A Taste of Pink (Shades Book 4)

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  The fairies were back.

  They fluttered around my skirt, picking up the ends and making it fly all around me. It felt so nice. I never wanted to take this dress off. I wanted to wear it forever. I never wanted the fairies to leave. I spun and spun, needing the slight breeze it created to cool my skin. It was so warm.

  And too loud. There was a thump thump. Thump thump. Steady like a drum beat, but where was the drum?

  I looked around the room, but the walls wouldn’t stay still. They were moving and I couldn’t find where the music was coming from.

  Thump thump. Thump thump.

  Oh, the drum was inside me. It was beating so fast.

  I stumbled in my heels back over to my vanity, reaching for my tea cup, on the verge of tears when I tipped it to my lips only to discover it was empty. I was so thirsty.

  The bathroom. There was water in the bathroom, but before I could make my way across the room, another voice fluttered through the air.

  “So lovely you are.”

  Despite the pretty words, the voice instantly made me seize up. It didn’t belong here with the fairies and the music. I tried to spin around, but my feet and my brain weren’t on the same page. I tripped, falling backwards to the floor. My vision went in and out when my head bounced off the carpet.

  Footsteps padded closer to me and all the voices in my head shouted at once to get away, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t crawl or push myself up. All I could do was lie there as the footsteps came closer and my heart picked up a terrified pace and the ceiling started to fall.

  I squeezed my eyes closed and whimpered as I tried to lift my hands to protect my face from the falling ceiling, but it never hit me. When I blinked them open again, the ceiling was where it should be, but a shadow loomed over me. No, not a shadow.

  A face.

  A horrible face.

  No. No. No.

  I tried to cry out, but before I could make much more than a squeak, he was reaching for me, yanking me to my feet. I wobbled. I only had one shoe.

  “It’s okay.” He held me tight to him, my squirming useless against his tight hold. He shushed my crying with a finger over my lips. “It’s all going to be okay.”

  No. No. No.

  It was not going to be okay.

  “I’ve got you now. I’m going to take you away from here.”

  He started dragging me toward the door. My resistance was pathetic. My limbs wouldn’t cooperate and fight him off, even though my brain kept telling me I knew what to do. I knew how to fight him off, but I just couldn’t. There were weights on my hands and legs, and the drumming was so loud now, it hurt.

  I couldn’t even scream. I tried. I really did, but all that would come out were tiny whimpers and soft cries. He got me in the hallway and started dragging me in the direction of the back staircase. It would take me away from the party and all the people. I couldn’t let that happen. I tried one more time to jerk out of his arms. My legs completely gave out and I dropped like dead weight to the floor. He came down almost on top of me.

  I managed to crawl on my stomach out from under him as he struggled to push himself up. Hands dug into my waist and I could feel myself being lifted back up.

  I’d lost my other shoe and it lay just within my reach. I grabbed for it, managing to wrap my fingers around it just as I was pulled back up.

  I spun in his grasp and swung the shoe at his face, the heel striking him just above the eye. Ribbons of red poured out and he stumbled backward.

  I cried out in relief and turned, praying my legs wouldn’t fail me. The new burst of strength carried me away from the growling beast, but a second later I heard his thunderous footsteps behind me. I cried out and pushed harder, but all my legs could do was stumble.

  I just had to make it to the staircase. The party was going on down there. Someone would see me. Someone would hear. James would come. I turned the corner just as I felt a hand wrap around my bicep. I flailed and swung my elbow. It connected with something and there was a grunt, but the hand released me.

  I could see the party now, over the railing that looked over the foyer. Relief washed over me. I made it to the staircase. I looked over my shoulder, but the beast was gone.

  Nowhere in sight. I stopped and gripped the railing.

  Where did he go?

  I held tight to the railing, using it for support as I stumbled to the top of the staircase. When I reached the top, so many faces turned to look up at me. Lights and colors swam and danced before my eyes. All I could think about was getting to him. Everything would be okay if I could just get to him.

