A Beautiful Lie (Unlocked #1) Read online

  “I’ll figure it out.”

  The rest of the way to the Black Kettle, I had to listen to Bria talk about what a bad choice I was making, and how if I wanted, she could maybe get me a part-time job at the bakery where she worked. I always had a hard time picturing her working there. Little did the sweet grandmother picking up her cannoli know that the girl handing them to her would be ripping her clothes off on stage a few hours later. It was like she lived a double life, and in a way, it made me admire her.

  Thoughts of my impending meeting with Luke would have to wait. As we pulled into the back lot at the Black Kettle, I stepped out of Nina Parker and into Gigi Noir. When I let her, Gigi consumed me. She would burrow beneath my skin, wrap herself around my soul, and seize control. Slipping into her was like losing myself to a drug. And I’d lost myself to Gigi too far on many occasions.

  Bridgette and Lena were already there, grabbing their bags from the car.

  “Showtime!” Lena belted from the top of her lungs as we pulled in. She struck a pose in the night air, her bony hips sticking out above her low-cut jeans like thorns. “I can just feel it, tonight is going to be a good one.”

  “Not if you don’t get your sweet ass inside,” Bria quipped. “There’s money to be made but they aren’t paying if you look like that.” She motioned to Lena’s bomber jacket and motorcycle boots.

  “Fuck off,” Lena responded. As much as they all gave me shit about my situation with Tomas, they gave each other an equal amount of shit about their lives. In a way we’d formed our own misfit, ragamuffin family.

  We lugged our bags through the back door into the makeshift dressing room that was set up for us. We were used to getting ready in cramped quarters. On a typical night, the venue failed to supply us with something crucial, like a mirror or ample lighting. That night, we were without tables. Everyone’s costumes were piled onto an old dingy couch that looked like it had been picked up off the side of the road. The place smelled like sweat and cigarettes and I could hear the front of the house loud and ready for a show.

  Lillian startled me from behind. “You’re up first again tonight, rookie.” She was the owner of the troupe and kept a close watch on all of us. I always sensed that she saw past the façade of Gigi, but she never said anything.

  “Oh God, okay.” I nodded, slipping into my fishnets.

  “Are you good to go?” Her question was more of an accusation. Could she sense that my mind was somewhere else? I took a deep breath and pushed Luke even further out of my mind. Our ringleader was notorious for benching girls for one reason or another. She refused to risk anyone ruining her masterpiece.

  I thought quickly on my feet. “Sorry, it’s just…I had a visitor last night.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  “Some guy followed me home from the show.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Luke did attend the show and he did follow me home.

  “Shit,” Bria interrupted. “Why didn’t you tell me? Did he try anything? Did you call the cops? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

  “He was harmless,” I responded to both of them, making my way in front of the single cracked mirror that the other girls crowded around. “I threatened to call the cops and he ran away.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I observed their reactions. The lie upon the lie seemed to quell their fears. Lillian continued out toward the parking lot where her roadie, who was actually her pitiful husband Samuel, lugged in stage props. Bria stepped beside me, boxing Lena out.

  “I’m taking you home from now on,” she whispered. “Let me know if you see him in the audience tonight.”

  “I actually have a ride tonight, but thanks.”

  She gave me a suspicious look, but dropped the conversation.

  “Ten minutes!” Lillian swooped back into the room, stopping only to adjust our costumes or blend our makeup to her preference.

  As I stood in front of the mirror, considering the reflection of the girl looking back at me, it only took a moment for the transformation to complete. I focused on the flowing hair that she used as a weapon. From there, I moved to her eyes, dark and heavy with the stories she’d never tell. At last, I focused on the sensation of the pasties on her nipples to bring me into her. I was Gigi Noir.

  I couldn’t help but look for Luke the moment the lights went up on the stage. It was a gut reaction, an automatic response that was as unlike Gigi as anything. Why was I hoping to see him in the audience, staring at me the way he had the previous night? For the first time in a long time, Tomas wasn’t the man occupying my thoughts.

