by Joanna Rees
As usual, Savvy couldn’t help but notice the swooning look of adoration in Paige, Elodie and Hud’s eyes.
‘They haven’t yet said if he’s alive or dead,’ Luc told her, gazing briefly at her before turning away, as if she didn’t really matter at all.
Savvy felt her jaw clench as Luc sauntered towards Hud. He knew exactly how much it infuriated her that he was here with her father, at the centre of Hud’s empire. After what he’d done. And he knew she couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
‘No doubt you’d prefer him dead,’ Savy said.
She’d meant just to think it, not say it out loud. But now that it was out, she didn’t regret it. The flash of anger in his eyes thrilled her. She was delighted she still had it in her to crack his sangfroid.
Elodie glared at Savvy as she walked across to Luc’s side. ‘Savvy, stop it! What a terrible thing to say. People were hurt.’
‘It’s all right,’ said Luc. ‘It’s late and I’m sure she meant no offence . . .’
The hell I didn’t, Savvy thought.
Because she knew full well that the crinkly-eyed look of concern on his face was nothing but a mask. One of many. He didn’t give a damn about any of those people at the Enzo. Oh, sure, on the surface he might be fooling everyone. Particularly sweet, saintly Elodie. Caring Luc. Charming Luc. Luc who can do no bloody wrong . . .
Savvy swallowed hard, sweeping her face of emotion, determined not to let him see that he’d got to her again. She raised an eyebrow at Hud, choosing instead to score a point of her own.
‘Well, Daddy, you always said the Enzo was a disaster waiting to happen,’ she said. ‘It looks like you were right.’
Without actually acknowledging the fact Savvy had spoken, Hud turned to Luc. ‘She’s got a point,’ he said. ‘It’s going to look bad if we don’t do something. Everyone knows how much we’ve spoken out against the senator. And Enzo Vegas.’
‘You’re right, of course,’ Luc said, with a bow of his head. ‘We have to spin this. Make a statement. Offer our condolences. Even say we’ll help. Make sure we end up looking like the good guys out of this.’ He turned to Paige. ‘Don’t you agree?’
‘I’ll get on it right away.’
Gathering up some papers from a nearby writing desk, Paige shot Savvy a look of warning. It was clearly something to do with Luc. But what?
Elodie brought Hud a drink. Orange juice. He swilled it round his glass and peered at it as if it were medicine. Savvy knew he wished it was whisky instead. But he was under strict doctor’s orders . . . and Elodie’s scrutiny.
‘Thanks, precious,’ Hud said, smiling gently as he squeezed Elodie’s shoulder.
The dart of jealousy Savvy felt was only sharpened by the look on Luc’s face. Ever since he’d been Elodie’s guy, the compliments that had gone her way had gone his too.
‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier,’ she said, trying to patch things up, going over to Hud now and squeezing his arm.
He looked down at her hand, making no move to touch her. Her apologies were clearly too little, too late.
‘Luc, Paige and I are going to have to deal with this,’ he said.
She flinched, feeling the full force of her exclusion.
But you’ve got away with it, she reminded herself. You’ve got away without a dressing-down for what you got up to tonight . . .
She should have felt happy. Or at least relieved. But this time the buzz didn’t come. She felt deflated. Exhaustion and sadness swamped her. She felt Luc’s eyes on her, as if her skin had erupted into a rash.
‘No problem,’ Elodie said, scooping up a matching pink cardigan from the couch, obviously keen to leave. Savvy saw her flash a look at Luc and then at Hudson. ‘We’ll leave you guys to it and Savvy and I will go back to mine. To talk.’
Talk about what?
From the way Elodie said it, Savvy suddenly suspected she’d been a topic of conversation for most of this evening, prior to what had happened at the Enzo. She looked across at Paige. Paige was the only one she could trust. Again she caught that flash of warning in her best friend’s eyes.
Hud stepped between them. ‘We’ll go through to my office,’ he told Paige.
Elodie already had her car keys in her hand.
You’re just being paranoid, Savvy told herself. After everything she’d been expecting – the accusations and drama – she was looking for conspiracies where there was none. The truth of the matter was that what she’d been up to wasn’t important. Not to anyone here. They were preoccupied with bigger things. Thank God.
