Levitating Las Vegas (28 page)

“Then Isaac sent Rob into the casino to snoop. He heard us thinking about taking you and Holly off Mentafixol. He found ways to get close to both of you. He moved in with you, and he asked Holly out.”

Elijah set his jaw. “That won’t work anymore, though. He can only use our minds against us if we let him.”

“There is no ‘let’ at the Res,” Kaylee said. “Put you and Holly together at the Res, with those bullies egging you on, and you won’t stand a chance. I’ve seen that happen so many times there. Couples fall in love. Then they hurt each other. I mean physically and mentally and emotionally hurt each other as badly as a person can be hurt. That’s why we’re not going after her. I can’t risk losing both of you to the Res and making things worse for Holly there.”

“What are we going to do then, Kaylee?” Elijah shouted. “Why don’t you just hire some sharpshooters to go to the Res and pick these people off?”

“It is extremely difficult to get rid of a body,” Kaylee said. “Extremely difficult.”

Elijah got the distinct and unnerving impression that Kaylee had some experience with this.

“People start talking,” she said. “The Res doesn’t want to attract attention. And I don’t want bad PR. If customers are scared to come into our casino because they think it’s run by murderers or witches, we’ve all lost our ability to make a living in a safe environment.”

“I don’t care about that shit,” Elijah insisted. “We can’t leave her out there. That’s not an option. I can’t let Rob put his hands on her.”

“I guarantee you that is going to happen before we get back to Vegas,” Kaylee said.

Elijah felt like murder. “Consensually?” His voice broke.

Kaylee swallowed and took a long breath. “With mind changers thrown into the mix, it’s so hard to say where consent ends and force begins.”

“And you’re abandoning her to that because of PR?” Elijah demanded. “Why, Kaylee, why? What is so important about PR, more important than Holly?”

And suddenly it flashed into Kaylee’s mind, so it flashed into his. “You found Mr. Diamond dead, and you’re afraid the whole casino will fall apart without him.”

“Don’t you
dare
!” she shrieked. “Get out of my mind and don’t you
dare
tell anybody what you know. The casino can’t show weakness. The Res will take us over in a heartbeat!”

Elijah let Kaylee’s words pass over him like the dust over the Pontiac. He concentrated on her mind. The louder she shouted, and the more flustered she got, the more the blinds she’d pulled down over her thoughts inched upward.

“Just try me,” she dared him.

Elijah relaxed against the seat and let the headlight beams blur in front of him. He tugged at the blind. It didn’t budge. But it was still a millimeter up. He peeked underneath. He saw her struggling. She should let go and change his mind now. Change his mind about reading hers. That would protect her. But if she did that, she’d have to abandon the blind keeping him out, and in that moment he might see something he could use against her, such as—

“Holly is your half sister,” he said.

As her body jerked in astonishment, he stomped the brake and hauled the steering wheel to the right. The tires screamed in protest and a cloud of dust filled the car. He opened the door and dove out. The car was still moving. The heels of his hands hit sharp rocks and he tumbled into the dirt.

He got up and ran for his life and Holly’s. He knew he wouldn’t get far. He was wearing flip-flops, and the dark landscape was littered with scrub. He only hoped to stay far enough away from Kaylee that she couldn’t control him. But even that was futile. Before he’d gotten more than a few yards away, he changed his mind about running.

The headlights cut his legs in half and stretched his shadow all the way to the distant barren mountains. The car stopped beside him, engine rumbling. Kaylee left the driver’s seat and scooted back into the passenger side.

He put his hand on her door and leaned down to talk to her. “You’re scared to go back to the Res,” he said gently. “You would do anything to save Holly except go there yourself.”

She looked down at her hands. “No, you’re right.” She sniffled. “They’ll probably catch us both, but I couldn’t live with myself if I left her out there without even trying to save her. Let’s go.”

Elijah bounded around the car and slipped behind the wheel. He stomped the accelerator and sped back toward Holly.

Kaylee muttered, “I hate mind readers.” She took something out of the pocket of her suit jacket and handed it to him. “Here.”

He peered at the object in his palm and then the road and then the object by turns in the dim glow from the headlights and the stars. It appeared to be a jawbreaker covered in powdered diamonds, with
TWO MILE HIGH CANDY CO.
stamped on it.

