by JA Huss
“I don’t know if I can,” she says. And there is real fear in her face. Genuine terror.
“You can,” I say, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a shake. “Now let’s go back out there and pretend everything is fine, all right?”
She swallows hard, takes a few moments to think about it, and then nods. “OK.”
We exit the bathroom and rejoin our new… men. Good Lord. What the fuck? is right. These people are crazy. And then I lose track of her as more and more people come back from their little discussion rooms.
I do my duty, because I know when to shut up and do as I’m told, and this is definitely one of those times. So I dance with Frank. And every other man in the room. Since we are all in this together, each one needs to drive that point home with me personally. They tell me that over and over again as they twirl me around the room.
But at the end of the night, after Frank walks me to the entrance to the female side of the house, and after I’m exhausted from all the fake smiles I’ve been beaming, and after I strip out of that designer dress, change into my jeans and a Shrike Bikes t-shirt, and make my way out to the quad at exactly one AM…
I know something is wrong. Because Tera never shows up.
Chapter Twenty-Three - Five
My father doesn’t come to the funeral. It’s better that way. I’m not sure how my mom is taking the news, since we’ve decided distance is the best course of action going forward. He warned me not to get in touch with Rory because that would just make her a target, so I haven’t.
But I desperately want to. I need to warn her. I need to be there for her. I need to know she’s OK. Hold her in my arms and never let her go.
My grandfather was laid to rest this morning in a private family cemetery on his sprawling ten-acre property in Southern California. The entire organization was present to pay respects, but it wasn’t a complicated affair like it would’ve been had the funeral occurred back in Hong Kong.
Part of me is sad about that, since he loved that city and Taoist funerals are a pretty big deal. We did burn the spirit money—called joss paper—the entire time to give it a little flair. Chen insisted on it, even though my grandfather didn’t believe in spirits.
“It’s always better to be safe than sorry,” Chen had said. “And it makes people feel better if they contribute to his wealth in the afterlife.”
But now that it’s done, my thoughts are on what’s next. Was he poisoned? We won’t know for another week, at least. Who did it? Was it Wen? Maybe. But after hearing his offer, I doubt it. I don’t think it was Wen. How do I figure into all this? Again, Wen’s offer has me questioning everything. And Rory? What’s happening back at Princeton?
“Do you need anything?” Chen asks.
We’re staying in the family home. It’s huge and it sits up in the Rancho Santa Fe hills, just north of San Diego. Everyone is staying here, since there’s ten bedrooms, a pool house, and a guest house. But the place seems empty and quiet from the seclusion of the conservatory on the western side of the mansion. This was not my grandfather’s actual office—that’s in another wing, near the front entrance—but he liked this room best.
“I’m gonna miss him,” I say, sipping a glass of Scotch. I’m sad that he’s gone. I’m sad that I never got to say goodbye. I’m sad that I’m never going to have that final conversation with him. The one where I say no, I will not be part of your legacy.
I admired him as a child. Hell, even well into my teens. When he came to our house when I was little he was just… a well-mannered businessman. Innocuous. But my mom—and especially my dad—were always suspicious of him. When I found why at the age of nine it all seemed… kinda cool. My grandfather was the head of a Chinese Triad.
I was kinda proud of him.
But that was before my mom and dad explained all the shit they were involved in when they were younger. I could hardly believe what I was hearing when they explained Kate’s role in all this. Her biological father was some kind of secret society assassin, for fuck’s sake.
No kid is prepared to handle that.
But I was already on a road to… this by then.
“We’re all going to miss him,” Chen belatedly replies to my sadness.
But I don’t think they are. He was old. It was his time. They want to move on and it shows.
“You need to go back to Hong Kong and make a statement.”
He doesn’t mean statement, as in speech. He means statement, as in acts of violence to ensure I can take Damian’s place as the head of his men.
