Cherry Orphan

Chapter 46

Act Three 

Chapter 46

A week slipped by before Tony Scott discovered life on a millionaire's estate could get complicated.

He'd spent the day at Laguna Seca, mostly talking to a Jaguar racing mechanic Robert had located through his London office. A veteran of European racing harking back to the fifties, the retired Brit couldn't believe his luck. All-expense-paid trips to California to mess with a vintage D-type suspension system hardly fell off trees.

Scott had to admit the old geezer knew his stuff and soon had the classic racecar perfectly set-up for the complexities of Laguna's ten tricky turns. He felt better about his chances in the old Jaguar later in the month with the car performing the way it should. Robert might just savor his pointless victory after all, Scott mused. He's sure paid enough to get it.

A lesser portion of the track time had been spent chatting up another Brit—the female volunteer who ran timing and scoring for the driving school. Physically Scott had little to offer, but the legendary charisma surrounding his occupation usually more than compensated for his lack of outward persona. To her credit, Leona wasn't bad looking for a single mom in her early thirties, but no match for the extraordinary Nameth sisters. Constant thoughts of James enjoying the Caribbean splendor with bikini clad Calley and Sonia only made the lonely situation at the deserted estate worse—something he intended to rectify for one night at least.

Leona agreed to join him for the evening after a phone call sorted the babysitting situation out nicely. Junior was deposited with 'gran' who'd been dumped-on more times than you could say privilege abuse.

On occasion he'd been using Robert's Aston Martin, which also aided with the Leona pull. His Audi still needed tires and tended to be a tad scary for street use at the best of times. It was all about putting babes at ease, not scaring the crap out of them before they'd gone two blocks.

Feeling like 007 in Goldfinger, Scott came around to the passenger side and courteously opened the door of the silver coupé. The fact that he stood a foot shorter than Sean Connery hardly seemed to matter. Trappings were the main event today.

"Oh my Gawd! You live 'ere?"

"It's only temporary accommodation, my dear." He held out a hand as she awkwardly extracted herself. "Welcome to Villa Suerte. It belongs to my new boss and his family."

"Wow, look at this place. Sounds like your boss is a married man. Pity."

"Divorced, actually. Ever seen the Colleen Green Show on NBC?"

"Yeah."

"That's his ex wife."

"Bugger me!"

"Maybe later. Come inside and see how the other half lives."

More breathless awe as he led her through the double doors. Leona gaped at everything, missed nothing. Eventually she settled onto the terrace, overlooking the pool and tennis court. Scott handed her a gin and vermouth cocktail, either shaken not stirred or stirred, not shaken. He'd forgotten which. "Hope the Martini is how you like it. The cook and housekeeper are off today; we have the place to ourselves. I'll check for phone messages while you get more comfortable. Feel free to use the pool. I can probably find you something if you don't care to swim nude."

She banished him with a hand wave and nervous laugh. "Oh, Tony, you are awful."

He quickly went through to the study and noticed there were two messages waiting on the answering machine. Leona wasn't his ideal bed partner, but tonight she'd do. As he pressed the play button he contemplated the upcoming conquest that seemed almost within his grasp, and the best way to dump her once he'd run the course.