  But of course, he wasn’t there. As I moved through the motions of the routine, I felt less Gigi than normal. Instead of moving with fluidity and ease, my body was awkward and exposed. It was still enough to fool the audience. They were watching on with excitement, eyes glued to my bare chest. But it wasn’t enough to fool me.

  Eleven o’clock took its sweet time arriving. But as promised, the moment I exited the building, a driver was waiting for me.

  “Miss Parker?” he asked. Damn, it felt so weird to be called by my real name. I nodded, stepping into the car as he opened the door, grabbing my costumes and makeup bag from my arms before I could protest. With my belongings safely secured in the trunk, the driver took his seat, gave me a final nod, and put the car into drive.

  As we throttled toward the West Village through the dark evening, I wondered if it was all a mistake. If I should just turn back and pretend Luke never happened. If I should return to my small apartment above the loft and wait out Tomas’ rage. But somehow, I knew that it was too late for that. My body did all the work. It sat me in the car, helped me out of the vehicle, grabbed my things from the trunk, and propelled me into the grand lobby of Luke’s building. Before my mind had time to catch up, I was walking into the elevator and being propelled up to the eighteenth floor. At last, the only remaining obstacle was the door. A door that allegedly separated me from the answers to questions that I’d stopped asking a long time ago.

  With trepidation, I knocked. At first there was only silence. The moment I heard sound from the other side, my heart jumped. The door swung open and I stood there like an idiot, just staring at him.

  “Thank you for coming,” he stalled in the doorway, the muscles of his broad chest relaxing in hesitant relief. I shifted the weight of my belongings to distract myself from the sudden rush of shyness I felt. “Oh please, allow me,” Luke took the pile of costumes and makeup from me and stepped aside for me to enter. I gasped at the sweeping view of the city provided by his full window while he set my things down. Back at the loft, I spent countless hours staring out the window, looking upon the city. But this view was even more breathtaking. Instead of looking at the city, I was looking within.

  “Let me take your coat.” He pulled it from my shoulders before I even agreed. A cascade of sparkles rained down from it.

  “Sorry for the glitter,” I said. As usual, I was a walking glitter bomb. “You live here? This place is incredible.” I walked to the window and pressed myself against it, staring out into the great maze of New York City at night.

  “The view at night is one of a kind,” he agreed, joining me.

  For a potential crazy person, he sure was good-looking. My eyes scoured the room and took in the details; no pictures of a family or girlfriend. In fact there were no pictures at all. No evidence of a pet. Just fine Italian leather, glossy hardwood, and high ceilings.

  “So who the hell are you?”

  5

  Luke

  The skyline of New York City glittered behind Nina as she surveyed my apartment. I decided to let her control the physical distance between us.

  “That’s not the question you should be asking,” I responded. “You’d be better served asking ‘Who am I?’”

  She brushed off the statement and sat on the couch. The way that she was so casual about this whole thing upset me. Anyone in their right mind would be begging to know the information I had. Bu
t not Nina. Or Gigi Noir. Or whoever the fuck she was. Beautiful women like her were the hardest to reason with. They walked around thinking they deserved the world’s worship. That’s why I’d only ever made a habit of sleeping with girls like Nina and not dating them.

  To her, this was all a game. And I wasn’t in the mood for games.

  “So tell me, Mr. Nolan, who am I?” Condescension dripped from her voice. Before I had even opened my mouth, it was clear that she wouldn’t believe a word I told her.

  “You might not have to hide behind all the costumes and the glitter if you agreed to talk to me like an adult.”

  Her seated posture straightened at the firmness in my voice. It was an instant reaction, as if she were a student being reprimanded by her teacher. Without even being aware of it, she was revealing herself to me, layer by layer. Just as I made a mental note to remember that quirk of hers and explore it deeper, she caught herself and retook control of the situation.

  “Look, I didn’t come here to be toyed with.”

