Two-Faced, page 22
Mia pulled a little-girl expression and pursed her lips. ‘Sorry. I got a bit carried away with all the excitement yesterday.’
Shaking his head fondly, Steve said, ‘I think I’m going to have to keep an eye on you in more ways than one. The rate you’re going, I’ll have nothing left to give to my dealers by the end of the week.’
Smiling coyly, because she knew he was only playing, Mia said, ‘It is the end of the week, silly.’
‘Still got tonight and Sunday to get through yet,’ he reminded her. ‘I could be homeless come Monday morning, thanks to you.’
‘I’m not that bad.’
‘Only messing, babe. You know you can have whatever you want – what’s mine is yours, and all that. Subject of, try this.’ Taking a small bag of coke out of his pocket, Steve passed it to her. ‘It’s just come in, and I think it’s a bit special.’
Mia leant over and kissed him before turning her attention to the bag. Moistening her little finger, she dipped the tip into the powder and coated it, then licked it off greedily.
‘Wow!’ she murmured, closing her eyes as a rush of pleasure coursed through her body.
‘Thought you’d like it,’ Steve said, watching her face closely. ‘I tried it in a spliff, and it’s even better. Try it and let me know what you think.’ He took a ready-rolled one out of his pocket, lit it and passed it to her.
Sucking on it, Mia said, ‘Oh, yeah, that is good.’ Several deep pulls later, her eyes began to roll.
Watching as she melted into her seat, Steve plucked the spliff from her fingers and dropped it out of the window. No longer smiling, he exchanged a glance with Vern in the rear-view, and Vern immediately changed course and headed towards the club instead of the restaurant Mia had thought they were taking her to.
As soon as the car had gone, Kim had got straight on the phone to tell Sammy the good news. Sounding as relieved and delighted as she’d thought he would, he said, ‘Great, I’ll come straight back. The sooner we get that contract signed and faxed back, the happier I’ll be.’
‘Sorry, it’ll have to wait till tomorrow,’ Kim told him. ‘He’s just picked her up and whisked her off out for dinner again.’ Exhaling noisily through her teeth, she said, ‘I just hope she can drag herself away from him for long enough to get on with her work now it’s picking up, ’cos I’ll bloody swing for him if he gets in the way.’
‘I’m sure she won’t let that happen,’ Sammy assured her. ‘Anyway, who knows . . . if he’s doing as well for himself as you say he is, he may be just the kind of stabilising influence she needs right now.’
‘I suppose so,’ Kim conceded grudgingly. ‘But I still don’t like the look of him.’
Chuckling softly, Sammy said, ‘She’s your child; no one will ever be good enough for her in your eyes. But you’re obviously forgetting what a stubborn little madam she is. Believe me, no man is going to steer that girl off course unless she wants to be steered.’
Thanking him for letting her sound off at him, Kim said goodnight. Telling herself that he was right, that Steve Dawson probably was a perfectly decent sort who would prove to be a good influence on Mia, she pushed the negative thoughts to the back of her mind and settled on the couch to watch TV. But before the opening music of her chosen programme had finished, she jumped half out of her skin when a terrific crashing sound coming from the back yard shook the house.
She jumped up as Michelle ran downstairs to see what was going on and rushed into the kitchen where she grabbed the baseball bat that she kept in the broom cupboard. Telling Michelle to get ready to call the police, she flicked on the outside light, all set to whack any intruders who might be out there.
It was Eric, and he was already getting whacked by Pam, who had a tight grip on his T-shirt with one hand while she smacked him around the head the other, screaming, ‘You lying little shit! You said you was going to your mother’s!’
‘I was!’ Eric protested, shielding his head with his skinny arms. ‘I am! I just needed to borrow some money for the bus!’
‘Off her?’ Pam screeched, pointing at Kim, who had put the bat down and was leaning against the door frame, watching. ‘And I suppose she just guessed that you’d be needing it at this precise fucking moment, did she?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Eric yelled, struggling to get free of her. ‘You’re off your fuckin’ head, woman!’
