As he spoke the words, Nicky heard a sadness behind the giddy front he was putting on. They were able to smile and laugh tonight, but there was nothing happy about what the future had in store for them, at least, not the future Ryan was able to see. To him, Nicky was still a candidate in the Coronation contest. She was still a girl trying to join the Samarin clan.
Nicky wanted so badly to tell him the truth. She wanted him to know that she wasn’t in this to win the prize, that she was here to destroy an immortal, not to become one. And as she thought about this, it occurred to her that Ryan was culpable now, that in saving her Coronation campaign with a ten million dollar bid, the immortals would look to him for answers when Sergio was dead and Nicky was nowhere to be found.
They would have to spring him. When the mission ended and Nicky skipped town in the night, she would have to take Ryan with her.
She would get to tell him the truth. Maybe not now, but at some point, the Network would have to tell Ryan Jenson the truth about Nicky Bloom.
“Are you okay?” Ryan said. “You look like you’re thinking about some--”
She kissed him. Right in the middle of his sentence she leaned in and caught his lips in hers. She put her hand on his cheek and tilted her head and kissed him hard, and he kissed her back. In that moment, it didn’t matter that she couldn’t tell him the truth yet. There was truth enough in their kiss. It would hold her for now.
Chapter 41
Kim stomped down the back hall of the Penbrook, her auction ending fifteen minutes after Nicky’s.
Fifteen minutes and seven million dollars behind, Kim thought. What a disaster. What a heinous, infuriating, fucking disaster.
Ryan was going to pay. Ryan and Nicky both. They’d been planning this from the beginning. She was sure of it. They had known. Ryan played her. He pretended to be scared of the secret even as he knew Kim couldn’t release it. He’d even kept up the deceit through the Masquerade and the after-parties. He’d let Kim get her guard down. He used her own strategy against her, keeping the double-cross a secret until she was on the stage at the auction and could do nothing about it.
Twice now, she’d underestimated Nicky Bloom. Never again. Tonight’s events were a declaration of war, and Kim would bring it. All-out, global thermonuclear holocaust, using the full power contained in the Renwick War Chest. Her daddy held secrets on every family in this town. Secrets upon secrets, most of them never used, most of them just sitting there in waiting. There was a vault underneath the Renwick mansion that contained them all, and explicit instructions in Galen’s will that, should he ever die under suspicious circumstances, the vault would be opened and the secrets released.
The vault was meant to protect Kim’s daddy from the many people who wanted him dead. Fuck that. The vault would be used now. Everyone who had a dirty secret in the vault and wasn’t actively engaged in bringing down Nicky Bloom was about to get involved. Kim would make her daddy open that vault and they would go through all its treasures, discussing how they could use each secret as a weapon against Nicky. And they would do it tonight.
“Kim?” Vince called out from behind. He was running to catch up. “Kim, where do you want to go on your date?”
“Nowhere,” she said. “I’m going home.”
“But Kim--the rules say I have to take you on a date for a week!”
“Then take me on a date to my house! You can sleep in a guest room.”
What a fiasco. After Ryan’s surprise bid on Nicky, everything went haywire. All the guys who went to Kim’s after-party, all forty-plus of them, sat still and did nothing while Kim was on stage. They were like all the little critters in the foyer of the Tremblay house, stuffed and frozen in place. They didn’t know what the hell was going on. They were shell-shocked after Nicky’s auction, and were afraid that a bid on Kim might be a bid on the loser.
Who would have fucking imagined? They were afraid to bid on Kim because they thought she’d lose! They all were waiting to see if Art or Marshall would raise their paddles. And those little peckerheads did nothing. They sat still like the rest of them.
Not that Art could do anything, what with his bank account frozen. But Marshall? What was his deal? He knew what was at stake. Did he think that Ryan’s bid on Nicky changed anything? Because it didn’t.
“It doesn’t change anything Marshall,” she muttered. “Now you’re gonna pay.”
“What was that?” Vince said.
“Just shut up! I’m trying to think.”
They came to the back door. Ms. Perry was waiting there to hold it open.
“Get the hell out of my way,” Kim said, and Ms. Perry went scurrying down the hall.
