We walk at a quickened clip, and both put in an order for a couple of drinks.
She turns my way with her lips curving a notch. “Angel Face? Flo thought up that nickname herself.”
Flo sucks in enough air to fill a dozen pairs of lungs. “She swore she’d never tell!”
The bartender slides a double shot of whiskey her way and a fruity virgin piña colada to me.
“She can’t hold her liquor,” Flo says the words incredulously as if the whiskey were to blame. “She’s always needed it to give her courage she didn’t have. She’s never believed in herself.”
“Flo thought of that nickname?” I shrug at the thought. “It was fitting, though. I mean, I bet Nicky called her that all the time. I talked to him earlier, and he said he’d never forget how beautiful she was. He said no one else on this planet could hold a candle to her beauty, and that if they tried they’d be nothing but second place.” Okay, so he didn’t say that, but he should have.
Lorena’s eyes widen with a touch of rage.
“Oh, hon,” Flo moans. “I think you touched a nerve.”
“If you excuse me, Lottie, I need to get some air.” Lorena stalks out the foyer and into the icy air. “You don’t need to follow me.” She knocks back her double shot of whiskey in haste and grimaces as she sucks in a breath. “I think I need to be alone for a minute. You know, reflect on Florenza.” She lands her glass on the hood of a sedan in the parking lot as she makes her way over to a clearing. So I do the same as I follow along.
“Lorena, wait,” I say as I trek my way through the snowy lot as carefully as I can. “Why did you do it?”
“Why did I do what?” She turns my way with a hard look on her face. “Are you accusing me of killing my best friend in the entire world?” Her words are so loud, so sharp, it certainly sounds as if what she were saying was the furthest thing from the truth.
“No. Actually, I was going to ask why you slept with Nicky Knuckles, but since you brought it up…”
“Nicky,” she spits his name out with a vengeance before staggering to the edge of the parking lot that overlooks a snowy meadow. “I hated him for making me feel that way.”
“Feel what way?” Flo asks, and I quickly echo the question.
“Feeling beautiful!” she shouts as she turns my way. “Feeling wanted. Special. All those things that a woman wants to feel. The more he poured it on, the more I craved it.”
Flo’s chest bucks as tears stream from her face with a moonbeam trapped in each one.
I nod to the woman before us. “You tried to pin this on Nicky, didn’t you?”
Lorena tips her head back a notch. “You know, when Carlotta said you were good, I didn’t believe her. But here you are, Mrs. High and Mighty—Mrs. I Have Two Men Who War Over Me Day and Night. Well, I have news for you. The rest of the world? We’re not so lucky.”
“Nicky made you feel lucky. But what I don’t get is why you pulled the trigger on a woman who you professed was your best friend in the world. You knew she loved Nicky.”
“Bull!” she cries out over me. “Flo loved herself. I could’ve given Nicky everything!” Her hand clasps over her belly. “In fact, I’m about to give that two-timing louse a lot more than he deserves.”
Both Flo and I take in a breath.
“Lorena, are you going to have a baby?” I ask as she closes her eyes tightly.
“I guess.” She tosses her hands in the air. “But what kind of a mother am I going to be? I mean, look at me. I’m drinking like a fish. Nicky has already moved on to Nicole Amaretto.”
Flo moans, “Oh, I can’t stand Nicole Amaretto!” She floats up to her bestie. “But right about now, I can’t stand you either. Make her admit she did this to me, Lottie, so I can kill her with my bare hands.”
I’m pretty sure the powers that be won’t allow that, but I’ll do as I’m told regardless.
“You wanted Nicky for yourself, didn’t you, Lorena? That night at the Chanterelle Hotel, you saw your opportunity to make that happen. I heard you telling Flo that you were going to protect her from Nicky. You made sure a lot of people heard you say something to the affect that he wouldn’t hurt her anymore. He was hurting her because he was cheating on her, and he was cheating on her with you.”
Lorena bucks as if I shot her.
“And you didn’t stop there. You told Flo that same night that you didn’t play second fiddle to anyone. Not even to Flo. And then you told her that when it came to the Ruthless Witches, you would be number one. Right before you pretended to shoot her with your finger. You wanted Flo’s boyfriend. You wanted her position in the Ruthless Witches, too. You thought it was all going to fall into your lap once you got Flo out of the way, didn’t you?”
“No,” she riots back at me. “I didn’t think that, so you can wipe that smug look off your face. Earlier that night I told Nicky he had to choose—Flo or me. He kept pursuing her even after he started two-timing her. It’s as if he couldn’t get enough of his precious little Angel Face. If Flo found out I was the witch sleeping around with her man, what do you think would have happened to me? And do you know how humiliating it was going to be for Flo to see that I was expecting? And how humiliating for me it would have been that the man I tried to steal, still only had eyes for her? At least at that time he did. I was livid. I couldn’t see straight. You’ve probably never been that angry in your little life. But I was fit to kill. And I wanted both of them dead. Nicky was too quick for me.”
“And what did any of that accomplish?” I shake my head at her.
She shudders with a laugh caught in her throat. “There was a turf war brewing. I was only going to speed things up.”
My mouth falls open. “And you did spur that along, didn’t you? The Canellis and the Lazzaris still think the Morettis were responsible.”
“I don’t know if they do or don’t.” She shakes her head. “But I’ve given them an excuse to go after New Jersey until kingdom come.”
I shake my head. “They never needed any excuses. You killed both your best friend and her unborn child—for what? So you could take her place in this world? So you could be her?”
Lorena takes in a breath as if she were gulping for air.
“So it’s true? Flo was having a kid?”
“That’s right.” I nod.
“No,” she cries out mournfully.
“Yes. And now she’s not only missing out on her kid, she’s missing out on her very next breath. Do the right thing, Lorena. Turn yourself in.”
“The hell I am.” She reaches under the hemline of her thigh-high dress and pulls a gun from a slender pink holster before pointing it right at me. “I’m sorry, Lottie. This is where it ends for you.”
“No!” Flo roars it out as she grabs me by the wrist and yanks me toward the woman. Flo lands my hand right over Lorena’s bare arm “You don’t get to hurt my friend, Lo!”
Lorena inches back as the gun shakes in her hand, but Flo secures my hand to the woman’s shoulder.
“What the hell was that?” Lorena cries out. “How did you do it? How did you sound just like Flo without moving your lips?”