Vanity, Vengeance And A Weekend In Vegas (A Sophie Katz Mystery)

Prologue

2012-02-24T00:27:00.001-08:00

You've been asking for this for months now and here it is! The first few chapters of the next Sophie Katz mystery, Vanity, Vengeance, And A Weekend In Vegas due to be released March 2nd! I'll post more pages every Friday! So without further ado...here's the first few pages of the next Sophie adventure.

Prologue

People who really hate you don’t usually call you up for a chat, particularly if they know their animosity is mutual. Sure, an enemy might gossip about you behind your back or, if you’re an author like me, they’ll probably give you a one star review on Amazon (if you’re a business owner with enemies it might not hurt to check your Yelp page). But it’s rare that someone will pull out their smartphone and waste precious calling-minutes and dwindling battery power just so they can rattle off a few tightly phrased insults. Not if they have a Twitter account.

So when Fawn called I knew something big was up. There are few people who I hate more than Fawn. For one thing she slept with my friend Mary Ann’s boyfriend, Rick. Of course Rick is what the British would call a wanker and Mary Ann has now moved on to Monty, a better and slightly less annoying guy who has offered her love, fidelity, an engagement ring and a very generous pre-nup. So under different circumstances I would have considered Fawn’s affair with Rick something to be grateful for.

But sadly it’s not that simple. Fawn is one of those people who goes out of their way to make others miserable. She’s vengeful, catty, jealous, and to use Mary Ann’s words, “just ewwy.”

She is also in jail. She and Rick got into a lovers spat which ended in an attempted murder charge. Karma’s a bitch, but apparently not as big of a bitch as Fawn.

Which means that this woman wasn’t just using up minutes on her cell phone plan to talk to me. She was using up the week’s worth of phone time allotted to her by the California State penitentiary system. You didn’t do that just to be a pest.

“Hello Sophie, did you miss me?” That’s how the conversation started, with her caressing my name with a soft and zealous malice.

As it turns out, Fawn had learned of a secret my live-in boyfriend, Anatoly, had been keeping from me.

Anatoly is the first man I have ever truly loved. I love his hands, I love his little half smile, I love the way his Russian accent gets a little heavier after I’ve kissed him a few times.

I love the way he argues with me when I’m feeling quarrelsome and the way he comforts me when I’m feeling lost. I love that after six years together the passion and tenderness has only grown.

Fawn called to tell me Anatoly had a secret or, to be more specific, she called to tell me that Anatoly had a wife.

I knew when I heard those words that she wasn’t lying. It would be too easy to disprove. Of course the marriage had to have ended before we met, that much seemed obvious but why hadn’t he ever told me about this? After all, I had been divorced too so I wouldn’t have judged him. What kind of person keeps a failed marriage secret from the woman he shares a home and a bed with? A man who can’t be trusted, that’s who. A man who is incapable of letting anyone in. Ever.

It didn’t feel like Fawn was torturing me with her horrid little phone call. It felt like she was destroying me.

This information was going to cost me both my relationship and the happiness I had spent so many years trying to cultivate.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that the information also had the potential to cost me my life.

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of

The Sophie Katz Series

And

So Much For My Happy Ending

Chapter 1

2012-02-24T00:26:00.002-08:00

Chapter 1

“I believe in corporal punishment for disobedient children. And by that I mean I feel I have the right to whack my boyfriend with a ruler when he’s pissing me off.”

--Death Of The Party

My anger was blurring my vision. I could feel its vibrating pulse as it filled me up and then oozed out, consuming the room. I know my boyfriend, Anatoly, felt it too. Or perhaps I should say my soon to be ex-boyfriend. It was all a bit surreal. This was me, Sophie Katz, breaking up with the man who I had whispered words of love to only hours ago. Well at least I planned to break up with him. There was a small chance that I might actually kill him before I got around to making the break-up official.

“I was going to talk to you about this,” he said. His dark brown hair was a tiny bit longer than he normally wore it and was slightly ruffled giving him a roughish appearance. He leaned back against the leather cushions of our couch…my couch, not ours anymore. I couldn’t share anything with him now. Not my furniture, not my beautiful San Franciscan Victorian…not my life.

“You were going to talk to me about this?” I repeated my voice was so low it sounded like a purr. Mr. Katz, my feline pet, stirred from his position on the window seat. “Did I not give you enough time?”
“Sophie—“

“After all, we’ve only known each other…how long has it been now, six years? Was that not enough TIME Anatoly?”

“I know this sounds like an excuse,” he said slowly, his dark eyes trained on my own, “but this wasn’t a typical situation. Your safety was an issue.”

“Ah, so you had to lie to protect me. You’re right, that’s not typical at all.” I walked away from the edge of the couch and over to the built in mahogany bookcases. They were so solid and steady…unlike anything else in my life, really. In front of me the titles of my own published novels were lined up like oversized dominos. Words To Die By, C’est La Mort, Fatally Yours and my most recent release Death Of The Party, and so many more. Proof that all my professional accomplishments had done nothing to make my personal life any easier.

“I never loved her, Sophie.”

I exhaled loudly, observing how my breath unsettled thousands of little bits of dust from the bookshelves in front of me. “So you were married to a woman you didn’t love. And I found out about it from a sociopath.” I turned around. “A convicted felon who happens to be a hell of a lot more honest than the man who I’ve been fucking for the last six years!”

“We may have known each other for six years but to be fair, we didn’t actually start sleeping together until—“

“Shut up!” An invisible hammer beating against the inside of my head. It was making me dizzy. “When did you get divorced?”

There was a long pause. His eyes stayed on mine but I saw something in them that I had never seen before…was he afraid? Anatoly, the man who had served first in the Russian army, then the Israeli army, only to then come to the States to become a private detective…HE was afraid?

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Sophie,” he said again, now rising to his feet. “It’s not as bad as it appears.”

“No!” I raised my hands as if to ward him off. “You’re still married?”

“I married for citizenship. I wanted to come to America. That was all. And the woman I married knew that.”

“So you got married in order to break our immigration laws?”

Anatoly’s mouth curved into a humorless smile. “You’re not upset about my breaking the immigration laws.”

“No, I’m upset because you’re a liar! How many times have you accused me of holding back on you? How many times have you berated me for not telling you about every detail of my life? And all this time—”

“I’ve never asked for all the details of your past.” His voice was steady and patient…I wanted to reach down his throat and tear his vocal cords out. “I’ve only asked you to share the present and I’ve done that for you,” he went on. “You know who I am now. Who I was and what I did before I met you…it’s not relevant.”

“Yeah? Well I hate to point out the obvious but you are presently married!” I broke eye contact and stared angrily at the wall behind him. There were pictures of my friends and family…my Eastern European, Jewish mother kissing my African American father on their tenth anniversary. Anatoly and I weren’t married but still, I had expected to eventually have a ten-year anniversary with him with or without a wedding ring. I had expected a twentieth and thirtieth too. But now? What on earth was I allowed to expect now?

“So that also means that I am presently your mistress,” I pressed on, “and in case you haven’t heard, mistresses are not en vogue on this side of the Atlantic! So in the PRESENT you suck!”

Anatoly sighed and turned toward the window giving me a perfect view of his profile. The illumination of the floor lamp cast a glow against his fair skin. He was beautiful and suddenly I hated him for it. Hated him for all the times I had told him I loved him, all the times I had touched his face, ran my fingers through his dark hair and asked him to make love to me.

This morning when I had woken up everything had been different. I had been tucked into the crook of his arm, my hand, light brown and in perfect contrast to his lighter complexion, had been resting on his chest. This morning the world had been exactly how I wanted it to be and now everything was a mess, destroyed by one little revelation that was now snowballing into an avalanche of revealed betrayals.

“Have you heard of the mafiya? Otherwise known as just the Russian Mafia?”

