Getaway Girlz

by Joan Rylen

  “She turned down the sandy road with us and parked way back,” Lucy said.

  “We had to park all the way back there, too and I gave her my best intimidating glare as we walked past her car,” Pierre said.

  “So she was just sitting in her car?” Vivian asked.

  “Yep, and on the phone.”

  “Calling for reinforcements, no doubt,” Kate said.

  “Great,” Wendy said and turned toward the door. “Shall we?”

  “How’s my make-up?” Vivian asked, feeling her cherry red face turn even cherrier at the question.

  “I think it may have melted off,” Kate said reluctantly.

  “No, it didn’t,” Lucy responded. “You look fine. Let’s go in.”

  Two guys walked up to the porch while they were discussing Vivian’s make-up and walked in the door.

  “Looks like this is a house-is-a-rockin’-don’t-bother-knockin’ kinda party.” Vivian stood up and clapped. “Let’s get to it.”

  Pierre reached for the door handle and pushed it open.

  “Ladies first.”

  CHAPTER 54

  ACCORDING TO Kate, Shorty had left no architectural detail unturned. The solid aluminum door handle floated out from the glass and was cast in the shape of a long piece of driftwood, a nod to nature in the slick modern façade, she pointed out. The interior was a complete 180 from the cheesiness of his boat.

  Crisp white abstract furniture hovered above a sand-colored terrazzo floor dotted with chips of sea green marble. Above their heads, the white coved ceiling softly changed to a pale blue as it stretched out to the ocean into a wide cantilevered canopy. The transition to the exterior was seamless as the 15-foot sliding folding doors tucked away into a pocketed stack on one side.

  “This place is fanccccyyy.” Vivian was shocked by, first, the sheer number of people who were there, and second, the house itself. She figured Shorty would have a place straight out of gaudy land. Not so. This place was sleek, modern and totally fabulous.

  Kate stopped and stared at what she said appeared to be a Chihuly original suspended from the 30-foot foyer. It was triple-tiered and a tangle of greens and blues like a knotted-up giant jellyfish.

  “Holy crap. I could pay off all my student loans for what that cost,” she said.

  They made their way through the living room dotted with delicate glass tables on spindly chrome legs. Lucy couldn’t resist and stopped at the sofa.

  “Ooohhh la la...B&B Italia!” She sank gracefully onto a long white sofa.

  “I think I will join ya, Lucy.” Kate sat down gently and ran her fingers along the curved arm of the sofa.

  “You ladies look right at home.” Pierre grinned, watching their delight.

  Glass screens etched with a kelp pattern divided the room into several seating areas. The panels were transparent and spotless and had changing LED lighting at the top and bottom, creating a sort of tasteful-disco atmosphere.

  “Thank god for those lights,” Vivian said and laughed. “I’d totally be one of those shmucks who runs right into ’em because they’re so clean.”

  “What about the pattern?” Wendy asked.

  “Oh, that wouldn’t stop me,” Vivian admitted. “I’ve run into more obvious.”

  Wendy turned to Lucy and Kate, who were still caressing the couch. “No drooling on the furniture,” she said and offered Lucy, then Kate, a helping hand out of their lounging positions. She about-faced to the kitchen-turned-bar. “It’s time to get a drink!”

  The kitchen was space age with sleek, seamless appliances and large integral sinks with the smooth white countertop. Standing at the eight-foot island was a young Hispanic knockout of a girl, playing bartender.

  “Can I get you something?” she asked.

  She was surrounded by all sorts of liquor, but lots and lots of Tiempo Loco tequila.

  They conferred and Wendy listed off what everyone wanted. “Cosmo for Kate, piña colada for Lucy, margarita for me and a beer for Viv, por favor.”

  “Where’s Pierre?” Lucy asked.

  “Dunno,” Kate said. “Guess he wandered off. I’m sure he can fend for himself.”

  The bartender mixed up the cocktails and placed them on the counter.

  “Gracias,” Vivian said, grabbing the beer. She squeezed in a lime, then threw it back for medicinal purposes.

  Yummmmmmmmy! She thought as the cool liquid went down her throat.

