Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11)

by Patricia Watters

  Dimitri figured Maddy was being serious this time, so he moved around as instructed, then started currying the opposite side, while saying, "I wasn't messing with your head. I have a complete wood shop at home. In building my equipment I don't reveal my secrets to anyone."

  "Except your assistant," Maddy reminded him. "Speaking of which, she was pretty mad when she walked out. Aren't you afraid she might reveal your secrets just to piss you off?"

  "No," Dimitri replied. "She signed a nondisclosure agreement and knows it will cost her twenty-thousand dollars if she does."

  Her brows drawn in concern, Maddy said, "If I'm supposed to sign one of those, I don't have twenty-thousand dollars."

  "Then you'll have to keep your mouth shut, because you have to sign if you want to assist me in Metamorphosis," Dimitri said.

  Maddy propped her hands on her hips. "If I stand to lose twenty-thousand dollars, I should also be given the secret to how you get out of the padlocked water tank."

  Dimitri looked askance at her. "There's only one person alive who'll learn the secrets to all my illusions, and I don't know where she is."

  "Who is she?" Maddy asked.

  "My wife."

  Maddy stared at him, wide-eyed. "Then, you're, married?"

  Dimitri nodded. "It was an illusion gone awry. My assistant and I staged a wedding on a beach under a special device that looked like a wedding canopy, as a part of an illusion in which we would teleport ourselves to the French Riviera for the honeymoon—much the way David Copperfield teleported himself and a member of the audience to Hawaii—but there was a problem with the device and my assistant vanished, and no one's seen her since."

  "She couldn't just vanish," Maddy said. "She probably walked out on you in the middle of a performance like your last assistant did."

  "I considered that," Dimitri replied. "But after my stage crew and I fanned out to look for her, we returned to the device with the canopy and there were a couple of indentations in the sand so we figured the canopy had been set up over a pocket of quicksand."

  "That's terrible," Maddy said. "Didn't anyone try to dig for her?"

  It was all Dimitri could do to keep a straight face, as he replied, "She wasn't a very good assistant. I was looking for a new one."

  "I can't believe you'd just—" Maddy stopped. Looking at him with a combination of irritation and embarrassment, she said, "You just wait. I will get you for this. So back to what I was saying. If I stand to lose that much money, I should learn more secrets."

  "It doesn't work that way," Dimitri replied. "The only person I'd ever trust to keep all my secrets would be my wife, but only if she was also my assistant, because she'd have far more to lose than a few thousand dollars if she gave the secrets away."

  "Unless she left you for another magician and took your secrets with her," Maddy said.

  "Good point. I guess that puts the burden on me to be a perfect husband so my wife will never leave me."

  Maddy let out a little cynical laugh. "A perfect husband wouldn't hang upside-down while chained inside a tank of water, or be inside a burning crate hanging over a river, so you'd always be in danger of your wife leaving you."

  "Another valid point," Dimitri conceded. It was also a reminder that an assistant under a nondisclosure agreement was a far safer bet than a disgruntled wife.

  CHAPTER 4

  Dimitri scanned the length of Maddy as she stepped out of the bathroom in his cabin, where she'd changed into the gown she'd bought, so no one in the family would see her.

  "So then, the gown is okay?" she asked.

  "It's fine," Dimitri replied. But 'fine' didn't begin to describe Maddy in the long black gown. She'd be a natural for the Nine Lives, looking like a sleek black feline in a gown that covered her completely except for the hint of cleavage, yet the gown was more seductive than the one she'd worn in Las Vegas because it followed her slender female curves in a way that also accentuated them. The stark lines and blackness of the gown contrasted against her fair skin, dark hair, and ebony eyes, also made her look mysterious.

  Catching himself staring, he turned his attention to the paper in his hand, and said while offering it to her, "Here's the rundown of illusions for the night we open, along with your cues. It's fairly self-explanatory."

  Maddy took the paper, and as she looked it over, Dimitri couldn't help thinking she'd be pretty easy to hold… Except she was off limits, he reminded himself.

