She exploded with fury.
“You motherfucker!” she yelled. Then threw the box at him and stormed out of the house and sat in the car.
“She’ll warm up by the time we get home,” he said.
“You think?”
We gave up the search and went to the car. Lucky apologized to Gwen for what she’d seen, but claimed the gift didn’t prove they’d ever had sex. According to him it meant she wanted to have sex with him. Gwen clung to a more literal translation.
“The note said, ‘Your turn to get lucky.’”
“So?”
“It didn’t say, ‘Do you want to get lucky?’”
“I don’t get your point,” Lucky said.
“The point is, go fuck yourself.”
Twenty minutes later I’m pulling into their driveway. The gate goons wave us through, and I park in the same place I parked earlier in the day. Gwen gets out of the car first and stomps toward the front door, while fishing her keys out of her purse. Lucky’s rushing to catch up. I get his bags out of the trunk and follow them inside. Gwen starts making a bee line to their bedroom. Lucky notices me and says, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Gwen stops abruptly and turns around.
“I was planning to check the house.”
“And then?”
“Stay in the room Tina set up for me.”
“No way.”
Gwen and I exchange a glance. She says, “You hired him to protect us, asshole.”
“He can protect us from outside.”
“What’s the problem?” I say.
“You want to know the problem?”
I shrug. “It’s why I asked the question.”
“The problem is, forty-five minutes ago you threatened to kill me. And now you think I’m going to let you sleep in my home?”
“If you don’t need me here, pay me what you owe and I’ll head back to L.A.”
“You signed on for a week. For the next seven nights, you can sleep in your car.”
“Pay me now and I will.”
“I don’t keep that much cash at the house. I’ll pay you tomorrow.”
“Then tomorrow night I’ll sleep in the car.”
He starts to say something, then sees Gwen moving quickly toward the bedroom. He runs to catch up. She gets there first and tries to slam the door. Lucky wedges his foot in the threshold just in time to keep from getting locked out, but the blow to his foot makes him cry out in pain.
There’s a lot of yelling between them and I catch myself chuckling at some of the combinations of curse words Gwen strings together. I know she doesn’t want me to see her act this way, but she can’t help herself. And Lucky isn’t helping his cause by yelling back.
“I hate to interrupt,” I say. “But I should check out that wing of the house.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Lucky says. “I don’t want you in the command center.”
“You can check out the bedroom and closet,” Gwen says.
As I enter the bedroom, Lucky rushes over to the door that leads to his command center and blocks it.
“I don’t care what you do in there,” I say. “I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
“If Connor Payne has been in there, I may as well be dead anyway. He can do what he wants to me.”
“I hope he does,” Gwen says. “I can’t believe you did that to me. Turned my name into a scam.”
“What name?” I say.
“Vegas Moon,” Gwen says.
“You came up with it?”
She starts to answer, but Lucky says, “Shut up, Gwen.”
And she does.
The bedroom is large, but there’s no place for anyone to hide except behind the curtains or under the bed. I check the curtains first. Then, feeling like an idiot, I get on my hands and knees and check under the bed, thinking it would serve me right if Connor Payne was under there. I check the windows, and the door that leads to the patio.
“Everything’s fine,” I say.
