“I hope this works,” Elizabeth murmured. In the next moment, she began cursing under her breath.

“What’s wrong?” Lexi scanned the room to see what could be irritating Elizabeth so much. It didn’t take long for Lexi to find the source. On the edge of the parquet floor stood Jade with her hands firmly planted on her hips, glaring at Vincent and Francesca waltzing together.

“We have to stop her, or she’s going to go out there and make a scene.” Elizabeth took a step toward Jade when she was stopped by a group of businessmen and their wives that wanted to thank her for a wonderful evening. Elizabeth was trapped by their small talk while Jade inched closer to Vincent.

Lexi immediately ran over to Leigh and enlisted her help. “Emergency situation. We need to make Jade disappear.” Lexi pointed to Jade, who was now tapping her foot furiously.

“Finally! Sean knows a guy—he only has four fingers, but I hear he’s good at what he does.” When Leigh saw the desperation on Lexi’s face, she dropped the act. “What can I do?”

“We just need her to leave Vincent alone for ten minutes. What can we distract her with?”

An evil grin spread across Leigh’s face. “I know how to get her feathers riled up over something other than Vincent. Come with me.” She took Lexi by the hand and hurried over to Jade, explaining her plan on the way. “Jade hates Martina Korikova. A few years ago they got into it backstage at a runway show in Milan. Martina called her short, low class, and fat, so Jade went nuts. From what I read in the tabloids, Jade went down the runway sporting a swollen eye from where Martina popped her one.”

“What do the two of you want?” Jade snapped as soon as Leigh and Lexi stood beside her. “Are you going to dance together? Couldn’t find any men willing to be your partners?” she sneered.

Lexi thanked God and every heavenly creature up above that Jade had conveniently disappeared from the ballroom earlier while she and Vincent shared their dance or there would have been another tantrum of Jade’s to deal with.

“Always such a ray of sunshine, Jade,” Leigh said. “Actually, I was coming over to give you a heads up that Martina was talking about you again, but if you don’t want to hear it …”

Jade’s head snapped around, a murderous glare in her eyes. “What? She’s here? What did she say?”

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“She was talking to this other skank. I think I recognized her from the Dolce runway show.” Leigh winked discreetly at Lexi and continued. “She was saying something about you pursuing acting. I think she called you a short, no talent whore, but I might have misheard her.”

“Right, I’m a whore. She’s the one who dropped to her knees and gave the photographer a blow job right on set to get the cover of a men’s magazine. Puhlease! I’ll show her short when I jam my stiletto up her bony ass. Where was she?”

Without missing a beat, Leigh continued. “She was out front, smoking as usual.”

“I think I’ll go have a little chat with the walking carcinogen.” Jade pointed her perfectly manicured finger toward the large glass door at the back of the room. “I saw a few drunk guys out on the terrace. Maybe a couple of them are blitzed enough to want to dance with you.” Jade smirked, and then stormed off toward the elevators without so much as a second glance at Vincent.

Leigh and Lexi high fived each other and gave Elizabeth a thumbs up. Meanwhile, Vincent and Francesca continued to spin around the dance floor.

They were the picture of fluid beauty. Francesca waved flirtatiously at Paolo while her dress swirled around her curvy body. At first he seemed annoyed, but he couldn’t stay angry when she never once took her eyes off her beloved husband during her graceful movements.

When the music ended, Francesca grabbed Vincent’s face and kissed both of his cheeks. She then hooked her arm in his and escorted him over to Paolo, who now stood with his brother Dante, drinking champagne. Paolo kissed his wife, then thrust out his hand to Vincent. The men talked for a moment, and Lexi held her breath, watching facial expressions to get a feel for how the conversation was going. When Dante threw back his head in laughter at something Vincent had said, Lexi knew he had pulled it off.

Like a pro, Vincent didn’t overstay his welcome. He graciously thanked his dance partner and started to walk away when Francesca stopped him and held out her hand. Vincent politely obliged her request and reached into his pocket and slipped his business card into her hand. He again bid the trio goodnight, then headed back toward Elizabeth with a victorious smile. Lexi watched a smiling Paolo take the card from Francesca and tuck

it into his wallet.

Lexi was about to run over and congratulate Vincent on a job well done when Jade reappeared and latched onto him with a vengeance. She wrapped her spiderlike limbs around him and tried to coax him onto the dance floor, but Vincent refused. Jade began gesturing wildly, but her voice was surprisingly soft, and Lexi couldn’t hear what she said. When Jade glared over her shoulder and pointed directly at Francesca, then Lexi, it was pretty obvious what they were talking about: her.

Wishing she could disappear, Lexi looped her arm through Leigh’s. “You almost ready to leave?” she asked, praying her friend would say yes.

“Sure, let’s just go say goodbye to everyone and then we can head out. I have an early breakfast date in the morning anyway.”

The women said their goodbyes to the ladies they had been talking to earlier. Kim had already left, but Erica was still there, furiously texting someone and not at all relaxed like she had been earlier.

“We’re out of here, Erica. Quit working so much. You’re making us feel guilty. We need to do a girl’s lunch someday this week.”

Erica smiled. “That would be great. Let’s shoot for later in the week. The Davey-boy is going to have me on the phone nonstop for the next three days harassing the nice people of San Francisco, and now apparently Italy. It never ends. See you ladies later.”

As they walked away, Lexi grumbled, “Damn it.”

“What?” Leigh asked.

“David got to Paolo too. Vincent isn’t going to be happy about that.”

Lexi easily found Vincent in the large ballroom. He stood off to the side, talking to a group of people she recognized from the hit list. At his side, Jade was talking the ear off of the television producer in the group. She watched Jade standing beside Vincent, and it became very clear that she enjoyed using his connections to her benefit at every opportunity. She was one of the most selfish and self-centered people Lexi had ever met.




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