‘Yeah, I fuckin’ must be for believing a dirty little smack-head like you!’
‘Oh, don’t tell me he’s on the brown now?’ Kim gave a disapproving tut.
‘You can shut your mouth,’ Pam bellowed at her. ‘And don’t make out like you didn’t know, ’cos you must have if he’s been coming round here shagging you behind my back!’
‘Who said anything about shagging?’ Kim lied. ‘I only said he’d been coming round begging me to take him back. And like I told you, just like I’ve told him every time, I’m not interested.’
‘Don’t listen to her,’ Eric piped up, sensing that it would be safer to keep on Pam’s good side right now, because she was the one who posed the most immediate threat.
‘Believe what you want, but just remember who told you the time and the place,’ Kim said. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got better things to do than waste my energy arguing over a worthless little scab like him. So get him out of my yard – and try and keep him out this time!’
Kim went back into the house and rubbed her hands together as if she was dusting the last remnants of Eric off them. Well, she’d kept her side of the bargain. Now as long as Mia played her part and stayed with Sammy and got on with making a success of herself, life was sure to get a whole lot better around here.
Watching her mother, Michelle shook her head and went back up to her room. Everyone was crazy round here, and she sometimes thought she was the only sane person left on the planet. Or maybe she was just boring, like Mia had always said. But, if so, she was glad, because she couldn’t be doing with this constant drama.
Waking up gradually, Mia struggled to open her eyes. When she did, it took a while before she could focus. Squinting, she gazed confusedly around. She was lying on a bed, so this was obviously a bedroom. But there didn’t seem to be a wardrobe or dressing table, or anything to say whose bedroom it was.
Twisting her head when she heard the sound of heavy breathing, she tried to smile when she saw Steve sitting on a chair beside the bed. But her face felt numb, and she wasn’t sure if her lips actually moved.
‘I must have fallen asleep,’ she croaked, her voice sounding distant and odd to her ears. ‘Where . . . where are we?’
‘That doesn’t matter,’ Steve told her quietly, his voice sounding even odder because it had an edge to it that she’d never heard before. ‘All you need to know is it’s not the hotel room you were in last night.’
Blinking rapidly to try and clear her head as goose bumps of fear began to spring up all over her body, Mia licked her lips and tried to think how he could have known about that. Remembering that she’d told her mum that she’d booked herself into a hotel to treat herself in anticipation of the boost to her career, she exhaled nervously, presuming that she’d probably told him the same thing.
‘Oh, yeah . . .’ She tried to smile again. ‘I decided to treat myself after the party. Thought I might as well get some proper sleep seeing as I wasn’t going to see you.’
The slap was sudden, unexpected, and sharp as hell. Clutching her cheek as the sting flared across her face like fire, she squawked, ‘What the hell was that for?’ She scrambled up in the bed, feeling nauseous as the room swayed around her.
‘You ever lie to me like that again and I won’t just slap you, I’ll kill you,’ Steve warned, his voice low and dark. ‘You seem to forget I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. So, do you want to tell me again about this room you booked yourself?’
Mia’s nostrils flared with indignation. He’d obviously found out about her spending the night with Jay, but that didn’t give him the right to hit her. Throwing off the blanket that was covering her, she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress.
‘Did I say you could go?’ Steve shoved her back down.
‘How dare you!’ Eyes blazing, Mia glared up at him. ‘We’re only dating; you don’t own me! And you can’t treat me like this. I’m not one of your hookers!’
‘I didn’t think so,’ Steve agreed, his own eyes glowing with barely suppressed anger. ‘But now I’m not so sure. And was he worth it? Hmm? Was his cock as good as mine? Did he make you come like I do?’
Genuinely scared now, because she could see how close he was to losing it, Mia edged away from him.
‘TELL ME!’ he roared, baring his clenched teeth.
Resorting to the age-old trick of bursting into tears, Mia buried her face in her hands. ‘I’m sorry . . . I didn’t mean to do it, but I had a horrible argument with my designer, and he – he defended me.’
