I wasn’t sure, so I turned to the others.
‘Lunch is in the bar where Owen works,’ Charlie added. ‘Everyone will be there.’
‘Including Orlando and Gwen?’ Grace checked.
‘There’s been a problem with Gwen’s position as make-up artist so I can’t swear to that.’ He turned to the barman. ‘Owen, did you see a tall, dark-haired guy, aged about eighteen, and my kid sister – a small girl with curly fair hair?’
Owen nodded. ‘They ordered chicken Caesar salad.’
‘Cool – we’ll have lunch with them,’ Holly decided.
But she wasn’t the first out of the car – it was Macy, dressed for the weather in cute fur-lined suede boots, skinny jeans and a big cream sweater with a black zigzag pattern. And it wasn’t Charlie she made a bee line for – it was Owen with the long blond hair, blue eyes and serious muscles.
‘Babe, if you’re the one serving the drinks, I’m there ahead of you,’ she said with fluttering eyelashes and comedy femme fatale voice that made Owen grin. She sashayed across the parking lot, making the most of her compact, curvy body to keep her new friend’s attention glued to her slim waist and toned butt. Watch out, Charlie – this is payback time!
We followed, and I found myself strung out with nervous anxiety that I was about to see Orlando and Gwen together again.
‘Macy doesn’t waste any time,’ Charlie commented as he held open the door.
I managed to smile and explain to Grace the situation between him and Macy. ‘Until last night she hung on every word Charlie said. She stuck to him like glue. It was true love.’
‘Wow, it’s hard to keep up,’ Grace observed, walking ahead while I hung back to look at Charlie to see if there was even a tinge of regret about Macy.
He held my gaze. ‘I spoke to Gwen earlier,’ he said, quietly changing the subject. ‘I’m having second thoughts; maybe it’s better if you two don’t take lunch together.’
This irritated me. Don’t push me around, I thought. ‘I wasn’t thinking about eating,’ I told Charlie abruptly. Then straight away I regretted it. ‘Thanks for getting badges for Holly and Grace. They drove over from Bitterroot to make sure I was OK.’
‘They heard about the situation with Orlando? Listen, this isn’t easy for Gwen either.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
But Charlie was determined. He stopped me in the entrance to Owen’s bar. ‘I know my sister. She’s not the type who sets out deliberately to wreck relationships.’
‘She did a pretty good job here,’ I pointed out, anxiously scanning the busy room.
Charlie shook his head. ‘Gwen told me Orlando made the first move.’
‘Really, I can’t listen to this.’ I felt sick. And anyway, how did you even start to tell someone that their sister came from the dark side, that she’d been possessed by a devil and wasn’t human any more? I broke away and tried to catch up with Grace and Holly, who had located Orlando and Gwen drinking coffee in a quiet corner of the bar.
Orlando saw them and instead of ignoring them as I expected, he smiled then stood up to beckon them across. It seemed his old energy was back. ‘How do you do it?’ He pointed to the pass Holly wore around her neck. ‘Those things are like gold dust.’
‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Holly sat down at their table, leaving room for me and Grace.
‘Good,’ he told her, smiling at Grace and giving me an awkward, apologetic shrug. Back to normal, except that nothing was or ever could be normal until I’d got him away from his dark angel. ‘By the way, this is Gwen. She’s been working for Starlite in make-up. Gwen, meet Holly and Grace, friends of mine from Bitterroot.’
I stared at him, then at Gwen. What was going on here? Where was the empty zombie look, the seismic disconnect of first thing this morning? I mean, we could have been a normal bunch of buddies catching up over a coffee.
Grace and Holly were obviously wondering the same thing. Where was the dark angel influence I’d warned them about?
While Grace took her time to study Gwen’s calm, delicate features, Holly forged ahead. ‘So, Orlando, we were worried about you.’
He spread his palms, gave another casual, self-effacing shrug.
‘You’re OK?’
Before Orlando could answer, Gwen got up from the table. ‘I’ll leave you guys to talk,’ she said quietly before melting diplomatically into the background.
‘Is this about me and Gwen?’ He asked Holly the direct question. There was still no sign of his nightmare on the mountain when he’d followed his new lover’s siren voice. No – he was sitting with legs wide apart, leaning back in his chair, inviting Holly and Grace to ask him any question they wanted.
