Let's Pretend

"Jo? Are you alright babe?" Rupaul asked some minutes later.

We were both standing at the hotel bar, furtively looking out for the paparazzi we just ran from.

"No." I answered forthrightly. There was no point lying to RuPaul. He was one of my closest friends and confidante.

Besides, he knew me better than I knew myself, he'd figure out the truth anyway and get mad at me for lying to him. I had enough of those waiting for me at home. Right on cue, I felt my phone vibrate and Anna's name flashed across my screen.

"Oh my poor baby." He hugged me to him and made soothing noises. "What can I do to help?"

"Let's go somewhere without people. I just want to pretend that everything is fine, for a few hours."

"Sure thing love." He took me by the hand and we walked deeper into the hotel and took an escalator, before we emerged in an underground parking lot.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

"Have you lost your mind?! Eesh, I am certain that you never had one." Mother yelled in my face several hours later, brandishing her phone in my face. "What do you hope to achieve with this...this lies? What if Vladimir hurts your father in retaliation?"

"He won't." I retorted and searched for an escape route. I've only just stepped past the foyer and they were already on me. If I'd thought returning home at midnight would grant me a night of reprieve, then I was sorely mistaken.

"How do you know that?" Anna screeched some meters away, her hands folded across her chest and the fiercest scowl I've ever seen her spot.

"Yes Josie how do you know Vladimir won't kill your father to make him pay for your stupidity?" Mum repeated.

"Because he took him away instead of killing him when he had the opportunity. He wants father alive for the time being, so we need to use that time. Besides he can't do anything now because he's now being watched by the press and the police." I assured confidently.

"I tell you not tell police. You stupid child and you go and do exactly that!" Mother yelled, her accent becoming thicker.

"No I didn't. I told the press not the police. You didn't tell me not to tell the press."

"Stop being a smart ass Jo, it's not cute." Anna blurted, her eyes wide and pale. I was certain I'd never seen her as rigid and pale as she was now. Not even when I'd hinted that I liked Grayson as more than a friend.

Just then, I spied Grayson leaning against the alcove that led to the kitchen. He'd been so silent as mother and Anna ripped into me that I didn't even know he was here.

"You fool! You tell press that you tell police." Mother screamed again, tearing my attention away from Grayson.

"No she told them Vladimir called the police." Grayson corrected.

"What is difference huh?" Mum turned her after on him.

"Difference is, if the police deny it, Vladimir becomes the liar."

"Is that good thing?"

"Could be." He replied with a shrug of his soldier, his gaze burning a hole into me.

"But what if Vladimir denies everything she says hmm?"

"Then that will bring more public scrutiny on him. And a man of his nature will avoid scrutiny at all cost. Unless of course he knows nothing about my father's kidnap which will mean that you lied to me mother." I interjected, deciding to go on the offense.

"What? I tell you to stop calling me a liar! Disrespectful child." She grunted and turned away from me, but not before I saw her eyes shift.

"I'm only making sure mother." I mumbled. There was something she was hiding from me.

"But why Jo, why?" Grayson asked plaintively. He sounded odd, like he was so frustrated and disappointed he might cry.

"You told me to make Vladimir come to me, and that's exactly what I did."

"What? I told you no such thing!"

"You did too. At the manor."

His confused stare turned into incredulity. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it!"

"That is a moot point. The important thing is that I have Vladimir's attention now."

"Damn right you do." A cold, lightly accented voice drawled from behind me.