“I guess I should go first.”
He tapped her nose. “Until tomorrow then, beautiful.”
Barbara touched the doorknob. She hated parting from him. It felt as if a part of her soul was being ripped away. She turned back to face him and took his hand. “Let’s go down together.” She wanted to prolong her time with him as much as possible.
He lifted his eyebrows. “You sure?”
She nodded. “I’m sure. We’re not going to run into anyone all the way out here.”
They rode the elevator together, smiling at each other all the way down. They stepped out and walked across the lobby, and she waited near the main entrance while Noah dropped off the key. He joined her and held the front door open, and she stood aside as he gave their parking tickets to the valet. Then he came and stood beside her.
Relax, Barbara Bentley, she thought as she looked around the hotel entrance. The likelihood of running into someone in Fairfax County was slim. And if she did see someone she knew, she could always say she was leaving a meeting.
As she removed her dark sunshades and smiled up at Noah, out of the corner of her eye she noticed a man exiting the hotel’s revolving doors. She turned to look and her heart nearly exploded. It was Bradford.
Barbara gasped so loudly that Noah turned and glanced at her, then in the direction in which Barbara was staring. “Oh, shit,” he muttered under his breath.
Noah had never met Bradford but he obviously recognized him, probably from the countless times her husband’s face had appeared in newspapers. Barbara licked her lips. Here she was standing naked under a fur coat with another man in front of a hotel. She was tempted to turn and flee through one of the side doors.
That plan vanished when she realized that Bradford had just seen them. The look of shock on his face as his eyes traveled from her to Noah and back to her was something Barbara had never seen before. Bradford rarely lost his composure but he looked like he was going to lose it now.
She stared down at the pavement.
“You, okay?” Noah asked softly.
Barbara nodded as Bradford walked briskly toward them, his beige cashmere coat flapping in the fall breeze. He stopped in front of them and glared at Barbara, then at Noah. Noah squared his shoulders and cleared his throat.
“I thought you were showing houses tonight. What the fuck are you doing here? If this is what it looks like, Barbara, I swear I’ll . . .”
Barbara wrapped her coat tightly around her neck as Bradford fumed. She suspected that Bradford was here meeting some woman, but there was no sign of that. So what was there to say? She had been caught red-handed.
Bradford turned to Noah. “Who the hell are you?”
“Uh, I’m—”
“He’s a coworker,” Barbara said, interrupting. “We were having drinks.”
“Drinks? All the way out here?” He laughed sarcastically. “I’ll bet.”
Bradford grabbed Barbara by the elbow and steered her off to the side. When they were a short distance away, she yanked her arm free.
“What are you doing here with that kid, Barbara? Is that the famous Noah?”
“Yes.”
He sneered. “Are you sleeping with him?”
She said nothing, and Bradford grimaced. “All right. So that’s it then? That’s why you’ve been spending my money on blue jeans and all that bling lately. How old is he?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“He looks young enough to be your son.”
Barbara rolled her eyes. “Pfft.”
“Dammit, Barbara. I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“And what are you doing all the way out here?”
He glanced at his watch. “From the look of things it seems that I’m probably being stood up. I’ve been waiting here for damn near an hour.”
“For one of your sluts, no doubt.”
“I have a business meeting, Barbara.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Don’t try to turn this around. You’re the one coming out of a hotel with another man.”
“Now you know how it feels,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“So that’s what this is about? Revenge?”
She unfolded her arms and got right up in his face. “Believe it or not, this has nothing at all to do with you. It’s about me, Bradford. About my feelings and my needs. For once.”
He blinked.
“Strange concepts, huh?”
“I don’t know what that kid has been telling you, Barbara, but you’ve changed. First your wardrobe, now this. I don’t like it, and I won’t have my wife out here—”
“I have to go now,” she interrupted, as a parking valet drove up with her Benz.
“Like hell you do. You’re coming home with me.”