“I can’t even begin to imagine how that’s pertinent and I’m not at all sure I want to find out,” I said. “You’re married to somebody else. Perhaps we should just leave it at that and call it a day.”

“Sophie, the woman I married—”

“Your wife,” I snapped. “That’s her proper title so you might as well use it.” Mr. Katz shifted his position so as to better observe the fireworks.

“The woman I married,” Anatoly repeated stubbornly, “is the daughter of someone who is very high up in that particular crime organization.”

“Your wife’s a mafia princess,” I said flatly. I had never known Anatoly to make up elaborate stories but then again he had never had to. This was clearly new territory for him. My ex-husband, Scott, used to make up elaborate lies all the time. He was much better at it. He really knew when to rein it in. For instance the first time I caught Scott in the hands of another woman he told me she was his chiropractor and was simply giving him an adjustment. Even then I knew it was bullshit but I appreciated his creativity. But the daughter of a mob boss? Please. The man could at least respect my intelligence enough to come up with a story better than that.

“I told you before that I had gotten involved in some criminal activity while living in Russia. Nothing big. I didn’t threaten merchants or kill the family members of people who were being uncooperative.”

“Oh, so you’re not a homicidal extortionist? Well that’s reassuring. I guess there’s not a problem then, huh?”

“Sophie, just listen to me. The things I did…arranging for the sale of certain things on the black market, surveillance, gathering information on rival criminal organizations, acting as a body guard…I was good at it. And so once they found out that I wanted to go further than Israel, that I wanted to come to the States, they made me a deal. I had to do one job. That’s all. In exchange I would be allowed to marry Natasha.”

“You married Natasha, the Russian criminal mastermind?” I sneered. “But whatever happened to poor Boris? And did you try to blow up moose and squirrel?”

“In addition to getting citizenship,” he went on, ignoring my sarcastic interruption, “there was also the promise that upon my completion of this job she would be allowed to be free of the criminal world of her family. I wanted to do that for her almost as much as I wanted citizenship here.”

“Why?” I snapped. “You just told me you never loved her.”

“I don’t have to love someone to want to help them. My motives weren’t entirely selfish.”

“Just mostly selfish.”

“Exactly,’ he said with wry smile. “I was young and I had been through a lot and…and America is the land of opportunity,” he said quietly. “I’ve always been opportunistic. And although I honestly didn’t love Natasha I did like her. Our relationship wasn’t entirely platonic. But our sexual chemistry aside--”

“Oh for God’s sake you really stink at this, you know that?” I slammed my hand against the bookshelf for emphasis. “When you make up a lie to cover up a betrayal you’re supposed to do two things, make the person you’re lying to feel better about everything and give them a story believable enough to latch onto!”

“Sophie—”

“No one can do denial like me like me, Anatoly,” I said, cutting him off. “I’m the girl who chooses to believe that I need ice cream for calcium and nightly cocktails to channel the creative genius of Hemingway. But even I can‘t buy this bullshit. And just so you know, imagining you having sexual chemistry with a woman you’ve been hiding from me DOES NOT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT THINGS!”

In the silence that followed I could feel the tears threatening to come but I managed to push them back. I wouldn’t cry in front of a stranger.

And that’s what this man was. This man who I thought I was going to spend my entire life with. When I had married Scott I had been so young, only nineteen. In the two brief years we had been married Scott had screwed me over big time but it hadn’t really come as a shock. Scott had been fun and he distracted me from what had been a truly difficult period in my life. He showed me a good time and our impromptu Vegas wedding had seemed wild, impulsive and romantic. But did I ever think he was an upright, loyal and dependable guy? Even at nineteen I hadn’t been that naive.

But Anatoly…he was a different story. It’s true that I hadn’t trusted him when we first met. In fact I had thought that he was a serial killer and he had suspected the same of me. Not an auspicious beginning. But eventually it became clear that neither of us were the Jeffrey Dahmer type and Anatoly and I had started to get to know each other…intimately. It took a while for us to move from casual-fling to life partners. There had been break-ups and arguments aplenty but in the end we had found each other irresistible. I learned to trust him. I didn’t think he would ever hurt me…not like this. Not by lying about who he was.

But that’s exactly what he had done. The man before me wasn’t just a Russian-immigrant bachelor who made his living as a PI. According to him he was a married mafia thug who had more secrets than I could ever guess at. It didn’t matter so much what part of the story was a lie and what was the truth. What mattered was that the man I thought I knew would never have needed to say any of this. The man I thought I knew wouldn’t have had anything to lie about! This morning I had kissed a stranger. Hell, last night I had gone down on a stranger. That made him a liar and me a slut and now I wanted the stranger out of my home so I could stand in the shower until this dirty feeling was washed away.

And maybe I could wash some other feelings away too. Like love, and longing…but mostly pain. I would stand in the shower for ten hours straight if I thought it could make this pain go away.

“I want you to go now.”

“Sophie—”

“No. I mean it.” My voice was so quiet it was amazing that he could hear me. Then again, maybe he couldn’t. Maybe all he had to do was look at my face to understand what I was saying.

“I’m going,” he said quietly. “I’ll be out of town for a few days taking care of some....some business. But I’ll be back. I am going to fix this.”

He turned and started for the door.

“You can come back for your things but not for me,” I called after him.

“Ah,” he said as he opened the door to leave, “but you’re the only thing I want.”

I managed to hold back the tears until the door was closed behind him.

Follow me on my Facebook or Twitter for updates on the March 2nd release of Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas. Also, be sure to check out Sophie's other adventures!

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of

The Sophie Katz Series

And

So Much For My Happy Ending

Chapter 2

2012-02-24T00:24:00.004-08:00

CHAPTER 2

“Women should distract themselves after bad break-ups but they shouldn't rebound. Jumping into a relationship just to get over the end of another is kinda like breaking an alcohol addiction by picking up meth.”

--Death Of The Party

“He told you he married into the mob?” Dena asked as she stared at me from the other end of the couch, her thick Sicilian eyebrows raising almost to her hairline. I had called her and Marcus two hours after Anatoly left. For those hundred and twenty minutes I had thought I needed to be alone. But the silence of the house, which had always been a comfort to me before, suddenly felt oppressive. I tried to fill the void by talking to Mr. Katz but while my cat was a great listener he consistently refused to add his voice to our conversations. Dena and Marcus had responded immediately to my summons, arriving within ten minutes of one another. Dena, looked fierce as always. Marcus had given her a new haircut only last week and it was even shorter and more stylish than normal. Her thick Sicilian eyebrows made her look a little like a young Gina Gershwin and her black cane with the silver jaguar-shaped handle added rather than detracted from her sex appeal. Marcus was looking rather yummy too in his cashmere, camel-colored blazer worn over strategically faded blue jeans. His mocha skin was glowing, hinting at the possibility of a recent facial. They were both making me look bad.

But then perhaps anyone could have made me look bad at that moment. I had immediately laid down on my bed after taking a shower so now my hair was not only frizzy but also shaped in a rather lopsided manner. I had no make-up on, my eyes were puffy and red and I was wearing biker-shorts and a t-shirt with a big bleach stain on the front of it. If it had been Halloween people would have assumed I was dressed up like a clinically depressed hobo.

“Married to the mob. It all seems so needlessly dramatic,” Marcus mused. He crossed over from my fireplace and found a spot in the leather armchair nearest me. “And so 80s. It’s like you’re dating Michelle Pfeifer. You know the movie I’m talking about, right?”

“Um, not quite,” I said dully as I tucked my legs underneath me and leaned back against my sofa cushions

“Well no, not quite,” Marcus agreed wryly. “Anatoly’s considerably more butch. You have to give him that.”

“No, I meant that Michele Pfeifer was the victim in that movie. Anatoly’s not a victim. He chose to marry this woman and he chose to make up this stupid story about the mob!”

“Are we sure he’s making it up?” Dena asked, thoughtfully.