  "So there really isn't much for me to do except stand around and hand you stuff, and hold the ax for the water torture escape," Maddy said.

  "Pretty much, but you'll be busy during the rope stunt, walking through the audience while selecting your brothers, which helps the crowd connect. As for the water torture escape, just do what you did before. You were great."

  Brows drawn, Maddy said, "Does it always take you that long to get out of the tank?"

  "It varies," Dimitri replied. "If I take a deep enough breath I can stretch out the time, but sometimes it takes longer to get out of all the shackles." He was feeding her a whole bunch of crap, but that was the way it had to be. Maddy's natural reaction on facing a potential tragedy would do more for the stunt than anything else. The audience would pick up on it and respond.

  Maddy looked at the program again. "If I have to break the glass, how hard would I have to swing the ax?" she asked, in a worried voice.

  "With all your might," Dimitri replied.

  After years of lying to audiences, does it carry over into your private life…?

  He dismissed that troublesome thought, reminding himself that this wasn't his private life because he had nothing going with Maddy, so the untruth fell under the umbrella of trade secrets.

  "What about my hair?" Maddy asked. "Your assistant wore hers pulled up with glittery things in it. I don't have anything glittery, but I can pull it up on top of my head."

  Dimitri uncrossed his ankles, which had been resting on a box holding the props for some basic magic tricks he intended to use to entertain the kids there, and he stood. Walking up to Maddy, he lifted her single braid from her shoulder, and releasing the rubber band from its end, separated the braid with his fingers, and said, while spreading her hair around her shoulders, "Wear it down."

  "I'll look like school girl," Maddy said.

  "Maybe, but you'll also be a distraction," he replied, while looking directly at her.

  "A distraction to the audience?" Maddy asked, while holding his gaze.

  "Them too," Dimitri replied, then wondered what the hell he was doing. With the heels of his hands resting on her shoulders, and his fingers playing with her hair, there was only one way Maddy could construe what he'd just said. He was about to tell her to wear it up, when the door to the cabin opened and his father stood looking in.

  Releasing Maddy's hair, Dimitri moved away from her, and said, "This is a surprise, Dad. I didn't know you'd be stopping by here."

  Sebastian Matthias remained standing in the doorway, his gaze shifting between Dimitri and Maddy, as he said, "I'm enroute to my casino run at the coast and my driver needs a break, so I decided to stop for a brief visit and tell the Hansens hello."

  Dimitri glanced out the window at his father's bus in the parking area near the winery, then he looked at his father, who was obviously waiting for an explanation about what he saw when he opened the door, so answering his father's unasked question, he said "Maddy's going to be my assistant while I'm at the Coyote and we were trying to decide how she should fix her hair."

  Sebastian nodded to Maddy, then looked at Dimitri in a way that told him he wasn't happy with the setup. Maddy, seeming embarrassed by the situation, offered a tentative smile, and said, "It's only for the month, then I'll be building an arena here." Turning to Dimitri, she added, "I'm thinking I'll wear my hair up and try to look sophisticated, and I have to get back to the lodge and welcome guests." She turned into the bathroom and shut the door.

  Deciding to use some misdirection to avoid a long-winded lectu
re from his father, Dimitri picked up the folder with the aging diagrams, and opening it on the kitchen table, said to him, "I've been studying Charles Morritt's illustrations and I've decided to build a donkey stable while I'm here and play around with it some."

  That got his father's attention. "Keep in mind that those old illusionists tried to get as much mileage out of a prop as possible," Sebastian said, "so whatever Morritt did is not the way it would be done today."

  "Maybe not, but it worked, and it could be effective enough to pull off the disappearing horse illusion and convince the powers that be to give me my show," Dimitri said. "Meanwhile, I figured out the clown. The only reason the magician's assistant would dress like a clown would be to hide the fact that there were two clowns involved, dressed alike with identical makeup."

  When Dimitri caught the slightest twitch of a smile at one corner of his father's mouth, he knew he'd hit on the core of the illusion. "Why would he need two clowns?" Sebastian asked.