Well, Savvy had no intention of going to Elodie’s apartment. She’d only just arrived. Now that the coke had all worn off, she was on a serious comedown. She didn’t feel like the sophisticated young woman she had done earlier. She felt like a little girl. In her father’s home. And all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep.
‘I’ll stay here,’ Savvy said. ‘Up in my old room.’ She moved towards the door. ‘It’s pretty late, so I’ll just—’
‘Go with your sister,’ Hudson said.
It wasn’t a request. It was an order. Luc, she noticed, was smiling at Elodie. Savvy felt like she’d been kicked.
CHAPTER TEN
Savvy hunched down low in the yellow leather passenger seat of Elodie’s black Porsche as they joined the line of traffic on the freeway back across Vegas. The hood was down and soft jazz was playing on the CD player. But despite Elodie’s best efforts to create a relaxed and intimate environment, it was obvious from the way she kept glancing across at Savvy that she was itching to say something.
But Savvy refused to give her the satisfaction of asking her what it was. If she allowed Elodie to instigate a discussion about her plans for their birthday now, it might never end. Plus, Savvy was way too exhausted to fight her corner. God only knew what she might end up agreeing to, just to get Elodie to shut the hell up.
All she wanted to do was to get inside. To be behind the locked door of Elodie’s apartment. She visualized a claw-foot bath full of fragrant bubbles, air conditioning, pasta and Elodie’s soft bed, covered in cushions and a duck-down quilt. Perhaps she’d sleep in there with Elodie tonight. Cuddle up, just as they’d always done as kids.
A burst of sirens. An ambulance slid past them and weaved on ahead. Even though they were heading the opposite way from the Enzo Vegas, the freeway was still jammed.
‘Just follow the ambulance,’ Savvy said. ‘It’ll cut right through. And it’s bound to be heading for the hospital. That’s near your exit, right?’
‘No,’ Elodie gasped.
‘Just do it,’ Savvy snapped. ‘Come on, Elodie, it’ll hurry things up.’
Savvy groaned as Elodie ignored her and stayed at the same speed in the middle lane, anxiously glancing in the rear-view mirror. She hated Elodie’s overcautious driving. It was a travesty that she had this car. Everything about her was just so slow.
They’d resolved long ago that it was better not to drive in the same car, after all the arguments they’d had. Savvy remembered now the incident when some workmen, seeing the twins fighting at a stop sign, had started clapping in unison and wolf-whistling. Elodie had been so mortified, she’d told Savvy she’d never be her passenger again, or vice versa. And until tonight Savvy had held her to it, but now she felt her old irritation overwhelming her.
‘Goddamnit, Elodie. Please,’ Savvy urged again, kicking off her shoes and sticking her feet up on the smart dashboard. She put her elbows on her knees and clawed her hair.
Elodie glared at her feet, clearly annoyed, but she didn’t say anything.
‘I’m not an ambulance chaser, Savvy. It’s . . . well, it’s rude. And anyway – I just thought . . . it might be coming from the Enzo Vegas.’ She gasped dramatically, as if she was awed to be potentially so close to dangerous action. She put one hand on her chest. ‘I can’t imagine how terrifying it must have been in there with someone shooting.’
Savvy let out an ironic, depressed laugh. ‘You have no
idea.’
Staring out into the neon night, Savvy’s eyes welled with tears. She thought again of that drop of blood on her shoulder. She shuddered, thinking of how she’d turned and seen the senator’s face, how sympathetic he’d looked and how he’d given her his handkerchief.
Shit. I hope he’s OK.
‘You know, you shouldn’t have said that awful thing to Luc,’ Elodie said.
Savvy snapped back to reality. Had she just heard right? Did Elodie want a fucking apology? For Luc? She felt herself flush with fresh anger.
‘Don’t lecture me. You have absolutely no idea what I’ve been through tonight,’ she snapped.
‘Then why don’t you tell me? What could be so bad?’
Savvy hugged her arms across her chest, forcing herself to calm down. ‘Just drop it. It doesn’t matter.’