“Uh-oh,” he said. “What’s this?”

“A very high dose of Mentafixol,” she said. “Take that and your power will be erased permanently.”

“Why are you giving it to me?” He tossed it back into her lap like a live grenade. Then he realized he’d rudely thrown it at her crotch, but damn. “Kaylee, don’t change my mind and make me take this pill. That’s morally wrong on so many levels. You can’t do that to me.”

She handed it back to him. “I’m not going to make you take it, Elijah. I want you to take it on your own. Your life and Holly’s will be hell from now on. The Res will sic you on each other and use you against your own parents, everybody at the casino. If you take this pill, they won’t be able to use you at all, and they won’t have nearly as much fun manipulating Holly.”

“Talk about hell!” he exclaimed. “Why would I want to live my life without power?”

She shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad before, was it?”

He looked over at her. He couldn’t see her face clearly in the night, but he could feel her thoughts. She knew the answer to his question. A wave of guilt washed over her, and she looked away.

He peered at the pill in his hand again. He rolled it along the lifeline in his palm. “It’s like a spy movie. You’re giving me arsenic in case I’m captured.”

“I’ve lived at the Res, Elijah. You haven’t.” For a split second, she opened up her mind to him and let him see what had happened to her. A split second of violation in the hot dark.

19

Holly didn’t wait to find out whether Violet and Nate were hurt. As soon as the SUV stopped tumbling and crunched to a stop upright, she broke open the hatchback with her mind, jumped out on her high heels, and ran. She tripped over a low bush. Stumbling, she wondered whether she could fly? She could, propelling herself forward with her toes inches from the ground, but her mind was even more tired and sore than her body. She set herself down and ran again.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she realized she was on a dirt road. Rounding a curve between cliffs, she saw a weathered sign for a subdivision.

Meadgate

The Gate to Lake Mead

Civilization, thank God! And just beyond the sign was a two-story rock house of recent design with perhaps ten cars parked in the yard, dust trembling underfoot from the cranked-up bass beat of a rock song.

With her eyes fixed on the glowing windows, she didn’t notice three teenagers sitting in lawn chairs in the road until she was only a few feet from them. She stopped short, unsure whether she should warn them about the crazies from the SUV somewhere in the darkness behind her. These kids were only fifteen or so. Maybe they lived in the Meadgate subdivision.

They glanced over at her with bored expressions. One of the girls said, “Hey, Holly.” They turned away from her and gazed off the road, where the shoulder tumbled into a canyon.

“I’ve got one,” a boy said.

Holly heard screeching close by, echoing against the canyon walls.

A second boy opened his hand. A cigarette lighter floated into the air in front of him and flicked into flame of its own accord. It zipped toward the screeching and illuminated the source, a small bat flying erratically as if held in place and struggling to free itself. The flame touched the bat and licked across its skin. The bat screamed.

“Birds are easier,” said the first boy. “Bats aren’t as flammable.” He turned to Holly. “Did you wreck the SUV? Do you think you could gather up some gasoline for us? That would help.”

“I’ve caught another one,” the second boy called over the screams of the bat.

Holly wanted to run. Her whole tired, aching body drew taut with adrenaline and the need to escape, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. As she walked toward the house, the girl’s eyes followed her.

Reaching the yard full of cars, Holly thought again about escape, searching the darkness for what lay beyond the lone house. But as quickly as the idea entered her mind, it left again. A twentyish man lounged in the driver’s seat of a car, watching her pass, as she yanked open the door of the house.

“Holly!” called a woman’s voice. The dark room was crowded with people, but in the red glow from a lava lamp, Holly recognized April’s red hair. She sat on a couch. A man’s hand was between her legs. “We thought you’d never get here,” April said.

Leaving was not a good idea.

“Hello, Holly.” Rob was right behind her in the doorway. He moved even closer to let Nate and Violet in behind him. They were miraculously unhurt. Violet must have protected their bodies in the tumbling SUV, the way Holly had protected her own.

The heat from Rob’s body sank into Holly from her shoulder blades to her butt to her calves. She could feel the hard shapes of his cuffs, his gun, whatever equipment was on his police belt. He set his chin playfully on her shoulder. Close enough to her ear that she could hear him clearly over the thumping music, he whispered, “Welcome to In Medias Res.”

