Bee set her heel on the chair to moisturize her foot. Her borrowed robe fell open, and she tucked the wayward flap under her bum.
‘Quit wiggling,’ Liliana ordered. She stood on a step stool behind Bee, a heated curling iron in one hand and a round brush in the other, and waved them both at her reflection in the mirror. ‘I’ll burn your neck.’
Liliana’s closet was the size of a decent starter home. Designer dresses, shoes, purses and jewelry were the only decorations in the massive room, displayed more as a shrine to wealth than as a functional organization system. Inside was a pale pink vanity with every feasible accessory for beautifying oneself available. Makeup of every color and kind covered the countertop. Hairdryers and straighteners and brushes lined the wall next to the lighted mirror, waiting to be called into service. She had lotions and potions and hair-removal waxes: everything stacked in neat rows on or under or beside the vanity.
Bee checked her modesty once more. ‘I’m sorry but I don’t feel like flashing the whole world.’
‘I’m the only one who’d see anything.’ Liliana went back to styling Bee’s hair. ‘I mean, unless you flashed the mirror. And then I guess Anastasia could see it. And the guy you’re in love with – whatshisface.’
‘Adam.’ Bee switched to her other foot. ‘I’m not in love with him. So back off, OK?’
Liliana spat a laugh. ‘Shut up and let me do your hair. You’re almost as bad as Anastasia.’
Bee put the lotion on the vanity and grabbed a vial of ruby-red nail polish. ‘Thanks for doing this by the way.’ She shook the bottle. ‘I wouldn’t be able to get through this without you.’
Liliana wrapped a strip of red hair around the curling iron. ‘It hasn’t happened yet. I can get the horse to water and all that.’ She let the soft wave fall over Bee’s shoulder. ‘But I can guarantee you’re going to be the best water that stubborn horse has ever seen.’
Bee started painting her fingernails. She caught her friend’s eye in the mirror and smiled. ‘I owe you one.’
‘You owe me wine,’ she corrected. ‘A lot of wine. You’ll think, “Is this too much wine?” and then you’ll still buy more wine. And then it will be enough.’
Bee laughed. ‘OK. Deal.’
‘Would you stop?’ came Adam’s grumpy voice. ‘No. No. Would you—’ He giggled. ‘Knock it off.’
Bee and Liliana turned in sync. Adam and Anastasia had entered the master bedroom. He wore a white tuxedo with a black bow tie and a scowl.
Anastasia towered over Adam barefoot. She poked his side.
He twisted away from her, an angry giggle escaping at being tickled. ‘Can you do something about this?’ he asked Bee.
She shook her head, too stunned to form words.
Big bad Adam Gage was ticklish.
‘He fits fine into my husband’s suit,’ Anastasia said, sneaking one more poke into Adam’s side. She walked into the closet and watched her reflection play with Bee’s red wig. ‘It is a little tight for him. My husband, he is so weak. But it will do the job.’
Adam adjusted the coat. ‘If I move my arms too much, a seam will bust.’
‘Then don’t move your arms too much,’ Liliana said. ‘Beauty is pain.’
‘That is what I told him,’ Anastasia said. ‘Everything I wear is too tight.’
Liliana nodded. ‘What are we supposed to do? Wear something that fits every day?’
Adam rolled his eyes.
Bee chuckled and set the vial down.
Anastasia sorted through the giant black makeup case that took up over half of the vanity and said, ‘Makeup now. This bank will be so impressed with your new look.’
‘Banks,’ Bee said.
Adam cleared his throat. ‘I’m leaving this here until we go.’
Anastasia and Liliana leveled him with their best glares.
But he shrugged out of the jacket and hung it up on the back of a pink leather couch. ‘I’m gonna check in with Malika.’ He peered in through the doorway at Bee. ‘You, uh, you need anything?’
She shook her head. Liliana and Anastasia scolded her.
‘Sorry, sorry.’ She blew dry the red polish on her nails and wrinkled her nose at the chemical scent. ‘I’m OK. Thanks though. And it’s not a bank, Anastasia. It’s Banks. He’s Charlie’s second in command. I gotta get him on my side. If I go to Alvarez alone, I’ll be swallowed alive. Having Banks there gives me validity I wouldn’t have on my own and should keep Alvarez from simply killing me outright. And I gotta talk to him face to face. The last thing I need is more hitmen tracing a phone call, finding out where I am and coming after me.’
Anastasia set her palm on Bee’s forehead. ‘I’m bored now.’ She nudged Liliana with her elbow. ‘I am bored. Tell her. It will make things less boring.’
Liliana said, ‘Well—’
‘She screwed the swim coach!’ Anastasia exclaimed, working the beauty blender around Bee’s nose.
Liliana gasped in indignation. ‘I was just about to—’
‘In the pool!’
Bee covered her mouth with her hand, hoping to drown out the sound of her snort.
It didn’t work.
Liliana glared at both of them in the mirror.
Anastasia patted the blender over Bee’s forehead, grinning.
‘Liliana!’ Bee tried with all her might not to laugh. ‘Liliana, he’s in high school!’
‘He’s eighteen,’ she said, attention on the mound of hair she worked on. ‘He graduated this year, thank you very much. He’s spending his summer working at the pool before he goes off to college.’ Her gaze shifted to a far-off place. ‘It was really romantic. He lit candles all the way from the parking lot to the ladder.’
‘So’ – Bee’s lips quivered as she fought a smile – ‘the public pool?’
‘Yeah.’
Anastasia said, ‘I didn’t know you could have sex in water. Wouldn’t water be pushed into places it should not be pushed?’
‘I’ve done it in water lots of times,’ Liliana said. ‘It’s fine. The penis is a natural plug.’