  I took the first step, but then everything except the drum beat faded out, and I was weightless, flying or floating for a suspended second. I thought I heard him yell my name over the thundering bass, but then I heard nothing.

  I was nothing.

  Twenty-Eight

  James

  She was going to fall.

  My heart stopped beating, and time suspended in that moment. Something was wrong with her. Her head lolled on her shoulders just as her knees buckled. Time resumed, and I watched her tumble down several stairs onto the landing. There was a collective gasp and the whole room froze.

  “Riley,” I shouted and then started shoving people out of my way. I took the stairs three at a time and fell to my knees beside her crumpled form. “Riley,” I cupped her face, “Riley, can you hear me?”

  She was still.

  I felt for a pulse, breathing out in relief when I found one. Her chest was moving up and down faintly. “Someone call an ambulance,” I roared over my shoulder.

  “Come on Riley, open those eyes,” I begged, brushing hair off her flushed face, hoping like hell someone had called for that ambulance.

  Luis and her dad and Jayne and Hunter all materialized next to me, but when her dad knelt to scoop her into his arms, I ordered everyone not to move her. Instead, he took his hand in hers and whispered pleas for her to wake up.

  Eventually paramedics arrived, and she was put into a neck brace before being lifted onto a stretcher and loaded in the back of an ambulance.

  I don’t remember the ride to the hospital or much of anything over the next couple hours.

  I paced the length of the room we’d been escorted to while we waited for news. Luis, Eric, Jayne, Angela, and even Hunter were all there. I listened to Jayne recount getting ready for the party with Riley and leaving her alone for a few minutes. None of it made sense.

  I heard Luis ask Jayne if she thought Riley had taken anything.

  I stalked over and shoved him against the wall.

  Eric had to pull me off him, but Luis didn’t mention drugs again. Riley didn’t do drugs. She wouldn’t. I knew she’d been upset when I left her after our fight, but she still wouldn’t take anything.

  She had to be okay.

  She had to be okay.

  This was Emily all over again. The helplessness made me want to wretch. I had to sit before I punched something. Why hadn’t the doctor given us any news yet?

  We were all just waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

  The first word that came from the doctor was that she was stable but had slipped into a coma. A coma. They didn’t know what caused it. Or when she would wake up.

  Or if.

  She had to wake up. Had to.

  All we could do was wait some more. And wait. And wait.

  We were finally allowed to see her, but not all at once. Her dad went first. Then me. I insisted and Luis didn’t argue. Not after I shot him a death glare.

  She looked so peaceful. But so pale. Way too pale. And so fragile in the hospital bed.

  “Please wake up, baby.”

  Nothing.

  I let go of her hand and leaned over to place a light kiss on her lips.

  “You have to wake up for me.”

  She didn’t.

  Not for two more days. Two hellish days. During which time we learned that she had ingested something. It was called Angel’s Trumpet. I Googled it
since all I had was time. It was a deceptively harmless looking pink flower from South America, known to possess some medicinal qualities, but in different doses could be taken as a recreational drug. One that induced hallucinations and euphoria. Too much though, and it could cause memory loss, convulsions, paralysis, coma, and even death.

  Like I said, those days waiting to see if she was going to pull through were absolute hell.

  The plant was found in Riley’s tea. It wasn’t supposed to be there. The supplier who made it special for Riley confirmed that. The one thing I knew for certain, despite what Luis implied on several occasions, Riley didn’t take it knowingly. Which meant someone else put it there. I intended to find out who. I had a pretty good idea.

  Hating to leave the hospital, but not trusting anyone else, I returned to the house. Luis and Eric had already been through Riley’s room and her things, that’s how the teacup and tainted tea had been discovered, but I knew there had to be something else.