“Yeah,” I say, taking another sip of my drink. The ice clinks in the cut-crystal glass as I set it down on a nearby table. “I’m heading back tonight. Just a little side trip to Colorado to see my mom and make sure she’s OK.”
“She should’ve come to pay her respects,” Chen says. He’s mad about that, but nobody gives one fancy fuck what Chen is mad about. Least of all my mother.
“My father said no. And when my father says no, the answer is no.”
Chen says nothing.
“I’m going alone,” I say.
“No,” Chen says. “I have to—”
“I said,” I snap, anger flashing in my eyes, “I’m going. To go. Alone.”
Chen sighs, then shrugs. “I’ll get the plane ready.”
“No need,” I say. “I’m going to drive.”
“Drive?” Chen says, his exasperation with me plainly showing. “That’s a waste of time.”
“I have a little time to waste. The meeting with Wen isn’t until next week.”
Chen’s mad about that too. But he has the good sense to leave it alone. We’ve been over and over this meeting several times over the past few days. I told him Wen wants to make a deal in our favor. He’s finally crossing over to the dark side. Most of the officers in the Hong Kong Organized Crime and Triad Bureau are already on the mob payroll. Wen and his small group of do-gooders are the last holdouts. Chen knows if we can get Wen on our side, we’ll be infinitely more powerful. So he’s torn. And he stays silent.
A knock on the glass doors make us both look at the same time. The butler enters with my bags. “Here you are, Mr. Aston.”
“Thank you,” I say, standing up and buttoning my suit coat.
“Your car is waiting outside,” the butler says.
“You’re leaving now?” Chen asks.
“Now,” I say, striding over to the butler. He picks up my bags and we leave Chen standing in the conservatory.
Outside, the Porsche is waiting, as promised. It’s nice. A ’61 silver 718/RS Spyder that my grandfather probably never drove, simply looked at on occasion. The mechanic was clearly against me taking it on a road trip through the Rocky Mountains when I told him to get it ready this morning before the funeral.
But fuck it. If you’re gonna go down, you might as well go down in style.
My two bags—just an overnight satchel and a spare suit in a garment bag—are placed on the passenger seat as I lower my sunglasses and get in.
I leave them all behind, squealing the tires on the smooth concrete driveway. With any luck, I’ll never see this place again.
The trip will be short. I’m not driving a three-million-dollar car to Colorado. These people must be crazy to let me even consider it.
A small smile creeps out as I wind my way through the hills, hugging the corners of the twisting road, and then head up El Camino Real to the McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.
A small jet is waiting on the tarmac, as is my father, the infamous Rutherford Aston IV. Einstein-level mastermind of pretty much everything that has kept his family and friends safe over the past twenty-three years.
I’m counting on his genius to pull off the impossible one last time.
“Dad,” I say, getting out of the car and handing the keys over to a waiting attendant.
“Get in,” he says, panning a hand to the jet. “We’ve got a lot to talk about, Five.”
Chapter Twenty-Four - Rory
&n
bsp; “Hey.” I grab Mia in the hallway before she can jet past me. “Have you seen Tera? I’ve been playing phone tag with her all week.”
Mia shrugs me off and keeps going. “I’m late for class and Jeremy is waiting for me outside. Saw her this morning.” And then she disappears out the front door.
I look around, but it’s been quiet all week. I get that school started back up and everyone is busy… but it’s almost too quiet.
Tera never showed up for our one AM meeting last Saturday. And when I went to her room the next morning, she was already gone. Kallie said she was out with Brian. OK. I get it. He’s her pairing, or whatever. And it was all brand new. Hell, Frank has been by to see me every day too. But then she called me back after I left a message. So I called again on Monday. And Tuesday. She finally returned that call—which was a relief because I was starting to seriously worry something had happened to her—but I was in class, so I couldn’t pick up. And she knew I’d be in class.
So… is she avoiding me?
“Hey, Rory.”
I turn around to see Frank walking across the main foyer.