I gave her a sharp look. “You think Anatoly used to work for the mob.”

“Well stranger things have happened,” Dena pointed out. “In a million years I never would have thought some psycho would try to copycat the murders in your first book but there it is. It happened.”

“OK, I’m having a hard enough time dealing with what’s going on right now. Can we not revisit the ugliest part of my past?”

“You’re right,” she said. She glanced out toward the street as a truck rumbled by the house. “There’s no need for me to go that dark, not if all I’m trying to prove is that strange things happen. For instance, you remember when that weirdo tried to convince you that your house was haunted? That was pretty out there.”

“Or the time your former brother-in-law’s family went on the news and claimed your Brooks-Brothers wearing sister was a gangsta from the hood!“ Marucs chimed in. “Oh, or how about that politician who liked to have sex with stuffed animals? Anatoly having mob connections wouldn’t be half as strange as that.”

“No, no,” Dena corrected, “that politician liked to have sex while dressed up as a stuffed animal. In the world of sexual fetishes there is a huge difference between those things.”

“Um guys?” I said meekly.

Both Dena and Marcus turned to me as if suddenly remembering that I was there.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to STICK TO THE CRISIS AT HAND!” I yelled. “No one is currently trying to gaslight me or do a smear campaign on one of my relatives and I’m not sitting here crying my eyes out because Anatoly tried to get it on with Scooby Doo! I’m crying because he GOT it on with a wife I didn’t know about! He didn’t even take the time to come up with a good lie to help me get over it!”

There was a long pause as Marcus and Dena considered this. Mr. Katz removed himself from his spot under the coffee table and left the room. My cat only enjoyed watching substantive arguments.

“Maybe we’re not looking at this the right way.” Dena tapped the top of her cane with deep purple painted nails. “Anatoly didn’t tell you he was married and that’s bullshit no matter how you spin it. But if you haven’t seen or even spoken to your spouse in over six years I think it’s fair to say the relationship is over, even if there is a piece of paper somewhere saying otherwise. So in every way that counts, he’s single.”

“Dena! He’s been lying to me for years!”

Dena nodded and then fixed me with a stare. “Like I said, it’s bullshit. But Sophie, you haven’t always been honest with him either.”

Her words hit a little harder than I think she intended them to. I wasn’t near ready for her to look at this from both sides. I was so angry and although I really wanted to deny it, some of my anger was directed inward. How could I have missed this? I pressed my fingers to my temples. The hammering had never really let up and I was moving past dizzy and into serious nausea.

From the corner of my eye I caught Marcus shooting Dena a quick warning look which Dena acknowledged with a shrug and a sigh. “I’m not taking his side,” she said carefully, “but maybe we should consider the possibility that the reason Anatoly left his wife without taking the time to fill out any divorce papers was because he just needed to disappear without pissing off the in-laws. If I was married to someone who had mob connections I wouldn’t be pushing for alimony when things went sour.”

“You really think Anatoly married into the mob…that he would actually do something that stupid?”

“Well he’s a man, so yes, I think he’s capable of doing incredibly stupid things.”

“I’m sitting right here, Dena,” Marcus said dryly.

“A straight man,” Dena corrected herself, but her tone implied that the caveat was only added to placate him. “Anyway, I think marriage in general is rather stupid. I’d rather get it on with a fat Marlon Brando than let someone rope me into domestic servitude.”

Underneath the flood of turbulent emotion was a nagging feeling. Had Fawn told me that Anatoly had married into…into something? I had been so shocked by the call I hadn’t been able to absorb every word. “If he was really on the run from the mob shouldn’t he be running?” I asked. “He’s been in San Francisco for—“

“Six years,” Dena finished for me. “Yeah, but maybe he settled here because it’s the last place the mob would look.”

“Why would San Francisco be the last place the mob would look?” Marcus asked.

“I don’t know, but in New York, Chicago and Vegas you occasionally hear about some sort of mafia something. But the Mafia never makes headlines here in San Francisco. Maybe they don’t like our weather.”

“Right,” Marcus said smoothly, “or maybe they’re just rainbow-phobic.”

“None of this matters,” I moaned. “What matters is that Anatoly’s been on my case to be more open with him and all the while he’s been hiding a wife. That’s why he didn’t want to marry me.”

“Okay, hold up. You didn’t want to marry him either,” Dena pointed out. “You said you were done with marriage and that you would rather live with him without a government certificate.”

“Would you stop being so damn reasonable and start indulging my righteous indignation!” I cried and then buried my face in my hands and started sobbing in earnest. I heard Marcus get up from his seat and then perch himself on the armrest nearest me so he could make soothing little circles on my back.

“Look at me! I’m a mess,” I choked when I finally found my voice.

“We’re all allowed to be messy every once in a while,” Marcus cooed. “There’ll be plenty of time to tidy up your life later.”

“The thing is,” I moaned, “if he had told me right at the get-go that he had an estranged wife who he never planned to reconcile with I might have found a way to be okay with it because, well, you know,” I reached out and took Dena’s hand in mine, “you’re right, I’m not exactly biting at the bit to get married again. Even if he had told me about all this a year or two into our relationship we might have found a way to work through it. But he never did tell me! He was never going to say a damn word and so I had to find out about his wife from the person who has caused more pain to those I love than anyone else on earth.”

“Yes,” Dena said darkly, “that part is seriously inexcusable.”

“It’s the lying,” I insisted again. “The total deceit and the secretiveness. You know he’s been getting calls lately, calls that he’s been trying to conceal from me. He said it was business but now I think it was her.”

Marcus lifted his eyebrows. “Why would she start calling out of the blue after six or more years?”

“I don’t know, maybe she found him on Facebook,” I snapped.

“Ah, another good Facebook security tip,” Marcus said, sagely. “If you’re running from the mob set your profile page to private.”

I almost smiled. Almost. “I just have this feeling that the calls were coming from her,” I said. “There’s a reason this whole thing is coming to a head now. I just know she’s not totally out of his life. I know it the way I knew that he was keeping a secret from me. I should have listened to my gut from the start.” I shook my head vehemently. “God, I feel like such an idiot! Like I’m one of those women you see on daytime talk shows who needs to learn how to stop being a victim.”

“Honey,” Marcus said with a sigh, “who in their right mind thinks their live-in-boyfriend is secretly married? And when you did find out you kicked his booty to the curb.”

“That’s not being a victim,” Dena agreed. “That’s taking care of yourself.”

“And now I’m alone.”

“No,” Dena said firmly, squeezing my hand a little tighter. “Alone is something you’ll never be.”

“I know. I have family and friends and one reasonably affectionate cat. But it’s not the same.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Dena said and then cursed softly under her breath. “This whole thing is so fucked up. How did Anatoly react when you confronted him?”

Immediately the look on his face flashed before my eyes. There was the façade of cool but it had been thin this time, even transparent, and behind it I had seen the pain both pure and intense. These were his lies that we were dealing with. His manipulations and yet when I had confronted him it was me who was causing that pain.

I started crying harder and Dena and Marcus slipped into silence as they waited for me to get it out of my system.

When the sobs were finally reduced to sniffles Dena put her cane gently on the redwood coffee table before scooting even closer to me and putting our joined hands in her lap. “You’ll get through this.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

I used the back of my free hand to wipe away my slowing tears and stared out the bay window. The street light outside my house flickered and died and suddenly all I could see of the outside world was darkness.

“I’m sorry I defended him,” Dena said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s okay,” I said quietly.

“No, it’s not. It’s not what you needed to hear.” She paused and then took in a quick startled breath. “Wait! I know what you really need!”

“What?”

“You need a three-day free pass to Vegas’ annual sex-toy trade show!”

Marcus coughed softly and turned away to hide a smile. From anyone else this would have sounded insane. But this was Dena. I kept my eyes on the window. “I don’t think that’s what I need.”

