Dark Bargains 3 Page 6

  “I travel quite a bit, and work out a lot.”

  Diane sighed while her sister gazed at Lucas as though he was the most wonderful thing she’d ever seen in her life. Cyndia had cranked up the charm all the way, and Diane knew all too well that it rarely failed. She ordered a fresh mimosa and did her best to keep a smile on her face.

  “You must get to go to the most wonderful places,” Cyndia said, brushing her hair back over her ear and leaning in close to Lucas. “You’ll have to tell me about some of them.”

  With an indulgent smile he told her of his trip to Macau, while Cyndia hung on his every word. He’d told Diane about it before, but surely she hadn’t behaved like that when he did? By the time they left the restaurant she was pleasantly buzzed from the champagne, and used it as a shield to hide behind.

  “You two want to go through the shops?” Lucas asked them.

  Cyndia grinned. “I probably can’t afford anything, but I would love to look.”

  They strolled over to the high end stores at Crystals, which Diane was almost as excited to visit as Cyndia was. Cyndia had taken possession of Lucas’s arm again and did not seem inclined to let go, while Diane passed forgotten in their wake. Lucas had barely glanced at her during the last half hour. That should have been a good thing since the whole idea was to fool Cyndia, but Diane had been through this situation too many times before to be completely comfortable with it.

  To her relief, the shops distracted Cyndia from her attentions to Lucas. The one thing her sister loved more than men was clothes, and for Cyndia Crystals might as well have been Heaven.

  “Oh, Diane, look at these boots!”

  She dragged Diane over to a display and held up of black, calfskin ankle boots. The look in her eyes was one of reverence as she ran her fingers over them.

  “I would kill for these,” she said, then blanched as she saw the price. “And I’d have to.”

  A slow grin spread over Diane’s face as an idea sprang into her mind of a way to make the day a lot better.

  “Get them,” she said.

  “I can’t! That’s more than I make in a month!”

  “That’s all right. Marcus is buying.”

  Cyndia stared at her wide-eyed. “Oh, Diane, I couldn’t.”

  “Of course you can. He wanted me to enjoy myself and buy things while I’m here. Well, this is how I enjoy myself.”

  It wasn’t remotely what he’d had in mind. Marcus had intended her to shop for herself so she could be the perfect little trophy girl, but that was his problem.

  “Knock yourself out, Sis. Christmas is early this year.”

  Cyndia struggled with it for a minute, but the allure of the boots proved stronger than her scruples. She clutched them to her chest and flung her arms around Diane’s neck.

  “You are the best sister ever!”

  Lucas flashed Diane a grin and wink from behind Cyndia’s back, and her heart fluttered in response. It was the best possible reassurance that it was all an act and that Cyndia wasn’t getting to him.

  “You know, you should really have a new outfit to go with those boots. You can’t wear them with just anything.”

  They went off together to continue shopping, and Diane gloated inwardly knowing that every dime she spent on Cyndia would be a dig at Marcus. It wasn’t as satisfying as snuggling up next to Lucas, but it still gave her a warm glow of satisfaction. By the time they had gone through Bellagio and Caesar’s, both the two of them and Lucas were loaded down with bags. Finally Lucas called a halt.

  “Why don’t we drop all of this off at Illusions and get a drink? All of this shopping is thirsty work.”

  Cyndia batted her eyes at him. “You’re a doll for being so patient. Let’s get you a drink or two and a chance to get off your feet for a while.”

  At Lucas’s suggestion they left the bags in care of the front desk at Illusions and proceeded to the main bar in the casino. Once they all had a drink in hand, Cyndia lifted hers.

  “To making out like a bandit in Vegas!”

  Diane glanced at Lucas. “I’ll drink to that.”

  With a twinkle in his eye, Lucas raised his glass as well. “So, have you two gotten the shopping out of your system?”

  “For now,” Cyndia replied. “We won’t make you carry any more stuff for us.”

  “It’s all right. I got used to it before.”

  Diane noticed a tightening around his lips at this oblique reference to Sandra, but Cyndia, who knew so little of his past, missed it.

