Friends & Fauxs

by Tracie Howard

  Cracky snatched the drive from her hand, kissed it, and announced, “It’s been a pleasure doin’ biznis with you.” He stopped in the living room and turned back to her. “Oh, and by the way, that book you was writing? Forget about it, or we’ll be paying you another visit, and that one won’t be nearly as civil. Have a good day,” he said, smiling to display a set of mustard-colored teeth that hadn’t seen chloride in some time.

  As he and Two Tons of Fun swaggered out her front door, along with her dreams of fame and fortune, Lydia was left deflated, with a shell-shocked Randy standing in a puddle of his own pee.

  Chapter 36

  “So, when do I get paid?” Charli demanded. It had been over a month since Max talked her into embarking on the sleazy smear campaign to destroy Gillian, and he still hadn’t explained exactly how those raunchy photos—which she had never wanted to take—would translate into dollars in her pocket. Besides she’d been cooped up the whole time and was going stir crazy. With the photos all over the Internet and print magazines, Charli had to hide out for fear that she would be discovered now that she was styled exactly like her famous twin sister.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Max said. “I’ll contact Gillian’s publicist today and I’m sure that Brandon will pay a pretty penny to keep more pictures or the video from cropping up.”

  “But isn’t that illegal?” Charli was beginning to have serious second thoughts about the whole thing. She had gone along with the harebrained scheme in a misguided attempt to get back at her estranged mother and sister, but never expected her own face and body to be plastered on Internet sites around the globe. What had she been thinking?

  The idea of a stripper/whore suddenly growing a conscience was ridiculous to Max. “So is prostitution,” he snapped.

  The comment stung sharply. She’d made the fatal mistake of believing that Max could care for anyone except himself. “I am not a prostitute!” Charli shouted.

  “What else do you call someone who sells their body for money?”

  She had to struggle to hold back her tears. “I’m out of here,” she said.

  Charli should have known that Max was too good to be true. While he looked smooth and sophisticated on the outside, she was quickly learning that he was as slimy as they came. In many ways he was much worse than Flash ever was; at least with Flash you knew up front what you were dealing with, but with Max, his movie-star good looks and veneer of charm and elegance were dangerously deceiving.

  Realizing that he might have gone too far, Max grabbed her gently, “Charli, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know that you were only a dancer and not a prostitute. I’m just under a lot of pressure and I took it out on you. I’m deeply sorry.” He still needed Charli to wrap up his business with Brandon and Gillian.

  “I’m tired of this. I can’t do it anymore.”

  “One more day, that’s all.” Max gave her his most charming partial smile, and then hugged her close to his chest. If he had to he’d give her what most women wanted. A little sex always did the trick.

  “You promise?”

  “I promise,” he said. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve got to run a few errands, so why don’t I pick up dinner from Kozmos and a bottle of your favorite wine and we’ll have a nice relaxed evening?”

  “Okay.” She was too exhausted and drained to do anything but go along with his suggestion. Besides, she didn’t exactly have a lot of choices or a plan of her own.

  Feeling comfortable that he’d regained control of the situation, Max grabbed his coat and headed out the door.

  Two minutes later the doorbell rang. Thinking that he must have left his house key and returned to retrieve it, Charli trudged to the door and opened it right away.

  On the other side stood her mirror image, wearing the identical mouth-agape, wide-eyed expression, staring right back at her.

  Chapter 37

  Gillian was frozen solid in shock, not comprehending how someone who looked exactly like her could be standing on the other side of the door staring right back at her. “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “This can’t be.” She slowly began to understand how the pictures that weren’t her and also weren’t doctored could be so real.

  Neither Charli nor Gillian moved a muscle for fear of shattering the mirror image that bewildered them both.

  Lauren, who stood also stunned at Gillian’s side, looked from one twin to the other trying to make sense out of the strange tableau before her eyes. As far as she’d ever known, Gillian was—and always had been—an only child. Even though Lauren had a brother who’d long ago escaped the clutches of their controlling and manipulative mother, she’d always felt like an only child herself, which was part of the reason that she and Gillian had adopted each other as sisters.

  “Who are you?” Lauren asked, breaking their uneasy standoff.

  “I’m Charli.” The words formed themselves and left her mouth, while Charli’s eyes never left Gillian’s. There was a magical connection, which she felt instantly, and intuitively she realized why she’d never felt complete before this moment. All of those empty years, feeling as if she didn’t belong had nothing to do with Miner, Missouri, or her adoptive parents, but everything to do with the woman standing in front of her. Her other half.

  “Charli, I’m Lauren.” Lauren extended her hand, hoping to ease both women back down to reality, and do so before Max showed up. “Do you mind if we come in?”

  A private detective Lauren hired had led them to Atlanta and Charli’s condo, which Max had essentially moved into. They flew in that afternoon, and immediately camped out in front. When they saw Max leave, they decided to talk to whoever this Charli person was before confronting Max. They didn’t know if Charli was male or female and certainly had no idea that the owner would be Gillian’s identical twin.