  She got up from the couch, standing with her eyes level to mine. As hard as I tried to forget the hypnotic image of her on stage, barely clothed and taunting me, it persisted. Mere inches separated us now, and had I been the man I was this time last year, I would have acted on the impulse I felt to take her. I shook the notion from my mind.

  “I came here to hear you out,” she said. “If you’re going to be an ass, I’ve got better things to do.”

  “And what would those better things be…Ms. Noir, is it?”

  The mention of her stage name only seemed to enrage her more as she reached for her black trench coat and began to put it on. Of course, I needed her to stay for my own sake, but I wasn’t going to do this if she was going to fight me the entire way.

  She smoothed her hair and reached for her things. “This was clearly a mistake.”

  “Stop.” I grabbed her wrist before she could move another step. Her entire body froze in response to my physical strength over her. Everything about this girl triggered me. Her obedience, her beauty, her secrets. She’s just a job, I reminded myself. “Nina, we both know that you wouldn’t have come tonight if you weren’t at least a little curious about what I had to say.”

  “You don’t know why I choose to do what I do, okay?” she snapped, but at least this made her pause.

  “Well, let’s start at the beginning then. I’m your half-brother’s best friend.”

  “What is this? A sick game?” she asked. “Maybe you’ve got your facts wrong in your research.” She softened, apparently trying to give me an out. “That’s it, you’ve got the wrong girl.”

  “So you’re telling me you’re not the girl whose mother abandoned her at a small New Jersey police station on November nineteenth, nineteen ninety-four?”

  She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

  “You’re not the Nina Parker who was adopted by Rick and Melinda Parker?” I continued.

  “So what the hell does any of that prove?” The words exploded from her small, angry body. Even in her anger, her beauty was intense. “Besides the fact that you’re a creep who has been stalking me?”

  “I saw your birth mother the other day. She gave me the last few details that I needed to find you.” I walked into the open kitchen and put the tea kettle on the stove. It was a classic recruitment technique. The more casual you act around the target, the more at ease they feel about helping you.

  “That’s impossible. I’m sure you read the article. She just left me at the police station, no name, no nothing.”

  “You’re right.” I pulled the tea from the cupboard, continuing to act as relaxed as possible. “She didn’t leave you with any information.” She stood in the same spot, staring at me, waiting for an explanation. The girl was not going to give even an inch.

  “Nina, take your coat back off, sit down, let me get you a cup of tea.” I grabbed the thick folder sitting on the counter and walked it over to her. It contained all the information I’d gathered over my months of searching. I hadn’t yet updated it with any of the information on Patrick Blake. “And read through this.”

  She took the file from me, a questioning look on her face.

  I nodded and gestured for her to sit on the couch. “It should answer a lot of questions.”

  After some hesitation and a few moments spent staring at the front of the file, she removed her coat for the second time that evening and took a seat. I made my way back to the kitchen to allow her some privacy. The history contained within the file was not my history. Sure, I’d gathered it, but I had no claim to it. I periodically glanced over to where she sat on the couch, but her back was facing away from me. I had no idea how she was taking the news.

  The tea kettle let out a high-pitched whistle, and I prepared us both a cup. When I set one on the table in front of her, I knew better than to look at her. It was a waiting game. I kept myself busy, drinking my own cup of tea and continuing to flesh out plans for the next step. I didn’t realize that I was gulping the hot tea until my cup was empty. Everything about being around Nina made me want to get high. Thankfully, I didn’t keep anything in the apartment anymore.

  I continued thinking through my research from the past few days. Since Carter hadn’t gotten back to me yet, I’d had to focus on building our case against Patrick Blake. So far, we’d verified that the three dead girls had worked for him. In addition, I had accumulated a small list of girls associated with the Jasper Hotel who had gone missing over the last few years. And while the Jasper was Blake’s landmark boutique hotel, he owned seventeen other high-end hotels around the world. I shuddered to imagine the total number of women he’d victimized over the years.

