Tease (40 page)

Rex shoved his foot down on the accelerator to overtake. The glitterball should now be lifting towards heaven, taking the leading lady with it, he thought to himself with a smirk. The Starrlets and the sixty-strong chorus line would
all be parading down below her on the stage. Knowing everyone would be blissfully unaware of what was in store gave Rex the pang of a hard on. He imagined Tiger, struggling to the bitter end. He wondered if he was in her thoughts as she drowned. He could hardly wait to hear it on the news.

Lewis was in danger of looking emotional as the glitterball ascended. His eyes were misty. Blue shuffled over and squeezed him on the shoulder.

‘I never thought I’d say this,’ started Blue, as he followed Lewis’ gaze towards the prop, ‘but I think what you’ve done for Tiger is … well it’s love. The way you’ve picked her up. You had her back, all the way you know. You held her up. Tonight, this is just … wow. And you got her here. I only wish I could have …’

‘Blue, you have meant more to her than I ever have,’ Lewis burst out, keeping his eyes on the stage. ‘Tiger and I just work together, remember. I’m just her manager. She’s extraordinary, and I only wish I could have had … just a tenth of the closeness you two have had. She told you everything from the start. You’re the closest person to her. Man, I just didn’t have the balls to lay my feelings out there. I was too scared. The feelings I had – have for her – are just too much. So I wanted to be the one to show her off to the world instead. Shit, I guess I just ended up controlling … I never wanted … I just wanted to be near her, I had no idea how huge she’d become … be careful
what you wish for, Blue. It was too late for me to say anything from the first moment I started working with her.’

Blue stared back at Lewis, his mouth open.

‘You have been her right hand for all this time, Lewis,’ said Blue slowly and clearly. ‘She has been devoted to you for all these years. She lives to please you.’

‘No Blue, she has been doing it all for her daughter. To one day make her proud. To put things right. I was just reading the map in the front of the car while Tiger drove at the wheel for the last fourteen years. And everything was for Sienna, I can see it all now.’

‘No. You’re missing something. Tiger lives to please people, and help them. That’s what she does. And you are one of those people. You can’t say you’ve ever been easy on her, yet she’s stuck by you like glue. You’re each other’s rock. And what you did for her these last few months … that’s called love. It’s not too late to say something,’ said Blue, trying to catch his eye. Lewis simply stared at the stage, the tic in his jaw starting. Whatever window of emotion Lewis had opened, he closed off again just as quickly as he always did. He stood next to Blue and gave him a warm thump on the shoulder as they watched the stage intently.

Tiger’s stomach hurt from retching up water and her lungs burned in agony. She felt dizzy and disorientated as water lapped around her waist. Only one thought entered her
mind as she shivered violently and tried to stay upright; she was damned if she was going to emerge for her stay of execution looking like she’d just bobbed up from the
Titanic
. No, there was only ever one way to make a comeback and that was looking fucking fabulous. Her hands leapt to her soaked and matted pink curls. She knew the world would have to know sooner or later … she ripped off her pink wig and let her dark hair fall to her shoulders, shiny and wet. If people wanted to see her stripped bare? Well, that’s what I’m gonna give ’em, she thought, frantically trying to rip off her waterlogged costume before the door swung open for her big reveal. No make-up, no pink hair, no diamond-encrusted costume … just Poppy Adams. She felt ready for the biggest truth of her life.

Libertina laughed loudly as ‘Carmina Burana’ reached its thunder-cracking crescendo. Only Tiger could do camp like this and get away with it. All three spotlights focused on the door of the enormous glitterball as towering fountains of water shot into the air noisily and white tigers reared up baring their fangs. Beams of pink light illuminated the water as the glitterball door slid open to thunderous crashes of drums, timpanis, roaring tigers and water jets. There stood Tiger, shimmering and completely naked like an apparition from the heavens, the spotlights giving her wet silky skin an otherwordly glow. She was stunning. And brunette! The audience was silent. Then came a noise like the rumbling of a volcano as five thousand people
stood up from their seats before erupting into a cacophony of gasps, squeals, screams and cheers, clapping their hands, and stamping their feet in rapturous approval. Libertina noticed Tiger seemed to have her eyes closed, as if in a daze. She must be overcome at the reaction, thought Libertina affectionately. Suddenly Tiger dived fifty feet into the water below, drawing gasps from the crowds and more elated cheers. Libertina’s knuckles went white at the spectacle. She had no idea this was the kind of thing Tiger had been training for. She looked over at Sienna, only to see her sobbing uncontrollably.

