was a neat little division down the centre of the Bluebirds. The dancers who accepted invitations from the visiting Hollywood A-listers and rock stars who came to the shows, and those who lined up each night after the last show for the courtesy bus.
It was something Gigi had organised when a couple of the girls had complained about not feeling safe leaving the venue at night, given that the theatre was bumped up against the red light district, and now the bus was a regular thing.
Gigi and Lulu never missed the bus. Solange took every invitation that came her way. Apparently she’d taken this one too.
Not that there was anything wrong with that, Gigi told herself. She only cared because it confirmed her worst suspicions about Kitaev’s plans for them.
She slapped down the lid on her make-up case.
‘Sorry G,’ said Leah, obviously alerted by the bang of Gigi’s case and not sounding sorry at all. ‘You went to all that trouble for nothing.’
‘Not for nothing,’ Lulu rallied back loyally in her defence. ‘We all got a good look.’
Too good, thought Gigi fiercely. Any hope that Khaled Kitaev was going to take ownership of the cabaret seriously was out of the window. As of now the Bluebird was in serious jeopardy.
And what was it with everyone thinking she’d done it on purpose? Sheesh.
No, she knew all about this man. She had scrolled through lists of his public holdings on the internet, chased them to various websites, and was still struggling to make sense of how he’d made his money.
Initially, it appeared, as an oil trader—but he seemed to have a finger in a lot of pies. Shady, she decided. She had learned from watching her dad at work that big money was probably amassed in the same way as her father’s smaller cheats: through the exploitation of someone else.
‘So what do you think he’s going to do to us?’ asked Trixie, one of the youngest dancers.
Given he’d already honed in on Solange, Gigi had a pretty good idea.
‘Do you think he’ll try to change things? Maybe fix things up?’ Trixie sounded optimistic. ‘It might not all be bad, Gigi.’
No, it was probably worse. Gigi hated to disillusion her, but facts had to be faced.
She stood up to face the room.
‘Could I have everyone’s attention?’
A couple of the girls glanced her way, but the noise level didn’t drop.
She raised her voice. ‘Can we just try to look at the big picture here—instead of getting into a lather about his sex life?’
The word ‘sex’ had a few more heads turning and the volume dropping.
‘Kitaev owns a string of gambling venues around the world.’ Gigi paused to let that sink in. ‘Have you thought about what that might mean for us?’
‘Oui,’ said Ingrid, ‘a pay-rise.’
There was a ripple of laughter.
‘Loosen up, G,’ advised another girl, giving her a friendly push.
‘She can’t—she hasn’t been laid in so long I’m surprised she didn’t squeak when she fell off that aquarium,’ cackled Susie.
‘Gigi’s just smarting because her little stunt didn’t make him single her out,’ sang out Mia from across the room.
‘Give it up, G,’ said Adele. ‘Oh, that’s right—you never do!’
There was a howl of good-natured laughter.
Gigi knew she needed to get the discussion back on track, because now Susie was wanting to know what the point was of being a showgirl if you didn’t take advantage of the perks: rich men.
‘The point is no one should date Kitaev,’ Gigi interrupted. ‘He shouldn’t be encouraged!’
The laughter only became more raucous. Even Lulu gave her a rueful look.
He’s going to win, thought Gigi a little desperately.
The dressing room door banged open.
‘Guess who’s just arrived, ladies?’ announced Daniela, sparkling in full costume.
There was a twitter of excitement.
‘Not Kitaev.’
The twittering died down.
‘Girls, its wall-to-wall security and every rich Russian in the city is here—and everyone from Fashion Week seems to have followed them. The media are ten-thick outside. I think I’m going to faint!’
Amidst the shrieks, Lulu adjusted her headdress and said brightly, ‘There you go, Gigi. Maybe he’s not so bad for business after all.’
‘So he’s sent his friends?’ she grumbled. ‘One night does not a week make. We’re just a novelty act for a bored, spoilt-for-choice, testosterone-injected, arrogant—’
But now even her best friend had jumped ship and was on her way out, giggling with the other girls, trailing the six-foot feather tail they all had attached to their waists for the first number.
Troubled, Gigi finished attaching her own.
That many customers wasn’t to be sneezed at, given they regularly performed to a half-empty theatre, and this had been their worst year yet.
Maybe the other girls saw something she didn’t.
Yes, she thought cynically, they saw something, all right. They saw Solange draping her skinny arms around Khaled Kitaev’s broad neck and a line of ambitious showgirls asking when was it their turn.
Solange was apparently going to have hers, and it firmed Gigi’s chin.
The lowest common denominator was not going to save this theatre or their jobs.
Khaled Kitaev didn’t care about the cabaret. He had no stake in it. He’d won the thing in a card game. All he cared about was the bottom line. Specifically at the moment that bottom being Solange’s, but Gigi could well imagine him cutting a swathe through the other bottoms of the troupe. There were some very shapely bottoms.
Gigi swished her plumage-heavy tail like a haughty lyrebird and took off after the other girls.
She would see about that.
* * *
‘Mademoiselle...?’
‘Valente.’
‘Mademoiselle, I’m afraid I cannot give you the information you seek. At the Plaza Athénée we value our guests’ right to privacy.’
The concierge gave her that bland smile peculiar to people in his