  At least forty-five minutes passed before Nina said anything. Finally, she stood up, set the file aside, and faced me.

  “So where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “This so-called brother.” Her chest heaved slow, shallow breaths. “If it was so important to find me, why did he wait until now? Why isn’t he here?” The decibels of her rage multiplied before me.

  “Nina, he’s been off the grid for a few months. You saw his name in the file. Did it sound familiar to you? Adam Scott?” He wasn’t famous in the way movie stars were famous, but his wealth bought him a lot of notoriety. Although he frequently appeared in the tabloids, he was never front-page news or anything like that. The columnists always wrote him off as just another socialite.

  She looked at me, confused. “No.”

  I grabbed my laptop from the coffee table, opened it, and googled him. Within milliseconds, his picture popped up, along with thousands of articles about the breakdown at the gala in June. Nina studied his picture.

  “Him? Oh yeah, he looks a little familiar…”

  I handed the laptop to her. “Read.”

  She pushed it back to me, shaking her head. “It’s getting late, I have to go. This was…interesting.” Her voice and body language were dismissive. She gathered the mountain of sparkling possessions, refusing to look at me.

  “I’ll call you a car.”

  “I prefer the subway,” she insisted, with attitude.

  It was uncanny how much she was like Adam. When they had their minds made up about something, there was no changing it. Except, of course, Adam always insisted on top-of-the-line everything, whereas his younger sister preferred things like the subway.

  I could have spent the entire night staring at her. Her beauty was wild and dangerous. Hers was the sort of crazy that I had to keep my distance from, or risk falling victim to it. I wasn’t going to push her anymore. She had all the information. The next move was hers, and at that moment, she was headed to the door to leave.

  “Just one more question.” She turned back to me, her hand on the doorknob. Her eyes flashed something I hadn’t seen in her yet – cautious hope. “Where in your great scheme of my life does my father fit in? Where is he? He was mentioned a few times in your file, but that was it.”

  I’d nearly for
gotten to give her the book.

  “Wait here,” I told her, only half confident that she wouldn’t bolt out of the door the second I got far enough away. I approached the large mahogany bookcase in the living room, and started skimming the spines of the books. Bates, Bell, Bergman, Blake. I pulled out The Autobiography of Patrick Blake and handed it to Nina. For a moment, she examined the book, still not getting it.

  “Chapter eight,” I said. “I’ll be here, for when you want to talk more.”

  I waited for her face to change as she examined the cover picture. But it remained the same, confused, hurt, questioning. It must have been a lot to take in in such a short amount of time. To go from thinking you have no family, to finding out there was a full-blown family out there, had to be overwhelming.

  “My…”

  “Yes, Nina. Your father.”

  Her eyes bored into the picture of the white-toothed snake on the cover. Don’t be deceived, I pleaded in silence. Finally, she turned it over to read the description on the back.

  “Hotel tycoon…”

  It made the guy sound a hell of a lot better than he was. Sure, he’d come from meager beginnings and done well for himself. But every other person you saw on the streets of Manhattan had some holdings in real estate.

  “You better not be messing with me,” she said, opening the door to leave. She meant it, too. Everything about her said that she’d been dragged through too much in life, and one more time might throw her over the ledge. More than anything I wanted to convince her that I was the safest person she could be with in that moment.

  “Nina, if I can promise you anything amid all of this, it’s that I will never lie to you. You have my number.”

  We lingered one final moment and our eyes interlocked. Caught off guard by the accidental intimacy of the moment, Nina bit her lip, sending a shockwave of electricity through me. A familiar instinct urged me to take it one step further and peel away the many layers of Nina Parker. But considering that I hadn’t been to see Dr. Knutson in over a month, acting on that impulse would undoubtedly lead me down a dark path. Gorgeous women like Nina had been my undoing in the past and I couldn’t risk falling into old patterns with her. My questionable mental state combined with the fact that she was Adam’s little sister meant it had to be time to say goodnight.