‘It’s more about you and Tania,’ Holly said. ‘Orlando, what the hell happened in New York?’
He shook his head and rocked his chair forward, his hair falling across his forehead. ‘Nothing happened. Tania and I just reached the end of the road.’
‘As simple as that?’ Holly’s mother-tiger instinct kicked in and she sprang to defend me against the lame phrases he was beginning to spout. End of the road. Going separate ways. Moving on. ‘Do you know what this is doing to Tania? Have you any idea how much you’ve hurt her?’
For the first time Orlando grew defensive. ‘I told her I couldn’t be there for her. I warned her she’d have to let go of the dark angel stuff.’
‘Like she has a choice!’ Holly snorted. ‘Tania doesn’t choose to hear what she hears, see what she sees. Think about it, for Christ’s sake.’
‘I’m thinking, and what I know is, she’d rather use her psychic powers than work at her relationship with me.’
Now this was weird. You always imagine you’d love to have a friend like Holly to fight your corner – ballsy and totally on your side – but when it actually happens you get a surreal feeling that you’re not there, you don’t exist.
Grace could sense that this was happening to me. ‘Tania is sitting here,’ she reminded them coolly. ‘And anyway, Holly, we’re not interested in poking around in what happened in New York. Orlando, we just want to check you and Tania are both OK.’
‘Do I look OK?’
Grace studied his untroubled expression. ‘Yeah, but I guess that’s the problem,’ she said slowly. ‘Somehow you look too OK, considering you just split from your long-term girlfriend.’
Orlando shrugged and stood up. ‘Then I guess I can’t win.’ He set off to find Gwen but stopped to share one last thought. ‘Forget about me and focus on Tania,’ he advised Grace and Holly. ‘She just tried and failed to get Gwen thrown off this movie. If you ask me, she’s the one who needs your help.’
‘His eyes are clear and focused.’ Holly began the checklist of reasons not to believe that Orlando was in danger. ‘All his reactions – coordination, balance, they worked perfectly.’
‘No memory gaps,’ Grace added. ‘No mention of weird spiritual stuff.’
‘So I imagined it,’ I muttered. We’d stayed at the table after Orlando had left. Over by the bar Macy was still busy working her magic on Owen while a lot of the production crew were finishing their lunch and leaving for the afternoon’s filming.
‘We’re not saying we don’t believe you,’ Grace assured me. ‘But we do have to check out all the possible reasons for the way Orlando acted last night.’
‘And again this morning.’ I told them how he’d collapsed in front of me, how Gwen had taken total control. ‘And don’t tell me he was hungover,’ I pleaded.
There was an awkward silence while Holly and Grace exchanged worried looks. ‘Really, he wasn’t!’
‘So now he’s back to normal,’ Holly pointed out. ‘That didn’t happen to either me or Grace. And remember Oliver – the kid on Black Rock? Once the dark angels got their claws into him, he was totally zombified.’
I nodded. I was the one who’d found Oliver’s body amongst the burned roots of a redwood tree. The fire service had carried the corpse down from Black Rock an
d informed his mother. Zoran Brancusi had denied any knowledge of how he’d died. But I’d been there and I knew.
‘I guess they got smarter,’ Grace said with a hint of uncertainty. ‘Gwen moves in on Orlando and starts her mind-control games, makes him walk away from the only girl he’s ever loved but at the same time she doesn’t turn him into a total weirdo, so it’s not obvious to outsiders what’s happening. See what I mean – they fine-tuned their technique.’
‘So what’s their next move?’ Holly wondered.
‘You know what it is!’ I cried, breaking through Grace’s calm logic. ‘Gwen got through the seduction part with Orlando. She worked her spell. Now he’s turned his back not just on me but on all of his old life – his mom and dad, his high school friends, his college buddies.’
‘You don’t think he’ll come home?’ Holly checked.
‘Not in a million years.’
Grace agreed. ‘If you’re right, the next move is some kind of initiation ceremony for Orlando – a celebration.’
‘Which is when he actually steps across to the dark side,’ I confirmed. ‘They win. We lose.’ It sounded so scary put into words that I began to shake.
