Lust, Loathing and a Little Lip Gloss (25 page)

“Why?” Amelia prodded. She stepped back slightly and the leaves of a hanging plant touched her hair. “He’s so sweet and such a generous lover and you seem really cool. Why close yourself off to him?”

“Are you trying to pimp him out?” Dena asked, finally giving Amelia her full attention. Kim cast a longing glance in the direction of the door.

“No, I just believe in passion. And sexuality and tenderness, and I think those are things to be celebrated, not just with one person, but with lots of like-minded people. You know, free love.” She grinned at Dena and then turned her smile on Kim.

Kim’s eyes got so wide they seemed to take up the entire top half of his face. “No way!” he sputtered. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, putting my hand up in the air to stop them. “But is this a setup for a porno?
Hothouse Flower Makes Greenhouse a Gas
or something equally stupid? I didn’t come for that. I came to talk to you about Venus.”

“Oh.” Amelia looked up, apparently becoming aware for the first time of the plant above her. She quickly stepped beyond its reach. “I don’t have much else to say about Venus.”

“What about her brother?” I used my fingers to make imaginary quotation marks around the word
brother.

Amelia fingered an arrangement of daisies. “I’m supposed to make some more bouquets.”

“Amelia, did Venus really have a brother?”

No answer. Dena looked at me questioningly.

“Um, hey.” Kim awkwardly waved his hand in the air in an attempt to get everyone’s attention. “Can we get back to what we were talking about before? You know, the stuff about the free love?”

“Not now, Kim,” I snapped.

“Sophie, please don’t ask me about Venus or her brother,” Amelia pleaded.

I took a step toward her. “Amelia—”

“It’s not like his…her…um…their choices…are any of our business,” she persisted. “Live and let live, that’s what I always say.”

I took another step forward. “Amelia—”

“One of the things I love about this country is that men…and women…and…well, everyone…we all have the right to make our own decisions about our body. We can get tattoos…piercings…bigger boobs…we can have things removed…”

“Amelia.” I was in her face now and Amelia was looking at the floor, the ceiling, the plants, anything but into my eyes.

“I mean moles, of course. We can get moles removed.”

“Amelia!” I shouted. “This…person, Venus, has threatened me. She’s broken into my house. She wants to do me harm. I need to get a handle on what I’m dealing with. Now, I’m going to ask you—”

“Oh God, please don’t ask me!”

“Amelia, did Venus used to be a guy?”

Finally Amelia met my gaze. “She said she’d kill me if I told anyone.”

Dena’s finger dropped from Kim’s belt loop. “You’re serious?”

Amelia nodded. “I think she might have been, too…about killing me, that is. She pushed me against a wall and she put her hand on my throat.” Amelia’s fingers fluttered to her neck as if to protect it. “She didn’t have to get so upset. I respect her lifestyle choice and I totally respect her privacy. She didn’t have to be so…so…violent about the whole thing.”

“Who else knows?” I pressed. “Did Oscar know? Enrico?”

Amelia shrugged. “I doubt it. I would never have known if I hadn’t tried to get some more information on what had happened to her brother. It’s not like I knew him well or anything, but he had seemed healthy. I was just curious, but I guess I should have minded my own business.”

“So you seriously think everyone else was in the dark?” I asked. “I doubt that. Didn’t I hear that Enrico and Venus were close?”

“Yes, but so are Scott and Venus and I know Scott’s clueless,” Amelia pointed out. “I think Kane and I are the only ones who knew up until now.”

“Kane?” I asked, surprised. “But he hates Venus. If he knew, wouldn’t he tell everyone?”

“Speaking of telling everyone,” Dena said, “when are you telling Scott, and can I please, please, PLEASE be there when you do it?”

“Dena…”

“Pretty please?”

“I think Kane may be blackmailing Venus,” Amelia said quietly.

I blinked and then took a step back. That was the leverage! But what could Venus have later gotten on Kane that would trump
that?