‘Like the good little defender he is, eh?’ Steve growled. ‘How very appropriate.’
‘It meant nothing,’ Mia cried. ‘I swear to God, I was so high and pissed I didn’t know what I was doing. One minute I was fighting, the next I was in a cab . . . I didn’t even know where I was when I woke up this morning.’
Peering at her intensely, Steve breathed hard as he struggled to bring his emotions under control. Seeming to calm down at last, he said, ‘You’re lucky he’s leaving the country soon or, believe me, he’d be dead by now. But if you ever make the mistake of thinking you can disrespect me like that again, I promise you’ll regret it for the rest of your life – do you understand me?’
Mia nodded mutely and stared up at him wide-eyed.
‘Here.’ Tossing a small wrap onto the bed, Steve stood up. ‘Sort yourself out, then get a wash. We’ve got a table booked in twenty minutes.’
Mia gasped for breath when he flicked a light on and left the room. Her hand shook violently as she reached for the wrap. She couldn’t believe he’d just treated her like that. They’d only been dating for two weeks, and that was nothing. But he was acting like they’d been married for twenty years and she’d just broken his heart.
Well, she would be breaking it soon, let there be no mistake about that. She’d play along with him for now, because she didn’t want to risk him going off on her again. But just wait till he dropped her back at home tomorrow, because that would be the last time he would ever see her!
17
Mia felt more in control after snorting a fat line of the coke Steve had tossed onto the bed for her. And Steve was back to his usual charming self when she came out of the strange bedroom and walked down the stairs to find herself in the club. Kissing her, and telling her that she looked beautiful, he escorted her out to the car as if nothing had happened.
Still bristling about the slap, she played it cool on the ride across town, letting him know that she wasn’t pleased with him. But she soon perked up when she saw that he’d brought her back to the scene of their first date. And, five minutes later, the argument a distant memory as she sipped on the champagne which had been waiting on ice for them at their table – a table for two, this time, instead of the usual three to accommodate the ever-present Vern – she bit her lip when Steve told her to close her eyes and hold out her hand.
‘Can I look?’ she asked when she felt the velvet of the box brush against her palm seconds later.
‘I suppose you’d better,’ he said, laughing softly at the excitement on her face.
Opening her eyes, she said, ‘Oh,’ when she saw that it was a long box, and not the small square one she’d expected. Then, smiling slyly, thinking that he’d probably done it on purpose to trick her, she eased the lid up, sure that the ring would be in there.
‘Like it?’ Steve asked when she gazed down at the diamonds twinkling like ice in the candle-glow.
Recovering quickly, Mia nodded. ‘It’s gorgeous. Thank you.’
Saying, ‘My pleasure,’ Steve reached for the bracelet and looped it around her wrist. ‘The least you deserve for putting up with me for so long.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ she said softly, twisting her arm to admire the bracelet. ‘It’s only been two weeks.’
His eyes suddenly serious, Steve reached for her hand. ‘I know, and that’s why I’m apologising. I was completely out of order earlier, and you had every right to be angry. But I can’t help it if I’ve fallen for you.’ Raising her hand to his lips now, he kissed it before continuing. ‘I thought you felt the same, but I guess I forgot how young you are. I’ve been there; I know how hard it is to take anything seriously. You made a mistake and let yourself get smooth-talked into bed, but I need to know if you meant it when you said you regretted it?’
Feeling guilty now, because he obviously cared about her and she’d hurt him, Mia nodded. She’d been excusing her behaviour by classing their relationship as dating, but she knew that wasn’t entirely true, or fair. Since they’d met, they’d spent every night apart from last night together, and if the shoe were on the other foot and he’d cheated on her, she would be going just as berserk as he had.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, smiling apologetically. ‘You’re right, I am young, and I’ll probably make loads more mistakes before I’m as sorted as you are. But I honestly didn’t mean to hurt you, and I won’t do it again.’
Saying, ‘That’s good enough for me,’ Steve winked at her and reached for the menu. ‘So what do you fancy? How about lobster, for a change?’