‘Okay, girls, go to bar sixteen, and close in around the pool, keep fucking smiling, and five six seven eight and GO!’ barked Blanche on stage, making an elegant spin from her central position so the audience couldn’t see her bellowing her commands.

‘Honey Lou, we’re getting Tiger out of the pool, this is all wrong!’ Blanche yelled to her second in command. The two girls pirouetted through the middle of the Starrlets to reach Tiger, who was floundering in the water.

‘Shit, babes, hold on to me!’ screamed Blanche, grabbing Tiger’s wrist. Honey Lou grabbed for her other wrist and together they pulled Tiger out onto the stage, panting and spluttering.

‘I nearly – drowned – I haven’t got the – strength—’ gasped Tiger.

‘Right, Honey, let’s get her on our shoulders and parade,’
yelled Blanche. ‘One, two, three, four and up! You just sit and smile, Tiger!’

The two girls emerged from behind the Starrlets with Tiger upon their shoulders like their glittering trophy. She beamed and winked and played Lady Godiva as Blanche and Honey Lou paraded her elegantly across the stage. The audience were going nuts. The Starrlets then huddled around Tiger and with an almighty push thrust her up onto the velvet swing that hung down from the Fabergé egg. ‘Can you do it?’ hissed Blanche.

‘I’ll do this even if it finishes me off,’ whispered Tiger, nodding down at her dance captain and gritting her teeth.

‘We’ll always catch you, Tiger,’ murmured Blanche, motioning for the Starrlets to stand back as the glitterball rose, taking Tiger into the sky with one last enormous rousing crescendo.

‘I’m standing outside the Strip’s newest show,
Night of A Thousand Starrs
! What a show! Tiger Starr looks set to conquer Vegas with the epic production we saw tonight! Fans and …’ The radio reporter’s voice turned to white noise in Rex’s ears as he sped towards the airport. This couldn’t be right. How could Tiger’s show be a slam-dunk success? She should be dead. He frantically reached over to fumble with the radio and flashed his lights aggressively at the truck in front, which was slowing down. Bugger this, thought Rex, swerving to undercut the truck. As he reached for the radio again he heard the deafening
parp of the truck before he felt it ploughing into the side of his Mustang.

‘Security are all over the stage now with the cops,’ reassured Lewis as he patted Tiger dry with a towel, just as Blue was talking animatedly to a police officer over by the dressing-room door.

‘But – it was Rex! I just don’t – Lewis, he tried to
kill
me?’ she whispered. ‘I can’t work out if I was dreaming it all, it’s just all so …
surreal
. Did I really read it right?’

‘Don’t start questioning yourself. We’ll nail him,’ said Lewis tightly. ‘Jesus, I can’t get my head round it. That was the most unbelievable performance I’ve ever seen … and you were dying in front of us. I didn’t even …’ Lewis choked on his words.

‘Oh darling, stop!’ Tiger’s lip wobbled and a single tear rolled down her cheek. ‘It’s over now,’ she whispered. ‘It’s over. I survived.’ Lewis knelt down beside her and kissed her cheek tenderly. Neither of them saw Libertina standing across the room at the door with Blue, watching intently.

‘Lewis?’ said Tiger, softly.

‘Hmm?’

‘I think I’ve paid for my sins now.’

‘Oh my beautiful one. You had none to pay for in the first place. God, Tiger, there’s something I need to tell you … I’ve wanted to tell you for fourteen years. Tiger, I lo—’

* * *

The Mustang careened into a tailspin as the truck jerked away again. Rex tried to steer into the spin. Cars honked and screeched behind him as he rotated at high speed towards the central reservation. The car ricocheted off the metal and turned itself over, spinning through the air like an elegant acrobat. Behind him, traffic swerved in its path to avoid the disaster as the car crunched to a landing upside down, smoke rising into the night air from the undercarriage and fluid vomiting from the engine.

‘Tiger? Lewis?’ ventured Libertina from across the room. Lewis shrank back from Tiger and coughed awkwardly.

‘Oh my darling, I didn’t see you there,’ said Tiger warmly, hurriedly pulling on her quilted silk dressing gown. ‘Wait, I’m coming over for a hug.’