“Of course it is. I go every year just so I can keep the inventory of Guilty Pleasures up to date with the latest and greatest in sexually deviant technology. It’s a fantastic show, Sophie, and it starts this Friday!”

“Dena—”

“This is too much all at once,” Dena pressed on. “If you don’t distract yourself you’re going to sit here and go over it all again and again and again. You’ll over-analyze.”

“Oh God, Dena, I don’t even know if it’s possible to over-think this thing. It’s all so convoluted.”

“Please. You can over-think anything. But the good news is that it’s very hard to think in Vegas. The whole city is designed to encourage people to turn off their brains. Oh, and Puppetry Of The Penis is going to be in Vegas this weekend!”

“No!” Marcus gasped. “They never perform in Vegas!”

I looked at Marcus in confusion and then back at Dena. “Puppetry of the Penis?”

“Yeah, it’s a traveling show with a bunch of guys who can tie their dicks into a whole bunch of funky shapes, like origami. I already have two tickets. I was going to take Jason but you know, he can play with his own penis. You have to come, Sophie. It’ll be better than Zoloft.”

“I just broke up with the love of my life! What about this situation makes you think I would want to watch a whole bunch of guys on stage tying their dicks up in knots?”

“Because it looks painful,”

“Really painful,” Marcus said under his breath.

“--and if you use your imagination,” Dena continued, “you can pretend that it’s Anatoly’s dick being deformed and laughed at on stage.”

I hesitated for a moment. “People laugh?”

“That’s the whole point. It’s a comedy act.”

I looked over at my built in bookshelf. Those weren’t all my books. Those were Anatoly’s Leon Uris’ next to my Alice Walker novels. His Hemingways nestled against my Fitzgeralds. We had combined our lives and now I was going to have to disassemble all of it. “Maybe a weekend of Vegas style debauchery isn’t such a bad idea,” I said quietly.

Dena grinned. “It’s a fantastic idea. We can all go!”

Marcus shook his head making his well-trimmed, short locs swing side to side. “I have clients this weekend. Perms, cuts and highlights and that’s just Saturday.”

“But your clients will understand if you have a family emergency,” Dena insisted.

“Honey, women who need a color aren’t very understanding.”

“Marcus,” Dena said again. “Family. Emergency.”

My eyes were still on the bookshelf. What about the books we had bought since we had been together, the ones we had both read? Who would get those?

I was deep in thought over this when I realized that the room had gone silent. Marcus was watching me with a worried expression. “Who will get to keep the new, autographed David Sedaris book?” I asked softly.

Marcus exhaled loudly his eyes moving from my face to my disastrous mess of hair. “All right,” he said, “we’ll go to Vegas.”

“I’m sorry,” my sister said, a thin undercurrent of static made her words a little more difficult to hear through my cell phone, “did you say you’re going to Vegas? That’s a little random even for you!”

I sighed and rested my head on my knees. After Dena and Marcus left I had packed up some of Anatoly’s things in boxes and then, when I got to the closet, I had faltered and ended up putting on one of his shirts. I was still wearing it and now I was on the floor surrounded by old pictures of us. Totally pathetic.

“Really? That’s the part of the story you find most interesting?” Mr. Katz pressed himself against my leg and looked up at me expectantly. “You did hear the part about the secret wife, right? And his little story about the mob? Shouldn’t you be asking me about that?”

“Of course that’s all horrible,” she said slowly, “but yes, Sophie, I find the fact that you’re hightailing it to a Vegas-sex-toy-trade-show right after walking away from a long term relationship to be the most interesting part of this story.”

I hesitated, a photo booth strip of snapshots in my hand. For once I could actually see my sister’s point.

“This is just like the time you went to Vegas after dad died.”

And just like that I thought she was crazy again. “Not even a little bit.” I dropped the photo booth snapshots and picked up a picture of Anatoly and me at the Crissy Fields 4^th of July fireworks show. I really needed to stop torturing myself. And I would, right after I went through one more stack of photos.

“Really? If I remember rightly you couldn’t deal with your emotions then either. So you ran off to Vegas with Scott, got drunk or high or God knows what and then the two of you enlisted a female Elvis impersonator to marry you in a Denny’s parking lot! Do you remember that, Sophie?”

“Of course I remember that,” I snapped, “I mean some of it’s a little fuzzy, we really did drink a lot that night. But I do remember parts of it.”

“Oh good God.”

“Come on Leah, I was only nineteen. It was ten full years ago!”

“Fifteen years,” Leah corrected.

“Okay, I’m having a crisis and you think this is a good time to remind me of my real age? As far as I’m concerned 19 was and always will be ten years ago.” Mr. Katz pressed against me more insistently. I had forgotten to feed him. I groaned and forced myself to my feet.

“Fine, but—“

“But nothing.” I carefully stepped over the clutter of photographed memories, left the room and headed down the stairs to the kitchen, Mr. Katz close at my heels. “Yes, I’m upset. But I guarantee you I’m not going to marry anyone this time around. At worst I’ll hook up with the latest waterproof bullet toy in a hotel bathtub.”

“You need help.”

“Which is why I’m going to a sex toy trade show. That will help.” I wasn’t at all sure that was true but I was enjoying shocking Leah enough to pretend.

“Well just so you know, I’m not going to do any drugs.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know what kind of things people do in Vegas. I know they…drop things—”

“Drop things?” I poured some food into Mr. Katz’ bowl. He rushed in to eat before I was done and ended up with a small pile of kibble on the back of his head. “What kind of things do people drop?” I asked as I put the bag away. “Inhibitions? Money? The beat?”

“Acid.”

I paused. “I’m not sure more people drop acid in Vegas than they do eight blocks down from here on Haight Street.”

“I just want you to know that I won’t be doing any of that.”

“Okay…wait,” I froze, my hand resting on a drying martini glass. “You’re not suggesting that you’ll be coming, are you?”

“Of course I’m coming.”

“You can’t!” I stammered. “You’re not invited! You hate Vegas! You’d have to find a last minute babysitter for my nephew! You’re coordinating Mary Ann’s wedding and that’s only a month away! You’re a social conservative! No social conservatives at sex-toy-trade shows! It’s a law, Leah!”

“Sophie, I am not going to let you go unchaperoned to Vegas when you’re upset again! Not after what happened last time!”

“Oh my God, are you listening to me at all? I am totally over the lets-have-a-female-Elvis-impersonator-marry-us-in-a-Denny’s-parking-lot phase of my life!” I pounded my hand against the kitchen counter for emphasis. “Now I’m in the to-hell-with-men-I’m-buying-a-vibrator phase! Really, you don’t need to come!”

“And mama will take care of Jack if I tell her where you’re planning to go. She remembers what happened last time too.”

“Leah,” I said, taking the martini glass in hand and crossing over to the freezer for the vodka, “this is not a good plan.”

“Sophie--”

“I’m going with friends this time, not some guy I’ve been dating. There is no risk of matrimony”

“Humph.”

“Did you just humph?” That even got Mr. Katz’ attention. He glanced up from his meal with an inquisitive stare. Nobody humphed anymore.

“I really think I should be there.”

“It’s not necessary,” I sighed. I tried to shoot Mr. Katz a look of exasperation but now that we’d finished humphing he had returned his focus to his meal. “Both Dena and Marcus will be there to save me from...from the LSD dropping bachelors who will undoubtedly be trying to drag me to the alter.”

“I don’t like this.”

I hopped up on the counter and took a sip of my drink. I knew the sound of victory when I heard it. “It’s for the best that you stay here, Leah. Mary Ann needs you. You know how brides get in the last thirty days leading up to their wedding.”

“True,” Leah said reluctantly, “It’s just that...oh, hold on a moment.” Leah’s voice became more distant as she pulled away from the receiver, “Jack, stop that right now. Pancakes do not go into the DVD player!”

