by C. L. Stone
She was wearing a short skirt and a bikini-style top without any covering. It wasn’t that hot, even for summer, so this had to just be for show. She had her iPhone ready, recording. She stepped into the front foyer, a little less wild-eyed without back up, but too in the middle to decline the invitation in front of all those people.
Soma blocked off access from the rest of the downstairs. Ace and I stayed together. I politely held out a hand to her. “Zoey, I want to welcome you.”
She inched forward, holding her phone up and looking around at the inside of the house. “Now you’re letting me in? You were kicking me out before.”
“I hadn’t realized before that you were a family friend of a friend.” I smiled like I used to when I was dealing with awkward clients, as warm as I could be. “You didn’t tell me your family was a friend of Loïc Courteau.”
“I don’t know him,” she said. “But sure.”
I motioned to myself. “My name is Evelyn Lacroix,” I said. “You already know Ace Waris, I understand?”
She looked over at Ace, frowning but not as vicious as before.
She was less in your face when she was isolated. Insecure. Vulnerable. Just what I suspected. It was typical of those teens I’d come across. What they needed was self-confidence, and I had a perfect solution.
“Actually, I was going to ask you a favor,” I said. I motioned to the camera Soma was holding. “I was just going to tell my million followers on Instagram that I heard a Malaysian charity wanted me to arrive and help assist several teen girls who had been in a sweatshop previously. We’re going to go rescue them, help them go to school and make things better for themselves. Only, I can’t go due to some minor legal things I need to take care of here. But I thought I could use the help of another caring, engaged socialite who could bring attention to the situation, possibly help by getting donations from followers perhaps? Do good things for good people?”
Zoey looked from me, to Ace, to Soma with the camera and raised an eyebrow. “Go to Malaysia?”
I nodded. “I think with my many followers and your prowess for getting to the heart of things, we could help each other? I’ve heard you had a good heart.” The lies flowed from me. I was breaking their rule, but it was that sweet Southern charm. Digging into someone’s vanity like this helped in a lot of situations. “Of course, we’ll take care of everything.”
Zoey lowered her phone a little bit. “You’ll promote me on your Instagram?”
“Already doing so.” I again waved to the camera. “It’s live.”
She paused. “You said a million followers?”
“I’ll direct them to you for this adventure,” I said. “If you’ll accept?”
This seemed to immediately change her. She looked right at Soma’s camera and nodded to it. “I’ll go. We’re going to help these girls. I hope you’ll all join me.”
It was a striking change. No longer snarling, just eager to please the audience.
And if she did it doing good things with other people, maybe that’d rub off on her to be good to people. Maybe. It was a trial run anyway.
I waved at the camera. “We’ll update you all later,” I said and motioned to Soma to turn it off.
Zoey lowered her phone and immediately turned to me. “Are you serious?”
“Very,” I said. I motioned to Soma to return the phone so I could show Zoey my million followers, and also the short post I had done when I talked about the sweatshop. “This story is about to blow up, but I really can’t handle the task right now.”
“I’ll do it,” she said instantly. “You know, Ace is an ass, but you’re nicer.”
I smiled, trying to remain syrupy sweet. “You’ll need to be professional over there. And be delicate with the teens. We can send a handler and bodyguard to assist.”
This seemed to impress her. “My own entourage?”
“Should we let your parents know?”
She waved me off. “They never care what I do.”
It had to take a lot of neglect of attention for her to get this bad. She was also very naive. We were complete strangers, and when we said we’d bring her on our team for this, she didn’t even blink or question it.
Zoey’s phone started to vibrate in her hands. It did it again and again, so much so that she turned it around and focused on her screen. She rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Haters.”
I made a sympathetic smile. “That’ll happen. Just ignore them.”
She swiped, but her phone vibrated again.
And again.
More vibrations to denote comments coming in on her Instagram.
She turned on me, her eyes wide and gleeful. “It’s working.”
“Get to Malaysia and help,” I said. “People will want to help, too.” I looked to Ace. “Who can we call to help her?”
Ace leaned into me, putting a strong hand on my lower back. “We’ll find someone. For now, let’s get you a hotel room. A nice one. You’re going to be quite busy.”
Zoey half-minded what we were saying as she was already answering comments on her phone.
I smirked at this and just shrugged. She didn’t have to do anything but show her face, but she’d be half a world away and maybe she’d see doing good things for others could get her some attention too. Maybe we could find someone to go to Malaysia with her to do the actual work.
Ace snapped his fingers, getting the attention of a security guard and pointing to Zoey.
“Take her to the Restoration downtown. Make sure she gets the best suite available. There will be a handler there in the morning.” He spoke to Zoey. “No friends right now,” he said while waving a warning finger.
She shrugged. “What about Claire?”
“If you’ll still go, she can go with. If you prefer.”
She seemed to consider this. “I’ll think about it.” She left with security.
Maybe she didn’t want to share the attention. I didn’t care.
Ace closed the door from the onlookers. “She’s done enough damage already. She’s already doxed our address. Now your followers will find it.”