“See, when I figured out who Venus was, I decided not to confront her with it,” Amelia continued. “Why would I? She obviously didn’t want me to know or she wouldn’t have made up that story about her brother being dead. But then she had that séance at her house. I was one of the first guests to arrive. Except for Kane.”

Jason broke the toothpick in half and stepped up to Amelia’s side. He draped one arm over her shoulders, then thought better of it and lowered his hand to her waist. “I remember that séance,” he said. “I got there at the same time Scott was coming in with the candles. You were a mess, but—”

“But you couldn’t get me to talk about it,” Amelia finished. “I’ve tried really hard to block that whole thing out. See, her door was open, and she didn’t hear me come in. I heard her and Kane, though. They were in the kitchen and Kane was freaking out, as usual.”

“About?” I asked.

“Venus was going on about how Scott still had feelings for some woman. I don’t know who Venus was referring to. All I know is Venus saw her as a threat. She said she didn’t want Scott anywhere near her.”

“And what did Kane say?” Kim asked. I started. He had gotten so quiet I had nearly forgotten that he was there. But now he, too, was caught up in Amelia’s story and was anxious to hear more.

“Kane told Venus that if Scott was still interested in this woman he wouldn’t have let ten years go by without contact, and that if Venus wanted to keep her secret she better make sure that Scott called her. He said something like…what was it? Oh, yes. He said that she was the key to avenging his mother’s death.”

Fury is a funny thing. Sometimes it hits you like a gale wind in that it can’t be controlled, but it can be escaped. Other times, like now for instance, it creeps into your circulatory system and rushes through your veins until it becomes an intrinsic part of you. My mind sped this process along as I recalled all those phone calls Scott had placed to me starting six months ago, seemingly out of the blue. He wanted to talk to me about something, he had said. But it was Kane who had wanted to talk to me all along. Once again I had found myself beginning to trust him, or if not fully trust at least soften toward him. And once again he had betrayed me outright.

Amelia was still talking. She was telling me how she had interrupted Kane and Venus’s argument, that Kane had then left the room and how she had tried to comfort Venus, telling her that she knew about the sex change and that she shouldn’t be ashamed of it and certainly shouldn’t let Kane use it as a tool of intimidation. It was then that Venus had flipped out, pushing Amelia to the wall, her hand wrapped around her neck, threatening her life if she dared to tell anyone. Amelia had tried to excuse this behavior by telling herself that, thanks to Kane, Venus’s nerves were shot to hell. It was understandable that she might behave irrationally. Still, Venus scared her. And while Amelia spoke, Jason slowly drew her closer and Dena watched them, not with jealousy this time, but curiosity. I absorbed all this information the way a computer does, which is to say I understood it and filed it away, but I didn’t have an emotional reaction to it. All my emotion was tied up in my hatred of Scott.

“…I stopped going to the Specter Society meetings for a while after that,” Amelia went on. “But I missed the free food from Enrico and…honestly? I missed Jason, a lot.”

Everyone was quiet for a few moments after that latest admission.

“Sophie,” Dena said in a low voice, “let’s call Scott now.”

I couldn’t answer. Anger was weighing down my tongue.

Dena stepped away from Kim and held out her hand. “C’mon, we’ll tell him to meet us at your house and then you’ll lay it on him. You want revenge? Wait until you tell that asshole that his girlfriend’s kahunas aren’t metaphorical.”

“I’m going to tell him,” I finally managed to say. “I’ll get revenge. But this time I’m going to do it alone.”

22

I always confess my worst sins to those who think I’m a liar.

—
The Lighter Side of Death

SCOTT DIDN’T ASK WHY I WANTED TO SEE HIM AND I DIDN’T VOLUNTEER
it. But it was clear by the excitement in his voice that he had drawn his own incorrect conclusions. I was at my house now, sitting on my sofa and just…waiting.