  Charli stepped aside so that Gillian and Lauren could enter. Once they were all seated around a coffee table, Charli hid her face and whimpered, “I’m so sorry.” The tears she’d been holding back began to fall freely. Some fell from relief at having found something that she hadn’t even realized was lost, and others fell out of shame at how it had all come about. “I didn’t want to do the pictures. I’m so sorry,” she repeated.

  Gillian’s tears began to fall also. Charli’s words were not even necessary; somehow Gillian could feel her pain and emotions, as clearly as if they were her own. “It’s okay” was all she said. All of the anger that had built up at those responsible for the awful photos disappeared. Nothing, including an Oscar, was as real for her as this moment.

  “It’s really okay,” she repeated.

  Those were the words Charli had needed to hear her entire life. That it was okay. That she would be okay. For no reason other than the fact that they were together now, she believed it. The smoldering sense of doom that had hung over Charli her entire life already felt lighter. She had none of the anger at her sister that Max had been planting in her heart.

  Lauren hated to break up the magical moment, but she realized that Max could return at any moment and they needed to have a plan by then. “Where is Max?” she asked.

  “He went out to run an errand and pick up dinner. He should be gone at least a couple of hours.”

  “Charli, I don’t know how well you know him, but he’s my ex-husband, and trust me, he is a very conniving and possibly even dangerous man.”

  Charli shook her head slowly. “I’m beginning to see that. I don’t know how I could have been so stupid.”

  “He’s fooled a lot of people for a long time, including me.”

  “You said ‘dangerous.’ What do you mean?” Charli asked.

  “He may have had something to do with the murder of my cousin, Paulette, whom he was also having an affair with.”

  A shiver ran down Charli’s spine. She’d been foolish enough to believe that the suave and sophisticated Max cared so much about her that he would save her from Flash and his sleazy world, but she was now realizing that she hopped out of the frying pan
right into a blazing fire. “I only recently met him—two months ago.” She lowered her head in shame. “I was at my lowest point. My mother had just passed, and I’d just found out that I was adopted.”

  She explained some parts of her childhood and how she’d ended up in the Atlanta strip joint where Max had found her.

  Gillian’s heart was broken over the tragedy that her sister’s life had been. The fact that Charli had posed for pornographic pictures to ruin her own life didn’t matter. She’d learned from Paulette that good people sometimes did bad things because of their pasts. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through that,” she said, reaching over to embrace her twin. They held on to each other as though their lives were inextricably tied to the other.

  Watching the sisters bond after so much time, tragedy, and disappointment, Lauren felt a wave of sadness that she and Paulette had never gotten to that point. But the least she could do for her cousin was to get to the bottom of who killed her.

  “Ladies, I hate to break up the family reunion, but we’ve got some loose ends to tie up.”

  “Yeah, named Maximillian Neuman, the Third,” Gillian said.

  “I’m in,” Charli said, “In fact, I’d like to tie him up.” She smiled for the first time in months. It felt good to be a part of a team, and most importantly to have found family.

  Chapter 38

  Heading into the Gansevoort, Lauren walked past Pastis, the chic French bistro in New York’s Meatpacking District, where she, Reese, Gillian, and Paulette’s lives forever became intertwined.

  It was eight years ago, and Lauren had just graduated from Harvard, when she met Paulette for lunch there to tell her the exciting news that she was moving to New York to attend Columbia Law School. It was not the news that Paulette wanted to hear. She’d built About Time Publicity in New York and made a name for herself separate and apart from her snotty relatives and wasn’t looking forward to sharing the spotlight with her drop-dead gorgeous and rich cousin.

  Afterward, while they were walking up Ninth Avenue, they ran into Reese, who invited Lauren to a party that she and Paulette were attending and that Paulette had conveniently forgotten to mention to Lauren when asked about hanging out later. Gillian, who was Reese’s roommate at the time, also joined them, and from then on the mismatched foursome had been joined at the hip in an intense love-and-sometimes-hate relationship.

  Those days seemed both like yesterday and over a century ago. Lauren felt Paulette’s presence as she walked down memory lane, ending up back at her hotel. It was a comforting presence, since she’d long since forgiven Paulette for having that disastrous affair with her husband, and now, more than ever, realized that Max was quite capable of manipulating Paulette into it for his own selfish gain.

  Gideon had been a godsend after Paulette’s tragic death and her dramatic break up with Max. He was the most grounded, caring, and introspective person she’d ever met. Over the last three years they had traveled the world together documenting diverse cultures through photography for his gallery in Williamsburg as well as for publications such as National Geographic. It was a bohemian existence that was literally worlds away from the country club/Jack-and-Jill life that Mildred had mapped out for Lauren.

  Thinking about her mother was a painful exercise that Lauren tried to avoid, especially over the last week, after catching her and Max en flagrante. Though Mildred didn’t realize it, Lauren had kept in contact with her father over the years, having him call her whenever he could do so in privacy. The hardest decision she’d made was to tell him about her mother and Max’s sordid affair, as well as their possible complicity in Paulette’s death.

