Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas (A Sophie Katz Novel) (11 page)

But I kept my fingers on the
handle of the gun…just in case.

“It’s insulting that men think
I’m going home with them just because they bought me an expensive meal. If they
really want to get me over there they should invest their money in cocktails.”

--Death Of the Party

I only stayed in the bath for ten
minutes.
 
As good as it felt I
hadn’t come here for a spa day. I put my bra and panties back on but hesitated
before putting on my clothes. They were such an unholy mess. I glanced at the
robe and then, with only a moment of hesitation, slipped it on. It was plush,
warm and perfect…and it had pockets big enough to hide the handgun in. I went
back into the bedroom and was considering looking through a few more drawers
when the housekeeper walked in. “You finished the bath?” she asked sounding
slightly surprised.

“I’m not really a bath person,” I
lied. I looked down at a Marc Jacobs shopping bag in her hand. “What’s that?”

 
“Mr. Kinsky’s home. He’s waiting for you in the study but he
got this for you.”
 
She held the
bag out for me but I took a step back.

“He’s buying me gifts?” I asked
suspiciously.
 
“Why?”

“Your clothes are all torn up.”

 
“So he bought me Marc Jacobs?”

“He bought you Marc by Marc
Jacobs.”

See, right there, what kind of
housekeeper puts emphasis on that kind of distinction? Who was this woman?

I took the bag from her and tried
to force my lips into a smile. “Thanks for lending me your robe,” I said as
casually as possible.

She broke out laughing. “It is
not mine. Mr. Kinsky likes to have a spare robe around just in case.”

“Just in case?” I repeated.
“Wait…are you telling me he keeps a woman’s robe on hand just in case he
happens to get lucky?”

“Each girl gets to keep her robe,
he always gets a new one.”

“A new robe or a new girl?” I
asked dryly.

“Both.
 
I’ll wait in here while you change in the bathroom.”

“You don’t need to wait for me
while I change.”

The housekeeper simply stood
there. It looked like I wasn’t going to have the chance to do any more
snooping.
 
With a sigh I went back
in the bathroom.
 

I put on the clothes Alex had
selected for me. I really hated to admit this, but they were cute. The tank was
made from an incredibly soft cotton and it had four little buttons at the
neckline that I made sure were buttoned right up to the top. The shorts were
elegant and the silk felt luxurious against my skin. He had even gotten me a
skinny leather belt to go with them. The only problem was that he hadn’t gotten
me a bra and the black lace number I was wearing did show through, but not by
much. He might not notice. Of course there was no way I could carry a gun in
the pocket of these shorts without it being noticed so I put it in the shopping
bag and my ripped clothes on top of that.
 
Then, after slipping the strap for my MacBook case over my shoulder, I
stepped back out and the housekeeper nodded her approval. She adjusted the
collar of her shirt and for the first time I noticed the pendant around her
neck. It was made up of very clear diamonds arranged to form three linked
circles. It was an impressive piece…particularly since it was hanging from the
neck of a woman who supposedly cleaned toilets for a living.

“I like your necklace.”

She fingered it gently. “It’s
very special to me. Three circles of six diamonds.”

Three circles of six…so 666? How
very Dante-esque.

“Mr. Kinsky is waiting.”

We found him in a room that could
have been ripped from the pages of Architectural Digest; dark brown leather
furniture and an expensive oriental rug over a Brazilian cherry hardwood floor.
In one corner was a piano and in the other a bar.
 
Quick inspection revealed it was fully loaded with expensive
bourbon, scotch, gin, cognac and a mini fridge.
 
Alex was sitting in a leather armchair, one ankle slung over
his knee.
 

 
When our eyes met his lips curled into a bemused smile. “So
did you enjoy going through my stuff in the bathroom and bedroom?”

My breath caught in my
throat.
 
Had there been a security
camera after all? If so the gun was going to come in handy. I would definitely
have to kill him.
 
“What makes you
think I was snooping?” I asked carefully.

 
“I’m pretty sure it’s what anyone with an ounce of curiosity
would have done.” He shifted his eyes to the housekeeper who nodded curtly at
her employer before turning around and leaving the room, closing the door
behind her.
 
“Besides, the way you
tried to get in,” Alex continued once we were alone, “it doesn’t imply that you
have a lot of respect for my privacy.”

I felt my shoulders relax. He had
a point.

“Margarita tells me you took an
Epsom Salt bath?”

“Her name is Margarita?”

“She didn’t tell you? She
probably kept it to herself because she knew you would make fun of it.”

“I would never have done that!” I
snapped.

“I see,” Alex said sagely.
 
“So breaking into my home, that’s okay,
but making fun of someone’s name is beneath you.”

“I wasn’t breaking into your
home!
 
I was just going to sneak
into your backyard and peek inside your windows.”

Alex’s smile broadened and he got
up and walked over to the fireplace.
 
The flames behind him gave him a devilish aura. “Why did you want to
peek in my windows?”

“I wanted to see if anyone else
lived here.”

“They don’t.”

 
“Well that’s not exactly true, is it? Margarita lives here.”

“No, she just works here. She’ll
be going home soon.”

I hesitated for a moment as that
sank in. “We’re going to be alone in the house?”

“Does that frighten you?”

“No,” I lied. “If you’re the GM
of the Hotel Noir why did you agree to follow Anatoly up to his room?”

“You gave me a check.”

“It doesn’t look like you need
the money.”