There was some more muffled scolding and the protesting cry of my young nephew. “Leah, Leah can you hear me?” I asked. “I have to go. I need to consume a lot of alcohol now and all this talking’s slowing me down.”

“You know better than this, Jack!” Her voice had become even more distant indicating that she was now at least a few feet from the phone. “I simply can’t have you trying to feed our appliances anymore!”

“Leah! I’m hanging up now, okay?”

“How would you like it if I tried to put a DVD in your mouth! You wouldn’t like it, would you Jack? Would you? No, no! Don’t you dare put your tongue on that DVD!”

I hung up the phone. Between letting my sister try to comfort me here in San Francisco and going to Vegas to look at vibrators and origami shaped penises…well, the latter was quite clearly the saner option.

Follow me on my Facebook or Twitter for updates on the March 2nd release of Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas. Also, be sure to check out Sophie's other adventures!

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of

The Sophie Katz Series

And

So Much For My Happy Ending

Chapter 3

2012-02-24T00:22:00.002-08:00

Chapter 3

Doing Vegas while sober is like driving into the setting sun without sunglasses. Everything’s just a bit too bright and a little irritating; but put on your shades and it’s all fabulous.

--Death Of The Party

Dena and I arrived in Vegas at 4:00 on Friday, Marcus had moved his appointments around so that he could meet us later in the evening at the bar of a new hotel named Hotel Noir. He and Dena had decided to share a room and I was to have a room all to myself. Ostensibly this was because they wanted my weekend getaway to be as luxurious as possible. But the truth was that neither of them wanted to listen to me crying into my pillow all night long. As soon as the desert sunshine beat down on me I knew I had made a mistake in coming. Vegas didn’t feel like a town that welcomed and accommodated depression. Perhaps I should have vacationed in Greece.

But I tried to put on a happy face for Dena as we checked into The Encore and then went to the convention center to scope out the sex toys.

“What are these? Serenity balls?” I asked as I stared down at two, small, smooth white balls resting in the velvet interior of a decorative case. Dena and I had been at the Sex-Toy trade show for less than two hours and already I was sex-toyed out. Vibrators, lotions, gels that were supposed to “Increase sensitivity,” oh and one couldn’t overlook the plethora of pleather. Individually this stuff might all be fine but seeing it all thrown together like this was enough to make you want to become a nun. But the serenity balls held promise. I needed some serenity.

Dena shook her head. “They’re not serenity balls, they’re Kegal balls. You’re supposed to hold them in your vagina and squeeze. Like a thigh master but obviously not for your thighs.”

“Oh, wow. That’s just lovely. It took me five years to get comfortable with tampons. I certainly won’t be sticking whole balls up there.” I quickly moved my eyes away only to have them land on a woman in a bikini in the middle of a sex-swing demonstration.

Dena gave the vendor of the balls a tight-lipped smile before pulling me away. “I carry those in my store but the truth is Kegal exercises will work just as well without them. But those,” Dena pointed over to a large table filled with what looked like bath toys for children, “those I can sell.”

Reluctantly I followed her over to the table as a cheery and surprisingly conservatively dressed woman stepped up to help us.

“Hi, are you familiar with our products?” She asked as Dena picked up a bright pink, plastic anteater with a suspicious looking nose.

“You guys are the ones who make the rubber ducky vibrator, right?” Dena asked.

“Oh yes, but we have a lot more animals now,” The woman pushed her golden brown hair behind her ears and tapped the top of the anteater’s nose. “See, this clit massager nose actually vibrates and moves back and forth really quickly. You can use it in the bath of course and when it’s wet it feels more like a tongue.”

I tilted my head and tried to imagine getting it on with an anteater. There really was nothing about the thought that was appealing

“And the great thing about our products,” the woman continued, “is that they can double as children’s toys! “

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” I asked instantly snapping out of my visualization exercise.

“You see, since they do look a little like children’s toys and they are waterproof your kids can use them as bath toys. That way if they hear the buzzing sound after you’ve put them to bed they’ll simply assume mommy’s having her bath! Just a clever use of sound association.”

I stared at her as I hovered between horror and amusement. “You do know that children often put bath toys in their mouths, right?”

“Oh, no worries! They can’t choke on these.”

“Well, okay, maybe not but…but you know how moms say, don’t put that in your mouth you don’t know where it’s been? In this case the mom will actually know where it’s been and that’s a big problem.”

“Which is why we have this!” the woman crossed to the other end of the table and came back with some kind of spray. “Sterilizer. Spray it with this, wait ten minutes and your toy’s ready to go.“

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re getting my point. It’s not really a hygiene problem, at least not entirely. Sometimes it really is the thought that counts.”

The woman furrowed her brow in confusion as Dena made a note in her iPhone to order the ten-minute sanitizer. “The thought of what?” the woman asked. “The thought of an anteater? Because we have an octopus too—“

“No!” I snapped. “That’s. Not. The. Point!”

Dena stuffed her phone back in her handbag. “Actually I’d like to see the octopus. Does each tentacle do its own thing or do they work in unison?”

“Each tentacle has its own function,” the saleswoman assured her as she handed over the octopus.

“Dena, this is insane! No one who shops at your store is going to want…wait, each tentacle has its own function? What do they do?”

Dena gave me an evil smile. “It gives a whole new twist to The Beatle’s Octopus’ Garden, doesn’t it?”

My phone rang and I reluctantly stepped away from the table. Marcus’ number flashed across the screen. “Hey Marcus, just in time. I was about to be eaten by an octopus.”

There was a long pause before Marcus cleared his throat. “Sweetie, do me a favor and don’t tell me what that’s a metaphor for. I’m at Hotel Noir now.”

“Really? You’ve already dropped your stuff off at Encore and everything?” I glanced at my watch. “But your flight only landed thirty minutes ago.”

“We landed early. Hon, I have to tell you something.”

Immediately my heart sank as my mind raced through the various possibilities of what else could go wrong in my life. “Should I have a drink before I hear this?”

“Most definitely. Why don’t I just circle back to the Encore and we’ll meet at the bar there.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear for a moment. “Dena, it’s Marcus. He wants to meet at the Encore rather than the Hotel Noir.”

“Tell him no,” Dena said, somewhat distracted by the octopus which was vibrating so hard it was about to launch itself off the table. “I’ve been wanting to see the Hotel Noir since it opened. You know they have a theater in the hotel, right? They have an eleven o’clock showing of The Maltese Falcon. I was thinking we could see it after we have drinks.”

“The Maltese Falcon.” I repeated. Without hesitation I brought the phone back to my ear. “We’re meeting you at the Hotel Noir at…oh, you know, at the bar we originally agreed on…um, Double Indemnity, right?”

“Yes, that’s the place but Sophie, I really don’t think this is a good—”

“And check the theater in the hotel. See if you can get three tickets for the eleven o’clock showing of The Maltese Falcon. I’m coming now.”

I hung up the phone and turned to Dena. “Humphrey Bogart and Sam Spade are SO much more uplifting than an oversexed octopus.”

Dena shook her head. “Why does it always have to be an either or situation with you.” She held up the octopus. “Rent a couple of old movies and multitask.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Come on, Marcus is waiting for us.”

“Sophie, there’s at least ten more booths I need to stop by before I can get out of here for the night.”

I glanced around the room. There was a woman in a black leather cat suit dancing around using nipple clamps as finger cymbals.

“Can I go then?” I asked.

Dena sighed. “You have no appreciation for innovation. Fine. Go meet Marcus. I’ll be there in an hour.

When I got to Hotel Noir Marcus was sitting at the bar tapping his fingers nervously against his martini glass. That gave me a moment’s pause. Marcus had a thing about martini glasses. You could gesture with one in your hand but it had to be a smooth elegant gesture, demonstrating not only your sophistication but also your ability not to spill. Tapping was not allowed. And tapping out of time with the music, which was exactly what Marcus was doing, was a major Marcus No-No. Something had thrown him off his game.

