The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) (21 page)

“I’ve missed you,” she said to him.

There were a few seconds of silence before he responded.

“I’ve missed you too,” he said.

Perhaps it was the car that made it all seem so easy. The ridiculous, bright orange Dreamsicle, a car so impractical Ryan’s father couldn’t even sit in it—the car was a reminder that even in a world as stormy and frightful as the one Jill and Ryan occupied, there was still room for laughter. For friendship. Or maybe even something more.

“I need to talk to you about Daciana’s party,” Ryan said.

“Yeah, I need to talk to you about that too,” said Jill. “But I don’t really want to. Not right now, at least.”

Ryan took a step away. He let go of Jill’s hand. She wanted to reach out and make him hold on, but she controlled herself. The moment was over.

“We should talk about it now,” he said. “It’s important. A single mistake on our part might ruin Nicky’s chances of winning Coronation.”

Jill’s shoulders slumped. This was the Ryan from a week ago. The boy who woke up one morning so obsessed about Coronation that he walked right out of the safe house.

“When people ask us about our story,” he said, “I was thinking maybe I could do most of the talking. Just like at dinner with my parents.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Jill.

“And we should stay together. It will be much easier to keep our stories straight if we can hear what the other person is saying.”

Jill shook her head.

“An hour in, I’ll be sneaking away from the party,” she said. “I need you to cover for me.”

“What are you talking about? You have somewhere you need to go?”

“Network business,” Jill said. “The less you know about it, the better.”

“I don’t understand. I thought winning Coronation for Nicky was the Network’s business. What are you planning to do?”

“An hour into the party, I’m planning to step out for a bit, and I need you to cover for me. If people ask where I am, I need you to tell them I just went to the bathroom, or that you saw me a few minutes ago.”

“No, this doesn’t sound like a good idea at all.”

“Everyone is going to be drunk so they’ll be easy to fool. I’ll be away from the party for about thirty minutes, but I need for everyone to think I never left.”

“What the hell are you going to do? Jill, this is an important night for us. It will be the first time everyone will see us together as a couple. We’ve got a whole semester of work ahead of us and it starts at this party.”

Jill looked at Ryan. His face was so perfect. So full of memory for her. She had been so crazy, madly in love with him once.

It was a different time.

“I’m walking away from the party and you’re going to cover for me,” Jill said. “It’s already decided. There will come a point during the night when I will be gone, and you will have no choice but to help cover up my absence. If people start to get suspicious about where I am, it will be bad news for all of us.”

“There’s nothing I can say to change your mind about this, is there?”

Jill shook her head.

“Fine. I’ll cover for you. But whatever it is you’re going to do, do it quickly, alright?”

“Trust me. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

Daciana stepped off her plane shortly after midnight. Sergio greeted her on the tarmac and walked her to a car that was waiting. As they drove to Daciana’s mansion, Sergio pulled out his notebook and showed her the names of the families he had spoken to already.

“The Jensons,” said Daciana, reading the first name on the list. “I take it Ryan didn’t have any information in his brain about his time in captivity?”

“It appears he was asleep the entire time,” Sergio said.

Daciana nodded. “Yes, I wouldn’t expect Falkon and Renata to allow their prisoners to see anything. I see you’ve spoken with the Wentworths as well?”

“I thought they were worth a chat since it was Jill who solved the Rose Ransom,” Sergio said. “They are innocent too.”

“They’ve always been loyal,” said Daciana. “What about the Bloom family? What did you learn in talking to them?”

“Nicky’s memory of her time in captivity is just as vague as Ryan’s.”

“But you found nothing suspicious with her parents?”

“Not at all,” said Sergio. “Very loyal to you and the clan.”

“I suppose that’s a good thing,” said Daciana. “Although I must admit I’m disappointed we don’t have any new leads. I am so eager to find Renata.”

“I am as well.”

They arrived at Daciana’s mansion and entered through the garage. Daciana’s head of house, a servant named Chester, greeted Daciana as if she had only been gone for a few hours.

“Welcome back, My Lady,” he said, with a small bow.

Daciana wasn’t so casual about her return.

“Chester!” she said with a smile. “What a pleasure it is to see you.”

She gave him a big hug, which was amusing for Sergio to watch. Chester had clearly never been hugged before. He stood in place, his arms at his sides, rather like a dog being patient with an affectionate child.

“It’s so good to be back in this house!” Daciana said, throwing her arms up and spinning in a circle.

“Your servants are always pleased to see you in good spirits,” Chester said. “Is there anything I may get for you?”

“Deliveries,” said Daciana. “Have we received any today?”

“Two trucks, each carrying six pallets,” Chester said. “The manifest said the goods were to be set up in the foyer, so that’s what we have done.”

Daciana clapped her hands together in excitement.

“This is going to be so much fun! Come on, Sergio! Let’s go look!”

She led Sergio to the foyer, where her servants were busily transforming the front room of Daciana’s house into a casino.

“Isn’t it lovely?” she said, walking up to a roulette wheel and giving it a spin.

The roulette wheels and dice pits and card tables took Sergio back to another time, when he and Daciana were new arrivals in America and Daciana was just getting a toehold in the mafia.

“It’s from the old hideaway spot on L street,” Daciana said. “Do you remember?”

“I remember,” said Sergio.

“All those nights when everyone would sneak into the club. We were all living secret lives back then. Running liquor, numbers games, gambling houses.”

“It was a great time,” Sergio said.

