by Gina LaManna
“No. I wasn’t able to compare your source’s information with mine to see if they were the same people. There’s a chance there are two different crews working.”
“Are you going to sing?” I asked.
“Doll, I don’t sing.” I fell silent, picturing Anthony on stage at karaoke. It was impossible; I couldn’t conjure up an image, no matter how hard I tried.
His breathing evened, but I wasn’t quite ready to let him drift off yet. After all, we were alone, the house was quiet...snuggling up against him, cocooned in the comforter, our bodies pressed close, I wiggled a little bit. “Are you awake?”
“Mmm.”
“Do you wanna...hang out?” I asked, looking straight ahead at the wall.
“Why don’t we get some sleep? I’m exhausted.” Anthony’s voice already sounded far away, as if he were drifting off.
“Oh, okay. Good night.” I pretended not to be disappointed.
“We can hang out if you want, but I’ve been looking forward to crawling in bed with you all evening. Holding you close. Sleeping with you in my arms.”
I smiled, though he couldn’t see it in the dark. “That sounds nice, you’re right. We can...hang out tomorrow.”
“Good night, sugar.”
“Sweet dreams.”
Chapter 25
“WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY,” Meg trilled, bounding into the room. “I got my gold karaoke boots rarin’ to go, I’ve got my—” she stopped talking and walking all at once. “When did you get here?” She glanced at Anthony as if he were an intruder who’d snuck into my room during the night. He sorta had, I guess, but I welcomed the cuddles.
“Argh.” Anthony pulled the comforter up over his head, trapping himself in a nest of blankets.
“He came back late from...something,” I offered unhelpfully.
“Something?” Meg narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like the sound of that, buster.”
“It was a work something.” I narrowed my own eyes in her direction. “But what’s truly suspicious is why you’re up at ten in the morning. And cheerful about it.”
Meg shook off her suspicious glares towards the lump next to me on the mattress and perked right back up, a brilliant smile on her face. “Because it’s karaoke day, of course!”
“But you know we’re only going as part of a job, right? To scout out the truckers.”
“What’s a better way to scout out the target than to be so into the moment they don’t know we’re deep, deep undercover? The more into it we are, the less likely they’ll catch onto us. How do you like my boots?” She stuck her leg out and wiggled skintight, thigh high gold things with heels that brought her up an extra six inches in height.
“They’re beautiful.” I shielded my eyes as the sunlight hit the sparkly buckle. “But aren’t we trying not to stand out?”
“Okay, Lacey, put your thinking cap on. Who do you think is more odd looking? Me, a person embracing the ancient art of karaoke and glamming it up – or you, a person sitting quietly in the corner in yoga pants.”
“I don’t think I want to answer that.” I personally didn’t see anything wrong with sitting quietly in the corner. In fact, I was pretty sure that by sitting in the corner without singing, I’d be doing the room a favor. God hadn’t graced me with a beautiful singing voice. My vocal cords were built for speaking, and speaking only.
“Plus, we’ve got to show this town how us city folk do things.” Meg took a few wobbly steps further into the room. She extended her heel and gave Anthony a light kick to the foot. “What song are you singing?”
Anthony grunted, a moan so agonizing I briefly wondered if he was in physical pain.
“I don’t think either of us are the singing type,” I said, looking at the impossibly still lump next to me. “We’re okay being the weird couple in the quiet corner.”
“Don’t tell me you’re turning frumpy on me.” Meg flounced a hand on her hip. “You’ve been in a relationship for what, two days? Three days? And already you’re a grandma. Nothing wrong with being a grandma, mind you, but it’s pretty unusual since you’re only twenty-nine.”
“Meg, I’ve never liked singing! Nora asks me to refrain from participating in Happy Birthday. That’s how bad my voice is – my own grandmother requests my silence.”
“Well, good thing I’m not your grandma. But I am your vocal coach. And your designer. And your support team. And your duet partner. So get your rear end up because we’re going shopping.”
