Beautiful Criminals by Eric Tipton & Susanna Rosenblum

Author:Eric Tipton & Susanna Rosenblum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books/Alloy Entertainment

17

Urban Light was a contemporary art installation at LACMA consisting of 202 different historical streetlamps from the various neighborhoods of LA. It was set up in an enormous, closely packed chessboard of lamps, and it was the perfect place to meet Stevens. Although the lamps were lit, it was impossible to really see who was moving in and out among them. Amanda felt entirely invisible in the middle of a city that was designed for maximum visibility. Most people wanted to be seen. There were few places to hide.

“So,” Stevens said, biting into an arepa that he bought at the food truck across the street. Outside the installation, they could hear the muffled conversation and the clinks and clicks of the waiters setting tables in the outdoor patio restaurant, while a jazz band set up to provide ambiance for hipster date night.

“So. Here,” Amanda said, handing him a few menus.

“What’s this? I already ate.” Stevens neatly wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, took his last bite, and looked her in the eye. A tiny drop of salsa still hung on the scar across the left side of his face that went from nostril to earlobe. He must have been knifed by some shady perp. Or the scar was evidence of some hot water in Afghanistan. He cracked his knuckles. “But if you haven’t eaten, I’m happy to take you out.” He bit his knuckle then and sighed, shaking his head. “That ass. You are one fine piece of ass, Ms. Cooper. I find it distracting, I have to admit.”

Amanda leaned against the light post behind her, bent her knee, and slid her foot up the side of it. She had been sure to wear her most lacquered of lacquered pumps and she instinctively lowered her gaze. “You’re not too bad yourself,” she admitted. He had a swarthy East Coast edge to him, sharpened and shaded in all the right places. Stoically hiding some deep and damaging secrets. California men, in contrast, were so baldly and nakedly transparent. New, smooth, bouncing-baby souls with no distinctive suffering. Pain is what makes a person interesting. Stevens was actually very interesting.

“So can I take you for dinner?” he asked. “You can tell me what you really know. Maybe a meaty Cabernet will get it out of you.”

“You’re currently blackmailing me, threatening to put my mother in prison, and asking me to betray my stepfather,” Amanda said, torturing him by sliding her pendant back and forth along the necklace that hung above her cleavage. “But let me think about that for a second.” She tapped her forehead in faux contemplation. “Do I want you to take me to dinner?” She then looked him in the eye and said, “Absolutely not.”

Stevens practically slurped as he inhaled and said under his breath, “God, what I would do to you. You have no idea what you’re missing.” Then he shook himself out of it and said, “Well, this is crap.” He waved the menus in her face.

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