“Hi,” I say. I’ve been doing my best to act cool this week, but he’s really getting on my nerves. He showed up to walk me to class on Monday. Which would be sweet if we were… you know. In like and shit. But we’re not. So it was annoying. Then he showed up outside my class just before lunch. Then again, after my last class to walk me home. And that’s been his routine all week. Like he’s keeping an eye on me.
When Frank is close enough, he reaches for me, leans in, and kisses me on the cheek. I wince, then look around to see if anyone’s watching. But no, we’re alone.
Weird.
“Ready?” he asks.
I don’t need to ask what I’m ready for. Once again, he’s my campus chaperone.
“Have you seen Tera?” I ask. Because I’m desperate. I’m really starting to worry about her. I mean, she was so afraid last Saturday and then she just disappears?
“Yeah, about ten minutes ago. She and Brian were having breakfast in the dining hall.”
“Oh, I’m gonna go look for her real fast. You don’t need to walk me to class.”
But he grabs my arm and says, “They left. I saw them.”
Yup. Weird. And his touch isn’t getting any easier to deal with as the days pass. It’s getting creepier.
“So I’m in luck,” Frank says, smiling. “I get you all to myself.”
All my friends are preoccupied with their pairs. Is this how it’s supposed to be? “You’re in luck,” I say. “Were the guys ordered to keep us occupied? To monopolize our time and keep us from talking too much about this weekend? Because none of my friends seem to have time for me this week, Frank.”
Frank lifts that one stupid eyebrow at me. “What are you talking about? No one’s trying to monopolize your time, Aurora.”
I hate that he’s started calling me Aurora. He says Rory is a kid’s name and his wife needs a woman’s name.
My hand almost slapped him out of instinct when he spewed that shit.
“We’re just enamored with our new ladies, that’s all. Come on,” he says, wrapping my arm around his. “I’m responsible for getting you to class on time and you’re going to be late.”
I let him lead me out the door and across the street to campus, but since when do I need a fucking babysitter to get to class?
When we get to my classroom Frank leans in and kisses me on the cheek again. “See you right here afterward, OK? We’ll grab an early lunch since I know you didn’t eat breakfast.”
“No,” I say. It comes out automatically. I’m not the kind of girl who gets worked up like Mia is. I’m calm and rational most of the time. But once I get an idea in my head, I talk before I think.
“No?” Frank says. “What do you mean, no?”
Is that… anger I hear in his voice? “I mean,” I say, “I don’t need you to walk me to every single class, Frank. And I’m not having lunch with you today. I’m going to look for Tera after this. I just told you I haven’t spoken to her in days. I’m worried.”
He draws in a deep breath. People are staring at us, and he doesn’t miss that fact. But he keeps his attitude in check by putting up his hands in surrender. “Hey.” He laughs. But it’s not a real laugh. “I’m just trying to be nice, Princess.”
I glare at him. And I do mean glare. “Don’t. Call me that,” I say. “And you’re not trying to be nice. You’re smothering me. I barely know you, Frank. And I’m not your property, OK?”
He’s very aware that everyone has stopped what they’re doing to watch us argue.
So he backs away, shaking his head, and then turns on his heel and disappears into a crowd.
Good riddance.
Now everyone is staring at me. “What?” I ask the crowd of lookers. “You’ve never seen a girl be a bitch before?”
They avert their eyes and pretend to resume what they were doing.
I go inside the classroom, fuming.
It’s one of those big auditorium classrooms because this is a freshman class I’ve been putting off for ages. Stupid economics. And someone is sitting at my desk. Not that I really have a desk, it’s only the third day of class, but I was sitting there on Monday and Wednesday and now…
“Pssst. Rory!”
I turn to see who’s whisper-yelling my name and almost squeal with delight to see Tera, scrunched down in a seat in the back row. She’s wearing a gray hoodie and the hood is mostly covering her face.
“Tera!” I whisper back, pushing my way through the people still entering the auditorium, and flopping down beside her. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Bitch,” she says, lifting up her hood a little so she can look me in the eyes. “We need to talk.”