  “That is quite possibly the best beer I’ve had all year.”

  Lucy had a bottle of water in one hand and her piña colada in the other. Kate took a sip of cosmo and gave a nod of approval.

  Vivian looked around for Shorty or one of his ladies, not seeing any of them.

  “Check out Mr. Macheezmo over there,” Kate said, pointing with her drink to a short, greasy-haired guy with his shirt unbuttoned almost to his belly button. He had zero chest hair. None. Smooth as a baby’s butt.

  “He has got to be related to Shorty,” Lucy said, referring to his lack of height.

  “That guy is pretty hot.” Vivian nodded toward a tall, slim-built guy wearing a white loose-fitting button down shirt and dark pants. He was also wearing his sunglasses. She could tell he was one of those guys who would never take off his sunglasses, no matter how dark it got. His clothes screamed “I’m sexy and I know it.”

  “Maybe he’s blind,” Kate joked.

  “This crowd definitely feels like the who’s who of Mexico,” Wendy said.

  Trendy haircuts, pinky rings, slinky dresses, designer duds, overpowering cologne, etc.

  Vivian tilted her beer back and finished it. Wendy went to grab her another. Upon her return, she said, “I just saw Shorty outside. Let’s go say ‘howdy.’ ”

  They followed Wendy back to the living room and through the sliding door that opened to the backyard. An infinity-edge pool blended into the ocean horizon and was fed by a waterfall from under a long, low stone bench. The backyard was lush, covered in tropical plants, some with leaves the size of small umbrellas. Just off to the side of the pool, was a large square fire pit surrounded with plush white patio furniture and more plants past that, forming the edge of the garden. A solid wood gate led down to the beach from the rear corner of the garden.

  “Holy crap,” Vivian said. “I feel like I’m on some sort of outdoor living show. And shit, the people in the pool all look like they stepped out of a magazine, and I’m not talkin’ Good Housekeeping.”

  Several girls were in the hot tub and twice as many guys hovered around. They had the classic signs of men who were considering making a move but hadn’t worked up the courage yet.

  “Are we at the Playboy mansion?” Kate giggled.

  “Well, he did have the sheets,” Wendy said and laughed. “And the bunny.”

  They laughed and wandered through girls in bikinis and guys in lust to reach Shorty, who was talking with two other men on the far side of the pool.

  “Howdy,” Vivian called as they walked up.

  “Hola. Glad you here,” he said in his best Spanglish. “You need drink?” He snapped at a waitress walking by.

  “No, no, we’re good, thank you.”

  He gave Vivian a head-to-toe look. “You have mucho sun.”

  “Yeah, we had a bit of a disagreement today. I lost.”

  “Aloe vera. You need.” He started to flag down another waitress.

  “Not necessary. I’m all stocked up. Thank you, though.”

  She stuck her hand out and shook with one of the two guys standing next to him. “Hi, I’m the sunburn victim, Vivian Taylor.”

  “Es Victor y Joel,” Shorty said, but looked like he would rather have not introduced them.

  Vivian turned to Joel. “So how do you know Julio?”

  Shorty cleared his throat. “They work para mi.”

  Doing what? Vivian wondered.

  “You must be sellin’ the hell outta his tequila,” Lucy said. “This place is freakin’ incredible!”

  Victor and Joel
didn’t respond. It was Joel’s hand she shook and he looked down right awkward.

  Vivian didn’t think they were going to get any more info out of Shorty on what Victor and Joel did for him. She said, “Thanks again for the invite, Julio. As Lucy said, rockin’ house!”

  “Thanks, es new. Maybe nine months.”

  “It is spectacular, thanks again for inviting us. I guess we’re gonna go mosey around. Hang out with all the pretty people.”

  “Mosey. I like,” Shorty said with a head nod, then stretched his arm out invitingly, “Mi casa es su casa.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  They all waved, then walked around the pool terrace and fire pit. The lush vegetation brushed against their arms and shoulders as they settled into a private cabana draped in bougainvillea. They sat in a u-shaped sectional under a white tent with white drapes billowing in the breeze. The ocean was only yards behind them, beyond Shorty’s own tropical paradise.

