Five

by JA Huss

  Chen whispers into the mic attached to his ear. “She’s in place.”

  It gives me the chills. Rory is bait for us and a target for all those people out in front of the house with her.

  Helpless is the only word that comes to mind right now. I feel helpless.

  Because all I can do now is wait for everyone to make their move.

  Chapter Thirty - Rory

  “You,” Frank purrs into my ear as we go back into the house after the group photo, “look beautiful. I cannot wait for tonight.”

  “Me too,” I say, meaning it. “Me too, Frank.”

  “Are you feeling better now?” he asks.

  “Much,” I say, holding in my incredulous laugh. I always get over the death of my best friend in twenty-four hours. “I’m glad we had that talk this morning. But where’s Mia?”

  “Inside already. With Jeremy. She wanted to go first tonight. Look, there she is.”

  And yes indeed, when we enter the main dining hall, we’re among the last there. Mia is up front with Kallie, laughing like these people didn’t kill Tera Middleton last night. Pretty fucking happy. And that happiness isn’t fake.

  She set me up, I realize. To get me here? Well, joke’s on her. Because there was no fucking way in hell I wasn’t showing up here tonight.

  “Are we having dinner?” I ask Frank, looking round at the empty room, save for the people.

  “Nah.” Frank laughs. “We’re just here to seal the deal, Princess.”

  And something about the way he says the word ‘princess’ makes my stomach turn.

  “But we have snacks. Don’t worry. Would you like me to get you some champagne for our group toast?” he asks.

  “Sure,” I say, still off guard about that princess remark. What if they have Five? What if that was Frank’s way of showing his hand? Of letting me know that all our plans are for nothing? And that by the end of the night, I’ll be married to him, no matter how much I protest?

  “Rory?” Frank asks.

  “Huh?” I look up from my thoughts. Frank is holding a glass of champagne and a waiter is patiently standing next to him, offering me his tray. There’s only one crystal flute of champagne on it.

  “We’re going to toast,” he says, nodding his head at the front of the hall, where Kallie, Edward, Mia, Jeremy, and the mysterious blonde woman are all tapping their glasses with small silver spoons to get our attention.

  “Right,” I say, taking my glass and holding it close.

  Did I make a mistake coming here?

  “Please raise your glasses,” the blonde woman says, beginning her toast to us, the newest members of the Silver Society.

  I space out after that, still thinking about Five. I cut a hole in my dress and sewed up a hidden pocket so I could keep my phone close. And I want nothing more right now than to escape to the bathroom and text him. I need reassurance. I need to know he’s standing by, just like we planned over the summer. That he didn’t get caught. That all the people plotting against him didn’t finally get their wish and kill him to take over his grandfather’s Triad.

  “Cheers!” everyone yells.

  “Cheers, Rory,” Frank says, bringing his glass to touch mine. They make the most perfect sweet note as they tink together.

  “Cheers,” I say. “To our future.” I take a drink of my champagne and watch Frank smile at me. Like I’m doing right.

  That’s when it hits me. And I look at the glass in abject horror.

  I just fucking drank something… and it wasn’t champagne.

  My face contorts and I throw the glass down on the floor.

  “Rory?” Frank asks. “Are you OK?”

  But I’m getting sick as he talks. Whatever was in that drink, it has an immediate effect on my stomach. “I feel sick,” I say.

  “Come on,” he says, taking my elbow and pulling me through the crowd. “Watch out,” he says to the people crowding around us. “Move back, Rory’s not feeling well.”

  “I’m gonna puke,” I say. And it’s true. I’m about to—

  I puke all over the shiny, polished floor.

  People gasp and then they do get the fuck out of the way.

  Frank takes me into the women’s bathroom and pushes me into a stall. I drop to my knees and hurl again. And again. And again. “What the hell is wrong with me?” I manage between episodes.

