Colorado 03 Lady Luck (41 page)

But Misty was frozen too, her eyes on me.
Clearly, she had no idea I worked there.

I came unlocked first and moved to the
reception desk, not taking my eyes off her, my mind filled with
options on how to play this, so many of them, I couldn’t get a lock
on a single one and all the while I moved I felt Dominic
follow.

“Long time, no see, darling. What brings you
to Dominic’s House of Eternal Beauty?” Dominic asked Misty (this
wasn’t actually the name of the salon, it was called “Carnal Spa”
but Dominic referred to it by different, inventive, hilarious names
all the time).

Her body jerked and she hesitantly moved to
the high front of the receptionist desk.

“Uh, here to see if you can fit me in,
Dominic,” she said softly, her eyes shifting back and forth between
Dominic and me. She stopped in front of the desk and locked on
Dominic, sucking in breath; she gave him a shaky smile and
finished, “Emergency procedure.”

She was nervous. And she was nervous because
of me.

She should be. She knew I knew what she did.
She knew I was standing there wanting to tear her hair out, scratch
her eyes out and take her to the ground, kick her in the stomach
and spit on her when she was down (amongst other things).

Unfortunately, for Ty, I could not do
that.

Fortunately, she didn’t know that.

My eyes narrowed on her. Like she felt it,
her eyes slid to me and I was pleased to see her face pale. Then
they shot back to Dominic when he spoke.

“
Girl, you
know
I love to have my hands in your hair. But I got a one
o’clock half highlight and cut and while she’s cookin’, one of my
sweet little blue hairs is comin’ in for a set. My afternoon
is
all
decked out.
Kayeleen’s
on lunch but, she gets back, her afternoon is full too. We can’t
help you out. Make an appointment, I think I got an opening late
the week after next.”

“But, the thing I need my touch up for is
Tuesday night,” she told him.

“Sorry, precious, no can do,” Dominic
replied, shaking his head, her eyes slid to me and back to Dominic,
her mouth working with indecision and I’d know why when she spoke
again.

“Dominic, this is a big deal for Chace. He
told me awhile ago and I clean forgot about it. And you know he’s
not a man who likes roots,” she admitted softly.

Good. Chace was going to get pissed at his
wife for being a moron.

Good again. It was clear by the way she said
it, she was a moron often and Chace didn’t like it. The worried
look in her eyes said he also didn’t mind telling her.

And good yet again. It was clearly not all
fun and games in the Keaton household.

And one last, big, fucking good.
She
did
have roots.
That blonde was
way
fake. I
liked that.

All this made me feel better.
Tons
better.

My eyes unnarrowed and I felt my lips tip
up.

“Sorry, darling. It’s impossible today,”
Dominic told her.

“Well, can you squeeze me in sometime
Tuesday?” she asked Dominic and, now feeling helpful, I moved to
the schedule book, flipping it open and turning pages.

“Let me see…” I entered the conversation,
scanning the scribbles on Dominic’s columns as well as Kayeleen’s.
Then I looked at Misty. “Sorry, babe. Nothing open. All booked up.”
I flipped the page then another then another and kept going until I
was two weeks out and told her, “Got an opening two weeks Thursday.
Two o’clock. That good for you?”

She stared at me. Then she whispered
cautiously, “I need it Tuesday. Can you move someone around?”

“Nope,” Dominic answered for me and her eyes
went to him. “Tell you what, my lovely, couple places in Chantelle,
they do decent work. Maybe they can fit you in. Lexie here will
book you now, though, so if they can’t, I can take you in a couple
of weeks. You just call, you get in in Chantelle.”

“Everyone in Carnal gets their hair done by
you or Kayeleen. I can’t go to Chantelle,” she told him.

