by JA Huss
“I think,” I say, really, really wanting to give her a proper Bombshell response that would make my mother proud, but thinking better of it at the last second. “I think I’d like to know where I am.”
Another indulgent smile. And then she snaps her fingers and lights begin flicking on, one by one, around the perimeter of the room.
Chapter Forty - Paxton
Five flips a switch and the lights go off, then come on again. But nothing else happens.
“Yeah,” Nolan says. “Nice hidden room.”
“You know what?” Oliver says. “You can just go back to your little fucking—”
“Oliver,” Five snaps. “Shut up. He hasn’t seen what we’ve seen over the years. Don’t blame him for thinking this is some crazy, fucked-up shit. OK?”
Oliver looks like he might punch Five. But Five stands his ground and meets his gaze and Oli turns away from Nolan.
Nolan sighs. “Look, you guys—”
But before he can finish, there’s a beeping sound and we all look behind us.
The shelf filled with stainless-steel mixing bowls is moving backwards into the wall, revealing a dark, empty hallway.
“What the fuck?” Nolan says.
I put a hand on his shoulder. Because I get it. When Five and Oliver started telling me about the secret hidden world they lived in, one I had no clue about, I felt the same way. “Just trust them, Nolan. Your sister is part of something much, much bigger than you can even imagine. And it all makes sense now, doesn’t it? She came into your life when you were just starting this resort project. Offered up some of her own money. And now you know,” I say. “Now you know why she did that.”
“She was planning on using this place as some… some…” But he can’t even make himself say the words.
“Secret headquarters,” Five finishes for him. “Come on, Cindy has to be in there.”
We all have guns, even Nolan. He looked at the rifle Five was handing him like there was no fucking way he was ever touching another weapon again after what happened out on Martha’s Vineyard. But then he had a second to finish that thought. And he knew Ivy would be dead right now if he hadn’t taken action when he did.
So he took his rifle. We all took our rifles, plus a handgun, sticking the pistols in the waistbands of our pants.
And now Five goes first, his rifle at high ready. Nolan and I go second, both of us mimicking Five’s weapon position. And Oliver brings up the rear so we have someone at our backs.
Chapter Forty-One - Cindy
Mirrors. The room is circular and the walls are lined with mirrors, so that when I look at them, I see nothing but an infinite reflection of me, sitting at this table, with Nolan’s crazy sister, Claudette Delaney.
“We call them infinity rooms,” she says.
“You have more than one?” I ask, trying not to get lost in the reflections. It’s like black magic, right? The only true representation of infinity in real life.
“Oh, yes. I’m going to destroy this resort when we leave here, Cynthia. Every outside recruit is honored with an infinity room that is only used once. After all, it isn’t often we pluck a girl from obscurity and deliver her infinite possibilities. It’s very special. Not meant for the masses.”
“Why me?” I ask, swallowing hard, my mouth dry again. I want another drink, but I finished the glass of water I was offered and there isn’t anything left but ice.
“Because your sister declined, sweet thing. And we really, really wanted her. We’ve evaluated your other sisters over the years. Jasmine is what, a tattoo artist, like your mother? Hmmph,” Claudette says, clearly unimpressed.
“She’s damn good at it.”
“She’s not worthy, Cynthia. And Belle takes after your father.”
“She’s an accountant,” I say, getting more and more pissed off as this fucking witch of a woman evaluates my family. “She runs my father’s entire empire.”
“And Ariel never even finished college.” Claudette pauses, to see what I have to say about Ariel. But I know better than to tell anyone anything about that sister. “No comment?”
I stay silent.
“Aurora was the perfect candidate. Star student at Princeton, beautiful, almost as beautiful as you. And in love with a man we dearly wanted to recruit.”
“Five,” I say, before I can stop myself.
“Five,” she repeats. “But you, dear, are about to deliver a man we have wanted since his mother betrayed us thirty-one years ago.”
Pax. I take a deep, measured breath, my whole body shaking as I let it out. “You killed my sister.”
“She killed herself.” And then Claudette lifts the little silver lid off the tiny platter sitting in the center of the table and reveals a single white wafer. Like the kind you’d find in a Catholic mass.
I look at Claudette. “What is that?”
“That’s one of your choices. You can eat it, take the path your sister took many years ago and be left in this room as it goes up in flames. Or you can drink the champagne and leave here with me.”
I stare at the bottle of champagne. Then the wafer.
“You give us something—”
“Like what?”
“Little things. We set up meetings. We deliver you contracts. You sign them, of course. It’s just business. We help you rise to the top and you help us stay at the top.”
“So I basically give you my life either way. If I join you, I do your bidding and then you control me like a puppet. And if I say no, you kill me.”
“When you put it that way, it’s such an easy choice. Isn’t it, Cynthia?”
“Stop calling me that,” I say, anger pouring out of me. I hate her. I hate her, I hate her, I hate her. I’m going to kill you, I think in my head. I’m going to kill you very slowly.
“Shall I pop the cork?” Claudette asks. “Or should I allow you the opportunity to eat that wafer and die painlessly after I ignite the room?”
I hesitate and while I do that, Claudette takes out her phone and tabs an icon.