  "I haven't figured that out yet," Dimitri replied. "Maybe to look like mirror reflections."

  The discussion was interrupted when the bathroom door opened and Maddy stepped out wearing jeans and a western shirt. Her hair was again in one long braid, and the black dress was draped over her arm. "I'll study the list of cues you gave me," she said to Dimitri, then to Sebastian, she added, "Will you be staying for the first performance?"

  Sebastian shook his head. "I'm booked at the coast, but I'll trust the show will go well."

  "I suppose," Maddy said, but there was uncertainty in her tone.

  She let herself out, but after the door shut, Sebastian said, "You already lost one assistant because you foolishly became personally involved. Don't make that mistake again."

  "I'm not involved with Maddy Hansen," Dimitri replied. "She was good when she stepped in when Karla quit, and she's agreed to help me here, but that's all there is to it."

  "She's not a show girl. She doesn't belong in Vegas," Sebastian said.

  "Who's talking Vegas? Like I said, she's contracted with me only while I'm here." Dimitri tried to sound candid, when in fact, the idea of taking Maddy back with him as his assistant was beginning to take hold. She'd been both natural and relaxed when on stage at the Nine Lives.

  "That might be the way you see it, but she's also the kind of woman who can take a man away from his dreams," Sebastian warned. "I saw the way you two were when I walked in."

  "What you saw was me helping Maddy decide how to fix her hair," Dimitri said. "Besides, not much can happen with a pack of big brothers and Maddy's father breathing fire down my back, so relax. By the end of my run at the Coyote I will have figured out the disappearing donkey illusion, I'll be ready to apply what I've learned to a disappearing horse illusion, and I'll be out there on the strip, pulling your audience away from you." He couldn't help smiling.

  His father was smiling too, and Dimitri knew it was because he was proud of him. But then his father's smile faded, and he said, "You won't get there unless you figure out the illusion, and since the donkey stable was always positioned in the center of the stage, away from curtains, you might want to think in terms of a fake. It's been said Morritt listened for the lowering of a fake, and when he heard it, the illusion was complete and he opened the doors."

  Dimitri had considered the possibility of a fake—a mechanism that raised or lowered a panel that could hide something. He also realized his father was giving him a major clue, which had never been his policy, and he knew exactly why. The sooner his father could get his protégé away from Maddy Hansen and back in Las Vegas, the better.

  ***

  The night of the opening at the Coyote Lounge, Maddy gazed around the interior of the stretched limousine, feeling as if she were in a different world. In a sense she was. She'd never ridden in a vehicle while sitting on a tufted leather seat beneath a mirrored ceiling with star-burst lighting. And there wasn't a vehicle on the ranch that housed a rosewood bar with fiber optics, a small refrigerator, a sink, a wine rack, and a cabinet with crystal goblets.

  On pressing a button, a panel near the ceiling in front of her slid back, revealing a TV. "I can't believe this," she said. "Do you get TV reception anywhere you go?"

  "Not anywhere," Dimitri replied. "There's usually interference when you're traveling, so the TV's mostly for watching DVDs."

  Maddy opened and shut the panel again. "So then, when you're riding along you watch movies?"

  "No," Dimitri said, "I analyze the performances of other illusionists or plan illusions."

  Maddy pressed a toggle switch, retracting a panel over a glass moon roof while revealing a rectangle of twilight sky. "Am I going to get in trouble if I keep pressing buttons?" she asked, as she pushed the toggle again, moving the panel back to cover the moon roof.

  "Not unless you hit Chris's call button or lower the panel between him and us. It pisses him off when someone's back here dinking around."

  "Why do you drive around like this anyway?" Maddy asked. "Limousines are associated with wealth and power, and they're commonly cited as examples of conspicuous consumption." She flipped a small switch and a goose neck reading light went on just above her.

  "Entertainers have a stage image to maintain," Dimitri replied. "Driving up to an opening or arriving for a publicity stunt wouldn't have the same impact if I showed up in a rental car."

  "So, how long have you been doing this?" Maddy asked, while noting what looked to be a retractable table with folding legs.

