Cover

Dedication

This one is for Tim Lebbon

Motörhead lover, Skype brother

Part I
Canary

1
New L.A. Woman

Her favorite time, her favorite place. Nighttime on Sunset—the vibe, the opportunists, the neon signs throwing dreamy color. Everything about it made her feel alive. And at twenty-four, Kitty wanted to feel alive. It was why she had moved here.

She put her skateboard beneath her and rolled, breathing warm, tainted air. A smile—as wide and sweet as a slice of orange—broke across her face. She smelled exhaust, peppered steak, vape perfumes, a blend of colognes. A street performer played “What a Fool Believes” and high-fived her between chord changes. Her wheels thumped off the sidewalk.

Kitty Rae had been in Los Angeles four months. It still moved her, and her heart still made a hopeful, tinkling sound when she walked. She’d gone from waiting tables to bartending to selling Jell-O shots at Spearmint Rhino, all within a space of eleven weeks, then Kris “Sly Boy” Streeter had discovered her. Sly Boy was not the talent scout she’d been hoping for, but he lined her pockets in exchange for easy work. It was a start.

It also allowed her to move out of shared lodgings in MacArthur Park to a smaller—but all hers!—apartment in Silver Lake. It was several steps shy of the L.A. residence she’d imagined for herself, but she loved being on the third floor, where the rugged, hypnotically moving tops of the fan palms were at eye level. Even better was the way the setting sun caught her street and splashed the buildings with mauves and oranges. Passion Hour, she called it, even though it lasted only minutes, seven at the most.

Where I live, she’d posted on Instagram, beneath a photograph of her street draped in those rich colors. Her friends back in Louisville had commented: OMFG!! and, Sweeeeeet!! and, Yo still Kentucky bitch. Her mama—whose cheekbones Kitty had inherited, as well as her propensity to dream—had added, So beautiful babygurl but have U met any CELEBRITIES yet??

Well . . .

She’d seen Caitlyn Jenner at a photo shoot at the Getty, and Ezra Faustino arguing with a valet attendant outside a restaurant in North Hollywood (“I will fuck the fuck out of your shit!” Mr. Faustino had screamed). All that was lit, but what was totally lit was the fact that she lived opposite—opposite—Luke Kingsley.

Mama: Who?

Luke Kingsley, the troubled star of Ventura Knights and A Bullet Affair. Kitty told her mama this but Mama didn’t know those movies, so Kitty told her what Luke Kingsley was really famous for.

Mama: Oh shit!