  “Well,” Frank says. I look over my shoulder and watch him as he considers his words. How he’s got his arms crossed over his chest. The relaxed way he’s leaning against the sink. The smirk on his face. “You had to learn who’s boss eventually, Aurora. So I figured we might as well get that out of the way right now. Before you go and fuck everything up.”

  “You… you did this me?” I ask. “You poisoned me?”

  “Why not?” he asks. “I did, after all, kill Tera last night. And you know what?”

  I’m gonna get him back for this. I repeat it over and over in my head.

  “It’s all your fault she’s dead. Your disappearance over the summer. Your distance. That’s what triggered her into being paranoid.”

  My hand goes inside my dress and flicks my phone screen to life. I took the lock off. There’s no way punching in a code to activate your phone is a good idea when timing is everything. I know where that little icon is, because I rearranged the icons on purpose, just in case.

  “What are you doing?” Franks asks. I’m still looking at him as I press the Love Notes icon.

  “Calling for backup.” I laugh. And then I puke again. Frank gets my phone, smashes it on the hard tile of the bathroom floor, and then pulls me to my feet as I’m wiping my mouth.

  “He won’t save you, Aurora—”

  But I’m already on my feet, my shoes kicked off, and my bare foot hits him smack in the balls. He doubles over, clutching at his groin. I grab his hair with both hands, swallow down the next episode of vomit that so desperately wants to come up, and bring his face down on my knee.

  His nose and mouth spurt blood, all over my pretty dress that is already ruined from leaning over the toilet.

  I do it again, and again, and again, until he falls off to the side, moaning in pain. Curled up in a fetal position like the weak fuck that he is.

  “That’s for killing my friend,” I say. And then I spit on him. “And I warned you, asshole. My name is Rory.”

  A slow clap erupts behind me.

  I whirl and find the blonde woman smiling at me. “Well done, Aurora. Well done.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” I seethe.

  “Doesn’t matter,” she says, snapping her fingers. A big man—and I’m talking big man—appears behind her. “Take her downstairs. She’s going first.”

  Chapter Thirty-One - Five

  I’m still looking through the scope, my gaze trained on the front door of Palladium House, when my phone dings in my pocket.

  “What the fuck is that?” Chen growls.

  I ignore him and look at the screen. “Love Notes,” I say. I’m on my feet and running across the roof before Chen even knows what’s happening, the rifle forgotten.

  “Five!” he yells. “Five! Get back here!”

  I don’t even bother looking back at him. Just jump down to the balcony we used to get up here and disappear into the classroom.

  Two minutes later I’m making my way around the back of Palladium House. Chen was good for one thing—house plans. So I know there’s a small basement window on the west side of the house, and that’s my access point.

  I kick it in, not even caring that people are yelling and telling me to stop. The only thing I care about is that my princess just sent me an SOS signal and nothing and no one will stop me from reaching her inside this fucked-up fun house.

  I scramble in, rush towards the utility room door, and collide with Cliff Middleton when he opens it just before I reach for the knob.

  We both go down like a fucking couple of stooges. Someone shoots through the window behind me. I caught their guards by surprise, but that
didn’t last long.

  “You got it?” I ask Cliff.

  “Yeah,” he says, both of us dropping to the ground and taking cover behind a water heater. A bullet hits the heater and boiling water starts spurting out and filling the room up with steam.

  “Give it to me,” I say.

  Cliff reaches into his pocket as another barrage of bullets hits the tank. Water burns my arms and legs, even through my clothes, and makes me wince. But then… there it is. The flash drive I need to make all this bullshit go away. I reach for it, but Cliff’s body goes flying backwards as the bullets hit him instead of the tank. Blood comes pouring out as he gasps for breath on the floor.

  I grab the drive, stuff it into my pocket, and then Cliff groans out a word.

  God, he’s not gonna make it. “Rory,” he croaks. “Basement,” he manages.

  And then his eyes go blank as death comes to take him.