“Don’t be silly, Bradford. What about my car?”
“Leave it here for the night. I’ll get someone to pick it up in the morning. And get rid of that kid.”
“Stop calling him a kid.”
“I call it as I see it. And you’re not leaving here with him.”
Just then another valet drove Noah’s Honda Civic up and parked it behind Barbara’s Benz.
“I wasn’t planning on leaving with him. But you go ahead and have fun with whoever you’re meeting here, because I’ve stopped caring one way or the other, Bradford.”
“I said I’m here for a business meeting,” he shouted as she walked away. “Barbara!”
She ignored Bradford and stopped at Noah’s side.
“Will you be all right?” Noah asked quietly.
“I’m fine. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He nodded and they both got in their separate cars. Barbara gave Bradford one last look before she drove off.
JOLENE SLIPPED INTO her Jacuzzi and sank down beneath the bubbles. It had been more than a month since the break-in, and no one seemed to suspect that she had anything to do with it. When Brian first told her he’d destroyed Pearl’s salon himself, she had half expected to hear police sirens come screeching up her driveway at any minute. Mercifully, that hadn’t happened, and she was starting to feel confident the she had pulled it off cleanly.
From what Patrick had told her the last time he dropped Juliette off from her weekend visit with him, Pearl was devastated. The break-in had left her badly shaken, and she cried whenever she went to the salon. She was even reluctant to rebuild out of fear that it could happen again. Good, Jolene thought as she closed her eyes. It served that frumpy bitch right. She had gotten exactly what she deserved.
Now it was time to throw her party, a big elegant Christmas bash to let everyone know that Jolene Brown was back on the scene. Before her divorce, she used to throw some of the best parties in Silver Lake. With all the money she had now, she should be able to do even better.
The timing was perfect. Since that first lunch with Veronique at the club, the two of them had started working out together, and Jolene was confident that the baroness would accept her invitation. Perhaps she would even agree to be the guest of honor. Veronique was also friends with Barbara, but Jolene would bet her lottery winnings that she and the baroness had much more in common. Forget Barbara Bentley. She didn’t need that snob anymore. She was friends with Veronique.
As soon as she got out of the tub, she would phone her mother and ask her to help plan the party. She and her mother didn’t have the best relationship, but Jolene knew that if she dropped the baroness’s name, her mother wouldn’t be able to resist getting involved. Jolene hoped that planning this party together would give them a chance to make their relationship better.
She supposed she should also invite Pearl and Patrick, just for show. She didn’t want to arouse suspicion. With any luck, Pearl wouldn’t want to attend a party in her depressed state of mind anyway, and maybe Patrick would come alone.
She stepped out of the tub and dried herself off quickly. She wanted to get dressed and call Darlene Dunn to start planning the menu. Flowers and decora
tions needed to be ordered, invitations printed.
There was a knock at the bathroom door and she cracked it open.
“Mom, Dad’s here,” Juliette said, standing there in a mini denim skirt. “I’m going.”
Jolene put on her bathrobe. Patrick was here to pick up Juliette for the weekend already? It was earlier than usual.
“Tell him to wait a second. I want to talk to him before you go.” She checked her weave then ran down the stairs. Patrick and Juliette were huddled close at the front door talking quietly. She smiled when she saw them, until she noticed the dour expressions on their faces.
“You’re early,” she said as she tightened the belt around her robe. “We haven’t even had dinner yet. Is everything all right?”
Patrick looked up when he heard her voice. “We were just talking about the salon. Otherwise, everything is fine.”
Was that what the depressed faces were all about? She supposed she shouldn’t be too surprised. Pearl’s salon had been nearly destroyed, her life’s work flushed down the drain in one night. How wonderful did the fat bitch look to Patrick now?
Sometimes Jolene shocked herself with how evil she could be. But she was tired of playing second fiddle to Pearl, or to anyone for that matter.
She tried to put on a sad face. “How’s Pearl? Any better?”
