The Secret Diamond Sisters (18 page)

Oliver was easy to spot in a red velvet smoking jacket that reminded Peyton of a fancy bathrobe, sitting at a blackjack table holding an amber drink. The sign on the card table said there was a twenty-dollar minimum—per hand. What a rip-off. Peyton doubted he was playing for the minimum, either.

He spotted her and put his remaining chips in his pocket—there weren’t many left—and headed in their direction. She swung her hair in front of her shoulders and smiled. The smoking jacket was ridiculous, especially since it was late afternoon, but he managed to pull it off. Hopefully Jackson would recognize Oliver as the guy she’d hung out with last night. Once he saw how quickly Peyton had moved on, maybe he would regret dismissing her at the bar.

“Is it just me, or is that guy walking over to us?” Savannah whispered, moving closer to Peyton. “Do you know him?”

“Yep,” Peyton said. “Let’s say hi.”

Her heart beat faster as they got closer to Oliver. Since when did she get so worked up around guys?

“Peyton Diamond,” he greeted her. “What brings you here? Not that I’m disappointed to see you.”

“We’re shopping.” She held up one of the bags she was holding for Savannah. “These are my sisters, Courtney and Savannah.”

“Oliver Prescott,” he said, holding out a hand to shake theirs. He paused when he got to Savannah. “Weren’t you watching the fireworks with Damien at Myst last night?”

Savannah brightened at the mention of Damien. “I was,” she said. “Are you two friends?”

“We’ve known each other for years.”

“So did you win?” Peyton asked, referring to the game of blackjack he’d been playing.

“Pssh.” He took out a pack of cigarettes and opened it. Peyton took that as a no. He removed one, lit it and inhaled deeply, watching the smoke swirl up in the air. “I was just occupying my time before meeting up with a friend.”

Peyton wanted to ask who, but she held back.
Clingy is bad,
she told herself. No guy liked a girl who became attached after one night. Instead she looked around the casino as though she couldn’t wait to continue shopping.

“You know about dinner tomorrow night, right?” Oliver asked.

“Dinner?” Peyton asked. Had Oliver asked her out to dinner last night? She’d had too much to drink, so she could have forgotten.

“Our dads organized a ‘family dinner’ for tomorrow night,” Oliver explained, moving to an empty table to tap his cigarette over an ashtray. “We all have to go.”

“Is your dad the business partner Adrian’s been mentioning?” Peyton had hoped Oliver had asked her on a real date, but this was better than nothing.

“They’re not partners yet, but that’s the goal,” he said. “They’re trying to give off this family-man appearance to the public. It’s lame if you ask me. But due to your dad’s reputation...” He paused as though contemplating saying more, then continued, “My dad wants to make sure he’s making a good decision in working with Adrian.”

“Your dad doesn’t like our dad’s reputation?” Peyton asked. It didn’t seem like big-time hotel owners cared about anything except money. Apparently she was wrong.

“
Didn’t
like,” Oliver corrected. “Adrian used to be notorious for jumping from woman to woman—supermodels and starlets half his age. But now he’s moved in with his high-school sweetheart, and things are looking serious between them. There’s talk they might be engaged. And now he’s got the three of you. Don’t you know how glad he was when you three decided you wanted to live with him, after all of those years that you chose to be with your mother instead? Apparently he cares about family more than most people knew. He surprised everyone. In a good way.”

“
Choosing
to be with our mother?” The words tasted like rusted copper on Peyton’s tongue. Oliver knew she and her sisters had never had a choice—she’d told him the story last night. Had he been so drunk that he didn’t remember? “You know that’s not what happened. And why does your dad care what our family does?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Oliver lifted his glass in the air and downed the rest of the drink. “As far as I know, this idea they’ve got works in both of their favor. Something about a mega-resort in Macau. But my family’s got enough bad talk surrounding us as it is—thanks to me—” he smiled wickedly “—that any association with your father, who doesn’t have the best reputation with all the women he’s gone through in the past fifteen years, would have made things worse for mine. Now that your family’s one happy little group, my father doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“I’m glad our being here is so beneficial for him,” Peyton said with so much sarcasm that no one could miss it. At least that explained why Adrian wanted them to live with him after all those years. She’d known something was up, and now Oliver had confirmed it. Adrian was using them to make more money.

“It was nice to meet you, but we have to get going.” Courtney’s sweet voice, always polite, interrupted Peyton’s train of thought. “I’m meeting someone to see a show, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Yeah,” Savannah said, backing away from him. “We’ll see you at dinner tomorrow night.”

“See you then,” Oliver said.

Peyton could have sworn Oliver winked at her as they headed toward the shops.

He was a total jerk, but for some reason, she liked him even more than before.

chapter 16:

Madison threw her iPhone onto her queen-size canopy bed, creating an indentation in the fluffy white comforter. The text from her mom shouldn’t have surprised her, but that didn’t stop her from being irritated.