  Vivian heard rustling in the bushes and saw the flash of a bulb. Paparazzi town had sprung up just outside Shorty’s dense natural barrier. “Crap, Lupe’s troops are here,” she said. It looked like most of the press from their hotel had relocated to this strip of beach.

  She started to call out to Shorty, but he had evidently already seen them. He said something to Victor and Joel, who sprang into action. They rushed down to the beach, yelling in Spanish at the paparazzi. The reporters and photographers scurried off, like crabs on the sand.

  Vivian was getting a clearer picture now of what Victor and Joel’s job.

  “Whoa! Remind me not to piss off Shorty!” Lucy exclaimed.

  Vivian was horrified and looked at Shorty to see if he had heard her.

  Shorty just gave them a wink and walked away.

  Vivian gave him a half-hearted smile. That could have ended badly.

  CHAPTER 55

  THE GIRLS sat on couches in the private cabana poolside at Shorty’s house. Wendy leaned close to the girls and said in a hushed tone, “I realize we don’t really take Shorty for killin’ Jon, but he’s into something. Maybe we should take a little looky-loo around. See what we can find.”

  “Looky-loo?” Vivian looked at her dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, but did you just say ‘looky-loo’? Because I’m not sure I can hang out with anyone who uses the term ‘looky-loo.’ ”

  Wendy laughed. “Yes, I did say looky-loo, but only because you said ‘mosey’ earlier. Who uses mosey?”

  “I was trying to be Texan-y.”

  “Well I am Texan-y,” she said, then continued in a drawl as thick as molasses, “and I’m gonna mosey myself around and take a looky-loo. Y’all should join me.”

  “Yes’m,” Vivian said and turned up her beer, sucking it down for its pain-killing qualities.

  The girls moseyed through Shorty’s house and the growing crowd, making their way to the back corner where a staircase twisted through a couple of suspended landings 20 feet up to the second floor. The stairs were practically a work of art, constructed of thick planks of wood treads cut into wedges and placed at odd angles to each other. Kate was mesmerized and in love.

  Vivian, however, was about to hurl at the thought of climbing those stairs with her sundress rustling over her sunburned thighs. She went back into the kitchen and grabbed another beer before moving forward.

  “Maybe there’s an elevator,” Vivian said upon returning to the girls.

  “We’re here already,” Kate said. “Let’s just go on up.”

  Vivian took the first few steps, gripping the handrail with one hand and her dress and beer with the other, trying to pull it away from her legs.

  “It’s not so bad, huh, Viv?” Kate tried to encourage her.

  “It hurts like a mo-fo.”

  Lucy darted past, smacking her butt.

  “That was not motivating.”

  “Come on, Viv. You can do it,” she called from the top of the stairs.

  Vivian pushed herself more quickly to the top, released her dress and took a big swig.

  “I hope you have learned a lesson to always reapply your sunscreen.” Lucy wagged a finger at her.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Vivian grumbled.

  At the landing they found themselves at every guy’s man-cave wet dream — pool table, giant flat screen, overstuffed yet stylish sofas, modern nudes framed in glass panels and, of course, a solid white, backlit marble bar. There was nobody up there, as all the action was downstairs and outside, making Vivian think maybe all those people knew something she didn’t.

  “Okay, which way?” Kate asked, doing a quick search of the bar.

  “I vote left,” Lucy said. “Most people, as righties, go right. Let’s go left.”

  “Let’s divide and conquer,” Wendy suggested. “Viv, you and Kate go left. Lucy and I will go right. Meet back here in five.”

  Kate and Vivian walked through a couple of guest rooms, each with private bathrooms that could pass for luxury suites in a five-star resort. They looked through night stands and dressers but found nothing unusual. Nothing in the closets, no secret passages. Soon, they were back in the man-cave. Vivian tossed balls around on the billiards table while they waited for Lucy and Wendy to return.

  They rounded the corner. “Nothing fun over there. Just a few rooms and a huge bathroom with a kick-ass four-head shower,” Lucy said.

  “Same here pretty much, but check that out,” Vivian said, pointing toward the windows.