She glared back at the Vegas skyline. What had seemed like the Capital of Cool from up there in the SkyBird was now somewhere she just wanted to get away from.
‘Savvy?’ Elodie asked, quietly this time, finally sensing something was up. ‘What has been going on?’
Savvy sighed, too tired to keep up the charade any longer. Everything she’d bottled up, she suddenly couldn’t hold in any more. ‘If you must know, I was there,’ she said. ‘But if you tell anyone, I’ll fucking kill you, OK?’
‘Where?’
‘There. Enzo Vegas.’
‘What? Tonight? At the fight?’
Savvy remembered how easy it was to taunt her sister. Particularly with anything shocking. In any other situation, she’d have tantalizingly slow-dripped the details, multiplying the effect of the punchline.
But this wasn’t about some crazy party she’d been to. This was different. This was real. And as she looked ahead at the traffic and saw the ambulance speed away from them, its siren wailing plaintively into the night, she felt frightened again at how close she’d come to being in one herself.
‘Yeah, right. Good one,’ Elodie said, snorting.
Savvy wiped her face and shook her head, before hugging her arms tighter across her.
Why had she said anything? She saw Elodie change her grip on the steering wheel and stare at Savvy as she saw her tear-laden eyes.
‘Oh, Jesus . . . Savvy? You can’t be serious?’
‘Deadly. I was right there . . . right in front of the senator when he got shot. You might as well know. Chances are some reporter will turn it up anyway pretty soon.’
Savvy waited for Elodie to clamber down from her moral high horse and say something sympathetic. Because right now it was what she needed to hear. It was too big a deal. Now that she’d come clean, she desperately needed Elodie – anyone – to tell her how sorry they were. That her ordeal must have been dreadful. That she must have been scared out of her wits. Because she had been.
But instead Elodie cleared her throat and said, ‘When did you decide to go to the fight?’
‘What?’
‘You heard me. When?’
The question caught Savvy completely off guard. The tears, so close to bursting from her in a torrent stalled, jammed against a dam of incomprehension. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She could have been killed. Nearly had been killed. But all Elodie cared about was that she’d planned on going to the fight? That she’d missed Hud’s family dinner on purpose . . .
‘Doesn’t it bother you that I was nearly shot?’ Savvy asked. Her voice cracked, but Elodie didn’t seem to notice.
She didn’t even reply.
They still weren’t talking as they pulled up at the kerb outside the Chanteuse. It was a boutique hotel – part of a chain which Hudson had acquired last year. He’d given the Vegas site to Elodie to refurbish, and Elodie had been thrilled at the opportunity to try out the interior design skills she’d been busy honing in all her rich acquaintances’ homes.
But Savvy knew this was all bullshit. Elodie would never have got the gig if Hud hadn’t owned the building. And even then, Paige had employed Giles Winterson, her best project manager, to oversee the work and make sure Elodie got a good result.
Savvy hadn’t been to the hotel for over six months and had never set foot in the apartment Hud had effectively given Elodie. The building’s scaffolding was down and a mock art deco façade was up. It looked pretty cool too, Savvy grudgingly had to admit. But no doubt that was all down to the architect Hud had employed.
Elodie still wasn’t speaking as the elevator took them up to the twelfth floor.
Savvy stared straight ahead. If she’d had any energy, she would have still been picking a fight, demanding an apology from Elodie for being such a sanctimonious bitch. But her own need for comfort was greater. She was too weak to argue any more.
‘Can we just deal with this in the morning?’ she said. ‘You know, when we’ve both had a chance to catch up on some sleep?’
But Elodie wasn’t even prepared to meet her halfway. ‘Tonight was meant to be really special. And you deliberately ruined it all.’
Savvy sighed. ‘OK, I’m sorry. There. Happy now?’
The elevator stopped. A glass panel slid back. Savvy stepped into the atrium of Elodie’s two-storey apartment.
Last time Savvy had been here, the Chanteuse had been a building site. Now, as Elodie turned on the lights, Savvy caught her breath and swore.
She stepped forward and slowly pirouetted on the intricate spiral pattern of the marble floor, gazing out at the twinkling city through the towering walls of tinted glass. The top two storeys of the building had been combined into one, so that the actual living accommodation was suspended in the space above. A dangling light sculpture stretched down from the high ceiling. A Wurlitzer glowed pink and blue on a giant thick-pile rug at the bottom of a steep flight of stairs.