I felt bad about that. “Maybe we should leave. At least until that calms down?”
Soma lowered the phone. “I’m not totally sure that was a good idea. We were giving her exactly what she wanted.”
Ace laughed and shook his head. He walked over to him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “This is perfect. I don’t know how she thought of it.”
“It was a risk,” Soma said. “It still is.”
“She’ll go to Malaysia,” I said. “She’ll either be humbled by trying to help teens, or she’ll get attention for doing good things and she’ll keep on that path. But we tried all we can. And at least we’re helping those girls...although I don’t know if what I said was true...” I turned to Ace. “Can we find someone who can really help those girls?”
“Already on it,” he said. “Was about to do that tomorrow, but I’ll make calls tonight to include Zoey.”
My heart lifted. Soma had said to ask and Ace would say yes or no. I didn’t know how to exactly help the girls, but Ace did. He knew who to call.
I didn’t need the points. I just wanted to make things right.
“In the meantime,” Soma said, seeming to reluctantly agree with this, “I suggest we get out of here.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Ace said. He went down the hall toward his bedroom. “Pack yourself and her an overnight bag. I’ll do the same but I will stay while you get her out. I need to make those calls and give security some instructions.”
I followed Soma up the front stairs, all the way up to the third floor. “Where are we going to go?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. He went to his bedroom door and opened it and then turned to me. “If the charity event is over, we may go stay with Loïc.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
“He has the safest, closest location I can think of.” He opened a closet door, pulling out two r
olling cases. He handed me the larger one. “Pack more than just for overnight. Probably all of your clothes at this point. I think we’ll be gone for a few days.”
I left him to pack, hurrying along down the stairs with the suitcase.
If we were going to get out of here without much more trouble, we needed to hurry before more people showed up.
Guests
I only packed what clothes Gretta had sent, the new iPad and the cord, and then I dug out my old wallet and my old phone to take with me. It was basically everything that could be deemed mine now. My sock-covered feet were stuffed into a pair of sandals I’d worn before. I looked completely ridiculous. I only hoped no one got a picture of this.
Everything else didn’t belong to me. It occurred to me in that moment what little I had again, what little I had bothered to bring with me.
How little I cared about things, clothes. I mean, I appreciated them, but they didn’t really matter.
I cared more about Soma. About Ace. Strangely enough, I wanted to care about Loïc and Oliver. Maybe they had a weird sense of doing good, but they made an effort. I liked it.
I wanted to participate. Still. Maybe not in the way I was thinking.
I met Soma downstairs. He told me to keep heading toward the garage, we’d escape together.
“They aren’t going to expect us to leave,” Soma said. “Ace might take a while to lock up the house and give instructions to security. He may also try to make sure no one follows him.”
I wished we could wait for him, but I understood this might mean more trouble the longer we waited.
It made sense. We didn’t need people following us to Belle Cielo.
Soma counted off at the door. At three, it was a race between us—with our heads down and as quiet as possible—to follow the sidewalk to the garage door. Luckily, the people that had shown up were at the front of the house. Whatever Zoey had said to them to get them to camp at the road, they were willing to go along with it.
Inside the garage, Soma threw both of our suitcases into the back seat of the town car. We got into the front. The garage door opened and he backed out.
Once we were out on the road, we avoided people by going down an alley between homes.
“The windows are tinted,” Soma said. “But they can still see shapes through it. He reached over to me, tugging at my arm until he could get at my hand and hold it. “Try not to look at anyone right now, not until we get out of Charleston.”
While I tried not to look at anyone, when we did pass people walking around, I glanced at them. Were they headed to Ace’s house? Were they trying to get a look at me or Zoey?
It seemed most everyone walking around was heading toward Ace’s house.
“I just hope by the time Ace is ready to leave,” Soma said, “that he can actually leave and not be stuck.”
I gazed out the rearview mirror, hoping the same thing.
⸙ ⸙ ⸙
I became quiet on the way, gazing out the dark window at shadows as they went by. It was after nine, and the moon was half full overhead. Eventually, the buildings turned into trees. For a long stretch of road, I was almost dozing.
What an insane couple of days.
I was upright when the car stopped, and we were facing the gates of Belle Cielo.
Soma pulled up to the iron gate and waited.
“Should we call—” I started to ask.
I was cut off by the gate opening on its own. There must have been a security camera nearby that approved Soma’s car. Or he had some sort of identity strip hidden somewhere in the car that allowed access.
Ace and Loïc couldn’t have been real rivals if Loïc allowed him and Soma into his home without question.
Soma followed the row of trees down the lane until we hit gravel. From there, he turned the circle until we were at the sidewalk that led up to the main house.
Loïc was standing right where the sidewalk met the gravel, with Oliver next to him. Loïc wore dark jeans and a loose-fitting black sweater, again no labels. It was the first time I had seen him in something casual. The black and silver bands at his arms were a nice touch. In a way, it made his alternative style exquisite, polished.
