Mind Play (Bennett Sisters Book 3) (11 page)

“Of course I did
.
I even brought a few more
outfits
if you need them.”

“
Well, y
ou
’ve
got your work cut out for you
.
I need you to give me a
full makeover
—
h
air, nails,
clothes
, the works. That
should do the trick for what
I need.”

They both
just stood there staring at Claire like she had grown a horn on her head, but
Vivian
eventually
started pulling out clothes
and her makeup
from the
bag, getting ready
to perform
the transform
ation. Vivian might not be a doctor getting ready for surgery, but the hairdresser had skills all of her own.
Claire needed this to be extreme for her
to pull of this charade.
She wanted to look like a completely different person, one that
the neighbors on the street wouldn’t recognize.

“Have a seat and let’s get started
,
”
Vivian said as she walked to the vanity.

Claire had never seen a woman with so much makeup in her life. She had
eye shadows and brushes in
every color of
the rainbow. She opened her bag
and glanced
up at Claire through the mirror
. “What type of look
do you want
?” Vivian asked.

“
I need to look like I fit in at a biker bar
.” Claire
raised her gaze in the mirror to her sister
’
s to see a smirk on her face.

“What on earth for?” Emma asked
.

Biting her lip with unease
,
she reached for her pearls and twisted
,
still gazing at Emma in the mirror.
“Butch
got a tip that someone
tried to cash one of my fundraiser checks, and the guy hangs out at a biker bar
across town
.
If I go dressed in my slacks and pearls,
he’ll run before we
even have a chance to
question him.
”

Emma crossed her arms
over
her chest and raised an eyebrow
.
T
he look was one
Claire had
given to her sisters
many times,
but
this was
the first time Emma had given it to her
. “
Butch
isn’t going to let you go with him. I’m not sure why you’re bothering with
all
this
,
”
Emma said as her hand motioned to the clothing and the makeup.

Vivian was one of the few friends that knew their
family
secrets.
Emma had spilled the beans so to speak almost a year
before
when she’d been worried about Vivian’s abusive ex-boyfriend. So Claire decided to
tell
her the
truth
,
since there would be no
repercussions
for
her secret coming out
. “
It’s simple really.
He needs
me;
he just doesn’t know it yet. If the guy decides not to talk, I can always
poke at
his mind to find the truth.”

Vivian started pulling out her makeup and got right down t
o work while Claire debated the plan
with Emma. “I still can’t see him letting you go
. I
t could be too dangerous
. Y
ou’ve never been to a place like that
.”

“Emma
,
you of all people know that I can take care of myself. Besides
,
Butch does
n’t
have
much of
a choice. When I set my mind to do something, there i
s no changing it. I promise I’ll be careful
,
and I’ll
even carry my gun.”

Emma glanced
to Vivian
.
“Do whatever you need to do
to make sure she looks like she fits in.
”
Emma placed her hands on Claire’s shoulder
and
narrowed her eyes at Claire’s reflection
in the mirror
. “Keep your phone on vibrate. If I start to get any feelings whatsoever
or if Momma Mae tell
s
me you’re in trouble
, I want you out of there. At the first feelings I g
et that something is wrong and you don’t answer
, I’m send
ing in the troops to get you
,
and trust me, you don’t want that
.”

Emma looked as though she meant business, and Claire wouldn’t put it pas
t
her sister to send Jake, Mike
,
and Briggs to the rescue. Emma seemed to be making her own stand on the issue and wa
sn’t giving Claire the option. Claire smiled up at Emma and gave a curt nod
. “Agreed.”

The transformation
from head to toe
took two hours before everything was said and done. T
hey had been interrupted
only
once by
Jake. When Emma had told him Claire’s plan all
,
he could do was shake his head and
then
laugh
before mumbling something about Butch as he
retreated back through the door
.

Claire
stood looking in
to
the full
-
length mirror a
ttached to the back of the door, admiring Vivian’s handiwork.
She wasn’t sure what Vivian had done, but she definitely didn’t look like herself.
The
dress wasn’t bad. It wasn’t something she’d pick out, but she guessed that was the point. The short red dress clung to her curves like a glove.
Claire
leaned over to battle
with the hemline,
and
when she looked up
, she saw
her breast
s
almost spilling out
of the top
. She straightened up quickly, making sure the girls didn’t escape
.

Vivian threw her arm around Claire’s shoulders.
“It’s sup
posed to be that short
. Q
uit fidgeting
. The wome
n that frequent that bar want to be seen and to have a good time
while they’re at it
.”

“I’m just not use
d
to it is all.
” Claire tilted her head to the side. “
I’ve never worn anything so…short.”
It wasn’
t so much
uncomfortable, but Claire felt naked.
Aside from her bathing suits, s
he hadn’t revealed this much skin in a long time
.
Her
gel
-
filled
push
-
up bra hidden beneath the red shiny dress made her breast
s
look like D’s and not the small
er
C’s she was accustomed to.
Claire felt the need to keep tugging down at the hemline and up at the neckline. Uncomfortable didn’t begin to describe how she felt in this dress, but she could do it for
just
one night.
Thank god for small favors
;
the 3
-
inch heels weren’t going to
be a
problem
. S
he
’d been use
d
to wearing
high heels
at
her fundraisers.
Claire
had been
sure there would be two layers
of makeup
caked on her face
and she’d look like a clown
, but Vivian
’s handiwork was
flawless
.
Claire’s
false eyelashes were long
and coated with mascara
, and her
smoky eyes would fit in at a club
. E
ven her fingernails had been
painted
a
fire engine red
to match the dress
.

Emma walked up to the other side of her and let her gaze run from Claire’s toes to her head. “Claire, you look hot. I’m not sure Butch is going to be able to handle this.”

Claire shrugged
her shoulder
.
This was not a look Claire had ever
worn
before.
She didn’t feel like thirty
-
nine while she was wearing it.
It wasn’t
as
skanky as
she’d expected;
it was sexy.
It didn’t scream biker babe, but then again, what did she know
about how they dressed
?
She never frequented those types of bars.
She
’
d get a lot of looks in this outfit
—
or
maybe she
should say, lack of outfit
—
and maybe
she could
even
use it to her advantage
. She
’d be mortified if
she r
a
n into any of her fundraiser friends
. S
he wasn’t sure how she
’d
explain her “new” look
to them
.