Hitting him was not a good idea.

Talking to him
was
a good idea. “This is the Res?” she asked. It looked more like a middle school Halloween party.

“Harmless, right?” He chuckled as he walked around her body to face her. “I can only imagine what ridiculous stories Kaylee told you about us. Come into the kitchen. You must be hungry.”

He took her by the hand. Following him was a good idea. They made several attempts at dodging around a couple making out violently in the doorway. Finally they stepped into the spacious marble-tiled kitchen, a suburban dream with stainless steel appliances and vaulted ceilings.

Rob opened the refrigerator. The sudden bright light played across his handsome features and made the remnants of a black eye jump out at Holly from a few steps away. The goons had done that to him. She had ordered that attack on him.

“Don’t feel bad.” He looked up from the refrigerator and poked out his bottom lip at her in sympathy. “I scared you at Glitterati. That was my fault.”

“You did more than scare me,” Holly seethed.

He nodded. “Your parents were still drugging you. You weren’t ready, and I jumped the gun. I’m sorry, Holly. All I ever wanted was for us to be together. To feel good together.” He put his shoulders back in the refrigerator and brought out a large bakery box. “Other parties have a keg. We have a cake.”

“Really?” she asked. “I thought you were more of a keg man.”

“What?” He looked at her blankly. “Oh, the drinking! Yeah, mind readers have to do that sometimes. We’re under this crush of other people’s thoughts all the time, you know? It makes us act a little crazy. Pretending to drink gives us an excuse.” He set the box down on the marble-topped island. “Cake?”

She peered into the box at the white icing sparkling with sugar. “It probably has Mentafixol in it.”

Rob laughed shortly. “We wouldn’t do that to you, Holly. The casino does that. We don’t.” He took plates out of a cabinet and forks out of a drawer and cut them both big slices of cake. “Hey, you’re tired, and you’re wearing heels. Hop up on the counter to eat this.” He made a motion as if to lift her on both sides of her waist.

She used her power to keep his hands off her.

“Why can’t I touch you?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Why are you embarrassed?” Then he threw back his head and laughed. “You’re not wearing underwear? You’re so funny, Holly.”

She smiled up at him. Rob was charming. His delivery was off, though, as if his comedic timing were on a two-second tape delay.

“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll stand in front of you so nobody else will see.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the shadowy den through the doorway. “And
I’m
too much of a gentleman to look.”

He put his hands on her waist. A thrill rushed through her at his warm touch. This was a good idea. He lifted her onto the counter, biceps bulging from beneath the short sleeves of his sheriff’s deputy uniform. She sat with her knees together and her ankles crossed. He handed her a slice of cake and took a bite of his own. Hesitantly she took a bite too. Mmmmm.

“So, I realize you might not want to stay long,” he said between bites.

“
Want
to stay?” she asked. “I thought I didn’t have a choice.”

“Of course you have a choice,” he said, mildly outraged. “You can walk away right now if you want.” He stepped out from in front of her and gestured grandly toward the doorway. “Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot about your underpants.” He edged back in front of her and made the grand gesture again. Then he straightened and took another bite of cake. “We do want to talk to you, because we think we’re right and the casino is wrong. But we know they’ve been very heavy-handed and abusive with you, and we don’t want to drive you away by making you think the same of us.”

“Abusive, how?” she asked suspiciously.

His brown eyes widened. “Gosh, Holly, they’ve drugged you with Mentafixol since you were fourteen. They told you that you were crazy. They made you think your power was a bad thing, and that it was all your fault!” He pointed at her with his fork. “And do you know why they did that?”

“No, I really don’t.” She was angry all over again. Maybe he
did
have an explanation that made sense, because Kaylee’s sure didn’t.

“You’re a lot stronger than your dad,” he said. “And a lot stronger than your half sister.”

“I don’t have a ha—” The cake stuck in her throat. She coughed and coughed and coughed, embarrassed that she was coughing up cake in front of Rob.

He had perfect manners. He handed her a napkin, then stood over her with a glass of water at the ready, waiting for her coughing fit to stop.

“Kaylee,” she whispered, feeling hot tears form at the corners of her eyes.

Rob nodded, watching her with concern. “And you know, they say sisters share everything.”

She could tell from his tone that he was hinting at something else. This time she didn’t get it.