  Nathan was understandably shocked. Though he knew his wife well and realized that she was both selfish and manipulative, he would never have imagined that she would stoop to having an affair with her own son-in-law or murdering her own niece. The very next day he moved out of the family’s estate and into an apartment in Manhattan.

  Lauren’s family was now permanently shattered; leaving a gaping hole in her heart that ached much more than she cared to admit.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Lauren said when Gideon picked up the phone. He was in Niger photographing the Touareg tribe. It was early evening there, so Lauren figured he would be done shooting for the day.

  “How’s my girl?” he asked. He’d checked on her every day since she told him about her mother and Max.

  She could hear the smile in his voice, which made her ache to see it in person. “I’ve been better,” she answered.

  “I wish I were there to hold you.”

  “I could really use a big hug right now.”

  A knock at her hotel room door caused Lauren to frown, since she’d not ordered room service, nor was she expecting anyone. “Just a minute,” she said, putting the call on hold.

  She went to the door and looked cautiously through the peephole. There stood Gideon wearing a big beautiful smile.

  “What are you doing here?!” she asked, leaping into his arms and wrapping hers around his neck.

  “You said you could use a hug, so here I am.”

  “I can’t believe you’re really here.” She’d missed him badly, even more so after the explosion with her mom.

  “You know there’s no way I’d let you go through this alone, especially knowing how unpredictable and possibly dangerous Max is.”

  “You really didn’t have to travel here all the way from Africa,” she said, “but I’m so glad you did.” She hadn’t realized just how badly she needed him.

  “I’m glad I did, too,” he said.

  Once inside the suite, he led her to the sofa where he held her close. Tears trekked silently down her face while he kissed them away, helping to ease some of the hurt. She’d never felt more loved, safe, and secure.

  Chapter 39

  Working through a sleazy attorney, Max reached out to CoAnne Wilshire to negotiate a settlement with Brandon and Gillian. If they wired two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into a numbered bank account, he promised the smear campaign would stop. He also warned them that the video and the next round of photos would be even more damaging than anything previously seen by the public.

  In their final photo shoot, a naked and dazed-appearing Charli was snorting what looked to be coke from a glass tray covered in drug paraphernalia and blunts. It was vintage Amy Winehouse. While sex sells, including movie tickets, drugs—especially done by a glamorous female movie star—were a deal breaker in Hollywood. Gillian’s Oscar bid—if not her career—would be dead once and for all if those photos ever hit the Internet.

  To help Brandon come to the right decision about whether to part with a chunk of his cash, Max sent him a sample shot. The ploy worked like a charm; he’d just gotten word from CoAnne that Brandon had agreed to wire the funds first thing in the morning. Game. Set. Match. It was time to party!

  “Let’s toast to our success!” he said, handing Charli another glass from their second bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

  “Finally!” Charli said, smiling broadly. “I was beginning to think all those photos and shit were for nothing.”

  “You should know I’d never let you down, baby,” he said, leaning over to kiss her, marveling at how well he’d transformed her into her glamorous twin.

  “I’ll never doubt you again,” she said, getting up to give him a full view of her sexy attire. She wore a short lace teddy designed to bring boys and men to their knees.

  “You’d better not or I might have to spank you,” he said, patting her behind possessively.

  “So, what’s next?” She sat on his lap and gazed into his eyes.

  The four glasses of Champagne, the joint he’d smoked, and the promise of money were making Max both relaxed and happy. “What do you want?” he asked, rubbing her back.

  “I like this Bonnie and Clyde thing we pulled off, so I think we should set up our next heist.” She gave him a devilish look.

  “Are you sure you’re up to that? You were a little queasy on this one
,” Max quizzed.

  “That’s because it was my first time with you, but now that I see you know what you’re doing, I’m down. But I do have a confession to make.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s about my past,” she said in a very serious tone. “Now that I’m your Bonnie, I feel like you have to know everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly.”

  “Go on,” he prompted, anxious to hear just how low Charli would go.

  “A couple of years ago, I was involved with a guy who was a drug dealer. I went with him on an exchange that got ugly. While I was hiding in an alleyway, the buyer pulled a gun and tried to rob Julio. I came out, pulled the gun that Julio had given me, and shot him. He died.”

  “Wow, okay,” Max said, shaking his head. Though he knew that she had been a stripper and probably a prostitute, he hadn’t realized that his little Charli was a real-life Bonnie. She may be just the kind of chick he needed, at least for now.

  “I felt bad, but I did what I had to do,” she said, in her toughest street posturing.

  “There’s nothing wrong with that,” Max said, admiringly.

  “Are you sure you want me around?”

  Oh, he definitely wanted her around. Someone disposable and willing to do anything could certainly come in handy during the course of a scam. “Of course I do, baby.”

  “Are you sure?” She looked teary as though worried about whether or not he would accept her.

  “Absolutely. Hey, I’m no innocent myself,” he said.

  She poured him another glass of Champagne. “But I know a softy like you has never killed anyone,” she said, teasing him. “I don’t think you’d have the balls for it,” she challenged.