Wrinkling her nose, Mia said, ‘Never tried it, and I’m not sure I like the sound of it.’
Assuring her that she’d love it, Steve called the waiter over. He straightened the bracelet on her wrist when he’d made their order and said, ‘Why don’t you bore me with all the details of your show yesterday? But before you start,’ he added, giving her a mock-disapproving look, ‘let it be known that I was not very happy to walk into my club this morning to find my staff perving over my lady’s breasts – gorgeous as they are.’
Laughing, because she knew he was just teasing, Mia told him all about Arni Fabrizi, and how he’d pissed her off just one time too many, bringing out the reckless devil in her.
‘I didn’t even think about what would happen afterwards,’ she admitted. ‘But it seems to have worked out all right, because I’ve definitely dominated all the headlines today, and my agent’s had loads of people calling about booking me. And tomorrow I’ll be signing a contract for a catwalk show in Prague – which is incredible, because that’s bound to lead to New York, or Paris, or something fantastic like that.’
‘You’ve done well,’ Steve said softly.
‘I know!’ she gushed. ‘And that probably sounds like I’m bragging, but I don’t mean to. I’m just so excited about it all.’
‘So you should be,’ Steve said, sitting back when their starters arrived. ‘Eat up, and when we’ve finished we’ll go and celebrate properly.’
Celebrating properly, Mia soon learned, meant splashing obscene amounts of cash on the roulette table at Steve’s favourite casino in Chinatown, followed by a trip to a nightclub where she danced and drank copious amounts of champagne before floating back to his apartment to drink more champagne and snort heaps of coke before falling into bed and having wild sex until the sun began to rise.
And the celebrations didn’t end that night, or the next. In fact, they just carried on happening, as Steve, obviously still trying to make up for having lost his temper with her, went on a complete charm offensive. Nothing was too much trouble, or too expensive. Whatever she wanted, she could have – and the more she got, the more she wanted.
Slipping easily into the role of Steve Dawson’s little woman, Mia smiled like the trophy-dolly she had become as he paraded her around over the next few months. Vern was always there, but he was so unobtrusive that Mia barely noticed him. And the faces of the other men who drifted in and out of their company all seemed to merge into one, so she was never sure if he was talking to one of Steve’s men or to one of his numerous mysterious business contacts. But she didn’t care. As long as she was being treated like a princess and lavished with gifts, coke and champagne, nothing else mattered.
Life was as near perfect as it could possibly be. She had the provider of her dreams, if not exactly the man. And, under Sammy’s careful control, her modelling was really starting to take off like she’d always known that it would. She’d secured all the offers that had been tabled after the near-disaster of the G-Mex publicity, and she was just a few months away from the Prague catwalk show, which was bound to catapult her to the next level.
But the little bubble of contentment she was floating around in was just about to burst.
Since they’d got together and he’d taken it upon himself to be her protector, Steve had drummed two important tips for survival into Mia’s head: one, she couldn’t trust anybody except him; and, two, under no circumstances should she do coke in a public place.
Given that she spent most of her time with him, the first was easy to follow, because she didn’t have the time or the inclination to confide in anybody else, anyway. And she did so much coke before they went out at night, and more after they got back, that she hardly ever needed a top-up. But on the rare occasions when she did feel like a quick boost, she made sure the toilets were empty before she did it.
The trouble started when Steve decided to take her to Shalimar one Saturday night. Mia hadn’t been there since the VIP party, and she really didn’t want to go now in case it sparked an argument. Steve hadn’t mentioned Jay King since their fight, but she knew it still played on his mind, because she’d catch him sometimes, watching her with a dark, brooding look on his face. And knowing that distrust and insecurity still festered below the charming façade, she didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything to spark him off.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell him why she didn’t want to go to Shalimar this night without raising his suspicions and, as he’d already arranged to meet someone there, she had no choice but to go with him. And just as she’d feared would happen, fate stepped in and created a situation that was guaranteed to end in tears.