  In her bedroom, the bedroom we’d shared, where we’d—no I couldn’t think about that right now. I needed to have a clear head. My eyes caught on a pair of flesh colored high heels with a sparkly heel. I remembered they’d been in the hallway. I picked one up and noticed the heel was dirty.

  Not dirty. Bloody.

  That was all I needed.

  The police got involved after that, and the morning Riley woke up, tests came back matching the sample to Warren Baker.

  Twenty-Nine

  Riley

  What happened?

  What did I remember?

  Those were the questions everyone kept asking me. First doctors, then my father and James, and Luis, and then finally the police.

  The problem: I didn’t remember.

  I told the police the same thing I’d been saying since I first woke up. “I was in my room getting ready for my party with Jayne, and then . . . that’s it.”

  I’d learned since waking up that there’d been something, a toxic plant called Angel’s Trumpet, which sounded vaguely familiar, in my tea. That was why I couldn’t remember anything else. I’d also learned that Warren Baker had attacked me.

  There were flashes of a monster and the sense of trying to scream but no sound coming out, but it only made my head hurt and an overwhelming sense of terror wash over me. I couldn’t breathe as I listened to James tell me what happened. Helplessness was trying to swallow me whole.

  I was in a coma for almost three days? I might have never woken up. I could have died, but it didn’t seem real. How could it when the memories weren’t there? It couldn’t be real because it wasn’t there in my head. It never happened, but it did. I was in a hospital bed with a concussion and an array of bruises for proof.

  He was going to get me.

  He was going to get me.

  My body shook and I began bawling.

  James took me in his arms and promised me he wouldn’t let him get me, but I couldn’t stop.

  Eventually nurses came in and I was sedated because I wouldn’t calm down. I squeezed James’ hand and looked into his anguished face as I felt the drugs pulling me under.

  “I don’t want to go to sleep again,” I whimpered. I was so scared, and then slowly everything went dark again.

  Thirty

  James

  “Why isn’t there a police detail outside her room?” I growled at Luis.

  He held up both his hands in a defensive gesture. “We don’t want to call unnecessary attention to this. If we stick police officers outside her room, people might get the wrong impression. The media is already having a field day with this. The entire world now thinks she overdosed.”

  “I don’t give a shit about the media,” I clipped. “Tell them the truth or tell them nothing. It doesn’t matter, but she should be protected.” Eric agreed with me, but unfortunately, he wasn’t here to help me combat Luis. He’d left the hospital to rest and get cleaned up at his hotel after the near constant vigil he’d kept the last three days.

  After the doctors put her back out, they insisted she’d be out for a while, and advised all of us to take a break. Luis didn’t take any convincing. He’d been gone several hours trying to “manage” the situation. Jayne and I had to practically force Eric out the door, promising we would stay until he came back.

  Now it was Luis who was back and pissing me off as usual.

  “I understand you’re concerned, but this is a hospital. The best hospital in all of Los Angeles. There are security guards and security cameras everywhere, not to mention doctors, nurses, other patients, and visitors on every floor. Do you really think he would try to sneak in here?”

  “I didn’t think he would try to sneak into her birthday party, and yet somehow he managed that.” I still hadn’t figured out how. Or how he got past the Teller system at Riley’s house to install the cameras I’d found. The guy was either a criminal mastermind, or we were missing something. My money was on we were missing something. Or someone helping him.

  Luis continued to argue with me and brush off my concerns, worried more about paparazzi and tabloids than Riley’s safety. Until Eric came back there was nothing I could do about it. As her father, he was the only one who could supersede Luis.

  “I know you think I don’t care about my stepdaughter, but I do. Why do you think I’m here? I don’t intend to leave her vulnerable, but I’m also thinking about her career and the mess she will have to face when she leaves here.”

  The guy was a weasel, and I didn’t care what he said. His priorities were fucked.

  I stalked off and returned to Riley’s room, taking up my seat beside her bed. Before long, Hunter walked in. He handed me a coffee that thankfully didn’t look like it’d come from the hospital cafeteria. “You should get out of here for a little while.”