“Not much,” he said. “She’s taking it pretty hard.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Jolene wondered if this was a good time to tell Patrick about the party she was planning. She tried to steer the conversation to something a little more cheerful so she could bring it up. “So, what are you two planning today? A movie? Going out to dinner?”
“We’re helping Pearl fix up the salon. Then we’ll get a bite to eat.”
Jolene gritted her teeth. Now she was really getting annoyed. All Patrick ever wanted to talk about was Pearl and her stupid-ass salon. Enough was enough. “I don’t know if I want Juliette over there so soon after what happened,” she said curtly.
“But I want to go,” Juliette protested.
“What on earth for?” Jolene asked. Juliette had never been particularly fond of Pearl. Why this sudden desire to help her out?
Juliette shrugged. “I feel sorry for her. You should see the salon, Mom. It’s really bad.”
Jolene blinked bitterly and glanced at Patrick. What the hell kind of bull was he feeding their daughter about Pearl? Juliette needed to feel sorry for her own lonely mother, not her dad’s whore.
“I want you to stay here,” Jolene said. “That’s a job for adults, and you’ll just get in the way. Your father can come back and pick you up after he’s done over there.”
“She’ll be fine,” Patrick said. “I’ll be with her, and Lee is already there helping Pearl.”
That tramp was the last person Jolene wanted her daughter hanging around. She shook her head. “No, Patrick. You can just—”
“Why can’t I help out?” Juliette argued. “Pearl has been really nice to me. The least I can . . .” Juliette paused as the telephone rang.
“Just a minute,” Jolene said. “I’ll be right back.” She slipped out of the living room and into the kitchen and picked up the phone sitting on the built-in desk.
“Hello?” she said shortly. She would get rid of the caller quickly and return to Patrick and Juliette. She absolutely did not want her daughter helping to clean up Pearl’s salon. The irony in that was too much. And Lee would be there too? The less Juliette was around that child, the better as far as Jolene was concerned.
“Yo, what up?” Brian asked.
Jolene shut her eyes tight. How the hell did he get this number? She had gotten all her phone numbers changed a week after the break-in. She wanted to wait to make sure that the police didn’t suspect him or her before she had any more dealings with him.
“I told you to stop calling me,” she hissed quietly. “It’s too soon.”
“I’ve waited more than a month. I want my damn money, bitch.”
She opened the French doors and stepped onto the patio off the kitchen to avoid being overheard. She had no intention of meeting Brian or paying him anytime soon. “That’s not enough time. And who the hell gave you this number anyway?”
“What difference is it to you? Pay me and I’ll get out of your fucking life.”
“It’s your fault we have to wait. You almost got caught.”
“I don’t want to hear that crap, bitch. Shit. A deal’s a deal. You can’t cop out now. It’s not my fault that bitch showed up.”
“If you had followed my instructions instead of doing it yourself and screwing up, we wouldn’t be in this jam. But someone might have seen you, and it’s too risky for us to have contact now. Maybe in a few more months if nothing—”
“A few more months shit. And fuck your fucking instructions. It got done, didn’t it? Pay me now or I’m calling the cops on your ass.”
“Well, that would be pretty damn smart, since you’re the one who broke in and tried to rob Pearl’s place.”
“Rob? It wasn’t no robbery and you know it. You asked me to bust it up and I did. Now I want my money or I’m going to the cops.”
“Go ahead then, stupid asshole,” she sneered. “I’ll tell them I had nothing to do with it. It was a botched robbery for all I know. Who do you think they’re going to believe? An ex-con or me?”
Jolene slammed the phone down as hard as she could. She couldn’t believe Brian had gotten her new unlisted number so quickly. Someone at her old office must have given it to him despite her instructions that it not be given out to anyone without asking her first. If Jolene ever found out who was responsible, she was going to make their life miserable.
She hoped Brian wasn’t dumb enough to go to the police. But if he did, she would simply tell them that he must be implicating her because they’d had a short affair and she dumped him.
