Lady Boss

Read Lady Boss for Free Online

Book: Read Lady Boss for Free Online
Authors: Jackie Collins
grandfather. What a tangled web of relationships! The Stanislopoulos clan made the Onassis family tree seem simple.
    â€˜I’d love that,’ she said eagerly.
    â€˜Great. I’ll have Lucky persuade Charlotte to let you go for a few weeks.’
    â€˜God! The last thing Charlotte needs is persuading. Just tell her – she’ll be thrilled to get rid of me.’
    â€˜Now, now, don’t be nasty, little girl,’ he teased.
    â€˜It’s true, Lennie!’
    â€˜And then, when I finish the movie, maybe we’ll all take off for Europe.’
    â€˜Brilliant!’
    â€˜Tough. No enthusiasm, huh?’
    â€˜C’mon! I’d kill for this trip.’
    â€˜You don’t have to. It’s almost settled.’
    â€˜I can’t wait!’
    â€˜Good.’
    â€˜How come you’re not working? Isn’t it the middle of the day in L.A.?’
    â€˜What about you?’ he countered.
    â€˜It’s five-thirty. I’m a free person.’
    â€˜So get out an’ run riot.’
    She giggled. ‘I can’t. It’s a weekday. We’re not allowed out on weekdays.’
    â€˜Break a rule or two, live dangerously.’
    â€˜
You’re
not supposed to tell me to do things like that,’ she said, remembering the one time she had broken the rules and suffered the consequences.
    â€˜No shit? If I were you, I’d go for it.’
    Go for what? She had no friends, no one to cut school with. Besides, she was not like her mother, she had no desire to break loose. The price, she’d discovered, was far too high.
    â€˜How’s the movie going?’ she asked, hurriedly changing the subject.
    He groaned. ‘Don’t ruin my day.’
    â€˜Is Lucky in L.A. with you?’
    He feigned exasperation. ‘What is it with the questions? Are you needlin’ me because you’ve nothing better to do, or what?’
    She smiled. ‘Don’t you know – I live to piss you off.’
    Laughing, he said, ‘Well, keep on livin’, and I’ll call you next week with more plans. OK, bait?’
    â€˜OK, dirty old man.’
    Lennie always made her feel terrific, especially when he called her ‘bait’, an abbreviation of ‘jail bait’ – his pet name for her. She always retaliated with ‘dirty old man’. It was their private game, their way of saying the past meant nothing. ‘You gotta laugh about something an’ it’ll go away,’ Lennie had often told her.
    Maybe he was right, but it didn’t mean she had to let her guard down. She was Brigette Stanislopoulos. Person. Heiress. Always an heiress. No getting away from
that
.
    With a deep sigh she returned to the dormitory – a prison shared with three other girls. There was a stack of homework piled on the table next to her bed, and on her side of the wall hung a single poster of Boy George smiling shyly in full makeup and ringlets. She liked his music, and she liked the fact that he didn’t seem to give a damn. Her kind of person.
    The other girls had posters and pictures of everyone from Rob Lowe to an almost naked Richard Gere. So what? Romantic involvements were something Brigette never wanted to experience again.
    For a moment she allowed her mind to drift back in time. First there was Santino Bonnatti’s face – always there – that evil, sneering face. And then there was Tim Wealth. Handsome and young. A would-be famous actor who’d had the bad luck to try and pull a scam with Bobby and herself as the central characters. The newspapers had never connected the murder of the young actor with the Bonnatti events.
    Thank goodness
, Brigette thought with a shudder. She’d loved Tim, and he’d tricked her. Unfortunately he had paid with his life. No fault of hers. Bonnatti’s men had done what they were told, and they were told Tim Wealth was in the way.
    Don’t think about it,
she scolded herself

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