAID LUCKY.
BEING THE MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER OF A BIG Hollywood studio was…
“HE’S HERE,” BOOGIE SAID.
ALEX PICKED A YELLOW ROSE FROM HIS GARDEN and took…
SITTING IN ALEX’S PORSCHE ON THE WAY TO THE Chateau…
“I’M STONED,” TABITHA SAID AND GIGGLED. “THIS IS, like, real…
HER NAME WAS CLAUDIA, AND AS FAR AS LENNIE was…
AS THE GUESTS TROOPED INTO THE STOLLIS’ dining room, Mickey…
LUCKY LEFT THE TABLE ON THE PRETEXT OF visiting the…
THE STOLLIS’ DINNER DRAGGED ON.
JOHNNY ROMANO WAS NOT AS PUSHY AS VENUS had thought.
LUCKY TOOK BOOGIE WITH HER TO MEET SARA and deliver…
“MY PAPA IS BACK,” CLAUDIA SAID, NERVOUSLY clasping her hands…
“SO,” BRIGETTE SAID, NERVOUSLY PULLING AT HER hair. “That’s the…
THE NEWS OF MORTON SHARKEY’S DEMISE WAS A big shock…
DANIELLA DRANK PERNOD AND WATER.
“I’M GETTING MY STUDIO BACK TODAY,” LUCKY announced.
“IT’S BEEN THREE DAYS—I THOUGHT YOU’D deserted me,” Lennie said…
DONNA ARRIVED HOME FROM THE STUDIO seething. She screamed at…
LENNIE WAITED IMPATIENTLY, THE HOURS CRAWLING by at an interminably…
SATURDAY MORNING WAS ONE OF THOSE BEAUTIFUL days, the kind…
“WHY DO YOU KEEP ON BOTHERING ME?” VENUS demanded.
DONNA AND GEORGE GOT IN THE ROLLS AND hurriedly drove…
THEY’D TAKEN OUT HIS COMPUTER, BUT THEY hadn’t gotten into…
DONNA SNORED LOUDLY. SANTO PUT HIS HEAD against her bedroom…
LENNIE KEPT MOVING ALL NIGHT, STICKING close to the mountains…
SANTO’S MIND WAS A MOVIE. AND HE WAS THE macho…
ALEX SLEPT WELL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN months. No…
1988 One Year Later
THE EXTRAVAGANT PREMIERE OF ALEX WOODS’S Gangsters was a major…
1987
DONNA LANDSMAN’S ICY SLATE EYES DARTED
around the expensive mahogany conference table, fixing on her three high-powered lawyers and her mild-mannered husband, George. “How much more time before we acquire enough shares to take control of Panther Studios?” she demanded impatiently. “It’s taking too long.”
One of her lawyers spoke up, a florid-faced man with close-together bushy eyebrows and a bulbous nose. “Donna, it’s true, it is taking longer than we anticipated. However, as you know, I’ve never been in favor of this—”
Donna crushed him with a contemptuous glare. “Do you hear me, Finley?” she interrupted. “Because if you don’t, get out of my sight. Negativity fails to interest me. If I want something,
nobody
tells me no. And…I…want…Panther.”
Finley nodded, sorry he’d spoken. Donna Landsman never listened to anybody’s advice. She was queen of the hostile takeover, every company she went for made her another fortune. This was one of the reasons Finley couldn’t understand why she was so anxious to wrest control of Panther. It was a studio in trouble, with
massive debts and a rocky cash flow—hardly a money-making proposition.
“Yes, Donna,” he said. “We all know what you want, and believe me, we’re working on it.”
“I should hope so,” Donna said, making a mental note to tell George that soon it might be time to replace at least two of their lawyers. Finley would be the first to go.
She stood up, indicating the meeting was over. No point in wasting more time.
George stood up, too. He was an undistinguished-looking man in his fifties with plain features, heavy spectacles, and flat brown hair cut too short. Everyone knew he was the financial brains behind Donna’s empire. She was the flash and he was the cash. They were a formidable combination.
“I’ll see you later,” Donna said to her husband, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.
“Yes, dear,” he replied, unfazed by her abrupt attitude.
Donna strode from the conference room to her office—a palatial suite of interconnecting rooms with a breathtaking view of Century City. For a moment she paused in the doorway, taking it all in.
Lawyers—what did they know? Exactly nothing. The only thing they were truly competent at was sending enormous bills. Fortunately she had someone in place who was able to do exactly what she required. Her team of lawyers had no idea how smartly she’d worked this one—even George had no clue.
Donna smiled to herself.
Everyone has a weakness
.
Seek and ye shall find
.
She’d found.
She entered her private bathroom, pausing before the ornate antique mirror above the sink, peering intently at her reflection.
She saw a woman of forty-three with streaked blond
hair pulled back into an elegant chignon. A woman with sculpted features—the pride of her plastic surgeon. A slim woman who wore her Chanel suit and Winston diamonds with flair.
She was attractive in a hard, manufactured, “I am very rich” way. She was attractive because she’d forced herself to become so.
Donna Landsman.
Donatella Bonnatti.
Ah, yes…she’d come a long way from her humble beginnings in a dusty little village nestled on the southeastern corner of Sicily. A long, long way…
And when she brought Lucky Santangelo to her knees, she’d make sure the bitch knew exactly who she was dealing with.