‘But it hasn’t happened yet.’ Holly was the one to think ahead. ‘We still have time.’
‘How? What do we do?’ The trembling got worse. I hyperventilated and felt my hands and arms begin to tingle.
‘We try to find out a few things. For starters, who exactly is Gwen? What can we find out about her?’
‘Holly’s right,’ Grace agreed. ‘We learn all we can. That’s how it works. Once we know more facts about the dark angels we can start to take back some of their power.’ She held my trembling, tingling hand until the wave of fear had passed. ‘What about your good angel? Has she shown up yet?’
‘He, not she.’
‘Who is he? What does he say?’
‘He tells me to hold his hand and be brave.’ I shook my head and sighed. I missed the strength of Maia and Zenaida, who had been there for me before, heading up the army of good angels who did cosmic battle against the forces of darkness. ‘He’s really young. I’m scared he’s not strong enough.’
‘But you have to trust him,’ Grace told me.
It touched me and made me smile – her total faith in Adam, my good angel. ‘Thanks,’ I told her.
‘And remember, Gwen won’t be acting alone,’ Holly reminded us. ‘There are others. We have to work out who they are.’
‘If I knew I would tell you,’ I sighed. ‘There was my mugger in New York – he was one for sure. But now look around you here on Carlsbad. We know there’s Gwen but she can’t be the leader.’
‘Why not?’ Grace asked.
Thanks to her and Holly, I started to take deep breaths and slowly got back to trusting my instinct. ‘I don’t know. She just isn’t.’
‘We’re looking for a cult figure like Zoran,’ Holly decided. The room was empty now except for Macy still at the bar with Owen. ‘How about Jack Kane?’
‘That just doesn’t seem right either,’ I argued. And I shattered some illusions by telling them about the dirty underbelly of megastardom – the booze, the girls, the self-destruction.
‘His wife?’ Grace suggested. ‘Could Natalia be the one?’
‘Again – no.’
‘Why not?’
‘You’d have to meet her to know why not; she’s an amazing person. She stepped in and helped me and Orlando when we were in New York. As soon as she heard we were studying film and costume, she got us on to the set as interns. Plus, she’s a great mother to her three kids.’
‘You admire her,’ Grace said softly, curiously.
‘I do. Doesn’t everybody?’
‘Everybody?’ she pressed.
‘Apart from the guy who married her. But then Jack doesn’t admire anyone except himself.’
‘So Natalia has charisma.’ Holly saw where Grace was leading. ‘Which means we need to check her out. Plus the director of this movie …’
‘Larry King,’ I reminded her.
‘Plus Jack’s co-stars and the technical crew – anyone from Starlite who’s connected to Siege 2.’
‘Add Charlie to the list,’ Grace insisted. She’d spotted him coming into the bar and talking to Owen and Macy. ‘He’s Gwen’s brother, remember. If she’s on the dark side, Charlie’s a definite possibility.’
My first reaction was, ‘No way! Charlie is the one who helped me in Central Park. He’s everyone’s hero.’ Then the false move he’d made last night hit me again – the slug of alcohol from his flask, the bed with the satin throw, moonlight streaming in.
‘Yeah, definitely Charlie.’ Holly picked up my hesitation and brought him into the frame.
Across the room, Macy leaned across the bar to give Owen a peck on the cheek plus an eyeful of cleavage. Charlie didn’t react. He simply passed on a short message to Owen then walked away, past the table where Holly, Grace and I sat.
‘If you see Jack any time soon,’ he said to me, ‘tell him Larry’s made some late changes to his script. He might need to read through before he goes on set.’
‘Cool.’ I was still knocked off balance by our new suspicions about him. Light to dark, good to evil – it was a major shift and it hadn’t fully sunk in. But I hid my confusion by picking up the cup of coffee that Gwen had left on the table.
‘Why do I feel my ears burning?’ Charlie asked with his drop-dead gorgeous grin. He couldn’t do anything about his smile – it was just part of him.
‘What makes you think we were talking about you?’ Holly challenged without missing a beat. Boy, she was good. ‘Either you’re so vain – as in you totally know you’re the hottest topic of conversation for every girl you meet – or maybe it’s based on actual evidence.’