Beneath the mirrored wall panel directly in front of me, flames erupt. Then another eruption, and another, and another. Until the whole room is nothing but an infinite circle of flames.
“Time’s up, princess. I need an answer. Right now.”
The room is already filling with smoke. Smoke my lungs, damaged from whatever that drug was, can’t handle. I stand up and try to scoot the chair back before I realize I’m chained. There are shackles around my ankles and I’m chained to the chair. “I’ll join,” I choke out through my wheezing, desperate to breathe. “I’ll join. Just get me out of here!”
Just as the words come out of my mouth, an alarm sounds. Claudette’s eyes go wide, then relax. Her hand comes up from under the table, a gun in her grip. She points it at my head and says, “Perfect. We’ll continue our celebration in the car.” She tosses me a key with her other hand. “Unchain yourself.”
I scramble for the key and bend over, thankful for the fresher air that is still hovering low to the ground as the room quickly fills up with smoke.
One foot shackle is open. Then both.
When I’m free, I place a hand over my mouth and try to hold my breath. When I look at Claudette, she has an oxygen mask over her face.
“Come with me,” she says in a tinny voice coming through the filter on her mask. “And bring the champagne with you.”
I get up, still wobbly, and weak. My head is spinning and I have to take a moment for it to stop. I grab the neck of the bottle and stumble forward into the thick smoke.
“Go,” Claudette says, coming around behind me, gun pointed at my head, and pushing me on the back.
“Go where?”
But one section of flames disappears and the same section of mirror slides down into the floor, revealing a dark hallway.
I take a step, slowly, carefully. We walk forward and when the darkness surrounds me, the opening closes at my back.
Chapter Forty-Two - Paxton
&
nbsp; An alarm sounds, wailing in our ears as we move through the corridor.
“What is that?” I ask.
“Fire,” Nolan says, looking down at the security app on his phone, which is screaming the alarm from its speaker in unison with the alarms behind us back in the kitchen.
“Hurry,” Five says. “This is when they make their escape.”
“Who?” Nolan and I say together.
But Five doesn’t answer, just starts running ahead of us. The only light coming from the beam attached to his rifle. But only a few seconds later, we come up against a concrete wall.
“Now where?” I ask. “It’s a dead end.”
“No,” Five says. “Look.” His rifle light is pointed at a seam in the wall where smoke is pouring out. “They lit it up already,” Five says.
“Who?” Nolan asks.
“Nolan,” Five says, ignoring the question once again. “There has to be an exit. Look at the plans. Find the exit.”
“There’s nothing but a ventilation shaft leading out to the east side of the property half a mile away.”
“That’s it. How do we get into it?”
“It says it’s only a twelve-by-twelve shaft. We won’t fit.”
“The plans are wrong, Nolan. Now tell me how we get in there or Cindy is dead!”
Nolan studies his phone, turns around in a circle, like he’s trying to get his bearings, and then points to the ceiling. “There. It’s up there.”
We all look up to see a hatch in the ceiling. Oliver drops his rifle and jumps up, grabbing on to one of the exposed pipes a few feet away. He swings his body back, then lifts his legs and gives the hatch a two-footed kick. Over and over again, until the panel buckles from the stress and the tiny door collapses.
“If we climb up there—“
“We won’t fit,” I say, suddenly hating my size for the first time in my life.
“I will,” Ariel says behind us.
“We told you to go back!” Oliver yells.
Ariel smiles sweetly. “Don’t you remember what Mom always said? You’re not the boss of me, little brother. I’m the boss of me. So quit wasting time and lift me up.”
Oliver and Five do that and I turn to Nolan. “Nolan, go back into the resort and get someone to the end of that tunnel. Right fucking now!” He turns to leave, but I grab his shoulder with one more thought. “And Nolan? Don’t be afraid to shoot if you get there before us.”
Nolan takes a breath, nods, and then he’s gone.
“There’s another shaft up here, you guys,” Ariel calls back to us. “But there’s smoke pouring out of it. Whatever’s behind that wall is up in flames.”
“There’s another shaft, Ariel. Somewhere close by. The one that leads outside. Can you feel a draft? Something that tells you air is leaking through?”
Silence for almost a minute.
“Ariel?” Oliver yells, jumping up to grab the pipe again and then swinging his arms to grab another so he can poke his head into the hatch. “Ariel?” he screams.
“I found it!” she finally calls from some distance off. “It’s off to your left. Hold on.”
A few moments later the wall to our left begins moving back.
“Nice funhouse,” Ariel says, standing on the other side. “Whoever built this place is a complete freak.”
“Claudette,” Five, Oliver, and I say together.
We go through the passageway and end up in a tunnel.
“It’s a road,” Ariel says. “Nolan will be on the other end. They left here in a car and Nolan will head them off at the other end.”
“Fuck that,” I say. “He just left here five minutes ago. There’s no way he can get out to the end of that tunnel in time.” I take off at a run and leave all three of them behind.
“Pax,” they all yell after me.
“Pax, stop! There might be more of them!”
“You won’t make it in time!”
“Pax!”
