Two-Faced (26 page)

‘Who needs an excuse to get laid?’ Mia quipped, her four-inch stilettos sinking into the carpet as they headed up the narrow staircase to the VIP lounge.

Glancing around as they made their way in, she saw Antwon and Jay and a couple of their footballer pals at the end of the bar, slapping each other on the back, no doubt congratulating each other for whatever goals they’d managed to score lately – or whatever birds they’d managed to score
with
. Beyond them, some soap stars were lounging on two semicircular couches, probably gossiping about rival soaps and boasting about their crappy upcoming storylines. To their right, a couple of American R’n’B singers and their entourages had already taken over a corner, and between there and the bar a trio of ageing ‘zany’ TV presenters were making a lot of whooping noises as they endeavoured to attract the attention they still craved but no longer got.

Making a mental note to avoid them – because she could tell that they would get pissed in record time, then spend the rest of the night dad-dancing and trying to chat up girls young enough to be their granddaughters – she looked around when Simone nudged her. Bruno and Gordy had arrived – and judging by their body language they were still arguing. Noting how cute Bruno looked in his skintight white pants and electric-blue T-shirt emblazoned with the words
Bitch Boy!
in sparkling diamante, Mia scooped a glass of champagne off the bar and said, ‘Let’s go say hello before it gets too packed and we can’t hear each other.’

Aware that Jay was watching her, she smiled to herself as she slinked across to greet the boys. She was
so
going to have him – but she wasn’t about to let him know it yet. No doubt he was used to girls throwing themselves at his feet, but she was going to make him work for her attention. Mia wasn’t sure if he was still married, because she’d seen it written somewhere that he might be going through a divorce. But, either way, it didn’t really matter.

Relieved and delighted to see her, Bruno threw his arms around her. ‘Oh, baby, I thought I was never going to see you again! Did Gloria hurt you? Did she pin you down while Fabrizi stamped on your head and skewered your innocent little heart with his wicked tongue?’

‘You’re such an idiot,’ Mia laughed, kissing his baby-smooth cheek.

‘That may be true,’ he declared, lowering his voice to a surprisingly masculine pitch and placing a hand on his boyish chest. ‘But this here idiot
cares
for ya, baby!’

‘Oh God, why are all the good men gay?’ she teased, resting her head against his shoulder.

‘Oh,
he
’s not gay,’ Gordy sniped, flashing a tell-tale look of disapproval at Bruno. ‘Least, not in
public
, anyway.’

‘Oh, will you just shut
up
,’ Bruno groaned. Then, rolling his eyes at Mia, he said, ‘He’s only being like this ’cos I wouldn’t hold his hand when we got out of the cab.’

‘Oh, believe me, it’s got nothing to do with that,’ Gordy corrected him tartly. ‘But if I’d known I was going to be your dirty little secret, I’d have gone for someone like Ricardo instead. At least
he
wouldn’t keep me dangling like an insignificant little piece of fluff!’

‘
Ricardo?
’ Bruno drew his pretty head back. ‘Oh, so it’s like that, is it?’

‘No worse than you making eyes at that Dutch boy,’ Gordy retorted piously. ‘Or did you think I hadn’t noticed?’

‘How could I
not
notice,’ Bruno spat back. ‘You’re like a fucking stalker – watching my every little move, and sucking in every breath I exhale!’

‘Now, now, boys,’ Mia chided, aware that people were beginning to notice. ‘Let’s not do this here.’ Grabbing Bruno’s hand to separate them, she said, ‘Come on, you, let’s go dance. And
you
–’ she gave Gordy a school-marmish look as she shoved her bag and drink into Simone’s hands, ‘– go find us a table. And lose that look you’ve got on your face before I get back, or I’ll slap it off!’

‘He’s doing my box in,’ Bruno griped. ‘He’s a jealous nutter, and I’ve a good mind to shag someone right under his stupid nose!’

‘How about him?’ Mia suggested, giving a surreptitious nod in Jay’s direction.

‘Ooh, don’t tempt me,’ Bruno groaned lustfully. ‘Mind you, second thoughts, have you seen how big his mates are? They’ll probably tie me up and chuck me in the canal if they find out I’m a poof.’

‘You’re not
that
obvious,’ Mia lied. ‘But you could always throw them off the scent by making out like you’re with me, if it makes you feel better.’