  “I don’t want to leave her alone. It’s not safe for her to be alone.”

  “And what am I, a girl scout?”

  “I’d feel better leaving her with a girl scout,” I retorted.

  “You’re just afraid she’ll wake up, see my pretty face and change her mind about choosing you.”

  I barked out a dry laugh. “Not even a little bit.”

  “You should be worried that she’ll wake up, see your haggard ass looking face and regret her choice. You look worse than she does.”

  I shot him a glare.

  “You know I’m right. Just go. I’m here. Luis is right outside. Angela just showed up. Jayne and Eric will be back soon. Hospital security is on the alert. We can take care of her for an hour or two.”

  “I’ll stay.”

  Until Warren was caught I wasn’t leaving her side again.

  “Suit yourself.” He planted himself in a chair on the wall and pulled out his phone. I was just glad he didn’t try to make small talk. I much preferred the silence to think.

  It was only broken when my phone rang a few minutes later with a Los Angeles number.

  “Hello.”

  “Is this Mr. Rayne’s?” The voice was male.

  “It is.”

  “This is Gary, I work security in Miss James’ neighborhood. You asked me to keep an extra eye on her place and call you if we noticed anything.”

  I sat up straighter. “Did something happen?”

  “Well, one of the guys was doing a drive-by of her place and he noticed a prowler snooping around. The guy tried to run for it, but we caught him before he could get over the gate. Now, he doesn’t have any ID on him, and I can’t find that picture you gave us, one of the guys must have misplaced it, but I think this is your guy.”

  “Describe him,” I clipped. Hunter looked up from his cell, suddenly interested in my conversation. I ignored his curious gaze and listened to Gary’s description of the guy they apprehended.

  “White guy, about five-ten, average build, one-sixty, maybe one-seventy. Dark, shaggy hair. A little bit of scruff on the jaw.”

  That was Baker to a T.

  “Normally we’d just call the police, but since you asked, and I
know Miss James values her privacy, I called you first. What do you want us to do with him?”

  “Hold him. I’ll be right there.” I hung up and looked at Hunter. “You don’t leave her side, got me?”

  “Yeah, did they catch him?”

  “I think so, but I have to be sure.”

  Thirty-One

  Riley

  A pinch in my arm jolted me awake with a hiss and straight into a nightmare.

  “Good you’re awake now.” Warren was standing over my bed, holding the IV he’d just ripped from my arm in his hand. He looked different. His hair was short and his face clean shaven, but the dark crazy eyes were the same.

  I scrambled to get out of the bed, but my brain still a little fuzzy, and it was a vain effort. Warren clamped down on my arm and waved a gun in front of my face. “Uh, uh, uh.”

  I stilled immediately. This couldn’t be happening? How was this happening? Where was everyone? Where was James?

  “Good girl. We’ll have none of what happened last time. You’re going to come quietly with me.”

  My eyes darted around the room and to the door, waiting for James to come busting in to my rescue, but he didn’t. No one came through the closed door. I glanced at the nurse call button, but he caught me.

  “Don’t even think about it. Put these on.” He let go of my arm and shoved an oversized hoodie and some yoga pants at me.

  I took them. “Why are you doing this?”

  “You know why. Now get dressed.”

  “I have no idea why you’re doing this, Warren. Why do you want to hurt me?”

  “I don’t want to, but I will if you make me,” he said calmly, waving the pistol in his hand again.

  I clumsily dragged the yoga pants on under my hospital gown, and then tugged the zip up hoodie on, while silently sending up prayers for help.

  “What now?” I failed to mask the fear in my voice. I didn’t want to give him that, but it was pointless.

  “Now, we get out of here.”

  “And go where? How do you think this is going to work, Warren? Do you really think you’re going to get me out of this hospital without anyone noticing? Just go. Leave, and I won’t even call for help. You can still get out of here on your own.”