Where Beauty Lies (Sophia and Ava London) (25 page)

“Ava, wait,” he called, jogging after her.

“No. You can’t see me cry.”

His hand on her arm stopped her. “Why not?” he asked.

“It’s not fair,” she said, her voice anything but steady. “I only want you to see me when I’m pretty.”

He turned her face to his and their eyes met and she felt a spark through her whole body. His eyes were stormy green and intense and even in jeans and a parka there was something incredibly magnetic and powerful about him, like an ancient god visiting the mortal plane. His lips looked ready to curve into a smile and Ava ached to be the one that got to prompt it, day after day, week after week. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “You’re always beautiful to me, Ava London.”

Ava didn’t know how long she stood on the sidewalk staring after him, her heart beating, her body thrumming with his words, but it was long enough that he wasn’t even a faint outline anymore, long enough that her toes were numb and even Popcorn was ready to go in.

The Contessa was the first person she saw when she walked into the showroom. She nodded and was on her way past when she stopped Ava. “I am proud to know such a serious girl,” she said. “My nephew arrives tomorrow morning. You will meet him then.” She took hold of Ava’s arm and said earnestly, “Trust the Contessa, eh? I spare you much heartache and sorrow. My nephew is a very special boy. You will like him. You will be saved years of searching for Mr. Right.”

If only I hadn’t already found him,
Ava thought.

LonDOs

Coming clean

Doing good

Popcorn

Making the Contessa proud

Boys who are friends

Boys who are amazing

LonDON’Ts

Saying goodbye

(it hurts)

(it hurts)

(it hurts)

22

whiticism

The text arrived in Sophia’s inbox at 8:01
A.M.
, right after Hunter kissed her goodbye and left for his 8:00
A.M.
run. She was just going to see her sister when Ava appeared in her doorway saying, “Did you get it too?”

Sophia nodded and read aloud, “‘Please come see me right away, it’s vital. Whitney.’”

“It could be a trap,” Lily said.

“It could be,” Sophia acknowledged. “But for what?”

They were out the door by eight fifteen.

“You two are becoming speed-dressing champs,” MM praised Ava and Sophia in the car on the way to the hospital. He, Sven, and Lily were going to drop them off and then head to the showroom to start prepping for the show that afternoon.

“What about me?” Lily asked.

“Sam’s T-shirt looks better on you than it does on him,” MM said. “If that’s what you meant.”

Lily turned five shades of pink. “It’s not—”

“You and Sam?” Ava gawked. “Since when?”

“Since never,” Lily said, tugging at the shirt. “MM doesn’t know—”

Sophia looked pensive. “I actually think it’s been going on a few weeks. Remember when we had the idea about the Central Park Boathouse and we went to get Lily and her door was locked?”

Ava’s mouth fell open. “That’s right. And it took her a really long time to ‘find the key.’”

Sven raised his hand. “Why does she pretend not to like him?”

“For fun?” Ava said.

“For privacy?” Sophia suggested.

“So the Contessa wouldn’t have anything to do with it,” MM put in.

“You can feel free to chime in at any time,” Sophia told Lily.

Lily peeked at them from around a pile of boxes. “Are you mad?”

“Oh furious,” Sophia said.

“Spitting,” MM confirmed.

“That’s why the other day, after he did his superhero thing, you were truly upset,” Ava said. “Because you and he were already together and you thought he was going to get together with Whitney.”

“That’s what happens in the movies,” Lily said.

Sophia laughed at her. “But you know as well as anyone that real life is better than the movies.”

Ava shook her head. “I can’t believe that was going on under our noses the whole time.”

“We have been a little busy,” Sophia pointed out.

The car pulled up in front of the hospital and Ava and Sophia got out.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to wait?” Lily asked.

“Go,” Sophia told them. “We’ll be fine. I can’t imagine this will take more than an hour.”

They went through the regular hospital to a special ward where linoleum gave way to wood floors and the waiting room had a butler. “This is our enhanced-privacy wing,” Nathan, Whitney’s “care coordinator,” had explained the first time they went up there. “People who live in the limelight outside value their privacy in here even more.”

