Her phone buzzes just as she’s buckling the last black Mary Jane shoe on my foot.
She checks the screen, then fakes a smile in my direction. “One moment, Cadee. I have to take this.” And she steps out of the room, pulling my door closed behind her.
I get up and look in the mirror. It’s a cute outfit, but definitely not something you wear to a secret society party on New Year’s Eve.
Well… not if you’re a guest, that is. A servant. No, not a servant. It’s too branded for a servant. But definitely someone subservient. A… student, right? That’s what this uniform means. I am a student of something.
But what?
I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know the answer to that.
Leela comes back in the room. She pauses in the doorway and just stares at me.
“What?”
She takes a deep breath and smiles. “Jack forgot something at home. He wants me to pick it up and bring it to the tomb.” She glances up and down my body. “You’re ready. Let’s go.” She turns and walks down the hallway. “Come along, Cadee.”
I follow her to the grand foyer. There is a round table underneath a sparkling chandelier and on the table is a bottle of champagne and two glasses. Already filled. They both have satin ribbons tied around the stems. One blue, one gold.
Leela hands me the gold one.
I’m not in the mood to drink—I need to be sober tonight—but she’s already toasting me. “Here’s to our future, Cadee. It’s going to be rich, it’s going to be long, and it’s going to be fabulous.”
She holds her glass up and I gently touch mine to it. The clink is soft and short. A little anticlimactic. She takes a long sip of her drink and then I do the same.
It’s strawberry-flavored.
She laughs. “It’s kind of a joke. I thought you’d appreciate it.”
“What’s a joke?”
“The strawberry champagne, of course. It’s revenge, right?”
“Um. Sure.”
“Drink up, Cadee. We need to go.” Then she downs her drink, sets her glass down, and slips her coat on.
I debate whether or not I should argue with her about the drink, then decide it’s not worth it. I finish it, set my glass down next to hers, and slip my coat on too.
Leela takes my hand. “Come on. You haven’t been to my house yet. We have to be quick, but I’ll give you a little tour.”
Outside it’s cold and windy and that sucks, because apparently, we are walking. The blacktop road has been cleared of snow, and several limos are parked along the edge of the woods. People who are probably at the tomb already.
We head down the road and when I look to my right, at Mona’s house, I see her peeking out from the front window. She waves at me, then disappears.
If Leela notices, she doesn’t say anything.
She and Jack live only six houses away, but that’s a long walk in the dead of a winter night because the lots are freaking huge. We probably walk at least a half a mile. And by the time she opens her front door and I step inside, I am so freaking cold and tired, I slink down into a straight-backed chair in the foyer.
“Cadee,” she admonishes me. “Get up. We’re in a hurry.”
“I just—” But she pulls me to my feet and starts leading me down a hallway. I lose track of things then. There is a door. And some steps. And another door. And then she says, “Just lie down, Cadee. And close your eyes.”
My head is fuzzy. Like it was that night Mona and I smoked weed. Only it’s much, much worse.
“You drugged me.” It comes out weak and slurred.
She swipes the hair away from my forehead. “I’m sorry, sweets. You would’ve been so much fun. But Cooper failed his test. He’s out, my dear. And that means you’re nobody now.”
“What?”
“But don’t worry.” She kisses me on the lips. “It will all be over soon.”
Then she gets up, clicks off the lights, closes the door, and I am alone.
In the dark.
And I can’t move.
Cooper failed, I’m nobody, she drugged me and…
It will all be over soon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - COOPER
“Lars!” I yell it. “You motherfucker!”
Someone kicks me. “Shut up.”
It’s not a voice I recognize. Someone much older than the guys I know from school.
The van is driving fast. Recklessly taking corners so that I have to brace myself to keep from rolling. “Where are you taking me?”
“Shut. Up!”
I know I should shut up. This is a kidnapping. I’ve been here, done that many, many times.
But it’s not that kind of kidnapping. There will be no keg at the end of this ride. No party. No loud music and flashing lights.
Because I walked out and now they’re gonna make me pay.
Lars is gonna make me pay.
For taking away his crown, and his girl, and all those other delusional things he thinks I stole from him.
The van stops abruptly and I roll into someone’s leg. The door whooshes open, someone grabs me, cuts the zip ties on my feet, pulls me out, stands me up, and then the hood is lifted off my head.
“Lars.” I narrow my eyes at him. “What a surprise.”
He puts up a hand. “Don’t get excited, asshole. I’m one of the good guys.” Then he pans his hand to the black ops team who just kidnapped me.
They aren’t black ops.
They are FBI.
I look back at Lars. “What the hell?”
“We found it, Coop. It was right where you said it would be.”
“You found it?” Holy fuck. I want to sit, but there are no chairs, so I just lean against the van. Someone cuts the zip ties on my hands. “What was down there?”
Lars sighs. “It’s way worse than we ever thought. Come on. Dante, Ax, and Victor are inside.”
That’s when I realize where I am. The Rib Shack in Monrovia. The place is obviously closed, but the door opens when we approach it. “What the hell are we doing here?”
Lars pans his hand at the door, telling me to go first. I do, and from behind me he says, “This is Dante’s headquarters. Apparently, some distant relative owns it. We’ve been staging the operation out of here for a week now.”
We go inside, pass the first dining room, and then enter the far one in the back. Ax, Dante, and Victor are sitting at the bar. They all swivel in their seats when Lars and I enter.
I look at Ax first. I want to tell him… things. Not what Jack told me. I never want to tell him those things. I want to tell him he’s more than what they tried to turn him into. He’s more. He’s smart, he’s got a good heart, and he’s loyal. He’s loyal and I don’t have to buy that loyalty with blackmail.
I want to say all of that before this goes any further. I want him to know that I see him.
But just as I open my mouth I realize… he sees me too. So instead I say, “You found it.”
Ax nods. But he’s not smiling.
The project my father gave me for Capstone was a dig at the tomb. Actually, it wasn’t a dig—that’s just what it turned into. It was a well-thought-out plan to use technology to scan the underground area surrounding the tomb. I found all the secret passageways down there. Mapped that shit out good. I figured that’s what my father was after. But when I showed them the scans, they just shook their heads.