Carefully, I weaved my way through the crowd of unsophisticated, spill-prone revelers and made it to his side. When he saw me his mouth turned up in a small and fleeting smile.

“Don’t tell me,” I said slowly. “The Maltese Falcon is sold out for the whole weekend. No, worse, The Maltese Falcon is sold out AND you gambled me away in a poker game so now I have to be the beard to some fat, hairy, closet-case with an evangelical family.”

Marcus smiled wistfully. “Honey, you’re describing a category four hurricane. We’re being pummeled with a category six.” He signaled to the unusually attentive female bartender that he wanted another drink like the half empty one in his hand. “Did you come in through the main lobby?”

I shook my head. “I came in through the entrance over—“

“Good,” Marcus said cutting me off. Our drink arrived and I could have sworn the bartender’s eyes lingered a second longer than necessary on Marcus’ Dolce & Gabbana covered shoulders. Someone needed their gaydar checked.

“It’s the house specialty,” Marcus said as he pushed the drink toward me. “They call it A Touch Of Evil which is apparently just another way of saying Spicy Martini.”

“What kind of Vodka do they use?”

“Grey Goose, double shot.”

“I love you Marcus. Of all my friends you’re my favorite enabler.”’

“I love you too.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “Honey, Anatoly is here.”

I chocked on my double shot martini.

“My Anatoly?”

“How many Anatoly’s do you think I know?”

“He followed me here,” I said quietly. He had used his professional sleuthing skills, found out I was going to Vegas and followed me here! This was bad. It was stalkerish and it infringed on my privacy. Totally inappropriate in every single way.

So why did I feel so giddy?

I took another long sip of my drink, not because I needed to take the edge off but because I needed the glass to hide my smile.

“He came all the way to Vegas for me.” I put the glass down and forced my mouth into a frown. “Well he’s totally crossed the line. I don’t care if he’s been crying himself to sleep every night, he can’t just follow me around the country. It’s pathetic and I’ll tell him—”

“Sophie, if I tell you something…something you won’t like, do you promise not to go all Carrie Underwood on me?”

“Carrie Underwood?” I repeated, suddenly feeling lost.

“You know that song where she slashes her cheating boyfriend’s tires and carves her name into his leather seats? Don’t do that, okay?”

“Why would I want to carve my name into leather seats?”

“Well, you probably wouldn’t…but then again you might if I told you that Anatoly was here with another woman.”

The frown I had forced my mouth into got heavier and a lot more real. “Another woman?” I repeated.

“It’s possible that she’s just a friend but…” His voice trailed off.

“But what?” I asked quietly. When Marcus didn’t answer I raised my voice to a much louder volume. “But what, Marcus? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing,” He said throwing up his hands as if protesting his innocence. “It’s just that they seemed…close.”

“How close?”

“Last I saw them they were sitting on a sofa in the main lobby.” Marcus paused long enough to down the rest of his drink. “He had his arm around her.”

“HE HAD HIS ARM AROUND HER?”

Marcus looked miserable. He flagged down the bartender and ordered another drink, steadfastly refusing to meet my eyes.

“What does she look like?” I asked desperately. “Is she cute? Hot? If you were straight would you do her?”

“I’m not straight.”

“No shit, Marcus. If you were straight would you want to have sex with this woman?”

Marcus hesitated. The music in the bar seemed to have gotten louder. Or maybe the ringing in my ears was being caused by something else, like the little voice in my head that was screaming.

“I don’t think I’d be into her if I was straight.” He said slowly as his drink arrived.

I sighed feeling the tiniest bit of relief. “So she’s ugly?” I asked.

“No, I just don’t think that as a straight man I’d be into the bleach blonde bunny type. I see myself more with a Hillary Swank kind of girl.”

And then even that mild and sense of relief disappeared. “Double D?”

“Maybe,” Marcus said cautiously. “Maybe triple, but they have to be fake. There’s no way boobs that big could stay up on their own if they were real and there’s no way she could have been wearing a bra considering the skimpiness of that top.”

“Oh hell no.” I slammed my drink and got to my feet.

“Where are you going?”

“Where do you think I’m going? I’m going to the lobby and I’m going to rip Anatoly’s head off!”

“Honey, this is not a good plan.”

“This isn’t a plan! This is blind rage that needs an outlet!”

The few patrons who were close enough to hear me over the music threw bemused smiles in our direction.

“Yes,” Marcus said, “well that’s not so good either.”

“Marcus, there’s no way any of this can be good!” I heard the faint edge of hysteria in my voice and I struggled to contain it. “At this point all I can do is aim for bearable! If I can hurt him now and then chill out by watching people being murdered in a film noir then I might be able to bear this…this mess!”

“Ooh,” Marcus said slowly, ”You still want to see The Maltese Falcon? I didn’t think you would so—“

“Wait, are you telling me that my ex-boyfriend has moved on in less than a week AND you didn’t get us tickets to The Maltese Falcon? Are you serious? Are you trying to make me suicidal?” Yes, I was definitely hysterical. Obviously the movie wasn’t important but something had to go according to plan.

“Okay,” Marcus put a firm hand on my shoulder. “Tell you what, I’ll go get the tickets now and you sit here and have another cocktail. If by the time I get back you still want to decapitate Anatoly I’ll lead you to him.”

“The only reason you’d be going with me would be to stop me from actually committing assault.”

“There are worse motives to have.” He waved at the bartender again who was by his side in lightning speed. “Get my friend another drink, darling. You have my card.” Marcus then turned to me and gave me a light kiss on the cheek before pushing me back down on the barstool. “Stay,” he said sternly before giving me another kiss, this one on the top of my head, and walking away.

I waited for him to be out of site before finishing off what remained of Marcus’ drink, leaping back up onto my feet and pushing my way through the crowd toward the lobby. My balance wasn’t all that it should have been. I shouldn’t have slammed two cocktail in the space of five minutes. I should have downed three. Right now I was just drunk enough to be overly emotional but not drunk enough to forget. Not a good place to be.

When I got to the lobby I spotted him immediately. He was still on the sofa, his back toward me and his arm still draped over a blonde woman’s shoulders. I took three steps toward them and then lost my nerve. I skirted behind a corner and flattened myself against the wall. I wanted to yell at him, scream at him even, but you can’t scream when you can’t breath. I opened my mouth hoping the air would just float on in but my throat was completely constricted. I tried again to suck in a steady breath but I only managed a gasp. When I exhaled it came out as a moan.

“Are you all right?”

I glanced up to see a man with impossibly green eyes looking down at me. He had strawberry blond hair. I don’t like guys with strawberry blond hair but those eyes….they had to be colored contacts, right?

“Are you all right?” he asked again.

I realized then that I was trembling. “No,” I whispered. And then a little louder, “No!”

He tilted his head slightly to one side. “Can I help?”

Help me, yes, yes please help me! But how could anyone help me with this? I peeked around the corner. Anatoly still had his back to me and I watched as he stood up and reached down to pull her to her feet. He didn’t let go of her hand once they were standing. Instead he draped a small duffle bag that I hadn’t noticed before over his shoulder and started leading her toward the elevator. I recognized the duffle bag. Anatoly always used it for short trips, so perhaps he had just checked in and was going to his room for the first time…with her. I ducked back behind the wall and grabbed Mr. Green-eyes’ arm. “Yes, yes you can help me. Do you see that tall guy in the black t-shirt and dark jeans talking to that bleach-blonde bimbo in the bright red, low-back top?”

The man looked at me quizzically before looking to see if he could spot the couple in question. “Yes,” he said slowly, dragging the word out so the s turned into a hiss.

“That’s my boyfriend and he’s about to go upstairs. I need to know if he takes that…that woman into his room with him. Or her room…maybe it’s her room. Anyway, I need you to get on the elevator with them, get off on the same floor as him, give me their room number and tell me if they went in together.”