‘No, dahhling, stay there. Look, I didn’t want to spoil a moment between you,’ Libertina continued, flashing an apologetic look at Lewis, ‘but this just couldn’t wait—’

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah. I brought someone with me. I picked her up downstairs … she didn’t know if it was okay to come and see you. I said you’d wanna see her.’

‘Oh right. Well …’ said Tiger cautiously. ‘Well it’s just I can’t really see fans right now until all the stuff with the cops—’ Tiger stopped as Libertina stood to one side and Sienna stepped forward. Tiger’s jaw fell.

‘Tiger? I mean … M-m-m-mum? Can I call you that?’
Sienna was shaking. ‘I came to …’ She tailed off to stare at her mother as Tiger stood in silence, trembling.

‘I had to see you … to tell you I – I came all this way to – I just couldn’t believe I was actually watching my mum up there tonight. You were amazing,’ Sienna whispered, tears beginning to run down her face. ‘I’m sorry. I know … I read the story in the paper. I know the truth now. I know everything. You were just a kid. I’m so sorry …’ Sienna bowed her face and cried into her hands. Tiger’s face crumpled and she leapt forward, flinging her arms around Sienna, squeezing her tightly. The two women wept in each other’s arms, rocking from side to side as they sobbed uncontrollably, both saying their sorrys over and over and over again as Sienna buried her face in her mother’s thick, dark hair. Lewis and Libertina exchanged glances and without a single word pulled back towards the door to leave Sienna and Tiger alone. Libertina looked up at Lewis and touched his arm lightly. ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt, dahhhling. Only Sienna was pulling away, she was scared she wouldn’t be welcome,’ she whispered. ‘But … now you need to finish what
you
were going to say to Tiger yourself, too.’

Lewis looked away, a flash of embarrassment in his eyes.

‘We’ll see.’

‘Don’t lose her. Look, I should go. Could ya just tell Tiger we’ll talk soon? Oh and hey, look after them both, Lewis.’ With that, Libertina planted a soft kiss on his cheek and pulled away, her job done.

No sooner had Libertina left the room than a police officer approached the doorway.

‘Sir?’ he asked, politely.

Lewis nodded ‘How’s it going?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, we’re making progress. I just have to let you know I’ve been called out to another job, some huge pile up on the way to the airport, a truck and a convertible or something. Probably fatalities by the sound of it.’

‘Oh boy. Poor folks,’ sighed Lewis.

‘Yeah. These kids with their flash cars. So, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of my deputy, he’ll be up in five minutes. Good night, sir.’

‘Great. That’s great. Thanks, Officer,’ said Lewis, giving a nod before stepping from the dressing room. As he reached for the door handle, he watched as Sienna stood back from Tiger, and overheard her say: ‘I’m so proud of you, mum.” Lewis softly pulled the door shut, leaving the pair safe from the outside world.

Tiger Starr’s final night in Vegas was the party of the decade. The stars had turned out in their droves for her finale performance. In the front row sat Libertina Belle with fellow actress Rosalee Jones. Libertina could barely stop herself from proudly waving around the huge rock on her left hand at every opportunity. Not only had Libertina outed herself on national television but after meeting Rosalee on the set of her latest blockbuster she had found herself proposing after only six weeks. The pair had just been married by Elvis in the Say
I Do
Drive Thru chapel and couldn’t think of a more fitting way to celebrate than to watch Tiger’s show before jetting off to Mustique, away from the gossip-hungry paps eager to track down the newest hot couple on the block. Lesbians were the latest big thing.

Tiger was looking the picture of a goddess as she bumped, grinded and shimmied her way through the show to adoring cheers and whoops. She had kept the brunette look for the last year, and regained her glorious firm curves. The show had been a runaway success, fully booked for ten shows a week. But now Tiger was ready to bring an era to an end this evening. She had a queue of movie
directors eager to line her up a few parts, and she felt a change of scenery would be perfect timing. She could always find a protégé burlesque star to nurture if she felt the need. Although she knew she would never,
ever
hang up her own diamond g-string. It was her life and it was in her blood.

Pepper was still going strong and that night was displaying as much energy as she had twenty years back. Over the last year she seemed to have cultivated a new career as a professional gambler in between shows. No one could beat the old broad at Texas Hold ’Em and she was living a high old life. Pepper planned to plough the profits into opening a new burlesque lounge as soon as she found the perfect venue; a dream she daren’t even have thought about fifty years ago. Whoever said life ground to a halt at eighty obviously wasn’t living in Vegas.