I know we had dinner plans for tonight, but there is an emergency at the hospital. Your father and I will have to work longer than expected. We will be home later tonight. Love, Mom.

As always, it was written perfectly—more like a work email than a text to a family member. And the news didn’t surprise Madison. The only time both her parents were home was when they were sleeping. More often than not, she was left home alone. That’s why her favorite times of the year were winter break and spring break—not because it was a break from school, but because her parents took her on vacation. Those were the only times she felt like she was part of a real family.

She paced around her room, the pointy heels of her stilettos messing up the thick, parallel lines the maid had left in the carpet with the vacuum cleaner. Her room in the Diamond, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Strip, was better fit for a movie star than a teenage girl. Meaning it was perfect for her.

Her parents’ decision to move to the Diamond was the best one they’d made in years. Her mom had been friends with Adrian since he’d built his first hotel on the Strip way before Madison was born, and the deal he’d given them on the three-bedroom condo had been too good to pass up. They had debated over moving out of the suburbs for a while, and in the end, it was an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Madison looked down at the glittering Strip, packed with tourists making their way from one hotel to the next. She checked her watch, surprised to see it was already 8:15 p.m. Dinner with her parents was supposed to have been at 8:45 p.m., so she was dressed and ready to go.

She’d spent a long time selecting the outfit she’d picked for tonight. The short Dolce & Gabbana black satin dress was stretchy, hugging her curves while still simple enough to wear to a classy dinner with her parents—and out with her friends later that night. Her dark brown hair was straight, no frizz in sight, thanks to her CHI straightening iron. The red Chanel lipstick made her look older than sixteen (Madison thought she could pull off eighteen or nineteen), and her favorite YSL mascara gave her lashes a false lash effect, without actually having to wear false eyelashes.

Now she had to figure out how to kill some time.

She picked up her iPhone and contemplated who to text. Brett was out of the question—for now. There was always Oliver, but he’d ditched her for the trashy Diamond girl last night. Larissa would be happy to hang out, but Madison wasn’t in the mood to talk about boys with her, which was what they usually did when they were together. And all of the other girls in their group were probably with Larissa right now.

It came down to Damien. That wasn’t a problem, since she enjoyed Damien’s company, but she hated that he was getting involved with Savannah. And Damien had been acting strange around her lately. Their flirting had always been friendly, but he kept getting more serious about it. It made her uncomfortable. She valued their friendship, and she didn’t want things to get awkward between them.

But she was antsy to get out of her empty condo.

Drinks at the lobby bar?
she texted him.

Already there,
he wrote back a few seconds later.

Madison wasn’t surprised. Damien had been drinking more than usual lately—almost as much as Oliver. He was good at hiding it, but by the end of the night he was usually trashed. Hopefully it was a summer habit and would end when school started.

Be down in a min.

He responded a moment later.
Looking forward to it ;)

Madison stopped in front of the mirror, studying her body from the side. The black dress was slimming, but she shouldn’t have had that bagel and cream cheese after her workout. If she kept giving in to cravings, she would regain the twenty-five pounds she’d lost before eighth grade, and would go back to being the unnoticed chunky girl in her group of friends. She refused to let that happen. The only other food she’d eaten today was a salad with low-fat dressing, but she could practically see the carbs from the bagel on her hips already. She would have to stick with fruit, salad and lean meat for the next few days.

The Lobby Bar had the best view of the first floor, and Madison loved watching the tourists trying their luck in the casino. But her favorite part was the golden sculpture of a girl transforming into a tree in the center of the circular couch in the middle of the bar. Branches emerged from the top of her head and her hands, climbing toward the ceiling; roots came out of her feet; and the bottom half of her legs formed the trunk of a tree. It was some reference to Greek mythology. It captivated Madison, because she could never tell if the girl was happy or sad. Every time she walked by she reminded herself to Google the story, but she always forgot when she got home.

She spotted Damien at a love seat in the front.

“Looking gorgeous as always,” Damien greeted her. His eyes roamed over her body, stopping when they met hers. “You look beautiful.”

“You said that twice.” Madison laughed. Then the strangest thing happened—redness crept onto Damien’s cheeks. Was he nervous? No, she decided. It probably had more to do with how the clear drink in his hand—most likely vodka on the rocks—was already three-fourths finished.

She sat down next to him and studied the drink menu. Since she felt bloated from the bagel, she settled on Diet Coke instead of wine. No point in wasting calories this early in the night.

Then she spotted Brett Carmel standing in the lobby with Courtney Diamond, dressed up like they were going somewhere special. Madison clenched her jaw as she remembered the way Brett had looked at Courtney at Myst last night. To make the situation worse, the deep pink strapless dress Courtney was wearing looked perfect on her. Madison recognized the Aidan Mattox dress from her trip to Saks a few days ago. It had looked great on the mannequin, and terrible on her when she’d tried it on. But the belted waist showed off Courtney’s disgustingly flawless model-tall body, the full skirt flouncing out above her knees like it was designed for her.