  “You’re so sweet for putting up with our little spree,” she told him, touching his hand. “And you didn’t even grumble once!”

  “Not where you could hear me, anyway.”

  She laughed and tossed her head. “Come on, Diane. I want to try the slots.”

  “Can you do that? I didn’t think you could gamble in any of the St. Cyr casinos.”

  “I’m not supposed to play at any of the tables, but the slots are all right.”

  They each fed a couple of bills into adjacent machines.

  “It’s just for fun, anyway,” Cyndia remarked. “You can’t go to Vegas without playing the slots.”

  Diane glanced back to where Lucas was talking to the bartender. If nothing else it got Cyndia away from him for a while. It wasn’t long before their play turned into a contest where they matched each other spin for spin, laughing and taunting each other over every small victory until they both went bust. Cyndia only outlasted Diane by two rounds, and bet the last of her money on a single spin—which she lost.

  “Easy come, easy go,” she said. “The story of my life.”

  “You have fun, though.”

  “Yeah, but sometimes I wonder if that’s enough. I look at you and sometimes I think it would be nice to have a life like that. Settle down and put down some roots, get a real job instead of living paycheck to paycheck. And then you go and chuck everything to run off with Marcus! It’s like we pulled a switch like The Parent Trap or something.”

  “Sometimes you just have to make a change.”

  “Well, I can see why you’d do it for Marcus. He’s a hottie.” She cast a sly smile back towards the bar. “Although personally Lucas is more my type. I doubt that I’ll have your luck, but a girl can dream!”

  “I thought you already had a boyfriend?”

  “Yeah, but not like that,” she sighed.

  “Not many are.”

  Cyndia nudged her shoulder. “Hey, now. Don’t get greedy on me. You’ve already bagged your limit of St. Cyrs.”

  “Would that stop you?”

  “Well, no.”

  Lucas’s voice came from behind them. “Getting hungry, yet? There’s a restaurant here that does incredible steaks.”

  “I won’t say no to that,” Cyndia replied.

  “I could eat,” Diane echoed. “The French toast burned off an hour ago.”

  “Well, it just so happens that I know somebody, and can get us a table with no waiting.”

  “I love a man who can take charge,” Cyndia said.

  The steaks really were as good as Lucas claimed, but Diane scarcely tasted hers. Watching her sister flirt with the man who she’d spent her days and nights coming to care for more than any other man in her life stole away her appetite.

  Damn Marcus for sending her. Somehow he’d known exactly what was going to happen and done it to drive a wedge between Lucas and herself, isolating her once more and stealing the precious hours she had alone with him before Marcus returned. There was absolutely nothing she could do about it except keep quiet and wait for Cyndia to leave—and hope that Lucas didn’t find her as irresistible as every other guy on the planet seemed to.

  She toyed with her food while they laughed and chatted until Lucas paid the check. On their way out of the restaurant, the bass thump of music from the Fever nightclub across the way stopped Cyndia in her tracks. She gripped Lucas’s arm and looked up at him with pleading eyes.

  “Can we go in? Please? Just for a little whi
le.”

  Lucas glanced at Diane and shrugged. “Why not?”

  Once inside, Cyndia wasted no time pulling Lucas out onto the dance floor, while Diane, left alone, found an unoccupied table and watched them dance while her stomach twisted.

  Cyndia’s dance was a wordless seduction, first slow and sinuous when she moved in close, then light and flirty as she slipped away again. She ran her hands across his chest, her hips swaying to the heavy beat while she laughed up at him. Maybe Lucas thought she was merely teasing, but Diane knew better. Her sister would happily follow through later if he would hold still for it.

  Although Lucas’s movements were more restrained, they mirrored Cyndia’s. First pursued, then pursuing in turn. To save the enamel on her teeth, Diane tried to pretend that she was the one dancing with Lucas, that it was her body pressed against his as they moved together. She gave a little sigh as she watched him with a growing ache between her legs. No one had a right to be that sexy.