“I’m lost,” I said, feeling Anthony shudder beneath the covers next to me, as if recoiling in horror at Meg’s words. “Which part of this assignment requires a shopping trip?”
“Did you bring karaoke boots?” Meg shot me a judgmental stare.
“I don’t have karaoke boots.” I raised my eyebrows. “I’ve never done karaoke before.”
“Oh, lawdy. We have more work to do than I thought. Get that tushy moving.” Meg walked over and grabbed my arm, hauling me away from the mattress.
“But I have work to do!”
“You’re on vacation,” Meg said, eyeballing me with heavy skepticism. “What do you have to do today?”
I glanced at Anthony. “Do some investigating...find out why—”
“I can handle it.” Anthony’s voice filtered through the heavy blanket.
“Traitor!” I pointed a finger at him. “He doesn’t have karaoke boots, either.”
“He also doesn’t have legs like yours, honey,” Meg said, giving my butt a nice, firm pat. “Anthony said he can take care of it. Plus, I’m betting Clay and Anthony are on the case of your taco-covered trunk friend. We’re technically working on Carlos’s assignment, getting ready for karaoke. So you are working. What else you gonna do all day? Sit around and mope?”
I still hesitated. Moping sounded better than strapping myself into karaoke boots and shopping all day.
“It’s girl time,” Meg said, laying on the guilt. “You won’t abandon me, will you?”
One look at her pouty lip, and I shook my head. “Fine, let’s go.”
“Thatta girl!”
“Give me a few minutes to get ready.” I turned back, but Meg clasped her hand around my wrist.
“No. You have one minute.” Her voice was deadly serious. “And I’m staying here to watch you. I don’t trust your word that you won’t climb through the window.”
“I hadn’t planned on it, but not a bad idea.” I glanced out the window, but snapped to attention at Meg’s death stare.
“Fine, fine,” I said. “Forget it.”
I pulled on some respectable-enough shopping clothes, muttering to Anthony the entire time about exactly how big of a traitor he was today.
“Okay, call me if you have any developments,” I instructed the burrito-that-was-Anthony. He hadn’t moved from his shell of blankets. “And try to see if Nora’s visitors can hit the road sometime before karaoke, please. They’re supposed to head out today, and I don’t really want to argue with them anymore.”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” Meg said. To Anthony, she explained, “Lacey didn’t just lose the cooking contest last night, she was annihilated. Now she’s just raw about it.”
“That was the deal!” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s what they all say.” Meg dragged me through the door, out into the wild, wild world of shopping.
Chapter 26
SHOPPING WITH MEG WAS not a relaxing event. Not even close.
“I thought this was vacation,” I groaned, an unquantifiable number of hours later. “It feels more like manual labor.”
“Suck it in,” Meg said, showing no sympathy. “How you gonna sing Sweet Caroline if you don’t look the part?”
“I don’t know how I’m going to be singing anything, dressed like this.” I gestured to the skin-tight, sequined red dress with a V-neck that cut nearly to my navel. “All of my circulation is cut off. All of it.”
“What do you think of this one?” Meg turned around. “I think this is my outfit
for Baby Got Back.”
“Yes, I would agree it gives you a lot of...back.” I glanced at the yellow thing Meg had pulled over her head, wondering if there wasn’t padding in the rear-end region. “I think you look very...eye-catching.”
“Yeah, and then I’m thinking a quick costume change after that before I pull out this number.” Meg held up a frock that was nearly as see-through as her cover-up. “I’m thinking this might be good for Don’t Stop Believing.”
“Yes, it’s very inspirational.” I started to pull the sleeves down from my dress. “Can we go now?”
“Quick break for lunch, then it’s time to work on your feet. We need some boots to match that outfit, because I am buying that red dress for you.”
“You are?” I watched her carefully. “I don’t believe you.”
Meg looked down. “Well, you’re right. Why don’t I buy all this stuff with your credit card? You can expense it.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” I explained, but Meg was already halfway across the store.