“Seventy years this stuff has been in storage!” She went to a craps table and threw the dice. “Locked away just like I was! I’ve been excited about this idea all week. Casino night. One of my favorite Coronation events! We gather everyone at my house. Everyone! The students and the clan. It will be like the early days of Coronation, when everyone was excited to see who was vying to join our ranks. We act like the family we’re supposed to be. We honor our traditions. We make Coronation special again, and root out any disloyalty.”

“It sounds lovely,” Sergio said. “Although, I can’t help but think there is one thing amiss.”

“Really? What’s that?”

“The Kwan girl has an
overwhelming lead in the Coronation contest.”

Daciana furrowed her brow. “What are you saying?”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Sergio said, “but it sounds like you want a fresh start.”

“Yes, I suppose that is what I want.”

“You want the clan to return to its roots.”

“That’s right.”

“All of us loyal to you, our queen.”

“How else would it be?”

“The problem, Daciana, is that this year’s Coronation contest, as it stands now, is all Renata’s doing. She broke tradition in the Rose Ransom, ignoring the recommendation of the regents about which girl to kidnap.”

“Yes, but that’s over now.”

“Renata changed the rules so she could kidnap the richest boy in school, and get an enormous sum in the ransom pot, money which we both know she intended to steal.”

“But she didn’t steal it.”

“Precisely. When the Wentworth girl solved the Ransom, she took that enormous pot of money and gave it to one of the Coronation contestants. But the pot was artificially large. Renata tampered with the rules to make it that way.”

“Are you saying Samantha Kwan’s lead is illegitimate somehow?”

“I’m saying the whole contest is tarnished by Renata’s betrayal, and it isn’t right to allow Samantha Kwan to walk away with victory like this. If we do, we’ll always know she became an immortal because of Renata’s treachery.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Daciana said.

“I agree with your vision of returning the clan and Coronation to its roots,” Sergio said. “But I think we can’t do that unless you assert control of the contest and ensure that this year’s winner is your winner, not Renata’s.”

“I don’t want to just wipe out Samantha’s lead. That doesn’t seem right. Jill Wentworth solved some very difficult clues and chose to give the money to Samantha Kwan.”

“Perhaps there is a way to make the contest interesting again without changing the first semester results,” Sergio said. “One that honors our shared past, while also allowing for a fresh start upon your return.”

“I get the feeling you have something specific in mind.”

Sergio nodded. “You and I once looked on as four humans participated in a very clever game of numbers, a game centered around a safe with four bejeweled dials.”

“Are you suggesting I have the girls wearing black play the same numbers game the Hastings family played?”

“There are four girls wearing black, and four dials on the safe.”

Daciana took a step back. She was intrigued. Sergio wondered what he could say to
close this sales pitch, and make it possible for Nicky to win the contest.

“If we arranged it now, you could have the safe shipped from Falkon’s villa to arrive here in time for the party,” he said.

“The safe has already shipped,” said Daciana. “I’ve arranged to bring home quite a few things from Falkon’s estate.”

“Then it sounds like this game is meant to be.”

Daciana stood silently, thinking. “If we do this, I want to play the game in a way that it lasts. I don’t want some clever girl like Jill figuring it out right away.”

“I’m sure we
can come up with something,” said Sergio.

The doorbell rang.

“That’s Laura,” Daciana said. “I’ve invited her to help us figure out who was working with Renata.

Chester entered the room.

“Shall I answer the door, Master?” he said.

“Yes, and invite Laura to join Sergio and me in the moon room.”

The moon room was the prize of Daciana’s mansion. An enormous landscape of her favorite plants, the room was decorated to look like a forest at night, complete with a waterfall and a small pond. Hanging high above the room was a clear, domed ceiling, which on this night gave a spectacular view of a half moon nestled among the stars.

There was a sitting area on the lowest level of the room. Sergio and Daciana had spent many nights there, looking at the sky as they talked. Sergio took a seat in his favorite chair. Daciana sat across from him. A minute later, Laura arrived.

“Good evening, Sergio,” Laura said, with a respectful bow of her head.

“It’s a pleasure to see you,” Sergio said.

“Thank you both for your help this week,” Daci
ana said. Daciana sat in a high-backed chair with a floral pattern, a Victorian-era antique that was the closest thing to a throne this queen of the vampires had.

“I just came from the airport,” Laura said.

“Oh really?” Daciana said. “I landed only a few hours ago.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I didn’t come to greet you. I was in a hangar on the north end of the tarmac. Hanger
Three to be precise.”

Daciana’s eyes opened wide. “Renata’s plane,” she said.

Laura nodded. “It’s still there. Wherever Renata ran off to, it wasn’t in her private jet.”

“I suppose that’s smart,” said Daciana. “Had she gone in her jet, we could have tracked where she landed.”

“I searched the plane top to bottom,” Laura said. “There wasn’t much in there, but I did find a small stack of mail in a seatback pouch. There was one piece of mail in that stack that was of interest.”

Laura reached into her coat pocket and pulled out an envelope.

“It was sent to her anonymously,” Laura said. “No return address. The postage stamp is from the main office downtown.”

Laura handed the envelope to Daciana, who pulled out two documents. One was a photograph. The other was a letter. It took her only a few seconds to read it.

“You’re right,” she said. “That is interesting.”

Daciana handed the letter and photo to Sergio. The letter was just a few lines of typewritten text.

Dear Ms. Sullivan,