“
Precious, listen,” Dominic returned, his
voice getting tight, he was losing patience. “I’d love to help you
but I’ve said I can’t and I can’t. Sorry your man isn’t gonna be
happy but, Misty, I told you before, you need me, you call two,
three weeks in advance. I got a bunch of biker bitches who have
standing appointments. They do
not
change. And you do
not
ask
those bitches to change. Now, you work with Lexie here, get
yourself a standing appointment so you can avoid
dis
appointment.
You can’t get in at Chantelle, go to the drugstore, buy a bottle
and I’ll sort out the damage when you get in.” The bell over the
door went, my eyes moved to it and Dominic kept talking. “There she
is, my one o’clock. Hello you!” he called then back to Misty he
said, “Lexie will set you up. Enjoy Chace’s thing, darling.” Then
to his customer. “Get over here, gorgeous. Let’s touch up that
beauty.” And then he bustled away as his biker babe client moved
toward him while eyeing Misty with unconcealed disdain at the same
time eyeing me with unconcealed curiosity.

I ignored this, settled in my roller chair
and grabbed a gel pen with a fine tip and flowers printed on the
sides of it that wrote in purple ink, the only thing in Dominic’s
pen holder which also happened to be purple (as was much of the
interior of the salon not to mention the sign outside) but the pen
holder also had glittered white butterflies on it (as did the
outside sign).

I pulled off the cap and positioned the tip
on the schedule book.

“So,” I said, smiling brightly up at
bitch-face Misty, “two weeks Thursday? Two o’clock?”

Her eyes slid down to me. “Uh…”

“Then standing appointment every six weeks?”
I asked.

“Um…” she mumbled.

I tipped my head to the side.

She bit her lip.

“Thursday? Two weeks? Two o’clock?” I
prompted.

“I, uh… okay,” she said.

“Excellent,” I bent my head and wrote her
name in, missing out the “bitch-face” part (for obvious reasons).
Once done, I looked back at her, still smiling and asked, “Does
Dominic have your number?”

“Yes, um… I think so.”

“Okay then, you need an appointment
card?”

“Uh, no, I’ll remember.”

She wouldn’t, the idiot. She didn’t remember
Chace’s big thing on Tuesday night, no way she’d remember an
appointment with Dominic.

However, this could also mean that she had
no intention of taking the appointment. Seeing as I worked there,
she was probably thinking she’d make her standing appointment in
Chantelle, no matter that everyone in Carnal took advantage of a
talent that should be in New York or LA but was in a small town in
the Colorado Mountains because his gay partner happened to be a
mountain man.

I didn’t care whether she missed it or moved
stylists, either way worked for me. Though I hoped for the latter
as that would mean I’d have less chance of seeing her again.

“All righty,” I said. “Then we’ll see you in
a couple of weeks.”

She stared at me. Then she bit her lip.
Then, for some totally insane reason, she went for it.

“You’re Ty’s new wife, aren’t you?”

Bitch, bitch,
bitch.

How fucking
dare
she mention Ty to me.

Bitch!

“Yep,” I replied on another dazzling
smile.

“I, uh…” her eyes slid beyond me to where
Dominic was whispering under his breath with his client then back
to me where she said softly, “Do you know who I am?”

“You mean do I know you were the one who was
fucking Ty’s brains out when someone in LA was committing murder?”
I asked back and watched her blanch. “Oh yeah, I know who you
are.”

She lifted a hand and I saw it was trembling
before she tucked hair behind her ear and dropped it.

“He told you that?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “He told me. But that was
then. This is now. New life. New wife. It’s all good,” I lied and I
knew she bought it because she blinked.

“Really?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Sure. We’re happy. It’s all
good.”

“So he’s not mad at me?”

It was my turn to blink. I couldn’t help it.
I couldn’t believe it.

Was she that dumb?

I mean,
seriously?

“
Now, why would he be mad at you, Misty?” I
asked softly. “Are you saying you lied to the police and he
was
fucking your brains out in
Carnal while someone was committing murder in LA?”

Her torso rocked back an inch and she
answered quickly, “No, no. I didn’t do that.”

“’Course you didn’t,” I said it like I
didn’t believe it because I didn’t believe it because the fucking
bitch was lying.

She studied me and I could swear her lips
were quivering.

Then she quickly pulled her shades out of
her black-rooted, blonde hair and shoved them on her face.

“Well, uh… nice to meet you and, um… see you
in a few weeks.”