I don’t stop. I don’t even consider stopping. I run harder, my long legs finally good for something. They will not take Cindy. They will never take her away from me. I don’t care if I die trying, she will not end up under the thumb of whoever these sick Silver Society assholes are.
Chapter Forty-Three - Cindy
There’s a limo waiting in a tunnel once we get through the passageway. A tall guy, about Paxton’s age, stands waiting for us dressed in a dark suit.
“Let’s go,” Claudette says.
“Who’s that?” I ask, once I get inside the car and the driver closes the door.
“You’ll find out soon enough, little pretty.” Claudette’s smile is sickly sweet like the perfume that permeates this car. It makes my stomach heave. “But now we can celebrate.”
“What about all the people in the resort? There’s hundreds of people there tonight, including my sister and brother. And Pax.”
“All expendable, dear.” She pats my leg.
“I thought you wanted Pax alive? I thought—”
“We did.”
“What do you mean you did? You just told me Pax and I could be together.”
“Oh,” Claudette laughs. “No, no, no. You sweet, sweet innocent thing. I said we wanted him. But I never said alive.”
I punch her in the face. Right in her fucking teeth. Blood goes spurting out of her lip and her hand comes up, eyes wide with surprise.
“You little bitch! Stewart!” she screams. “Stop this car right now and come tie her—”
I grab Claudette’s hair, bring my knees up, and then smash her teeth again. I think I knock one out this time.
But she’s fighting back, ignoring my attack. Her eyes rage at me as she drags her nails across my cheek. The sting shouldn’t be enough to stop me, but she clips the corner of my eye with her nail and it fills with blood.
That one pause is all it takes to give her the advantage. I’m still half-drunk on the drugs she woke me up from. And the guy she called Stewart has both my arms and Claudette is sitting on my legs. She throws a hood over my face and then ties my wrists together.
“Get back in and drive,” Claudette says, out of breath. “Now! We need to get to the gate before my worthless brother figures this tunnel out.”
Chapter Forty-Four - Paxton
Up ahead I see brake lights. But before I can celebrate or even aim my rifle at the man I see struggling with someone in the back under the dim glow of the inside dome light, he closes the door, gets back in the driver’s side, and they take off again.
Oliver catches up with me, panting and breathing hard from his sprint. “Was that them?” he asks.
“Yes,” I growl. “That was them. Come on, we’re not done yet.”
We take off running again. Oliver keeps pace beside me as the car slows, then stops once more.
We keep running until we’re within a hundred yards of them, when we realize what happened.
The tunnel has a gate.
And it is closed.
I will kiss you, Nolan Delaney. If I see you again, I will kiss you right on the fucking lips for coming through for me.
Chapter Forty-Five - Cindy
“Why are we stopping?” Claudette asks. “Keep going!”
There is so much blood inside the hood, it’s running into my mouth.
“The gate,” the guy called Stewart says. “The gate is closed.”
“It cannot be closed! I opened it myself when we got in the car.”
“Well,” Stewart replies, “your program appears to have been overridden.”
“You’re not going to escape,” I say, choking my words past the blood. “Not this time, you stupid cunt.”
She whips the hood off my head and grabs me by my braids, bashing my head into the seat in front of me. “If I go down, Cinderella, you go down with me.”
“I’m OK with that,” I say, looking at her through one eye. “I’m so OK with that.”
“My brother did it,” Claudette says, looking away from me. “He must’ve found the tunn
el on the security system. But there’s a manual switch on the side of the wall over there.” She points to a faint glow coming off an electrical panel. “Get out and open the gate.”
Stewart doesn’t exactly complain, but he doesn’t exactly hop to it, either. He opens the door and gets out, shooting Claudette a very dirty look as he does it.
“Hurry, you stupid piece of shit—”
And then Stewart’s head explodes.
Claudette doesn’t even blink. She opens her door, grabs me by my feet, and starts dragging me out of the car.
I give her a two-footed kick, but miss everything except her shoulder. She is not deterred.
“Stop right there!”
It’s Oliver!
“I’ll kill her,” Claudette says, forcing me to my feet. “I’ll do to her exactly what you just did to my driver.” She pushes the gun to the side of my head, making her point.
Oliver comes into view, rifle out in front of him, laser scope mounted on top. The red dot hits me in my bloodless eye, making me blink, but it’s gone when I open it back up.
“How about we make a deal, Claudette?”
“No deal.”
“Just listen, OK? It’s a good one. You let her go and then we’ll kill you.” And then he starts laughing. Like one of those crazy, madman laughs.
“You stupid, arrogant—”
“Shoot her!” I scream. “Shoot her, shoot her, shoot her!”
I swear to God, I can hear her finger tighten on the trigger of the gun. I close my eye, waiting for the moment when the explosion blows my brains out.
It comes.
Blood, and bone, and tissue. I’m covered in it. I stumble back, fall, my head hitting the pavement. I can hear screaming and it takes me a second to realize it’s me who’s screaming when I open my one good eye.
Pax walks out from the shadows off to my right, his gun still raised, smoke flowing out from the end of the barrel. “Fuck that bitch,” he says, kneeling down to smooth the blood-soaked hair off my face. “She deserved that.”
