There was always, always a way. Now all she had to do was find it.
THE PLAN
“Could someone hold my hair on so I can pin it?” Maria asked.
“Okay. That sounded weird,” Kaitlynn said as she zipped up the skintight pants on her Catwoman costume.
“I’ve got it,” Ariana offered, crossing Lexa and Maria’s room to help Maria in front of the full-length mirror. Maria had chosen to dress up as Christine from Phantom of the Opera, and was adding tendrilled extensions to her hair to look more the part. She was wearing a big, frilly nightgown and a ton of heavy makeup.
“Wow, Ana. You look seriously freaky,” Maria said with a grin, eyeing Ariana’s reflection in the mirror.
“Thanks,” Ariana replied. “I’m assuming that’s a compliment.”
“Oh, it is,” Lexa said, sitting down on her bed to place her feet into her gold stiletto heels. “Where did you get that wig?”
Ariana glanced at Kaitlynn and smiled slightly as she touched the heavy gray and white wig that stood straight up from the top of her head. Her face was powdered white and she’d blackened the area around her eyes and bought a set of gross false teeth—though she wasn’t wearing them yet. Her bride-of-Frankenstein dress was white and had gray gauzy layers. The bells of the wide sleeves fell almost to the ground.
She looked scary as hell. Palmer was going to love it.
“Lily and I got our costumes in town yesterday,” Ariana said.
“What happened to dressing up together?” Lexa asked as she smoothed her blond Heidi Klum wig.
“I tried to get her to go superhero sexy with me, but she was all about the scare factor,” Kaitlynn lied. Both of them had known exactly what costumes they were going to buy before they ever walked into the shop.
“Well, it works for you,” Maria said, adding the last bobby pin to her hair. “That’s it. Thanks, Ana.” She turned around to face the room. “What do you guys think?”
“Totally Broadway worthy,” Kaitlynn said.
“Well, I’m almost done,” Lexa said. “I just need you guys to help me with the false lashes. I suck at those.”
She grabbed a plastic box with two black caterpillar-like sets of lashes set against a piece of purple foam and headed for the bright lights of the bathroom. Kaitlynn and Maria moved to follow, but Ariana hung back, her heart skipping a beat as a perfect opportunity presented itself.
“I’ll be right there,” she said. “Just going to tweak the eye makeup.”
Lexa shrugged and the three of them headed inside the bathroom. Checking over her shoulder, Ariana quickly grabbed Lexa’s gold clutch and slipped her cell phone out of her bag. Her fingers trembling slightly, she scrolled through the contact list until she found private investigator Nathan Dove’s number, then copied the number down on a Post-it. She had Lexa’s cell back in her bag and the bag back on the desk where it had been before the girls returned from the bathroom.
One step down. Many, many more to go.
“Okay. It takes me an hour and many tears to get those things on, but Maria does it like it’s putting on a Band-Aid,” Lexa joked.
“Seventeen years, a couple dozen ballets. I’ve gone through thousands of those things,” Maria said with a worldly smirk.
Lexa went straight for her purse. She pulled her phone right out and froze as she looked down at the screen. Ariana’s heart all but stopped. Had she left Dove’s number up on the screen? Could Lexa somehow tell she’d been messing with it?
“Soomie texted. She says everything’s ready and to get our butts there ASAP,” Lexa said with a laugh.
Ariana let out a sigh of relief.
“So. Are we all ready?” Lexa asked, tucking the phone inside the bag again. “Conrad’s bringing the car around in about five minutes.”
“Actually, I’m going to have to meet you guys there,” Ariana said, glancing at her watch.
“What? Why? I thought we were all going over together,” Maria said.
“She has a phone call with her grandmother,” Kaitlynn explained, shrugging into her jacket, which looked kind of silly over her shiny nylon outfit.
“She wants an update on how things are going around here,” Ariana lied. “I haven’t been in touch in a while, so she’s freaking out.”