The house was totally quiet and yet it seemed to be speaking to me.
Don’t be too hard on him,
it said.
He brought you to me.
But while I got the message I absolutely refused to acknowledge it. I was like a little kid with her hands over her ears singing,
la, la, la, la, la, I’m not listening to you!
I would not suffer the kind of bullshit that Scott had been pulling without retaliating. I was, after all, still me.

When the doorbell rang I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Goody rubber band and pulled my hair into a ponytail. I wanted him to see me. I wanted him to be able to look me in the eye when I made my accusations. I went to open the door and there he was, in his Armani shirt, Diesel jeans and that stupid, self-congratulatory smile of his. He was so sure he was going to get lucky. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t given him any reason to hope. It didn’t matter that he should be riddled with guilt for luring me into a meeting with Kane. All he cared about now was getting into my pants.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

Scott’s smile faded somewhat when he saw my expression. He walked past me and draped his coat over the rack. “What is it this time?” he said with a sigh.

“Your girlfriend, Venus.” I slammed the door shut and followed him into the living room.

Scott nodded. “The brooch thing was definitely weird. I called the store where Venus bought it. Venus was telling the truth about it having belonged to some woman named Cecile and the whole drama surrounding it. But like Venus said, she
gave
it to Oscar, so it’s not like it got here on its own.”

“This isn’t about the brooch.” I sat down on the couch, careful to angle my body toward Scott so my words could deliver a direct blow. “Venus is not what you think she is.”

“Sophie, I know how much you hate her, and you have good reason. What she’s been doing, the way she acted today…completely inexcusable. But that doesn’t make her a murderer.”

“No, but it doesn’t make her a woman, either.”

Scott stared at me for a moment. “What?”

“That little love goddess you’re shacking up with? She used to use a urinal.”

Scott continued to stare. And then he laughed. Scott buckled over with laughter.

“I knew you were jealous, Sophie, but this? This is beautiful! Only a mind as awesome and deviant as yours could make up something like this.”

“You think I’m
jealous?
” I asked.

His laughter relaxed into a good-natured chuckle. “I didn’t mean to be insulting. It’s not like I wasn’t jealous of Anatoly, but now that he’s out of the way—”

“Anatoly and I are not over. Not by a long shot. And I didn’t make this stuff up about Venus. Ask her, see how she reacts.”

“You want me to ask her if she used to be a man?” The first flash of doubt crossed his features.

“I know what you’re thinking,” I said coolly. “She’s gorgeous.”

“Like a supermodel,” Scott said quietly.

“Right, just like a supermodel. She’s tall. She’s got those narrow hips and those broad shoulders that make her waist look tiny. She’d be a regular Linda Evangelista if it weren’t for those man-hands of hers.”

Scott swallowed hard.

“What about her boobs, Scott. Do they feel real?”

“Lots of women get implants,” Scott said, but now his voice was shaking.

“Has she ever gotten her period?”

“She takes those birth control pills. The ones that keep you from ever getting a period.”

“Really? How amazingly convenient.”

He shifted his weight from foot to foot. “My girlfriend is not a man.”

“No,” I confirmed. “She’s a woman. She just wasn’t born that way. And that brings me to another question. We know about Venus’s metamorphosis, but I was wondering, when your mother gave birth to you, were you a normal human being? Or were you always a lecherous, lying, backstabbing leech?”

“What?” Scott asked distractedly. “I’m sorry, but I think I need to sit down.”

“Then you can sit on the floor like the dog you are,” I snapped. “When were you going to tell me that Kane was the one who initially told you to call me?”

A new wave of comprehension washed away the little color Scott had left. “It was complicated,” he said. “Kane had wanted me to get you over to Oscar’s house when Oscar wasn’t around, and he offered to get me some awesome listings if I managed it. He said he had been reading about you in the papers and wanted to meet you. Kane’s always eager to connect with people who have been around death or have had near-death experiences, so I didn’t question it. When Oscar told me he was selling and then that same day you came to that Marina open house…it was like a sign, Sophie! And it wasn’t just Kane who wanted me to call you, Venus thought it was a good idea, too, and I…”

“
When
were you going to tell me, Scott?”