She had it all covered. Let the jerk go to the cops if he was foolish enough to try that. They didn’t have a shred of evidence against her. For now, she had to deal with Patrick and Juliette. She was damned if her daughter was going to help clean up Pearl’s salon.
She walked back into the living room to find it empty. Had they left without telling her? She ran into the dining and family rooms, and then the den and solarium. No one was there. She opened the front door and looked up and down the block for Patrick’s Nissan. She didn’t see it and slammed the door shut. They had slipped away while she was on the phone.
How dare they. She ran up the stairs toward her bedroom, planning to get dressed and go to the salon and get Juliette. But she stopped in mid-flight. Maybe it would be better to let it go. If that creep Brian really did go to the cops, it would help her look innocent if Juliette had helped Pearl out. Still, she couldn’t stand the thought of Juliette over there helping to clean up a mess that she was responsible for.
She strolled into her bedroom and picked up the telephone. She was going to go ahead with her original plans for the day, starting with phone calls to Veronique, Darlene, and her mother. She had a party to organize.
“I TALKED TO PEARL day before yesterday,” Barbara said to Marilyn as they worked out together on the treadmills. “She said that when she caught the intruder in her salon he was holding a crowbar.”
“My God. Did he hurt her?”
Barbara shook her head. “When he saw her, he ran out and took off in his car.”
“Do they have any idea who did it?”
“Pearl said the police have a new lead. She finally remembered that she’s seen the getaway car driving around in Silver Lake.”
Marilyn raised an eyebrow. “Do you think someone around here did it?”
“I find that hard to believe. But you never know. I just hope they catch him. I’ve always admired Pearl.”
“It’s such a shame,” Marilyn said. “Where have you been getting your hair done lately?”
“I’m just going to a salon at the mall until Pearl gets back on her feet.”
&nbs
p; “If you need a recommendation, I go to a woman in Annapolis who—”
“That will be too far for me, since I’m moving in with Noah next week.” Barbara said it as calmly as if she were talking about the weather on a sunny day in June. She stared straight ahead and kept walking on the treadmill as Marilyn hurriedly pressed the buttons on her treadmill until it came to a halt.
“You’re doing what?” Marilyn exclaimed loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“Shh,” Barbara said without stopping. “I don’t want Jolene Brown to hear.” She nodded in the direction of Jolene and Veronique working out next to each other on the cycles across the aisle.
“You can’t be serious, Barbara,” Marilyn said as she dabbed her cheeks with the towel draped around her neck. “You’re leaving Bradford?”
“Yes, Marilyn, I’m very serious.”
“Will you stop that damn thing and talk to me?” Marilyn said. She jumped off her treadmill and waved her hands wildly in front of Barbara.
Barbara stopped her treadmill, and Marilyn grabbed her arm and escorted her to a far corner of the room. She let Barbara go, and Barbara stretched, leaning over and touching her toes.
“Well?” Marilyn asked impatiently, her hands on her hips. “And will you stay still for a minute?”
“Sorry,” Barbara said. She stood up straight. “I’m tired of Bradford and all his women. Noah knows how to treat me.”
“He’s a twenty-year-old kid,” Marilyn snapped.
“He’s thirty-eight.”
“And you’re almost fifty-two.”
“Noah doesn’t seem to mind the age difference.”
“I don’t believe this. What does Bradford say about all of this?”
Barbara swallowed. She didn’t want to mention the things Bradford had said since catching her with Noah. Their arguments after that night had been generally short and nasty.
“What the hell is going on, Barbara? Sometimes I think you’ve lost your mind. He’s a kid compared to you.”
“He’s more man at thirty-eight than you’ll ever be.”
“The one thing you had going for you was that you always acted like a lady, even when you were drinking. Now you’re acting like a slut. If I had wanted a slut for a wife, I would have married one.”
Can't Get Enough Page 20