Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Raine looked exasperated. “I’m not buying it. If he was worried, especially if he planned to invade her privacy that way, he should have told her. For all he knew, she could parade around her room naked. And she was having fun with Zale. What if they were going crazy on the grand piano?” She suddenly scowled and turned her head abruptly to glare at Vienna. “Please tell me you respected the instrument and stayed off of it.”
“What instrument are you talking about?” Vienna tried to look innocent. “Because Zale does have a beautiful one.”
Laughter erupted as Raine continued to glare at Vienna. “You’re hopeless. You’ve gone off the rails, just the way Stella has. He’d better be as cool as Sam.”
“No one is as cool as Sam,” Stella protested. “That’s hardly fair, Raine.”
“Well . . .” Vienna drew out the word. “I love Sam. You know I do. He’s the brother I never had. But Zale is way cool. I’d have to say . . .”
“Don’t,” Stella warned. “I’d have to wrestle you to the floor, and that’s so undignified. One of these terrible so-called friends would whip out their phones and record it and blackmail us by threatening to put it online.”
“Yep,” the others agreed simultaneously.
Vienna sighed. “Fine, then. I won’t. Just know that all of you have to think Zale’s awesome. If you don’t, pretend you do.” She glared at Raine. “Even you.”
“I have to get over the piano,” Raine said. “That will take some doing.” She pressed her fingers to her eyes. “The image of that beautiful piano violated is burned into my brain.”
“Really, Raine?” Harlow said. “Don’t you like spontaneous hot sex? Anywhere? You must have seen that film with Julia Roberts . . .”
Raine put her hands over her ears. “Don’t say it. I was in the movie theater and he was playing the piano and she came in and the next thing you know . . . violation is occurring. I had to close my eyes. It was just too much.”
When the laughter died down, Shabina returned the conversation to Daniel Wallin. “Who is Daniel’s mother? So far, I haven’t heard a word about her. No one’s mentioned her.”
Vienna frowned. “I haven’t either. I looked Wallin up when I knew I would be coming here. Mostly, I wanted to play him at cards—though, don’t get me wrong, I wanted the money from the tournament win. There was no mention of his mother in any article I read.”
Zahra groaned and put a pillow over her face, rolling on the couch to hide. “She was probably buried in the desert upright with cards in her mouth or something equally as horrible.”
Stella swatted at her bottom with a pillow. “You’re obsessed with being buried in the desert. I don’t think Daniel’s father played cards. He just conned people out of their money.”
“Thank heavens. I was picturing multiple bodies buried upright in the sand. I had decided that I wasn’t going anywhere near that desert.” Zahra rolled over and pulled the pillow from her face. “You can all laugh if you want, but seeing as how Stella and Vienna barely escaped being murdered just a few months ago, and now we’re talking bodies in a desert—”
“The bodies were found years ago,” Vienna interrupted hastily. “Don’t scare yourself, Zahra. Really, Liam died in 1980.”
“Let’s be clear, Vienna,” Zahra said. “He was murdered in 1980.”
“Okay. I’ll concede that he was murdered, but that doesn’t mean the same people who murdered him are still around.” Vienna didn’t quite cover the uncertainty in her voice.
Zahra pounced on that. “You think they might be.”
“I don’t know,” Vienna had to admit. “But going back to where Daniel got his money, could his father have left him money?”
“No.” Raine was decisive. “Norman raised Daniel, but he began drinking heavily. His charm seemed to be wearing thin with the ladies. He ended up dead in an alley.” She looked over the screen of her laptop at Zahra. “No burial in the desert for him.”
“Ha ha,” Zahra said. “How did he die?”
“Well, he was murdered. It appeared to be a robbery,” Raine admitted.
Vienna shook her head but didn’t say anything. She couldn’t imagine that if Daniel’s father had the same gift of being able to use his voice on others, he couldn’t persuade a robber to leave him alone. And what did he have on him at that point that someone would want?
“Where were Daniel and his mother?” Shabina asked.
“The mother was out of the picture and Daniel was already grown. He must have been at least seventeen or eighteen. At least he looks like it in these old newsprints.” Raine turned her screen around to show them.
“He was super good-looking,” Harlow observed.
“How could there be absolutely nothing said about his mother?” Vienna asked. “That makes no sense when Daniel’s father ran with celebrities. He was news back then. The paparazzi followed him around just to see who he was with.”