“I think I may be changing my mind about wanting to help you.”

“No, you can’t change your mind! This is life or death!”

“Someone’s going to die if I don’t spy on your boyfriend for you?”

“Umm, maybe? I mean yes. Sure, someone will die.” Like Anatoly right after I bludgeon him with a copy of He’s Just Not That Into You.

“I still think I should stay out of it.”

Again, I glanced around the corner. The elevator hadn’t arrived yet but it would in a moment. “I’ll pay you,” I said quickly. “I have…” I dug around in my purse and pulled out my wallet, “one hundred and eighty-five dollars on me. You can have all of it. All I need is a room number.”

“I’ll do it for two-fifty.”

“But I don’t have two hundred and fifty dollars!”

“I take checks.”

“What? What! You’re shaking me down?”

“Not at all. I’d be happy to walk away from this whole thing but if you want me to spy on my fellow man I’m going to require fair payment.”

“You’re unbelievable!”

The elevator arrived but now there were too many people waiting for it. Anatoly stepped aside and allowed a woman in a wheelchair to take what would have been his spot.

“Fine!” I hissed. I pulled my checkbook out of my purse and scrawled two- hundred and fifty dollars across it in blue pen. “What’s your name?”

“Alex Kinsky.”

“Alex Kinky?”

Mr. Green Eyes smiled. “Kinsky.”

“Polish?”

“Russian.” He took the check from my hand before I had a chance to remark on that. “The elevator’s here. Don’t move from this spot. I’ll be back with a room number.”

I nodded and watched as the kinky, Russian, green-eyed guy strode across the room and slipped into the elevator with Anatoly and his bimbo just before the door closed. What if he didn’t come back? What if I had just paid some guy $250 for nothing?

Well then I’d cancel the check of course. That was the benefit of not paying cash.

But what if this was some kind of identity theft scheme? Now this guy had my name and account number…what could a really skilled identity thief do with that?

What if Anatoly really was taking that woman up to his hotel room to make love to her?

Breathing was becoming hard again. I closed my eyes. Everything was going to be fine. Maybe they wouldn’t even go into the same hotel room. Maybe they’d get off on different floors. Maybe…maybe…

Maybe my heart was breaking.

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of

The Sophie Katz Series

And

So Much For My Happy Ending

Chapter 4

2012-02-24T00:21:00.002-08:00

Chapter 4

“The best thing about alcohol is that it makes your bad judgmentmore socially acceptable.”

--Death Of The Party

I couldn’t have been in thathallway for more than ten minutes…probably considerably less. But it felt likean eternity. All of a suddennothing seemed to make sense. Whydid I need to know Anatoly’s room number? Was I really going to go up there and confront him in front of a woman?Perhaps a naked woman in his bed? Did I really want to have her lyingthere smugly listening to my hysterics?

I was acting on instinct and rawemotion, which is exactly what had brought me to Anatoly to begin with. What kind of idiot was I to trust inthose things again?

The anger began to slip away andI started to feel just…empty. Ishouldn’t have come to Vegas. What was the point? What was the point of doinganything?

I stepped into the lobby just asthe Kinky green-eyed man stepped off the elevator. He walked over to me and his eyes were sympathetic. His sympathy made me want to cry.

“Room608,” he said softly.

“Together?”I asked and he answered me with a nod.

“Right,well now I know, right? I mean Ihad to know otherwise…otherwise I wouldn’t know and that would be bad.” I knewI was babbling but if I stopped talking I’d have to think and…and feel this. “You should cash that check soon,” I continued. “Who knows, maybe you can turn that twohundred and fifty dollars into two thousand, right? I mean this is Vegas! Anything can happen in Vegas!”

Icould feel the strain of the smile on my face, all big and fake. I could feel Anatoly’s arms around me,hear his laughter, feel the way he used to brush my hair from my face.

“Don’t use it on the slot machines,worst odds in the casino, you know.” Justkeep talking. Talk so you don’t cry.

“CanI get you a cup of coffee?” he asked. “A little conversation over mochas? I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”

“Mochas,I don’t’ usually drink mochas.” I looked up at the overhead lights. They were too bright for the theme ofthe hotel and way too bright for my mood. “I don’t think I can carry on a coherent conversation right now either.”

“Ididn’t say you had to be coherent,” Mr. Green eyes said…what was his real nameagain? Andy? No Alex. AlexKinsky. Should be easy toremember…but there was no need to.

Ikept my smile plastered across my face but looked away. “Thank you, Alex, but I I’m gonna pass.Enjoy the rest of your night and, um, thank you for…for telling me.” Thank you for confirming my worst fears,thank you for letting me know my entire love affair with Anatoly was a lie.

I could feel Alex Kinsky’s eyeson me as I wandered back into the bar. I bumped into a tall Latino man sportinga black t-shirt and an arm full of tattoos. Anatoly had been thinking ofgetting a tattoo…I had been helping him decide on a design. But I wouldn’t behelping with those kinds of decisions any more.

And yes, Alex was still watchingme…watching me until I finally managed to lose myself in the crowd of jubilantpeople, many of whom would spend the weekend gambling everything they had ongames of chance that they would almost certainly lose. When I finally got back to the bar Ispotted Marcus looking around for me. By his side was Dena. Dena noticed me first and reached outher hand. The gesture itself almost broke me. But then again this moment felttoo big for tears. What I really wanted to do was scream.

Irelayed the brief story in its entirety, stopping only long enough to consumelarge gulps of alcohol. Dena andMarcus exchanged looks when I got to the part about the check but neither ofthem chastised me for it. Insteadthey just bought me another drink. Marcus placated me by noting that thebusty-blonde girl looked skanky. He even took it a step further by insistingthat Anatoly was an asshole who didn’t deserve me. Dena remained noticeably silent.

“If we want good seats we should probably go up to the movietheater,” Marcus said, glancing at his watch.

“I’ll meet you there,” I mumbled. “I have to go to the ladiesroom.”

“I’llgo with you,” Dena said as she tried to link her arm through mine.

I jerked away from her. “I don’tneed your help.”

Denanarrowed her eyes. “Excuse me, but did I do something to piss you off?”

“It’s what you’re thinking rightnow,” I slurred. “Your thoughts are pissing me off.”

“Soyou’re a mind reader now?”

“You’rethinking that Anatoly didn’t do anything wrong this time. You’re thinking that I broke it offwith him and he’s a free agent!” I slammed the rest of my drink before adding,“You’re thinking that anything goes in Vegas, especially if you’re newlysingle! Go ahead, tell me where I’m wrong.”

Dena’seyes were now so narrow I could barely see them through her eyelashes. Marcuskept his face as blank as possible as he looked around the room, studying thelight fixtures, his glass and various other inanimate objects.

“Idon’t think it matters if I was thinking that or not,” Dena said, coolly,“because clearly you were.”

“I’mgoing to the ladies room,” I growled, “unassisted, thank you. I’ll meet you atthe theater.”

Denaopened her mouth to protest but Marcus, finally bringing his eyes back to hispresent company, patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.

“Sophie’s a high functioning drunk. She’ll make it to the bathroom and thetheater by herself.”

Itwas a small triumph that Marcus thought I was a high functioning anything atthat moment and I spared him a small smile before spinning on my heel andwalking off. My phone vibrated in my bag. A text from my friend, and Dena’scousin, Mary Ann. I didn’t even bother to read it. I didn’t want to deal withher or anyone else right now. I didn’t even want to go to the ladies room. I had just wanted a moment to myself tocatch my breath. Everything had taken on a hazy quality. The colored lights of the slot machinesseemed a little softer and…well, fuzzier. And the laughter of the gamblers, the ringing of the bells…it all tookon an almost meditative quality. So much noise and stimulation all designed to keep your from thinkinganything through. No wonder I hadacted on impulse, recklessly signing a two hundred and fifty dollar check to astranger just so he could confirm some bad news. Reckless impulsivity was what Vegas was all about. It allmade sense…particularly after five cosmos.