Madison’s anger was further fueled by the way Brett was looking at Courtney as if she were the only person in the room. He said something to her, their heads close together, and she laughed in response. Madison felt sick. Luckily her soda arrived a second later. She took a sip, relaxing at the first taste of the cool drink.

“Madison?” Damien asked, concerned. “Is everything okay?” His arm rested on the back of the couch, and if he lowered it, it would be around her shoulders. She didn’t mind. It felt good to be reminded that Damien was there for her. And at least if Brett saw them like this, he wouldn’t think she was still pining for him.

“I’m fine,” she told him, brightening as much as she could. “Why do you ask?”

“You looked upset,” he said.

“I was thinking about stuff.” She looked around the room again and pretended to notice Courtney and Brett for the first time. “That’s one of the Diamond sisters, right?”

“The middle one. Speaking of which, way to text me to meet you at the gym earlier and
not
let me know you were with Savannah.”

“I thought you would want to see her,” she said sweetly, amused again by what she had done that morning. Once Savannah had walked into the gym, Madison had texted Damien asking him to come by. Damien would eventually get sick of Savannah—that happened with him with most girls—so it wouldn’t hurt to speed along the process. Savannah was too clingy and desperate to hold his attention for long. Especially since rumors were already flying about how easy she was.

“Not as much as I wanted to see you,” Damien said, serious now.

“You wanted to see me more than Savannah?” she teased.

He seemed hurt, but his expression turned into a smirk a moment later. “Would you be upset if I didn’t?”

“Positively devastated.” Madison lifted her hand to her forehead and pretended to swoon like women did in old movies.

Damien studied the glass in his hands. “I’m glad you texted me tonight,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff lately.”

“What kind of stuff?” she asked. Damien rarely got so serious.

He took another sip of his drink, his forehead creasing as he swallowed. If Madison didn’t know better, she would think he was scared to say what was on his mind.

“Savannah stuff?” she prompted. “Or about that redheaded cocktail waitress with the bad boob job who’s been staring at you for the past five minutes?” She gave the waitress in question a less-than-friendly smile, and the woman ducked her head and scurried off to a group of older men gathered around a craps table. Madison made a face when one of the men—who must have been around seventy—squeezed the waitress’s ass. Gross.

“Can you blame her for being ridiculously attracted to me?” Damien asked.

Madison rolled her eyes. “If your ego gets any bigger, it’s going to explode.”

“But really, Mads.” He became serious again. “You’ve been acting differently since you moved into the Diamond. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

Madison loved when people cared enough to ask her questions like that, wanting an honest answer. Not enough people did. They believed the great Madison Lockhart could handle anything. “I guess it has to do with the Nick situation,” she said, hoping he would buy the excuse.

“Why
did
you break up with him?” Damien asked. “Everything was going great with you two, then suddenly it was over. Not that I mind that the hottest girl in Las Vegas is single.” He smirked again, his dark eyes lighting up. “I know you said your feelings for him weren’t as strong anymore, and you’re happy you broke up with him, but you’ve seemed down lately. What really happened between you and Nick?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Madison said. “But is it really that obvious?”

“Only to me,” Damien assured her. “And just so you know, Larissa mentioned that she feels like you don’t want to spend as much time with her anymore. I told her it was because you’re adjusting to living here, and she seemed to buy it.”

“Thanks.” Madison was glad he’d given her something to go on that didn’t involve Brett. “You’re right. Breaking up with Nick was hard. He’s a great guy, but he just wasn’t ‘the one.’”

“Do you really believe in that?” he asked. “That there’s someone perfect out there for everyone?”

“I do,” she said. “Don’t you?”

Damien shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“Well, now that you’re thinking about it, what
do
you think?”

He considered it. “I guess it would be nice, but I don’t think it’s real.”

“Oh.” Madison sighed. “Okay.”

“Come on, Mads.” His tone lightened. “This is me we’re talking about. What did you expect?”

“I don’t know.” Madison shook her head. It was obvious that Damien had feelings for her, and maybe she secretly wanted him to think she was his soul mate, but she didn’t feel the same way for him.

At least she didn’t think she did. This was too confusing. She was starting to wish she hadn’t met him here tonight.

Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up to read the text.

“Larissa and some of our friends are meeting at the Cosmopolitan for sushi soon and are hitting up Marquee later tonight,” she told Damien. “You in?”

“If you’re going, I’m going,” he said, downing the rest of his drink. “But first I need another drink.”

Madison laughed, glad Damien had returned to his lighthearted self. Tonight would be good for her—no Nick, no Brett—just the normal group having fun.

Still, she wondered where Brett and Courtney were heading, dressed up like they were going somewhere special. She wished he was taking her out instead. What was so great about that girl?

It would be so much easier if Damien was the one she wanted.

But no one ever said life was easy.