‘
You?
’ Bruno pulled an incredulous face. ‘You’d eat me up for breakfast and spit me out for lunch!’

Laughing, Mia threw her head back and started dancing, not in the least fazed at being the first to brave the empty dance floor. It gave her the perfect stage to show off without anyone else to distract the eyes of whoever was watching. And Jay King definitely was.

As more people began to arrive, the dance floor gradually filled up. Aware that Jay probably couldn’t see her any longer, Mia told Bruno that she needed a drink.

Several of their friends had arrived by the time they reached their table, and everyone was chattering loudly about the show, and what each thought of the others’ performances. Saying their hellos, Mia and Bruno collapsed into their seats and snatched up their drinks.

‘Here,’ Simone whispered, passing a small mirror to Mia under the table. ‘I saved you some.’

Mia still had plenty of the coke that Steve had given her the night before, but she wasn’t about to waste her own when someone else was offering. So, draining her glass, she reached for the rolled-up twenty-pound note and dipped her head to snort the line. This was the first time in two weeks that she’d partied as a single woman, and she intended to make the most of it.

High as a kite by eleven, she was happily exchanging increasingly suggestive glances with Jay King when the committee bigwigs and designers deigned to put in an appearance, effectively stopping the party.

Bored when the music stopped and the speeches started, Mia sneaked off to the loo for a top-up of her own much cleaner and stronger coke. Tripping back out some minutes later, only to bump straight into Fabrizi on his way to the gents, her happy smile turned into a vicious smirk when he gave her a thunderous glare.

‘Something wrong, Arni?’ she asked, her tone viperish. ‘You look like you didn’t expect to see me. Not disappointed, are you?’

‘You don’t deserve to be here,’ he snarled back at her. ‘They should have kicked you into the gutter where you belong.’

‘Now that’s not a very nice way to talk to the girl who made you famous,’ Mia purred. ‘’Cos let’s face it, there’s no way the press would have wanted to talk to
you
if it wasn’t for
me
.’

‘You are
filth
,’ Fabrizi spat. ‘Fat, ugly, stupid,
filth
!’

Jay King came up behind him in time to catch this, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, ‘Apologise to the lady.’

‘
Lady?
’ Fabrizi squawked. ‘I assure you this
slut
is no lady, my friend!’

Losing the vicious smile, Mia placed a hand on her throat and blinked nervously up at Jay as if she’d been truly scared.

‘And you’re no friend of mine,’ Jay told him, the quiet tone of his voice at odds with the anger that was flashing in his eyes. ‘But
she
is,’ he added, nodding towards Mia. ‘And if I ever catch you talking to her like that again, I’ll rip your fucking liver out and feed it to you in a drip – got that?’

Almost crying with fear, like a typical bully who crumpled in the face of real strength, Fabrizi spluttered something unintelligible and flapped his hands. Guessing that he wouldn’t be causing any more trouble, Jay jerked his head at him in a
piss off
gesture. Blushing fiercely, Fabrizi lurched into the gents.

‘You okay?’ Jay asked Mia.

Nodding, she exhaled nervously. ‘Thanks for that. I didn’t know what he was going to do.’ Thinking how gorgeous Jay was up close, she said, ‘He’s a designer I’ve been modelling for all week, but I messed something up today and he thinks I did it on purpose, so now he’s got it in for me.’

‘Guys like him are just dicks,’ Jay said dismissively. ‘But you know where I am if you need me. My name’s Jay, by the way.’

Gazing up at him coquettishly through her lashes, Mia told him her own name in a soft little voice, sensing that, like most heroes, he probably preferred feminine girly-girls.

‘Your people in there are still going on with themselves, so I won’t keep you,’ Jay said. ‘But feel free to come and join me for a drink when it’s done, yeah?’

Murmuring, ‘Thanks, I might just do that,’ Mia inhaled deeply when he winked at her before walking away. If she hadn’t been determined before, now she was
definitely
ending the night in that man’s bed.

Glancing at the door to the gents when Jay had gone, she contemplated waiting for Fabrizi so she could finish him off. She’d been looking forward to this confrontation all day, relishing the thought of getting into a verbal spat with him, because she’d seen him at his worst and knew that he was no match for a bad bitch like her. But she decided to leave it, knowing that if it really kicked off Jay would soon realise that she hadn’t really needed rescuing. Anyway, Fabrizi still had the agony of seeing her all over the papers abusing his beautiful creation to come – and that was going to hurt a lot more and for a lot longer than a few nasty words.