Oliver wore a basic black T-shirt, dark pants, and a thick belt. It was basic bodyguard wear. He was taking his new job seriously. I was glad to see he’d found a place to stay and work, even if it was chaotic.
It was hard to tell from either expression what they were thinking.
It surprised me Loïc came out to greet us himself.
Soma hopped out immediately, but Loïc beat him to my passenger door. He opened it, putting a hand out in offering.
“I heard what happened,” Loïc said.
When? How? I let him take my hand while I climbed out of the car. He held on to it briefly, catching my attention.
He held a sympathetic frown. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
I nodded, embarrassed and wondering exactly how much he had heard. Maybe he’d been monitoring the Instagram and caught the video?
Soma remained standing by the driver’s side door. “I’ll go park,” he said.
Loïc nodded. “Ace is on the way?”
“He will be when he can get out of the mess,” Soma said. He got in again and turned the car toward the still-open gate that led to the garage.
Loïc motioned to me to follow him. “I’m sorry about Zoey,” he said. “That was my fault but once I realized what I had unleashed, nothing I said could change her mind.”
“I don’t know if she’ll follow through,” I said. My heart eased when I realized he was the one apologizing. They hadn’t been out there to ward us off or anything, more to welcome us and help.
It made me feel like we were on the same team, not opponents. For once, I took comfort in that idea.
“We’ll talk about it in a minute,” he said.
“I’ll wait here for Soma,” Oliver said. He stood by the drive, looking to where Soma was taking out luggage.
Loïc moved toward the house, and I felt obliged to follow. “I’m sorry we’re invading your home now.”
“I welcomed you,” he said. “And I meant it. Any time.”
With my fuzzy socks and odd choice in shoes, and still in the pajama pants and T-shirt, I felt out of place in the grand home and in front of Loïc. It wasn’t like me to be this underdressed.
He opened the front door. Without more lights on in the space, the foyer was ominous. The statues casted long, strange shadows across the maze floor.
He stood in the entryway and turned to me. “I’d offer you rooms in the house, or the Japanese house, but those are actually taken. People from out of town who were invited to the event stayed with me tonight.”
“We don’t need much,” I said. “A couch is fine.”
Loïc finally broke his astute smile and chuckled. “Cherie, I don’t care if you crash in my bedroom. You won’t be uncomfortable while you stay with me.”
I didn’t respond before Soma was coming in the door with Oliver, the two of them talking low to each other as they approached, toting the suitcases behind them.
Loïc turned to them, addressing Soma. “You’ve the choice of the two pool houses or the cottage. They’re a bit further away from the main house than I’d like you to be. However, given the circumstances...”
“We’ll take the cottage,” Soma said.
Loïc raised an eyebrow. “You can have the three separately...”
“I’m not leaving her,” he said. He turned to me. “If you’re okay with it. I’d feel more comfortable if I were nearby. The cottage has two bedrooms. And one of the bedrooms has two twin beds. Ace could stay as well.”
It made sense to me to for the moment, until we could figure out our next move. “Sounds like plenty of space to me. We sincerely appreciate this.”
“Then let me show you the way,” Loïc said. He proceeded toward the rear doors and out into the courtyard I had been in earlier that day.
The place looke
d a little more serene without lots of people around and with the party accoutrements put away. The tent was still up, while attendants quietly were removing chairs and tables. It wasn’t exhaustively late, and I wondered how many more guests were here, where they were...could we trust any of them if we ran into them?
Loïc had us follow him around the left side of the house, keeping to a sidewalk that led beyond the garage.
On the other side were some tall shrubs surrounding what appeared to be just a small house with a stone fireplace and its own manicured front lawn. It could have belonged to any moderate neighborhood.
Loïc opened up the front entryway, turning on the interior lights.
The front rooms had an open floorplan, with a large living area, and a fully stocked kitchen that would have been a dream if I thought myself a cook of any sort. For a cottage guest house, it was exquisite.
Oliver stopped at the front door while Soma dragged in the suitcases. “I’ll be up tonight,” Oliver said. “And there are plenty of other people keeping an eye on things here and at Ace’s, but if you need anything, dial me.”
“Will do,” Soma said.
He walked off, back to the main house, repeatedly looking over his shoulder as he went.
“You can’t buy that kind of loyalty,” Loïc said after the door was closed.
“You try,” Soma said. “Sometimes.”
Loïc shrugged. “This is better. I helped him, now he helps me. Keeps us on an even playing field.”
Soma tugged the suitcases into a hallway, dropping one off inside a door. I followed him to the second one, where he was rolling my suitcase.
He opened the door to a master suite. There was a king-sized bed in the middle of a large room, with high ceilings and a large TV on top of a dresser that was as high as my shoulders. The space had its own attached bathroom with a standing shower.
Loïc followed us to the room. He went to the bed’s nightstand and picked up a remote. He brought it over to me, showing me the buttons. “This works the light,” he demonstrated, dimming the overhead lights, and then the lamps next to the bed. “This part is for the television, and this”—he pointed to the red button—“is an alarm. Don’t hesitate to push it.”