  While Lucas danced with her sister, Diane sipped on a vodka tonic and turned away the advances of a couple of guys who were already half-drunk. She hated clubs, hated the stupid pick-up lines, and never felt comfortable dancing with strange men. She would have enjoyed dancing with Lucas, but doubted that Cyndia was going to give her a chance. Her sister had her arms wrapped around Lucas’s neck and was plastered up against him, her body rocking to the music. When Lucas put his hands on Cyndia’s hips to move with her, Diane almost choked on her drink, and gnawed on her lip with worry and frustration.

  How could Lucas resist her? And why would he even want to? With Cyndia he would have a willing partner unencumbered by Diane’s baggage with Marcus or any of the other complications—at least so far as he knew. In the end, Cyndia always managed to create complications, even if she started off without any. It was who she was.

  To Diane’s relief they didn’t stay long, and they returned to the lake house with a trunk full of new clothes and accessories. Lucas helped them carry it all upstairs, then beat a retreat when Cyndia decided to try on everything they’d bought. They moved everything into the bathroom where the light was better and there was a full length mirror so she could see the full effect. While Cyndia was admiring the fit of a cocktail dress, Diane’s phone rang.

  “It’s Mom,” she said.

  “Tell her I said hi.”

  Diane answered and took the call in her bedroom just in case she needed to get creative without being overheard.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  “I heard you have a visitor.”

  “Yes, Cyndia showed up this morning. She said to tell you hi.”

  “Are you two having a good time?”

  “We went out shopping most of the day, and now we’re trying on clothes.”

  It didn’t directly answer the question, but her mother took it as an affirmative.

  “That’s good. You two don’t get to spend much time together.”

  “Well, we don’t exactly live next door, and with work it’s hard to manage.”

  It was pointless trying to explain that they had so little in common that most of the time it was like they spoke two different languages. To their mother, they were both still twelve and going to the same classes in middle school.

  “How’s Dad?” she asked.

  “Doing fine. The medicine takes its toll on him, but his doctors insist that he’s improving.”

  “That’s really good, Mom.”

  “How are you doing? Still getting along with your young man?”

  Diane’s stomach churned at the mention of Marcus. “I’m fine. He’s back in Shreveport on business for a while, so he left me here to enjoy myself.”

  As she spoke she dug through her suitcase for her jewelry. There was a necklace she had gotten as a college graduation present that would look good with a dress she had bought.

  “Doesn’t it worry you being all alone in a city like Las Vegas by yourself?”

  The necklace wasn’t there. What had happened to it?

  “I’m not alone,” she replied without thinking. “Lucas, Marcus’s brother, is here with us.”

  “That’s nice. I just hope Cyndia doesn’t do anything foolish. I’d hate for her to ruin things with the boy she’s dating now. He’s been so good to us.”

  Although she pulled everything out of her suitcase, Diane still couldn’t find the necklace. It should have been there. She hadn’t taken it out since she’d gotten to Vegas, and she knew it had been there when she left Shreveport.

  “I hope so too, Mom.”

  “Well, I just wanted to see how you two were getting along. Have a good time, dear.”

  “We will, Mom. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  She set her phone down and went through the suitcase a third time. It didn’t make sense. She had seen the necklace the other night when she had picked out jewelry to go with the outfit she’d worn her last night out with Marcus. Or at least she thought she had. It would turn up eventually. With a shrug she put everything back into the suitcase then went back to see what Cyndia was trying on now. No matter what it was, it would probably look better than anything she had.

  Cyndia wasn’t in the bathroom, though, and Diane had a feeling she knew exactly where her sister was. Downstairs Lucas was sitting in the kitchen with a beer while Cyndia showed off her dress, a slinky, scarlet club outfit that left very little to the imagination. Lucas’s honey eyes glittered as he watched—was it with interest, or just a trick of the light?

  “There you are!” Cyndia exclaimed. “How are Mom and Dad?”

  “They’re doing fine.”

  “Isn’t this dress divine?”

  “I think it’s origin is more infernal,” she replied dryly.

  Lucas snickered. “Isn’t that the source of all temptation?”