“Sophie, please—”

“Wait, let me guess,” I said. “Never. You were never going to tell me.”

“You’re not being fair,” he said stiffly.

“No? You
didn’t fucking set me up?
” I was on my feet now. Scott had a good half-a-foot on me, but at that moment I felt so much taller. “I can’t believe I was ever stupid enough to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“What are you talking about?” He growled. “In your entire life you have never given ANYONE the benefit of the doubt, least of all me!”

I felt a slight breeze coming from the foyer. Apparently, I hadn’t closed the door all the way, but I couldn’t be bothered with that now and I kept my eyes glued on Scott. “You just didn’t have the guts to tell me what was really going on, did you?” I asked. “You have absolutely no balls! You’re a eunuch just like your stupid girlfriend!”

“Give me a break!” he snapped. “You thought I got you a deal on this house because I still wanted you. Not that I loved you, but that I wanted to get you into bed. You actually thought one night with you was worth over $20,000 of lost commission! Who the hell do you think you are? Angelina Jolie?”

And then I felt him, not Scott, but the one who I had heard in my foyer. Anatoly.

He was behind me, then in front of me, and then he was punching Scott in the jaw and Scott was falling to the floor. Anatoly stood above him, his chest heaving. “Angelina,” Anatoly said, “has nothing on Sophie.”

I literally hadn’t seen anything so awe inspiring since Cirque du Soleil.

Scott lay on the floor, his hand firmly clutching his chin. “You could have broken something!”

“Is that an invitation?” Anatoly asked. “That punch was to make a point, but I have been trained by both the Russian and Israeli army, so if you would like to bring this fight to the next level I’m more than ready.”

“Russian and Israeli…” Scott sputtered. “What the hell, Sophie! You’re dating a mercenary?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “And he’s cute, too.”

Anatoly took a step back, keeping Scott in his line of sight while coming to my side. “I spoke to Maria’s friend Lorna. She told me you questioned Maria and Zach. I explicitly told you not to do that. You are the most irresponsibly reckless woman I have ever met.”

“Gee, Anatoly, is that your way of saying you missed me?”

He slipped his hand into the back pocket of my jeans. “Yes.”

Scott managed to get himself to his feet and he glared at both of us.

“I don’t have anything else to say to you,” I said. “Feel free to leave.”

“Where! Where would you like me to go, Sophie? It’s not like I can go back to Venus!”

“Why?” I asked sweetly. “A lot of people in this city would tell you that women are women. It doesn’t matter how we start out. And it’s not like she’s going to reverse her sex change operation. So nothing’s really changed. You just have to find a way to make peace with her past.”

“Sophie—” Scott growled.

“Of course there are other problems,” I added, pressing myself a little closer to Anatoly. “I still think that part of Venus’s past involves murder. She said she gave that brooch to Oscar. Why? Did she like him that much? Or was she using the brooch as a threat, the way she tried to do with me? Oh, and did I tell you that Venus tried to strangle Amelia when she found out she knew about the sex change?”

“Venus tried to strangle who?” Anatoly asked.

“Long story,” I said, still smiling at Scott. “Anyhoo, I think we have reason to believe that Venus killed Oscar and maybe even Enrico to keep them quiet. That might make it a little harder for you to accept her for who she is.”

“Oscar died of a heart attack,” Scott said as he continued to rub his jaw. “Threatening people is Venus’s thing. She gets off on it. But killing people? I just don’t see it.”

“It seems to me there’s a lot of things you have failed to see about Venus. But if you want to go back to playing house with her, go ahead. I don’t really care. Just remember, you owe me.”

Scott tapped his sore jaw gingerly. “I’m not sure I do.”