  Chapter Thirty-Two - Rory

  I’m man-handled into a dark hallway, through a set of double doors, then another door that thunks closed so loud it sounds like it’s made of steel. My stomach is still screaming at me, but thankfully, I have not hurled again. Whatever they gave me must’ve been fast-acting, but short-lasting.

  The bodyguard—because that’s totally what he is—practically throws me down into a chair. My head hits the metal table and everything spins for a few minutes.

  When I look up, Blondie is sitting across from me, hands folded in front of her, resting on the table, like she hasn’t got a care in the world.

  We’re in a dark room with a single spotlight shining down on a single table with two chairs, and two people, and only one reason to be here.

  They are going to kill me.

  “You have no idea who you’re messing with, little girl.”

  No. I refuse to give them that satisfaction.

  “Fair enough,” I manage to spit back at Blondie. “But neither do you.”

  “Oh, I know all about you, Aurora.”

  I scowl at the name and that makes her smile bigger.

  “I know that the man you love thinks he can get away from us.”

  “What?”

  She chuckles. And if I wasn’t just poisoned, dragged into some kind of interrogation room, and loomed over by her menacing bodyguard… I’d think it was a good-natured laugh.

  But it’s not.

  “Honey, please. You come from—” She looks at her bodyguard. “What was it she told Frank?” But it’s a rhetorical question, because she looks back at me and says, “Her family is pretty much nothing but bikers and tattoo artists?”

  “That’s right,” I say, forcing my bravado. “And you do not want to mess with us.”

  “Don’t worry, sweetie. We don’t even want you. We don’t want any of you. We only want the men you bring along.”

  I can’t help it, my face scrunches up.

  “Women are, for the most part, at least, the weaker sex. Don’t you agree?” She’s asking the bodyguard again, and again doesn’t wait for an answer. “But they are useful in many ways.” She appears to think about this for a second and then adds, “Necessary.”

  “So you’re weak?” I ask, wincing as my stomach protests against the remnants of the poison.

  “Oh, no. I’m not weak at all. But it’s not me Silver wanted when they invited me in. It was my stupid brother. He’s too young yet. I’m just an insurance policy. It’ll be a few years before they get their payoff. But by then, I’ll have climbed my way to the top. And I’m going to do that by using you to get your precious Five Aston to play along with our plans.”

  “He won’t do it,” I seethe. “Not the way you think, at least. He will… he will…” But I cannot come up with a menacing enough threat to make her think twice about what she’s doing.

  What is she doing? I try to look around the room better, but I can’t see past the bright spotlight shining down on this single table.

  I swallow hard and say, “You’ve severely misjudged him if you think he’s coming here to make a deal with you.”

  “He’s already here, dear. We’re about to get him right now. And we’re going to use you to do it.”

  “I won’t,” I say, shaking my head.

  “You will. Or,” she says, holding up a thin white wafer, “you’ll eat this and die before he finds you.”

  I stare at her. Who the fuck is this lady?

  “He’s quite a prize. Genius-level hacker. Old-money family. Company connections, I hear.”

  I have to close my eyes to hold down the vomit when she says the word Company.

  “He even builds robots.” She laughs at that. Like it’s absurd. “But the most interesting thing about your man, Princess, is that his grandfather tapped him to take over a prominent Chinese Triad. We already know he’s reluctant from our inside sources. But once he sees you… well…” She offers me a fake sympathetic smile. “He’ll get on board, just like all the rest.”

  “I bet you never had a man love you like that, did you, Blondie?”

  Her smile falters just the tiniest bit.

  “No,” I say. “I cannot imagine a man giving up anything for a woman like you. Let alone his family name, and wealth, and his future. You’re all alone, aren’t you, Blondie?”

  She blinks at me. Slowly. Smiling. Like she’s an overly patient pre-school teacher talking to a three-year-old. “Well, you’re wrong, honey. I do have a man. A very well-connected one. Jack Joseph. Five knows him well. And Jack knows all Five’s secrets. Isn’t that right, Jack?”