  Wendy walked over and pulled back a royal blue velvet curtain in the back of the game room. It revealed a spiral stair with a thin bronze handrail and thick wood treads cordoned off by a braided gold rope.

  Never one to respect boundaries, Vivian immediately felt the need to go up those stairs, sunburned and all. They all looked at each other and smiled, knowing they were going.

  Kate reached out to move the rope but Wendy stopped her. “Let’s not touch it. Let’s go under - just in case.”

  Kate looked nervous. “In case of what? It sets off an alarm?”

  “You never know. This house looks pretty high-tech,” Wendy said.

  They slipped under the rope, some more gracefully than others (Vivian blamed the sunburn), and reached the top of the stairs, where they were confronted with two separate, ornate doors decorated with a Mayan-esque symbols. One had a serpent handle. The other a lizard.

  “Oh my god,” Lucy said. “I’m a nervous wreck!”

  “It’s gonna be fine,” Vivian said. “We’re just taking a look around the place if anyone asks. Kate’s an architect and she’s intrigued. Plus, Shorty did say his casa was our casa.”

  “Right. Okay.”

  Vivian reached for the door with a serpent carved around the iron knob. It wasn’t locked so she pushed it open. She was surprised by what she found — a traditional dark wood study complete with a huge claw-footed desk, built-in shelving stuffed with antique books, a computer and a long, built-in file cabinet secured with decorative brass locks.

  Wendy sank into the desk chair. “Damn, I’m gonna have to get me one of these. This is the Rolls Royce of office chairs,” she said, swiveling around.

  Then she started opening drawers, going through them carefully, trying to make sure everything was put back in its place.

  “What are you looking for?” Kate asked.

  “Beats me, but this is what they do in the mysteries I read.”

  Vivian started pulling out books from the bookcase, waiting for a wall to open up and spin her around or something.

  Kate tried to open the file cabinet. “Locked. Damn.”

  Lucy went around the room gently lifting the pictures a little to see what was behind them. No hidden safes in here.

  “Hey, look, The Joy of Sex!” Vivian held up the book and laughed, then held up another, “Oh, and a Kama Sutra book! No wonder The Ladies like him. He studies.”

  “Let me see one of those.” Kate grabbed the Kama book and started flipping through.

  Vivian glanced over her shoulder. “Never done
that before,” she said, pointing at a page and giggling.

  “I don’t even think my body would bend that way!” Kate answered, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf.

  Wendy pulled an envelope out of a drawer and opened it. “Y’all need to see this.”

  She showed them a picture of Shorty with The Ladies in front of a fountain.

  “Okay?” Kate said, bewildered. “He takes pictures in front of fountains? I don’t get it, what’s the big deal?”

  “I know why it’s a big deal,” Vivian said. “That, my friends, is Buckingham Fountain.”

  “In England?” Kate asked.

  Wendy and Vivian looked at each other.

  “Chicago.”

  CHAPTER 56

  “HOW DO you know that’s in Chicago?” Kate looked at the picture Wendy found in Shorty’s desk.

  “Vivian and I went there when we were in college, remember?” Wendy tapped the photo. “Jerry Springer.”

  “I don’t remember that. Y’all were on Jerry Springer?” Kate asked.

  “Well, yes and no. We were in the audience but Viv got a TV close up.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Lucy said. “The show about Internet hookers right?”

  “That’s the one. My hair was maroon.” Vivian looked down at the picture again, now resting on top of the desk. “I don’t know why I did that.”

  “We all have hair regrets,” Lucy said with a sigh.

  “Remember that guy in the audience who asked the nasty hooker lady that if the money was as good as she claimed, why didn’t she go see a doctor about all the sores on her legs?”

  “Gross!” Lucy and Kate yelled at the same time.

  “I thought it was a good question,” Vivian shrugged. “Remember how the end of Jerry’s nose would move when he talked?”

  “You don’t get to see that on TV,” Wendy said, and turned her attention back to the photo. “Anyway, this is definitely Chicago. Viv and I have a picture in front of this same fountain.” She paused, then asked, “So what does this mean? Is Al in cahoots with Shorty?”

  Vivian gave her a look. “What is it with you and words tonight? Did you just say ‘cahoots?’”