ALICE Ch 316

Riley is taken aback to find Viv occupying an ordinary suite with two queen beds. Formula One is a traveling circus with so many people for whom money is no object; these hotels fill up quickly. There are so many VIPs that nobody is really a VIP except drivers and billionaires.

Adella follows Riley in curiously, her eyes on the stranger standing beside the actress. It’s getting late, so Viv is already in one of her glamorous evening robes. She’s holding a martini.

The stranger wears cute little linen shorts that only hint at a chubby bulge down there, and a sporty beach shirt up top that sort of makes her look like she should be sitting on white sand somewhere. The sunglasses hanging from the shirt and the kerchief that she’s using as a hair tie only complete the look. She’s not quite as tall as Riley, and quite stout, with skin the color of copper. Her age is tough to guess; she’s older than Riley, surely. Probably not as old as Annette.

Riley doesn’t have to look at her wife to know that she’s drooling over those thick thighs and that heavenly cleavage. The fact that Riley and Adella often have identical thoughts, at least in certain situations, is a double-edged sword.

Viv looks smug. “Thanks for coming up, guys. I want you to meet Bea Ruiz.”

“Hi,” Riley says with a little wave.

“Hello,” Adella says at the same time, and Riley knows that tone. She elbows her wife in the ribs.

“Bea is a private investigator. She’s traveled the world. She speaks three languages. She’s done some high-profile cases. She even has a fancy degree,” Viv says, her smile growing with each announcement. She looks very proud, as though she is the one who has all these qualifications.

“In what?” Riley asks.

Bea looks at her with an understated confidence that gives Riley a little flutter.

“Aeronautical engineering,” she says. Her voice is like a coffee-flavored tongue dragging across Riley’s ears.

Riley blushes. “Neat.”

Viv puts her hand on Bea’s shoulder. “So, you’re in good hands.”

“I understand you have some concerns about the financial group that Irina Orlova is a part of?” Bea says.

Riley clears her throat. “Uh, sorta. We don’t actually care. Um, but she might be doing stuff that’s bad for Alice Wilde. We used to coach Alice when she was a kid, so we don’t want to see her get bullied by these jerks. Life in pro sports is hard enough without someone going out of her way to make it harder, you know?”

Bea takes that in. “It’s personal for you.”

“Kinda,” Riley admits.

“What do you think is going on?”

“I don’t know. But we’re worried that Alice blew this woman off and now she’s getting back at her or something.”

“What did she want with Alice in the first place?”

“We aren’t really clear on that.”

Bea exchanges a look with Viv, who rubs her hands together excitedly.

“It’s a mystery,” Viv says in a singsong voice. Her voice is incredible. She’s won several Tonys.

Bea scowls and puts her hand on her hips. “Sounds like trouble. There’s a list of people that you don’t want to fuck with, and Russian oligarchs are on that list.”

“But danger is your middle name,” Viv says excitedly.

Bea snorts. “So that’s the ask? Find out what Irina Orlova is up to? If anything?”

“Yup,” Riley says. It sounds a bit silly when Bea puts it like that.