This is a kick-ass place for a party, Savvy thought, that’s for sure.
‘You like it?’ Elodie asked, smiling and mellowing in spite of herself, clearly having already guessed the answer.
‘It’s amazing, El,’ Savvy said. ‘Really. I didn’t know you had it in you, but you’ve done a great job.’
She meant every word. In fact, the effect she felt was even stronger. She felt jealous – of the space itself, of what a great time she could have here. But she felt envious too – of Elodie, and what she’d achieved. Because there was no hiding from the fact. While Savvy had been back in LA getting high, Elodie had been here . . . working . . . putting her stamp on the world. In some way that Savvy couldn’t yet fully understand, she suddenly felt terribly left behind.
‘Of course it’s not finished,’ Elodie said, failing to mask the pride in her voice as she walked past Savvy to the steep open staircase, which led up through a cut-away mezzanine floor to the main living area above. ‘Mind out for the banisters,’ she warned. ‘The rest of the glass is being fitted this week before the Harpers photoshoot.’
‘Oh, OK,’ Savvy managed, following her.
She knew Elodie wanted her to ask questions about the photoshoot, but her eyes were stinging. She was desperate for sleep. As she passed the mezzanine, she looked over at Elodie’s bed, and saw that it was just as she’d imagined, with an old-fashioned soft eiderdown and fur throw. Maybe she’d have a long, deep soak in a bath and then climb in beneath the duck-down softness.
She joined Elodie at the top of the stairs. Everywhere she looked, there were unmistakable Elodie touches, from the tiger-skin rug on the beige carpet to the circular sofas scattered with stylish cushions. A wall of glass shelves was tastefully stacked with arty books, and on the top shelf were all Elodie’s horse-riding trophies.
She kicked off her shoes under the white table. It was crowded with family photos, all beautifully framed in pretty silver fames. Centre-stage was a photo of her and Elodie in matching dresses, when they were four. It made Savvy smile.
‘Sav?’ Elodie said, gently placing her keys down next to the photos.
‘Hmm?’ Savvy looked at her sister.
Her eyes were sparkling. The argument they�
�d had in the car was forgotten, and Elodie’s mind had clearly switched back to the issue she’d been twitching over earlier. ‘We need to talk . . .’
Savvy groaned. ‘Can’t it wait? You know, I’m really, really tired right now, and what I really want to do is—’
‘Luc’s asked me to marry him,’ Elodie said. She was beaming. ‘That’s why I organized the dinner with Daddy tonight. To break the good news. Isn’t it wonderful?’
Savvy felt as if the air had been punched from her lungs.
Elodie was biting her bottom lip, her face lit up in excitement, waiting for her reaction.
‘Well?’ Still that grin, those happy shining eyes. ‘Say something.’
Savvy opened her mouth but nothing came out. There was nothing she could say. Nothing except the truth that would break Elodie’s heart.
The truth.
Christ, the truth. Savvy felt the enormity of it rearing up like an iceberg through the fog.
She thought she’d had it under control. That she’d managed to smooth it all over, chain it up, make it disappear. It had taken every ounce of her strength to carry on in front of Elodie as if nothing had happened. But now here it was again.
‘Fuck,’ she said, out loud.
‘I know.’ Elodie clapped her hands in delight, completely misreading Savvy’s tone. ‘It’s all so exciting, I can hardly believe it myself. I’ve been dying to tell. That’s why I got so pissed at you about not showing up tonight.’
If Luc had been here, Savvy would have attacked him with her bare hands. She’d have clawed out his eyeballs. She’d have torn out his tongue.
Poor Elodie had no idea . . .
‘You can’t marry him,’ Savvy said.
‘What?’ Elodie laughed. ‘Why not?’
Savvy had hoped it would never come to this. That Elodie’s relationship with Luc would somehow fizzle out. But she could see now that that had just been wishful thinking on her part. That she’d been pulling the wool over her own eyes. Deliberately partying too hard so as not to face facts. And now it was too late.