  "About twenty-four years," Dimitri replied. "It's the way my dad has always gotten around when he's not riding in his bus."

  "So then, this is actually his limousine," Maddy said, as she ran her finger tip over a wood-trimmed Kleenex box.

  Dimitri nodded. "Dad likes to keep Chris occupied when he doesn't need him since he pays him fulltime either way, so I got a limo and driver, and Chris got a trip to Oregon, though he'd rather be back in Vegas."

  "Oh." Maddy scanned the plush surroundings. All around were tinted windows she knew blocked the sight of anyone inside from viewers beyond, and with a solid panel between the chauffeur and the passengers, just about anything could be going on in the back seat while the limo was whizzing across country.

  They slowed, and when Maddy glanced out the window she saw they were turning into the parking lot of the Coyote Lounge, which was a continuation of the giant parking lot of the casino complex. She noticed a crowd gathered in front of the lounge and wondered if there was someone important expected around the same time as Dimitri's show.

  When the limo pulled to a halt beneath a covered entrance, Maddy was about to open the door when Dimitri placed his hand on her arm, and said, "Let Chris do it."

  Maddy peered out the window to see a crowd standing and staring at them in curiosity. "Are these people by any chance here to see you?" she asked.

  "If they watched my burning box stunt, probably," Dimitri replied. "Just smile and act like you do this every day. It's not so bad after a while."

  Maddy leaned closer to the window to get a better look at the gawking faces, and the people gave no indication they could see her.

  The door opened and she looked at Chris's extended, white-gloved hand, and wished she'd thought to buy a pair of elbow-length gloves to go with her gown. It was strange being treated like a celebrity. She'd never given it any thought, other than to see celebrities on the covers of tabloids, usually photos of female stars extending a long, slender leg before stepping out of a stretched black limousine. Feeling a little emboldened to play a role she'd never dreamed of playing, she stretched out her leg and took Chris's hand for him to help her out, then smiled at the onlookers as Dimitri climbed out behind her.

  Taking her arm, Dimitri said, as he ushered her inside, "You're picking this up fast."

  Maddy laughed. "I saw the same scene in Pretty Woman," she said, feeling a little ripple of pleasure with the touch of Dimitri's hand on her arm.

  "She was a hooker," Dimitri reminded her.


  "Yes, but she knew how to get out of limousines," Maddy replied.

  Once inside the lobby, Dimitri escorted Maddy to the foot of a bank of stairs, and said, "There's a dressing room for you upstairs. Your name's on the door. You can wait there until we're ready to go on. Someone will come for you five minutes before."

  "Where will you be?" Maddy asked.

  "Checking the stage, then shutting myself in my dressing room so I can get psyched up in preparation for materializing on stage and performing some levitations."

  Before Maddy could start asking the gazillion questions on the tip of her tongue about materializing and levitating, Dimitri released her arm and walked off.

  Forty-five minutes later, Maddy was positioned off-center on a stage draped in black curtains all around, when the lounge darkened and Dimitri suddenly materialized to the concerted gasps of the audience. Maddy knew the show would open that way and she'd been prepared to watch closely to see how he did it, but she was distracted momentarily when a dove flew across the stage to land on Dimitri's outstretched hand, after which Maddy stood in stunned disbelief while Dimitri proceeded to command objects to appear from out of thin air and float around the stage—flowers, a book, a genie lamp, a small table, even a bottle of wine poured itself into a wine goblet, each object floating on command, then vanishing.

  The audience was clearly captivated, and their enthusiastic applause could not be silenced until Dimitri raised his hands to indicate his next piece of magic, which was her cue to walk across the stage and hand him the deck of cards she'd been holding.

  Until then she'd been unnoticed by the crowd because the focus had been on what was happening on center stage, but when the spotlight followed her as she strode across the stage, her heart started hammering, her face felt as if on fire, and her feet in the stiletto, sling-back heels she'd bought wobbled with each step. She only hoped she wouldn't start hyperventilating, especially knowing her family was in the audience, though she hadn't yet spotted them.