“After lunch we do shoes. Then we do a coffee break. Then your hair and makeup. Then a margarita break. That brings us to about four p.m. After that...we start rehearsing,” Meg shouted through the store. “Hustle it up, lady. We haven’t got all day!”
We did have all day, but all day went by in a miserable cloud of karaoke music. Meg made me sing MMMBop four hundred times before she agreed that it wouldn’t make someone’s ears bleed. Probably. I offered to sit out time and time again, but Meg refused. She wanted to pop my karaoke cherry, and she was persistent.
“Lacey, that’s not singing. It’s screeching,” she said, sitting back into the hammock and slurping a drink. We’d retired to the front porch. Suspiciously, nobody else was around. I thought I’d seen a dark and shadowy figure who resembled Anthony sneaking out the side entrance.
Coincidentally, he’d disappeared just as our vehicle pulled up. I’d have to have a word with him later – a word about taking me with him next time.
“I need a break, else I won’t have any vocal cords left to sing tonight, and that’d be a shame,” I said.
Meg missed my sarcasm. “Can you get me a drink? I gotta keep my vocal cords nice and greased up, even though I got plenty of endurance. I’m like the marathoner of karaoke.”
I trudged inside, in search of vodka. As much for myself as for Meg, despite her request. I counted my small blessings – the house was quiet. I wondered if Anthony had succeeded in getting our three Italian friends to head out early, or if they’d merely gone out for a few hours to find some “civilized” food.
It didn’t take long to locate the supplies for another round of beverages, so I had to look for other reasons to procrastinate. I wasn’t ready to go back and face the music. Clay, I thought. He was always good for a little help when I wanted someone to distract me from the task at hand.
“Hey, cousin,” I said. “How’s it going?”
Clay answered the phone. “Fine...why are you calling me?”
“Just wanted to talk.”
“Do you need something? More information? I don’t have anything for you yet, but I’ve been in contact with Anthony.” Clay paused. “You sound weird.”
“No information, just wanted to catch up. I miss you.”
“Yeah right, what’s going on? Are you kidnapped? Held at gunpoint?”
I expelled a breath. “No, we have to go to a karaoke bar tonight like I said, get a read on those truckers who are probably carrying some expensive bling. Meg is making me rehearse.”
“Ouch.”
“I’m hiding now. Please talk business to me, so I can stay inside.”
“Just tell her you can’t sing,” Clay said. “You’re not even lying.”
“Hey! Maybe I can sing.”
“I’ve heard you in the shower. You think I’m sleeping, but Lacey, let me tell you something. Nobody can sleep through your version of Oops, I Did It Again.”
“You can hear that?” I blushed. “I thought I was being quiet.”
“Nope. There’s quite an echo, and I think it goes straight into my skull.”
“Oh, sorry.” I winced. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Go. Have a good time – the better time you’re having, the less suspicious you’ll look. If you sit all quiet in the corner, it’ll be obvious you’re miserable and you don’t want to be there.”
“Have you been talking to Meg?” I groaned.
“No, why?” Clay said, far too quickly.
It was my turn to be suspicious. “Have you? Because she said the exact same thing.”
“Great minds think alike,” Clay covered up, though I didn’t believe him for a second. “Just so happens you hang out with two great minds.”
“Right...”
“Well I’ve got to be honest with you, Lace. I’m running out of things to talk about. And I hate being on the phone.” Clay paused. “I’m working with Anthony to dig into Facelli’s past, but I can’t find anything interesting except for the usual violations. It’s a head scratcher.”
“You find out anything about the other diamond runners?” I asked.
“Same sort of thing. Low rung guys doing the dirty work, hoping for a chance in the big leagues. Honestly, I can’t figure out why they would’ve had a reason to kill Facelli. It’s driving me nuts.”
“All right, well...keep me posted.”