AbruptlyI changed course and went to the elevators that would take me up to the sixthfloor.

AsI rode up I tried to find some level of clarity despite the intoxication. Would I really hit him? What about her?She hadn’t really done anything wrong. It was all him!

Andyet it really would be fun to slap her.

Ifound room 608 easily. I’ll listen first, I thought. Findout if they’re…in the middle of anything. The thought made me nauseous, although the vodka was probablypartially to blame for that. Ileaned forward and pressed my ear against the door…

…andstumbled forward as the door opened with the slight pressure of my body.

Ithad of course been open the whole time. The deadbolt had been pushed out so that the door wouldn’t automaticallylock. If I had been sober Iprobably would have noticed that before pressing my head against it.

YetI wasn’t quite so drunk as to miss the fact that I was the only one in theroom. Just me and a bed that clearly hadn’t been touched since it had been madeup earlier in the day.

Butit was Anatoly’s room. That was his jacket draped over the chair by the window.

Ifthis was his room and the bed was still made then he hadn’t slept with herafter all! I half skipped, halfstumbled over to that jacket and took it up in my arms. He hadn’t even taken her anywherebecause if he had he wouldn’t have left his jacket…

Waita minute.

Isat down on the chair and stared at the door that was still being forcedslightly open by that deadbolt. Why had he left the door open when his stuff was in here? That didn’t make sense. I squeezed the jacket closer to mybody. It smelled like him and itfelt…lumpy. Why did it feel lumpy?

Ireached into the inside pocket and pulled out his iPhone. He left the room without his iPhone?That wasn’t like him. I sat therefor a moment staring at the device. This would be a confusing situation even if I weren’t intoxicated. As itwas I was completely stupefied.

“Okay,think about this,” I said aloud. “He left the room. He also purposely left the door open and he left hisjacket and iPhone here. Those are the facts.”

Iwas quiet for a moment. Listing off the facts hadn’t been as helpful as I hadanticipated. Maybe I needed tolist even more facts. “I’m in Anatoly’s room and there are nobimbos in it and the bed hasn’t been slept or fucked in recently.”

Thesefacts weren’t any more helpful but they were much more fun to say. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the milddizziness. Things didn’t alwaysneed to make sense, right? As long as he wasn’t letting Mr. Happy go spelunkingeverything was okay. I opened myeyes and let my gaze lazily move around the room.

Andthen I saw something on the desk. I stood up and went over to it. Carefully, I touched the cool silvermetal of the money clip I had given Anatoly last year, his initials clearlyengraved on the front of it. Inside the clip were five ten dollar bills.

He left fifty dollars in theroom.

Heleft the door purposely open

Hewas nowhere to be found.

Thesewere not fun facts.

Iwas beginning to feel more sober. Now clutching both the money clip and the jacket I checked thebathroom. No one there. The towelswere still perfectly folded which meant the shower hadn’t gotten any more usethan the bed. There was a traveltoothbrush and toothpaste set next to the sink that were still in theiroriginal packaging and...a small bottle of Aveeno Positively Radiant DailyMoisturizer cream.

Anatoly didn’t use PositivelyRadiant Daily Moisturizer. Ofcourse he should use it. I loved that particular product and hadtried to get Anatoly to use it as well. I was of the firm belief that everyoneshould have a strong skincare regiment, regardless of their sex. But Anatoly never listened to me aboutthat kind of stuff and when you considered why I threw him out it seemedunlikely that he would try to win me back with newly radiant skin. And yet someone had to bring the Aveeno here and that someone obviouslywasn’t me.

I backed out of the bathroom andthen turned to examine the room again. I spotted Anatoly’s duffle bag on the floor. Hesitantly I opened it up. On top were a couple of his t-shirts, some jeans, under thata few pairs of boxer briefs and under that…

Underthat were two rounds of ammunition. The ammunition Anatoly used for his snub-nose revolver.

Witha new sense of urgency I started rifling through the bag and running my handsalong the lining. His gun wasn’t in there. It’s fairly rare that someone packs ammunition withoutpacking their gun. So he had left his iPhone and fifty dollars behind but takenhis gun? That suggested he wasn’tout filling an ice bucket.

Why would he have brought his gunto Vegas anyway? And if he had his gun on him now it was undoubtedly loaded;Anatoly never carried an unloaded weapon. So that was at least three rounds ofammunition. For God’s sake, how many things had he planned on shooting?

Myheart was beating a little faster now.

Maybe the gun was in the drawer.I opened the top drawer of the dresser. What I saw there did NOT make me happy.

Women’s underwear! Son of a bitch! He hadn’t just picked up some random, drunk, slut.He had actually checked in with her! Less than a week after we broke up! Even Dena would take issue withthat! And I knew this chick was a slut becauseof this stupid skimpy thong…actually it wasn’t that skimpy. I had the exact same one at home.

I also had the same pair ofbikini panties that were underneath those and I owned those same bras too. My head was spinning as I openedanother drawer.

There was the Michael Starst-shirt that I had left in my dresser at home along with my BCBG knit top andmy scarf that I had bought with Anatoly at the North Beach street fair.

In yet another drawer were twopairs of my jeans.

I looked down at my hands. Theywere shaking and this time it had nothing to do with the cosmos.

That’s when instinct took over.As quickly as possible I took out every item of clothing and stuffed it all inAnatoly’s bag. I ran into thebathroom and snatched up the Aveeno and threw that in his bag as well. I didn’tknow what was going on other than that it looked like someone wanted others tothink that this was my room and I had a very strong feeling that if that’s whatthey wanted it was very importantthat no one ever reach that particular faulty conclusion.

Icould barely feel the effects of the alcohol anymore. Adrenaline had taken over. I grabbed a washcloth from thebathroom and wiped down everything that I had touched.

“Anatoly, where are you?” I askedthe empty room. I desperatelywanted to leave but then what if he came back?

I glanced over at thecloset. Would more of my clothesbe in there? I rushed over to thecloset door and threw it open.

There, underneath a few of my sundresses that were hanging from therod, and on top of my beat-upovernight bag that I never used anymore, was the blonde bimbo.

She was just lying there…with abullet hole in her forehead.

“No.”I said the word out loud but this time it didn’t feel like I was talking tomyself. It was more like a prayer. “No!” I said again and then pressed my fist against my mouth.

Shewas dead! Dead and draped over my overnightbag! As if I was planning on packing her or something!

And Anatoly was nowhere to befound.

Ihad to do something right now! But what? I started to reach my hand towards thewoman, as if to feel her pulse but quickly withdrew it. People with bulletholes in the middle of their foreheads did not have pluses!

Ifelt myself gag against my fist. Itore my eyes away from the woman and yanked my dresses out of the closet. I had to get the bag too. I gagged again but forced myself topull it out from underneath her. She flopped forward and I nearly screamed before I finally resolved toshove her back in the closet with my foot and then slam the door.

Someonewanted it to look like this was my room and now a woman…a woman who wasrecently hitting on my boyfriend, a woman who I had paid a stranger to follow, was dead in the closet.

Callingthe police was simply not an option.

Ibit down harder on my fist. What were myoptions?

Ohyeah, I needed to get the hell out of there.

Ithrew my dresses and Anatoly’s jacket in my bag and with effort managed toscrunch his duffle bag in there too. Using my foot I opened the door, then thought better of it and used thewashcloth to wipe down the doorknobs and undo the deadbolt so the door wouldactually lock behind me. Swiftly,and keeping my head down, I walked toward the elevator.

Andwith each step toward the elevator the same thought rang through my head.

What happened to Anatoly?

Follow me on my Facebook or Twitter for updates on the March 2nd release of Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas. Also, be sure to check out Sophie's other adventures!

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of

The Sophie Katz Series

And

So Much For My Happy Ending