Bee lost herself to laughter. The Anas scolded her. ‘Sorry. Sorry. Oh man, I needed that.’ She wiped a stray tear away from her nose with the pad of her pinky finger, careful of the damp polish.
Laughter receded, and worry filled the empty space. ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do if this doesn’t work, guys,’ she said. ‘Oliver …’
Liliana held eye contact with her reflection. ‘Oliver is going to be fine,’ she said. ‘Because his mother is the best there is at this. You’re gonna get him out, Bee.’
‘You must focus.’ Anastasia stuck Bee’s right eyelashes in a bright pink curler. ‘If you do not focus, if you do not do your job, then he will not be fine. But if you do what you must? You will get him back.’
Bee nodded, and the Anas made a squawking noise of disapproval as the eyelash curler fell to the floor. ‘Sorry, sorry.’
They were right. She had to go into this with a clear head. For Oliver’s sake, she had to do her job. She had to be the grifter she was and not the mother she’d become.
Bee looked at herself in the three-paneled mirror. Liliana had picked out a red dress with a plunging neckline and a severe slit over the right leg. The straps were sturdy enough to keep anything from slipping out, which was good, because the dress itself didn’t allow for a bra.
Or underwear really.
Which worked out.
‘I want to be buried in this dress.’
Anastasia said, ‘I can arrange that.’
Bee bit her tongue between her teeth and giggled then turned to face her audience. The Anas sat on stools, tall green glasses filled with bubbly water in their hands, appraising her like they’d been tasked with assigning a score.
Adam leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, one foot crossed over the other.
She met his gaze and smoothed the fabric down over her hips. ‘What do you think?’
‘It’s good,’ he said.
Liliana twirled so fast in her stool it wobbled underneath her. ‘Good? That is a seven-thousand-dollar gown!’
‘So what?’ Adam planted both feet flat on the ground and stood straight. ‘You could dress her like Ronald McDonald. I got seven bucks in my wallet. I could buy her a muumuu at the Good Will. She’d still turn every head.’
Liliana thrust her glass into Anastasia’s hand and hopped over to Bee, ran her hands over Bee’s bare arms. ‘It’s a good thing he’s cute because he’s very annoying.’ She squeezed her shoulders. ‘He is right though. I’m thinking silver shoes. How high a heel can you handle?’ She dropped her hands and disappeared into the shoe section of her closet.
‘Like, medium.’ Bee turned back to the mirror. ‘I know how hard you worked on my hair, and it is amazing. But I’m wondering about wearing this wig with this dress. I look like Jessica Rabbit. You know, except for the boobage.’
Liliana chuckled from around the corner. ‘You’re welcome. Here.’ She reappeared, silver high heels in her hands. ‘These are Jimmy Choo, and you can keep them forever. I never wear them.’
Bee handled them with care. ‘Thank you again, girls. This means so much to me.’
Anastasia drained her bubbly water. She covered her mouth with her pink-and-white fingertips and burped. ‘It is no problem. We stick together.’
‘That’s right,’ Liliana said. ‘Now, what are you wearing tomorrow? I was thinking something like this.’ She grabbed a denim miniskirt and white long-sleeved blouse off an ottoman. ‘Some sensible kitten heels. Or ballet flats. What do you think?’
Bee held the skirt up over her dress to gauge where the hemline hit her legs. ‘It’s skimpy.’
‘Well, what do you want? A business suit?’ Liliana set her fists on her hips. ‘Because I have one. It’s Chanel. Gorgeous! You want it?’
‘I don’t know.’ Bee put the skirt down and looked around the room, at the unlimited options available to her, and drew her mouth into a thin line. ‘He’s expecting an ex-mafia wife. What do they look like?’
Anastasia said, ‘Big lips. Big tits.’
Bee pointed at her. ‘Right. I don’t have time for that though.’
Adam rubbed his forehead and stepped forward. ‘Look, Bee, I know you got a process. I know what you wear plays an important part in that process. I don’t understand it, but I get it. But maybe you’re coming at this from the wrong way. Maybe instead of focusing on what he’s expecting, you focus on what you need to be when you’re in the room.’
‘That’s a good point.’ Liliana tilted her head and observed her. ‘What do you need to be?’
Bee faced the mirror. She set her hands on the small of her waist and focused on her breathing. In and out. Finding center. She wasn’t plotting against a drug lord. She hadn’t escaped death however many times in a week. She was on her yoga mat, on her dock. Breathing in and breathing out.
Instead of the ocean stretching before her, it was her own blue eyes that filled her vision, scared but determined.
‘A weapon.’
Liliana said, ‘Helpful. Truly.’
‘No. No, it is.’ Anastasia jumped up, her stool falling to the floor with a bang. ‘I know exactly what you need!’
Anastasia spoke to herself in furious Russian, a whirlwind of discarded clothes piling up in front of them.
Liliana sighed. ‘You know, you could leave what you don’t want on a hanger.’
But Anastasia paid her no mind, reappearing with a dark green mini sundress, a delicate lace-up bow in the back, and gold accessories.
Bee looked at the dress, looked at Anastasia, looked back at the dress. ‘This is what a weapon would wear?’ Then she game-show-host gestured at her Jessica Rabbit outfit. ‘This is what a weapon would wear.’
‘No, no.’ Anastasia held Bee’s chin in her hand. ‘He will never see you coming.’
Anastasia had a point. Having the element of surprise on her side certainly wouldn’t make things worse. Instead of the deafening .45 caliber slugs from her 1911, she’d be the unheard missile launched from a submarine.
Liliana’s rear started buzzing. She pulled out her cell phone and sighed. ‘It’s for you.’ She handed it to Bee. ‘Good luck getting that horse to drink, Mama.’
Bee tossed her borrowed hair over her shoulder. ‘That’s why they pay me the big bucks.’