But just as she finishes, the professor begins to lecture and some uppity girl turns around in front of us to say, “Shhh.”
I roll my eyes. It’s freshman economics, for fuck’s sake. Not rocket science.
My phone dings in my backpack, which makes uppity girl shoot me another dirty look. I fish it out, turn off my ringer to keep the peace, and read the text.
Tera: I’m leaving school after this. Cliff is coming to pick me up.
Me: WTF?
Tera: Brian is being weird. He’s on me all the time. Like he knows I’m not going through with this pairing thing tomorrow night. I have to go.
Me: WTH is happening?
Tera: You should leave too. It’s not safe.
And then, before I can write anything back, she gets up from her seat and leaves.
I follow her out of the classroom and we’re barely through the doors when I grab her arm and spin her around. “What the hell is going on, Tera?”
“Shhh,” she says, looking nervously around. “They have spies everywhere.” She grabs my sleeve and drags me off down the hallway. But she doesn’t say another word until we get to a stairwell and have a flight of stairs and a closed door behind us.
“This is weird shit, Rory. Don’t you think this is weird?”
I can tell she’s afraid. And I can tell she’s not sure if she should trust me. So I just nod and say, “I do think so. But you can’t leave school, Tera. That’s crazy. We can just go to the administration building and file a complaint. We can leave Palladium House. Right now. Just go get our stuff and move out. We’ll get our own apartment.”
The whole time I’m talking she’s shaking her head. “No. No, this is bigger than you know. Cliff did some digging. I took a picture of that woman at the pledge dinner last weekend. Cliff says he knows her. And she is bad fucking news.”
“How does he know her?”
“He said she’s some rich guy’s daughter from Martha’s Vineyard. He met her in the Hamptons over the summer and she was asking all kinds of questions about where his girlfriend was.”
“What does this have to do with—”
“It is a cult, Rory! I know it sounds crazy, but I’m dead serious. You should not go ba
ck to the house. You should call up your parents and tell them you’re going home and if you don’t make it, they should call the police and implicate Frank Fulbright in your disappearance.”
She’s out of control. It’s not that I don’t agree with her, but… “Listen, Tera. I know this is weird, but you have to trust me, OK? I have people who can help us. You need to stay here with me.”
“Are you one of them?” Tera asks, suddenly pulling back from me. “Did they get to you too?”
“What? No! Of course not!”
“I tried to talk to Kallie about it on Sunday, but she just got angry. Told me to shut my mouth and do as I’m told or they’d…”
“They’d what?” I ask.
“They’d hurt me, Rory. I have to get out of here. And you should too.”
And then she’s racing down the stairs. Trying to get away from me. “Tera!” I call after her. But she’s through the door and gone before I can say anything else.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
And then I get nervous and decide it’s a bad idea to follow her out.
I get out my phone, wondering if those texts we just exchanged were safe or not. If they’re not, well, too late now. But I delete them anyway. Either way, that can’t be a bad idea.
I decide to go back into class because Frank is definitely not going to let that little argument go. He’ll be back when class is over and if I don’t come out… well. Who the hell knows what he’d do? He might even have someone watching me in there.
The door creaks as I enter and three dozen people in the back turn to look at me. I slink back to my seat in the last row and pass the time pretending to taking notes. But all I really do is stare at my phone, wishing it would light up with a text from Tera.
It never does.
I was right about Frank. He’s standing outside my classroom when I leave. Holding a white rose in his hand and smiling like a fool.
White? Really? Isn’t that the rose of death or something? It reminds me of funerals.
“Hey,” I say, unsure of what to do.
“Hey,” he says, holding out the rose. I really don’t want to take that rose, but everyone is looking at us now. So I have to. “Just didn’t want to leave things the way we left them. Not a good way to start our new life, Rory. If something’s bothering you, you need to learn to handle it better.”