“Can’t wait,” I forced out with a bright
smile.

She nodded, looked over my shoulder, turned
and hurried out.

I watched the doors close behind her then
clenched my fists. Then I deep breathed. Then I watched her through
the half-closed slats as she got in her car and pulled out of the
space in front of the salon.

Then I immediately got up and turned to
Dominic.

“I’m sorry, can I have a break? I need to
run to the garage. I won’t be long. There’s something I need to
talk to my husband about.”

“
Bet you do,” the woman in the chair, a
client I’d never met, stated instantly, her mouth was tight, her
eyes glittering and shrewd, her overall look screaming biker babe.
“Know Ty. Know who you are too. Know that bitch fucked him one way,
got her shit off then fucked him another way that got
his
shit totally fucked. And I also
know you just gave a performance good enough to win a fuckin’
award. I could trust myself to move and not do it to take that
bitch down, I would have clapped.”

I blinked though I didn’t know why she
surprised me. I’d been learning through on the job training that
biker babes didn’t really beat around the bush and I’d long since
learned that Ty was a man who was well-liked.

“Yes, precious,” Dominic answered my request
softly, my body jerked out of its surprise, I looked to him, saw
his eyes warm and understanding on me and realized then that he
knew too and this was probably what they’d been whispering about
because I also knew Dominic had been in town just under four years
and he’d never said boo to me about Ty and unless gossip was shared
while Ty was doing time and he was just too polite to mention it
(which wasn’t Dominic’s way), he didn’t know until now. “Take all
the time you need.”

I nodded, grabbed my shades off the desk and
started to the door.

“When you see Ty, tell him Avril says hi,”
the biker babe called after me, I waved behind me, shot a smile
over my shoulder then went out.

The salon was about six blocks away from the
garage on the same side of the road. We worked close but I hadn’t
yet hoofed it down there. Ty and I spent a lot of time together and
I pushed the time we spent together to distract him from other
things. I didn’t want to seem clingy so I gave him space during the
day. But I also liked my time with Dominic, Kayeleen and the
clients at the salon, I didn’t get but half an hour for lunch and I
used that to continue my perusal of Carnal and acquaint myself with
local lunchtime takeaway eateries.

But Ty needed to know what just went down
and the way I played it. I was hoping he wasn’t doing what he
wanted to be doing but if he was, he’d need to know. Even if he
wasn’t, seeing as Avril knew all about it, it would get back to him
eventually so, again, he needed to know.

And it needed to be me who told him.

I didn’t hurry. Anyone seeing me would think
I just felt like a visit and by “anyone”, I was worried that Misty
was still around and watching. I got to the end of Main Street,
turned the corner on my high-heeled platform sandals and walked as
casually as I could across the forecourt.

“Yo, Ty!” I heard shouted from the shadows
of the bay and I knew I’d been spotted but not by who. Not visiting
him at work meant I did not know his workmates, except Pop and
Wood.

Then I saw Ty, no coveralls this time, jeans
and tee, tee greasy, jeans too (this meaning I was again going to
be at the stain remover in the utility room, something I was
getting to be a dab hand at), black mark covered rag in his hands.
He’d come to the opening of the bay where he stopped and leveled
his eyes on me.

I got close, those eyes narrowed and he
started moving again, his long legs eating the distance right to
me.

Apparently, even my shades didn’t hide my
mood. Definitely should never play poker.

He met me in the forecourt, got close,
toe-to-toe and bent his neck so he could lock his beautiful, light
brown eyes with my shades.

“What happened?” he asked.

I sucked in breath then shook my head.
“Nothing… nothing big,” I took in another breath. “I’m just shaken
up. Shaken and pissed. And, well, you should know, so I’m here to
tell you. Misty came into the salon to get her hair done.”

Ty’s eyes didn’t leave me, not even to blink
and he asked, “And how did that go?”

“I smiled. I made her appointment. I was
nice.”

“And?” Ty prompted when I said no more.

“And, she asked if I knew who she was. I
told her I did. I laid it out what I knew but also told her we were
happy and moving on.”