“Ah, but I didn’t want your
money, I wanted your check.”

I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Should I be worried about that? Is there some kind of identity theft scheme
going on?”

 
“No. You know you have a nasty bruise on your forearm. Would
you like another ice pack for that?”

“Oddly enough, this bruise isn’t
ranking all that high on my list of worries. Someone broke into my house,
went through my
underwear drawer
, stole all my computer equipment, brought a bunch of my
stuff to some hotel room in Vegas that was registered
under my name
and then killed someone in
there…with my underwear in the dresser.”

“You seem particularly concerned
about your underwear.”

“No one goes through my underwear
drawer, not even my boyfriend.”

“Would that be the boyfriend who
cheated on you?”

“Why was the room registered
under my name?

Alex held my gaze for a moment
and then took several steps toward me. As he got closer I had to fight the urge
to take several steps back but I was determined not to allow him to intimidate
me. When there was less than a foot between us I had to crane my neck up to
meet his eyes. He was studying me. Examining my expression, my features, my
hair…what exactly was he up to?

That question was answered a
second later when he unexpectedly grabbed the Marc Jacobs bag from my hand. I
tried to take it back but he immediately moved away from me, while reaching his
hand inside the shopping bag. I stood there panicked as he pulled out his gun.

“Listen--”

Alex put up his hand to stop me.
“I would have been surprised if you hadn’t taken it,” he said. “You don’t have
a lot of reasons to trust me and you’re in my house, in an unfamiliar city and
we’re alone.” He held up the gun with the barrel pointing toward the ceiling.
“You wanted to protect yourself. The good news is that I didn’t ask you here to
harm you.” He unloaded the gun and put it on his desk, tossing the bullets in a
drawer.
 
“Do you know why I told
Margarita to draw you a bath?”

I shook my head although I barely
heard the question. He had unloaded the bullets to calm my fears but what if he
had another gun on him?

“I asked her to pour you a bath
because you can’t
take
a bath if you’re wearing a wire. I picked out those shorts
because you can’t hide a wire under silk without it bunching and I chose that
tank because you can’t hide
anything
under it…not even a black lace bra.”

I was actually too surprised to
be offended. “You thought I was going to come here wearing a wire?”

“And you thought I was planning
on hurting you. You tried to protect yourself by taking my gun and I protected
myself by buying you new clothes. My way is nicer.”

I glanced down at my outfit. “How
did you know my size?”

“I saw the clothes that were
brought to the Hotel Noir. You’re a size four. And before you ask, I didn’t
look through your underwear.” He smiled mischievously.

There was a knock at the door and
Margarita entered without waiting to be asked in. I glanced at Alex to see if
that irritated him, but it didn’t seem to.

“I’ll be leaving now,” she
announced.

“All right, before you go could
you please take Miss Katz’ handbag, shopping bag and computer and put them away
in the coat closet off the foyer?”

“Wait a minute, what? She can’t
take my things!”

“They could be bugged too,” Alex
explained.

 
“Um, I’m not going to just leave my things lying around your
house where I can’t keep an eye on them. What if you’re the one lying to
me
and there
is
someone
else in this house.”

“Fine, keep the purse on you, but
you’ll have to let me search it.”

I weighed my options for a moment
before thrusting the purse into his hands. “The most dangerous thing I have in there
is a Tweezerman.”

I watched as he looked through my
things, my lipstick, tampax and all the rest of it. It really wasn’t any more
of an invasion of privacy than what you would expect at any airport security
station but still, having
him
do this made me uncomfortable. Margarita continued to stand in
the doorway, looking bored.

Alex pulled out my cell phone and
then Anatoly’s. “Two phones?”

“One of them isn’t mine.”

“They’re both going to have to
wait in another room.”

“Why don’t you want me to have a phone?”
I asked nervously.

“Because they can be easily
tampered with in order to turn them into recording devices. For me to ensure
you haven’t done that I’d literally have to take them apart. So your choice,
you can give the phones…and that laptop to Margarita for her to store in the
other room and I’ll tell you what I know or you can take your new outfit and
leave. Seems to me you win either way but you may not see it that way.”

I hesitated, my hand gripping the
strap of my MacBook case. “Yes to the phones, but I want to keep the MacBook
with me.”

“Very well. It was nice of you to
stop by, Sophie. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Vegas.”

I exhaled loudly. “You really
have information that will help me?”

He shrugged. “I have information
that you want. Whether it’s helpful or not depends on what you choose to do
with it.”

I thought about it for a moment
and then carefully took the MacBook out of its carrying case. I put it on a
side table near the chair Alex had been sitting in and opened it. “Examine it
if you like. Assure yourself that it isn’t on while we talk. It can be by your
side for as long as I’m here. But I just had my home computer stolen along with
all the storage devices that I had my latest manuscript on. I’m not letting
this thing out of my sight now.
 
You and I know I can’t make a MacBook into a recording device if it
isn’t on.”

Alex hesitated, clearly not
pleased with the compromise. I stepped forward and took my phones from him and
placed them firmly in Margarita’s hands and then handed her my bag of
clothes.
 
“Go ahead and put those
in the foyer.” I turned to face Alex. “See? We’re both making compromises
here.”

It was a compromise I wouldn’t
have made if I hadn’t already noted where the landline phone was in the room.
Besides, Mary Ann knew that if I didn’t answer my phone she should call the
cops, so if Alex’s plan was to keep me from calling for help he was in for a
surprise.