“You have done nothing but stab me in the back and I still took the time to warn you about Venus. So yes, you owe me, and the first thing you can do for me is get out.”

“Sophie, don’t be like—”

Anatoly took an advancing step on him, his fist clenched.

Scott threw his hands up in the air. “Fine!” he shouted. “I’m outta here. Just remember, Sophie, you don’t know what I was going to say when I first started calling you again because you wouldn’t pick up the damned phone! And when I did get a chance to talk to you I tried to tell you why I had been calling, but you didn’t want to hear it! It’s kinda hard to betray the trust of someone who perpetually holds you in suspicion!”

He started to leave, but he didn’t notice that Mr. Katz had moved under his feet. Scott stumbled, grabbing onto the fireplace mantel to keep himself from falling. “I hate this cat!” he yelled.

I pointed dramatically at the front door. “Out!”

Scott grumbled, snarled at Anatoly and stormed out.

There was a long, awkward silence that followed. Anatoly and I were frozen in our respective places, contemplating different aspects of what had just transpired and what was to happen next. It was Anatoly who spoke first.

“So Venus had a sex change?”

“It would seem so.” My mind was still focused on Scott’s parting words.

“Interesting.”

“Kane asked Scott to bring me to this house. It was a setup from the beginning. Scott would never have told me,” I said firmly, “even if I had given him the chance.”

“I don’t know about that.” Anatoly stretched his neck to the right and then left side before taking a seat on the couch. “I think Scott’s the kind of guy who will do the right thing if you make it easy for him.”

“And I didn’t make it easy.”

“You never do. You’re a challenge.” He smiled. “I love a challenge.”

It was getting cold, but I didn’t move to turn on the heat or light a fire. Nor did I go to Anatoly and wrap myself up in his arms. I was afraid that one clumsy misstep might erase the implications of his last statement. So instead I reached out to him with a question. “Do you love all challenges? Or just me?”

His brown eyes were so intense. I loved the way they penetrated me, like Superman looking through my clothes and examining the woman underneath. “I love you,” he said simply.

I half expected a celestial choir to start up, but instead the only response came from me. “I love you, too.”

It had been so long since I had said those words, and this was the first time I had said them to the right man. But there was still a shadow cast over this reunion. “Last time you saw me here with Scott you walked out.”

“You were in his arms.”

“Did you think…”

“Sophie, I’ve never killed a man outside of combat. I had to walk out in order to maintain that record.”

“You wouldn’t have really killed him.”

“You were in his arms,” he said again.

“He grabbed me when I wasn’t expecting it. It meant nothing…not to me, at least.”

“I know that now. But right then I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“And now that you’re not so befuddled, do you still trust me?” I asked.

Mr. Katz, who had been moving aimlessly around the room, finally settled on the sofa cushion beside Anatoly. His claws extended and retracted as he kneaded the fabric beneath him. “I trust you. With some things.”

I laughed. “Considering our history, I suppose that’s as much as I have the right to expect.”

“Considering our history, you should have expected a lot less.”

I raised my eyebrows tauntingly. “And yet.”

“And yet,” Anatoly repeated. He held his hand out to me and when I accepted it he pulled me onto his lap.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” he said.

“Did you buy me a tin of Strawberry Shortcake lip gloss?”

“No, why would I do that?” Anatoly pulled back and looked at me quizzically. “Am I missing something?”

“No,” I said quietly. I glanced up at the photo of my father, studying the laugh lines around his eyes.
A real prankster,
my mother had called him.

“I’m going to check into your accusations against Venus,” Anatoly said, bringing me back to the here and now. “I’ll find out what she’s guilty of, if she’s guilty of anything at all. I would like to trust that you’ll leave the rest of the investigation to me.” He planted a kiss on my neck before adding, “Too bad I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame.”

“I don’t think Maria’s a killer.” He was nibbling my earlobe now. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to prove that yet. Most of the evidence still points to her. Even the chain locked door.”