  I look around the dark room, wondering who the fuck she’s talking to. But a man steps forward from the shadows and smiles at me. “Pleased to meet you,” he says in his typical British accent. He looks at his watch and then at me. “Five should be here soon. I hear he just broke into the building. You did call for him, Aurora? Like a good little helpless princess?”

  Shit. They knew all along.

  “We just killed Cliff Middleton, by the way,” Blondie says. “He came here tonight with silly notions of revenge for his pathetic little sister.”

  “What?” I say, unable to hide my shock.

  “Would you like to play who’s-got-more-power with me, Aurora?” Blondie says in her overly sweet voice.

  “It’s Rory,” I growl, my anger back. Fuck these people. They killed both of my friends and I’m going to make sure that if I go down, it counts. Twice.

  “Not anymore. It’s Aurora now. You will marry Frank Fulbright tonight, and tomorrow you’ll be Aurora Fulbright.”

  Disgusting. I’d rather die. “I can’t wait to see the wedding pictures.” I laugh. It’s a forced laugh. But I don’t care. If taking down Frank Fulbright is the only thing I get out of this night… it’ll have to do. “I think I might’ve knocked out a tooth.”

  Blondie’s smile turns into a frown. “I wish you had more control, Aurora.”

  “Yeah,’” I ask. “Why’s that?”

  “Because he’s gonna make you pay for that.”

  “And no one”—I turn in my chair to find Frank coming through the steel door holding a bloody handkerchief to his face—“will give two fucking shits what I do to you, Aurora. No one,” he says, walking quickly over to me, so fast he startles me and I get up, but he grabs my hair, yanks it hard and puts me back in my place, “will come to your rescue. No one will ever take you from me. You’re mine.” He looks over at Blondie and says, “Do it. Now.”

  Blondie nods to the bodyguard and he brings a small silver plate with one of those silver dome lids over it. He places it on the table and lifts the lid. Sitting on the plate is a single silver wafer, about the size of a half dollar.

  “What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

  “Kill yourself, bitch,” Frank spits. “Just like Tera did.”

  I glare at him and steel myself. Remind myself why I’m here. For revenge.

  Before they even know I’m moving, I snatch the silver wafer from the tray and pop it into my mouth. They tackle me, their fi
ngers in my mouth as they knock me to the ground. All three of them, making me gag on the acrid-tasting wafer, until they scoop it out and fling the remnants on the floor.

  “No, no, no,” Blondie says, tsking her tongue at me. “We tell you when you’re allowed to die, sweetie. Not the other way around. We control everything about your life from this moment on.” She stops her speech and looks up at the bodyguard. “Where is Aston?”

  “The double doors,” bodyguard says.

  “Good,” Jack Joseph says. “Right on time. Take her,” he says to Frank.

  Frank, still tightly holding my hair and happy to get his chance to hurt me again, yanks me up until I’m standing. He squeezes me close to him, my back pressed against his chest. His blood-smelling breath seeps into my nose, making me want to puke.

  My head is spinning. Not in a way I’ve ever experienced before. And my vision begins to blur as I lose control of my muscles and slump against Frank.

  “What the fuck?” Franks asks. “Did she swallow some of that wafer?”

  He sounds worried, but he’s not worried about me. He’s worried about losing his little reward for being an obedient, power-hungry lackey. His prize. His place in this… this… cult.

  Five will never stop if they kill me. He will burn down the world if anything happens to me.

  And maybe that’s better? At least they’ll be gone.

  Everyone is up next to me then. Blondie is calling out instructions to someone. Jack Joseph slaps my face and screams, “Open your eyes! Open your fucking eyes!”

  “Five,” I moan. “Get them all for me, Five…”

  I spin, and spin, and spin, and then I realize they don’t want me dead, that I’m of no use to them if I’m dead. My impulsive final act of defiance might actually win this game right now.

  My smile forms through the foam and saliva spilling out of my mouth until words turn jumbled and the world begins to fade into black.