As far as they could tell, that meant that it was basically a luxury hotel with a lot of medical equipment. It didn’t even sound like a hospital, where the corridors always echoed with the sounds of compression machines and various tiny beeps, because every room was soundproofed.

“Your friend has two broken ribs and a slight concussion so avoid exciting her or causing any abrupt head movements,” Nathan told them now as they reached her door.

“I’m not even sure I know what an abrupt head movement is,” Ava said. “But I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“Good.” He tapped discreetly twice, waited for Whitney to say, “Come in,” and pushed the door open. “Your visitors have arrived, Miss Frost,” he said.

“Thank you, Nathan.”

“I’ll leave the door open in case you need anything,” he said and left.

Whitney had almost no makeup on and Sophia thought she’d never looked better.

“How are you feeling?” Sophia asked.

“Is it true that one of you has been here much of the time I’ve been in the hospital?” she asked, and her tone was almost hostile.

Sophia shrugged. “We wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“There’s security for that,” Whitney pointed out.

“And we also wanted to make sure that if you got up you weren’t lonely. I’m sorry I wasn’t here this morning,” Ava told her. “I was here last night, but I left at six thirty to take a shower.”

Whitney frowned. “Why? Why would you do that for me?”

“Because you were hurt and alone,” Ava said as though it were obvious.

“I have hundreds of friends.” Whitney spread her finger out and swept her hand through the air. “Look at all my flowers.”

“Of course you do,” Sophia said. “They’re just not the kind who visit hospitals.”

Whitney shook her head. “I don’t understand. You two are too nice. Too really nice. You’re not pretend nice, you’re not going to go from here and tell everyone I looked like death without makeup on.”

“You look amazing actually,” Ava said.

“I was just thinking the same thing. Younger and prettier,” Sophia said.

“Is that an insult?” Whitney demanded.

“Yeah,” Sophia said. “And you know what else? You have really pretty hair.”

“Stop, Sophia,” Ava told her. “Don’t be a bully. No more abuse.”

Sophia couldn’t stop herself. “Just one more thing. I like your eyebrows fuller.”

“My god, Sophia, you’re so mean,” Ava said. “Stop compliment bombing this instant.”

Whitney was laughing but it turned into a cough that brought Nathan in. “Are you all right?” he asked nervously.

Whitney signaled him away. “It’s nothing. They were just making me laugh.”

Nathan said, “Good. Carry on,” and ducked back out.

Whitney’s eyes went to the clock. “We’ve wasted so much time,” she said.

“Wasted how?” Sophia asked.

“He’ll be coming. As soon as he can he’ll be coming to try to make me stop talking. But I’m not going to let him. Not this time.”

“And neither are we,” Sophia assured her. “We know about Christopher Wildwood. We know Popcorn and Charming were at his house and he’s the one you rescued them from and we won’t let him hurt you.”

“Chris?” She laughed. “Chris wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, an animal. People are a different thing but this had nothing to do with Christopher Wildwood. It’s Hunter,” she said. “Everything bad that’s happened to you is because of Hunter. And I helped him. I’m so ashamed. And so sorry. I know there’s nothing I can do to reverse it but at least by telling the truth I can help it heal.”

“Hunter?” Sophia repeated.

“What do you mean ‘all of it’?” Ava asked. “You mean giving our designs to Christopher Wildwood?”

“That,” Whitney said. “But that was easy. In LA he could just go and take pictures himself but he has also mirrored your phones and the phones of a few of your friends, so he could mine those for images. And of course kidnapping Popcorn and Charming.”

“You remember their names?” Ava was impressed.

“My job is memorizing things,” Whitney told them, smiling. “It’s not like I just cured athlete’s foot. Anyway, I helped him with that but it was his idea. They were all his idea. After the first one, he was just full of schemes.”

“What was the first one?” Sophia asked.

“Your fund-raiser,” Whitney said. “For the animal shelter. All the money that was stolen. I thought you knew. He took it and framed Dalton.”

“Why?” Ava asked.

“Because I like to,” Hunter said, stepping into the room.

LonDOs

Lily and Sam!

Our show!

Our friends!

AS Girls

Dalton’s innocence

Whitney

EVERYTHING!