“Call me after karaoke and let me know what you find. If you can get any names, that’d be ideal. A photo would be good – information, anything to go on. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“If you’re nodding, I can’t see you,” Clay said, irritation creeping into his voice. “I’m sorry, this whole business has me on edge. It’s just...random. I don’t like random. Nothing is random.”
“That’s not true – falling in love is random. You don’t get to pick the person, or the reasons, or...anything.”
“It’s not random,” Clay said so sharply I wondered what sort of bug had crawled up his butt.
“Okay, jeesh, I’ll let you go.” I exhaled, but didn’t hang up quite yet. I bit my lip, stalling him with the first question that popped into my mind. “How is Tupac the Cat? Does he miss me?”
“No.”
“Can you please make sure he’s fed and give him a scratch behind the ears from me?”
“No.” Clay hesitated. “Well, he’s fed, but if I try to pet him, he’ll scratch me.”
“How about a kiss on his cute head?”
“Lacey, the cat doesn’t like you. Get over it.”
“But I love my cat.” I frowned.
“Unrequited love.”
I sighed. “Fine, I guess I’ll let you go.”
“Lacey, one more thing.” Clay’s voice immediately turned soft, almost hesitant.
“What is it?” I leaned against the counter, silently urging Clay to keep talking for a while.
“If you get a chance, sing Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” Clay blurted. “It’s a great karaoke song.”
“Do you want to come up here and do it yourself?” I asked. “Because there’s still time.”
“No, no...you girls do your thing.” But Clay sounded wistful.
I sighed. “Well, the offer is on the table if you actually did want to come up here. There’s still time.”
“No, have fun. I have work to do.” Clay turned back to typing.
“Meg has special karaoke boots. She looks really good...” I wheedled. It twisted my gut to hear Clay sound so sad, as if he were missing out on the next great American event. “You can take my spot on stage. Meg would be pleased.”
“You think so?” His voice came out high-pitched and squeaky.
“I know so.”
“Well, I don’t think so. But thanks anyway,” Clay said. “Bye, Lace. I gotta get going. Be safe. And if nothing else, sing My Heart Will Go On if there’s time.”
“That’s a party killer!”
“You’ve got no soul.”
&n
bsp; “I have a soul,” I said. “I just don’t want it on display! I’ve got enough of my rear end on display, thanks to Meg’s choice of outfit.”
“Then stick with the upbeat song.”
“Dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun,” I sing-songed. Channeling my inner Shania Twain, I played the drums on the counter. “Man, I feel like a woman...”
As soon as I stopped singing, the dial tone beeped in my ear.
Not a good sign for tonight.
Chapter 27
“I LOOK FABULOUS.” MEG strutted from the porch out to my Lumina.
I sat back and watched, still exhausted and a bit sore after the hour-and-a-half primping session Meg had put me through. My scalp tingled, several places where I used to have hair now stung, red and bare, and my nails were so long I could scratch my nose without raising my arm above my waist.
I don’t know how Meg managed to look more glamorous, more rested, more awesome than ever before, after spending the afternoon going through Basic Training, Makeover Edition.
“Don’t worry, you look hot, girlfriend.” Meg waved for me to join her at the Lumina.
“I don’t know...” Meg had shoved me into a black top that did a swoop almost to my belly button, latex black booty shorts, and boots that stuck tightly to my legs all the way up to mid-thigh. Apparently she’d decided on a last minute costume change from the red dress, much to my dismay.
The boots’ heels were also black, decked out with a blinding number of rhinestones, the shirt spruced up with lace, and the shorts, well...there wasn’t enough room for any adornment on those bad boys. I felt a bit like Catwoman’s twin – the one who didn’t go to the gym.
“You complement me.” Meg stuck out one leg, putting her boots on display.
She hadn’t been able to decide between her old pair and her new ones, so she’d worn one of each. Her left calf was clad in gold sequins affixed to leather, while the right one was covered in a brilliant shade of blood-red plastic. She scanned me up and down. “You got the dark and dangerous look going, and I got the cute girlfriend thing going on.”