Back at the table when the music came back on at last, Mia shook her head when Bruno asked if she wanted to dance.

‘Sorry, but I’ve promised myself to a straight man.’

Drawing his head back as she reached for her handbag, Bruno pursed his lips and demanded to know who. His jaw dropped when she nodded in Jay’s direction, and he gasped, ‘You sneaky bitch! You knew he was top of my list.’

‘Your
wish
list,’ she quipped, leaning down to kiss him. ‘Face it, bitch boy, some men need a
real
woman, not a pretend one.’

Waggling his head in mock-indignation, Bruno said warningly, ‘Watch your back, girlfriend, ’cos some
other
man might think he’s already got exclusive rights.’

Knowing that he was referring to Steve, Mia gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘Well, some
other
man best get a grip, ’cos Mia Delaney don’t belong to no one but her own sweet self!’

‘You got plans?’ Jay asked fifteen minutes later, his face so close to Mia’s as they gazed into each other’s eyes that she could almost taste the alcohol on his breath.

‘Yes,’ she murmured, rubbing her knee against his inner thigh. ‘I take it you’re staying at a hotel tonight?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘So why are we still sitting here?’ Finishing the second drink she’d had since joining him, she whispered. ‘Get a cab and wait at the corner.’

Smiling, because she obviously wasn’t some kiss-and-tell tart – not that it would have stopped him, because he was hot for her – Jay said, ‘See you in five.’

Leaving him to make his excuses to his boys, Mia went back to her friends with a weary look on her face.

‘What’s up?’ Simone asked. ‘You look really fed up. Didn’t it work out with him?’

‘No, he’s an idiot,’ Mia lied. ‘All he talks about is football, and I’m
so
not interested.’ Shrugging now, she added, ‘I’m pretty knackered, anyway, so I wouldn’t have been much use to him. I think I’ll just go home and get my head down.’

‘Aw, you can’t go,’ Simone moaned, clutching at her hand. ‘There’s hours to go yet, and I might not see you again for ages.’

Smiling regretfully, Mia said, ‘Sorry, babe, my head’s banging. I need some fresh air.’

Looking as if she was about to cry, Simone threw her arms around Mia, gushing, ‘We’ve
definitely
got to stay in touch. I’ve got your number, so I’ll give you a ring and we’ll meet up – soon. Okay?’

Nodding, Mia disentangled herself. Looking around for Bruno to tell him she was going, she smiled when she spotted him flirting with a pretty-boy waiter. She told Simone to kiss him goodbye for her, blew kisses to the rest of the models and made a hasty exit.

She spotted the taxi down at the corner and hurried towards it – unaware that Robbo was watching from the shadows of a shop doorway across the road.

16

Mia was smiling contentedly when the taxi pulled up behind Sammy’s Bentley the following lunchtime. Net curtains twitched at windows all along the street as she stepped out, and chinks appeared in blinds. Tossing her head back, she strolled up the path like a movie star.

Kim barrelled out into the hall and said, ‘Where have you
been
? We’ve been worried sick about you.’

‘Why?’ Mia asked, kicking off her heels.

‘Because you disappeared, and no one knew where the hell you’d gone,’ Kim told her, following her into the front room. ‘The phone’s not stopped ringing all morning and I had no idea what to tell people. I rang all your friends, but that Laura was the only one who’d seen you, and she reckoned you’d gone off with some footballer. So then I was
really
worried, ’cos for all I knew he could have had you locked up in some hotel being – what do they call it –
roasted
.’

‘What the hell do
you
know about stuff like that, mother?’

‘Hey, I read the papers, I know what goes on out there. Anyway, I’m not the only one who thought something bad might have happened, ’cos Sammy was worried, an’ all – weren’t you, Sammy?’

Guessing from Mia’s clothes and the shadows circling her eyes that she’d spent the night partying and was probably exhausted, Sammy said, ‘We were starting to wonder. Maybe you could have rung your mum to let her know you were okay.’

‘Or answered my flaming messages,’ Kim added reproachfully. ‘I sent enough, so you must have known I was tearing my hair out.’

‘I had my phone switched off,’ Mia told her truthfully, perching on the arm of the chair. ‘I don’t see why you’re so worked up, though. I’ve stayed out loads of times before, and you haven’t been worried about me.’