“I’ll do it as quickly as I can,” Elodie was saying. She adjusted a strap on Colette’s dress. “I don’t want you out there for long. And when the lights come back on, you’ll carry on like nothing has happened besides an alarming moment of old wiring plunging the party into a temporary and unremarkable darkness, then you’ll say your good nights and get out before Avery actually gets arrested. And if you do get arrested . . . we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“That’s fine,” I said. Colette nodded, too. Stellan was tying his bow tie in the mirror above the bar. When he noticed me watching over the top of the little mirror I was using to put on lipstick, his finger snagged on the end of his tie. Both ends flopped to his chest.
“Hopefully we’ll be long gone before they know the bracelet is missing,” Elodie finished.
“It seems too . . . simple,” I thought out loud.
“The best plans are.” Elodie slipped into five-inch heels. “When you see a theft in the movies that revolves around bumping into just the right person at the exact right second to steal a key so someone can hang from the air-conditioning vent and unlock a padlock, you have to know it’s unlikely to work. What happens if the guy with the key has bad prawns and spends the whole night in the bathroom and we can’t find him?”
“All right,” I said. I put my own shoes on. I was wearing a dress of Elodie’s that hit me at midcalf, all intricate gold beadwork from the torso through the slim pencil skirt.
“In fact . . .” Elodie gestured with her red-orange lipstick at me, then at Stellan. “The most complicated part of this plan is that you two have to be a team. After what I saw earlier, I’m wondering if you can handle that.”
Colette’s eyes got wide. Stellan started to defend us, but I got there first. “Drop it, Elodie. Yes. We’ve got it under control.”
She just shrugged.
“Okay. We’re all set except—” I looked around automatically for Jack. The obvious hole in our crew lanced pain through my gut again. “We’re all set. Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER 30
The red carpet had been going on for at least two hours by the time we got there. Our driver wound his way through the paparazzi, and there were so many flashbulbs popping ahead, they could have been strobe lights. Bleachers full of fans waving and yelling and wielding their own cameras lined the opposite side of the road. The red carpet began where we were getting out of the car, then flowed up a set of stairs, where a dozen people, most of whom I recognized, stood smiling and waving.
“That’s the cast of Alejandro Ruiz’s new movie,” Colette said, leaning past me to look out the window. “I was supposed to talk to him on the carpet. I almost forgot this is actual business.”
Elodie nodded. “Colette, you get out first, I’ll come with you, and Avery, you get out a couple minutes later. Try to draw the whole crowd so nobody sees me sneak around back.”
“I know,” I said, peering out into the mass of people.
As soon as the car door opened, I was blinded by even more camera flashes. Colette, perfectly poised and practiced, smiled and waved and took the driver’s hand to step out of the car. Elodie followed and shut the door behind her, plunging Stellan and me back into darkness.
Colette turned into Colette LeGrand, Alister immediately, posing and winking at cameras and giving cheek kisses to actors who, a few months ago, I would have freaked out about being this close to.
“People should notice me pretty quickly,” I said to Stellan. Since we wanted everyone to recognize me, I’d pinned my hair up, only pulling dark strands around my face. I’d also replaced my brown contacts with the clear ones. “But we should find someone in the Circle to talk to, anyway, and they’ll make a big enough deal to draw even more of a crowd.”
Stellan looked out over my shoulder. “There,” he said, gesturing to a middle-aged couple talking with a group off to the side of the carpet. “Cousins of the Fredericks. She’s a huge gossip.”
I nodded, and a silence more awkward than it usually was between us filled the car.
“Avery—” Stellan said. He was cut off by the door opening. We both jumped, and Elodie poked her head in.
“We have to go through metal detectors.” She pulled a gun out of her bag and dumped it on the seat, then turned to Stellan. “Maybe you should stay here, just in case we need the weapons.”
He shook his head. “I’m not leaving Avery and Colette alone out there.”
Elodie pursed her lips and looked over her shoulder. “I don’t like this,” she said, but slammed the door and hurried back to Colette.
Stellan removed his own gun from his tuxedo jacket and set it next to Elodie’s. “They’ll be here in the car if we need them,” he said, like he was trying to convince himself, and then we were quiet for a few seconds until he took an anticipatory breath.
I spoke before he could say anything. “It’s okay. You really don’t have to explain.” My breath fogged the car window. “You don’t have to pretend you care.”