Charlie’s smile broadened, the dimple deepened. ‘Tania, tell them I have supersonic hearing. While I was standing at the bar I picked up every word you three girls said.’
For half a second even Holly was thrown. Then she laughed and asked him to warn us about any other superpowers he might be hiding from us.
‘Later,’ he promised, finally leaving the bar.
‘Oh my God!’ Holly cringed. ‘He didn’t hear … he couldn’t … could he?’
Through the window I saw Charlie leave the building and cross paths with Jack and Adam, who were coming off the nursery slopes. Jack carried his son’s skis, hat and gloves and was looking relaxed for once, but when Charlie spoke – presumably to pass on Larry’s message about the script – his mood quickly changed. Thrusting the skis on to Charlie, he left him to take care of Adam and stormed into the hotel alone.
He headed straight for the bar, bringing with him a blast of cold air mixed with the whiff of testosterone and stale breath. ‘Get me a whisky,’ he told Owen. ‘Make it a double.’
Macy put a hand on his arm. She said something that made him push her away so hard that she toppled against a stool then dropped to the floor.
I went to help her up.
‘Whisky,’ Jack snarled at Owen, who slowly reached for the bottle on a shelf behind him and poured the drink into a glass.
‘Wait,’ I protested. ‘Jack, what are you doing here?’
He didn’t turn his head but his eyes slid sideways to catch sight of me still trying to help Macy to her feet. ‘I’m minding my own frickin’ business,’ he said savagely. ‘Tell your buddy she should do the same.’
‘What did you say to him?’ I hissed at Macy, making sure I stood between her and Jack.
‘I passed on Charlie’s info about the rewrites.’ The knockback only seemed to make her more determined to get the message into Jack’s thick head. ‘Hold back on the whisky, Owen. Holly, Grace – go fetch Charlie. Tell him we have a situation.’
‘“Go fetch Charlie”!’ Jack mimicked. He leaned across the bar for the glass but Owen was there before him, swiping the whisky out of his reach. The liquid in the glass sloshed and spilled on to the polished granite surface. ?
??What exactly is it with Charlie? Is he my stunt double or my full-time jailer?’
‘Did you two just have a fight?’ I asked, wondering what had pressed Jack’s buttons.
Jack’s answer was a stream of abusive adjectives followed by ‘Charlie frickin’ Speke’. Then he launched an attack on Owen for grabbing the glass and spilling the whisky, on me and Macy for breathing, on the whole world for existing.
‘So Larry needs you on set,’ I said, trying not to blink and grimace as spittle sprayed from Jack’s mouth.
‘They’re filming a scene outside the entrance to the old silver mine,’ Macy told us. ‘It’s at the end of the dirt road, just down from the overlook. Holly could drive us up there.’
As she went off to ask Holly the favour, Jack ran out of venom and slumped forward on to the bar. He breathed heavily and there was sweat trickling down his face.
‘You OK?’ I asked, noticing that Owen had retreated through the swing doors into the kitchen behind the bar.
He leaned forward to rest his head on his arms, letting the air out like a deflating balloon. ‘My life is a mess,’ he groaned. ‘My kids hate me and my wife has decided to file for divorce.’
I gasped, unable to find any words beyond, ‘Jeez, I’m sorry.’ Not really equal to the occasion, I admit.
‘Yeah.’ Jack looked up with tears in his eyes. ‘She files for divorce and she doesn’t even tell me in person. She gets my frickin’ alter ego, her messenger boy, to deliver the news instead.’
‘Just now, when you came off the nursery slopes with Adam?’
‘Yeah, right there,’ he sighed. ‘Charlie announces Natalia and I are through. This is the day I lose my kids, my wife, everything.’
11
Now Jack Kane and I had plenty in common.
I’d lost my starry-night lover; he’d lost his beautiful wife and family.
People fall apart in different ways but the actual moment when the heart breaks must be the same for everyone. Pain is universal. Suffering is something we can all relate to.
Macy fixed the ride up the mountain with Holly and Grace and between us by some miracle we managed to get Jack on set in time for Lucy Young to hand him the rewritten screenplay to study before Larry called for action.