  Diane glared at him over Cyndia’s shoulder, but her sister responded with a sultry laugh of her own.

  “Can you be tempted, Lucas?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like a saint?”

  “No!”

  “How about if I tempt you two ladies with a bottle of wine and a boat ride under the stars?”

  “Now that really does sound heavenly,” Cyndia said.

  “I could use the wine,” Diane muttered.

  Lucas winked at her, eyes alight with amusement. “I’ll pick out a bottle. Cyndia, you might want to change into something less... New.”

  “All right. I’ll find something more appropriate. Come on, Sis.” As they headed back upstairs she bent closer to Diane. “I think I might just keep him,” she whispered.

  “You can try.”

  “I don’t think I’ll have any trouble. And he makes me want to do very naughty things. Hopefully he’ll let me try some of them out later—after you’ve gone to bed!”

  Diane clenched her jaw so hard it was a wonder her teeth didn’t shatter, but Cyndia went on, oblivious.

  “There’s nothing like a romantic boat ride under the stars to get things moving in the right direction. Now, what should I wear? Something seductive without it looking like I’m trying to be seductive.”

  They spent a couple of hours drifting lazily around the dark lake, where Cyndia continued flirting with Lucas. By the time they tied up at the dock behind the house, Diane’s anxiety had spiked back up to where it had been before Marcus left. Lucas had continued playing up to Cyndia’s flirtations, and while Diane wanted to believe that it was nothing but an act, what if it wasn’t? It had happened all too often before, and she couldn’t stand the thought of losing Lucas to her sister. To make matters worse, with Cyndia in the house she couldn’t even spend the night in Lucas’s room. The biggest comfort she had, the sole security of her nights, had been taken away—no doubt exactly as Marcus had intended. She went to bed feeling more alone and hopeless than any time since Marcus had left, and when she finally slept her dreams were of Cyndia luring Lucas away from her.

  * * *

  Lucas crawled out of bed with a grima
ce of frustration. Cyndia was requiring every bit as much of his patience and diplomatic acting skills as the negotiations in Macau. The flirtations in front of Diane left him feeling dirty, but unless they decided to abandon the charade he had little choice but to continue.

  He didn’t trust Cyndia. How could he? Marcus had sent her. Most likely it had been nothing but an opportunity to throw a monkey wrench into the blossoming feelings he’d known Lucas felt for Diane, a convenient way to keep them apart and preoccupied. But with Marcus he wasn’t prepared to simply accept that as the sole explanation, particularly with everything else that had been going on since his return from China.

  Someone had been going to great lengths to fuck with him, and Marcus was still the prime suspect. There were too many pieces to the puzzle to come to any conclusions, though, things that didn’t fit together and possibly even things he hadn’t noticed yet. He couldn’t eliminate any possibilities, except that he refused to believe he was going crazy or that Diane had anything to do with it. He would not doubt her.

  Cyndia, on the other hand, he didn’t know. He wasn’t sure about the depth of her entanglement with Marcus or what her motivations might be. All he had to go on was what he’d gleaned from Shoji’s investigation and the scraps he’d picked up about her during his conversations with Diane. While none of that was enough to make him actively distrust her, it didn’t exactly inspire great confidence, either, especially since Diane wasn’t willing to trust her with any of her secrets.

  Still blinking sleepily, he headed to the kitchen for coffee. Unsurprisingly he found a pot already made. No doubt Diane was out on the patio enjoying the morning. He smiled as he poured a cup for himself. With a little luck Cyndia was still asleep and he could get a few minutes alone with her twin. Going to bed without Diane had felt strange, like he was sleeping in a strange place. He’d be glad when Cyndia was gone and things could go back to normal.

  He turned to go around the breakfast bar, and that was when he missed the clock.

  The large antique with its round, wrought iron case had been one of Sandra’s favorite pieces. He’d bought it for her early in their relationship, and it had hung in the bedroom they’d shared until her death. Afterwards, when he’d cleared all of her things out of his room, he had moved it to a spot over the doorway in the kitchen which led to the foyer. Now it wasn’t there.