LonDON’Ts

Finding out you’re dating a psychopath

23

upper beast side

“It wasn’t nice of you to start without me,” Hunter scolded Whitney. “After all we’ve done together.”

“I only did those things because you forced me to,” she said.

Hunter sighed. “How completely uninteresting.”

“Is this true? Did you do—everything?” Sophia asked.

Hunter grinned at her. “Babe, you don’t know the half of it.” He yawned. “God I’m tired.”

Sophia said, “Why don’t you take a nap and we’ll—”

Hunter leaned against the heavy, soundproof door of Whitney’s room until it closed. “I don’t think you’re going to go anywhere, my dear.” He reached behind him and they heard the click of the lock engaging. “And I don’t think we’ll want any interruptions.”

“You’ve got our attention,” Sophia told him. “Let’s see your show.”

“You sound so bitter,” he told her. “I don’t understand it. I’ve been nothing but good to you. Great to you.”

“I’m sure you think that’s true.”

“It
is
true,” he said, his eyes getting a crazy look. “I don’t just think it.”

“Okay,” Sophia told him.

“Forget about her for a little while,” Ava said. “Explain it to me. What you’ve done.”

“It’s a good story,” he said, chuckling to himself. He measured out the length of the room using his feet—heel, toe, heel, toe. “You know I’ve been playing in these very hush-hush, prestigious celebrity poker games.”

Sophia nodded like she was bored but Ava put some enthusiasm into it. “Whenever you talked about the people you were meeting it pretty much blew our minds.”

Sophia shot Ava a look but Ava pretended not to notice.

“I’m a pretty popular guy around Xavier,” he said. “I can more or less come and go as I please. Not many people like me.”

“Xavier?” Ava said. “That’s the name—”

“Of the place where the games are held,” Hunter said. “Xavier Mansion. In the twenties and thirties it was one of the fanciest houses in LA. But it was abandoned a few years ago and since then it’s been used as this sort of private club for high-stakes, high-credibility games.”

“And you’re a bigwig there,” Ava parroted.

Hunter smiled like he was glad to be understood. “Exactly. I won’t lie to you—part of my popularity comes from the fact that I’ve been on a bit of a losing streak. Losing a lot. At first it was no big deal but after a while it was harder to get credit, especially when my dad started being such an asshole about everything.”

“He didn’t approve of the Xavier stuff, did he?” Ava said.

“Exactly. Thought I was wasting my time, called the people there lowlives, said I was having another incident.” Hunter’s voice dropped to a lower register as he said, “You’re spiraling out of control. You’re headed for a deep valley if you don’t apply some breaks. I know you think it’s fun but there’s a bottom and when you reach it, I’m not going to be there.” Hunter shook his head and in his own voice demanded, “What kind of a parent is that? Says I know you’re hurting, I can tell you’re in pain, but take care of yourself? A selfish-bastard parent.” He reached around and rubbed the small of his back. “Where was I?”

“Ask him about his mother,” Whitney said.

“What about her?” Sophia asked.

“When was the last time you saw your mom, Hunter?” Whitney asked him.

“Shut up, you piece of trailer park trash,” he said.

“See?” Whitney told her. “As soon as you get close he deflects.”

Sophia frowned. “But he told me about her. At first he said she died when he was fourteen. Then he told me that actually she left when he was eight, and it was only when he was fourteen that his father said she was dead. For all those years his dad had let him believe she left because he wasn’t good enough.”

“That’s a tragic story.” Whitney sounded sympathetic. “Except it’s all a lie. His mother is actually alive and living in Brooklyn. She has a photography gallery. Isn’t that right, Hunter?”

“You’re just a conceited pile of bones. Why are you even talking?” He swiveled his head around the room like a bird of prey alert to dinner or danger, and faster than a shot he lunged at Whitney.

But Sophia was faster and put herself between them.

“Hunter, get away from her,” Sophia ordered in her sternest, most mom voice.

Hunter glared at her, his body just inches from hers. His jaw tightened and she wondered if he was about to attack her.

He disgusted her now, and standing this close to him was unnerving, but she wanted to hold his attention. Behind his back, she saw Ava inching toward the door. If she could get it unlocked, they would be able to get help.