“You saw them all watching you at the dam, right?” he asked. “Your father, and your half sister, and your boyfriend? And none of them came to help you.”

“They didn’t!” she exclaimed. In the past day she’d become so accustomed to relying on herself that it hadn’t occurred to her to expect help. But yeah, it would have been nice for them to pull her from the Colorado River, instead of Nate and Violet. It would have been nice for them to rescue her from the Res, if Kaylee was truthfully so freaked out by the idea of it.

“But what are you saying?” Holly asked, putting her fork down for the first time. “That Elijah and Kaylee . . . ?”

He sighed and looked away. “I know. I’m sorry to tell you. You don’t have to believe me. But you guessed at Glitterati that they might get together. You wondered why Kaylee didn’t want to get together with Shane. And now you can’t understand why Elijah is mean to you and tries to control you, after everything you and he have”—the kitchen was lit only by lava lamps, but Holly could still see him blush as he talked about this delicate subject—“done.”

“Elijah was in on the whole thing?”

Rob nodded.

“He was never on Mentafixol?” Her voice escalated to a shriek.

Rob flinched and shook his head.

“Why the fuck did he take me to Icarus, then?” Holly was angry, but she made a mental note not to say
fuck
around Rob anymore. He was a gentleman, and he seemed sensitive. There was no need to take this out on him. After all, he was not at fault.

“To give you an adventure,” Rob said, “so he could seduce you, and you’d be more likely to do what he and Kaylee and your parents want. But don’t feel bad.” He set his empty cake plate down on the counter. “They drugged you and lied to you for seven years, and you had no life. None. Of course you wanted an adventure. What girl wouldn’t?” He put his hand on her knee.

Holly set her own cake plate aside and looked up at Rob. She remembered how much she’d liked him when she first met him, and why. He was handsome and fun. He was strong and official in his sheriff’s deputy uniform. He was perfect.

And then the sparkling sensation started. Not the sparkles she felt when she was levitating. This was more like what she imagined Elijah felt when she massaged him. The sparks started at her knee, under Rob’s hand, and extended up her thigh. Maybe Violet was doing this to her, or some other levitator she hadn’t yet met—but it wasn’t a good idea to wonder. It was a good idea to enjoy. Maybe Rob was making her feel this way himself, the first true love she’d ever felt: love without an aftertaste of suspicion.

“This is just an idea,” Rob said, his voice velvety like chocolate. “The Res is open to anyone with power. We’re especially interested in you, though, because you’re so strong. You could be the key to a lot of us getting out of abusive relationships and families like the ones you’ve just escaped. If you started your own magic act at the casino, and some of us helped you climb to the top with various things we could do for you . . . think how much control we could have almost overnight!”

“That’s a great idea!” Holly said with gusto. That would serve her dad and Kaylee and Elijah right. It was almost like Rob could read her mind.

Wait a minute.

“We—and some other people from the Res, of course—we could run the casino so much more smoothly than they do. Isaac would be a lot better man in charge than Mr. Diamond. I’d handle security like Kaylee never dreamed of. Your act would be a million times sexier than your dad’s. The casino would be flashier. We would set the bar for the rest of Las Vegas. We would attract a younger crowd and rake in the cash. It’s time for Mr. Diamond and your dad and Kaylee to go out and for us to move in.” Rob moved his hand from her knee up the inside of her thigh until it stroked dangerously near her crotch.

A sensation like fire followed his hand, and Holly squirmed toward him.

“What do you say?” he whispered, bending down, his lips very close to hers.

She looked up at him. His eyelashes were impossibly long. But there was something strange about his brown eyes, something missing . . . and then she realized what it was. When she’d thought about wanting Elijah, Elijah’s pupils had dilated. Now, as she thought about wanting Rob, Rob’s pupils stayed small. As she thought
this,
they flickered slightly bigger, then shrank to normal.

“I have more experience than Elijah does,” Rob explained, “and better control.” His words were full of innuendo, but maybe that was just Holly’s dirty interpretation, because his tone was completely innocent.

And then he kissed her. His mouth was sweet. She opened her lips for him and kissed him back and wrapped his body in every erotic sensation she could imagine, causing herself to sparkle in turn with power and lust. His fingers crept into her. She arched to meet his hand, and he finished what he had started five days before.