Kim threw the door open and stepped into the alley outside, where she found the limo waiting for her.
The limo and a surprise guest. Standing a few feet from the car, leaning against the wall of the Penbrook, was someone Kim never would have expected to find out here. Come to think of it, it was someone she hadn’t seen in days, someone who wasn’t at the Brawl and whose face wasn’t in the crowd at the Date Auction.
“Hello Kim,” said Jill.
“Fancy meeting you here,” said Kim.
She descended the half-flight of stairs and walked straight to Jill, ignoring the limo driver, who had come out to open the back door
“You have no fucking clue what’s about to happen to you,” Kim said.
“Are you talking about the secret you’ve been holding over Ryan’s head?” said Jill. “Because it just so happens that I do know about that. I know all about it, and this morning I made sure he did too.”
Jill held a pile of papers against her chest. As she spoke, she hugged the papers tight, as if the secret in discussion was hidden in there.
“What are you guys talking about?” said Vince, to which Kim and Jill snapped at him in unison, “Get in the car!”
Vince shook his head in confusion and crawled into the limo.
“Close the door please,” Jill said to the limo driver. He looked at Kim to confirm the instructions, and got an angry hand wave, as if Kim was too busy to tell him anything. He hurried into the front seat, closed the door, and waited.
“You’re bluffing,” said Kim. “You don’t know a thing about my arrangement with Ryan.”
From her stack of papers, Jill pulled off the top sheet and pushed it at Kim.
“I know about this email from your father to Merv Tremblay,” Jill said.
Kim hesitated, wondering if her best bet was to get in the car now and end this conversation, but her curiosity got the best of her and she took the paper.
Dear Merv,
Remember when I told you about a favor? The time has come...
“Do you recognize this email, Kim?” Jill said. “You should. You wrote it.”
Kim felt herself shivering with anger. How did Jill get this email? It was three years old now. How long had she had it? More importantly, how did she know that Kim was the one who wrote it?
“You made a couple goofs when you wrote this,” Jill said. “The most obvious was that you didn’t make any attempt to sound like your father. I knew right away that something was off when I was reading it. The sentences are too short. The tone is too bossy. This email looked strange to me so I researched it further. I found the source IP. The email came from Potomac, which doesn’t make any sense, does it Kim?”
“Where did you get this?” Kim said. “It’s against the law for you to have it. Don’t think my family won’t prosecute.”
“Read the email, Kim. Your father says he is in Canada and he wants Merv to bring the dirt on Walter Wentworth straight to you. But if your father was in Canada, then the email would have come from Canada, and it didn’t. It came from Potomac. It came from your house.”
“Who the hell do you think you are? You can bet your ass my daddy is calling our attorn--.”
“--You broke into your father’s email account and you sent this email!” Jill said. “Your father didn’t even know about it
until Merv mentioned the email to him last week. You wrote the email to trick Merv into giving the goods to you. You knew your father would never go for the kind of blackmail you were pulling on Ryan. Your father knew how dangerous it was to everyone who bought slaves from Melissa.”
Kim was starting to freak out a bit. How did Jill know all of this? Was there a mole in Daddy’s organization? Had Jill broken into their computers?
“I don’t know what you’re getting at, Jill, but I think I’ve heard enough.”
“You told Ryan my mother was born on the Farm,” Jill said. “You showed him this!”
Jill was holding up another paper now, one that was very familiar to Kim. It was a paper Kim had gazed at lovingly for years, the paper that gave her control over Ryan’s life.
The paper showed the sale of a young, exceptionally brilliant girl from the Farm, to Walter Wentworth. Melissa had recognized the uncommon intelligence in that girl and made a special arrangement with Walter. She didn’t give the girl the full reprogramming of a normal slave, and instead, simply hypnotized her to do whatever Walter asked. When Walter told her to marry him, she did. When he told her to master the art of computer programming, she did. When he told her to work day and night to create software that would make them billionaires, she did.
“You’re delusional,” Kim said.
“Ryan’s already told me everything,” said Jill. “He told me how you came to him during freshman year, how you threatened to make this public if he didn’t break up with me. He told me how you’ve been holding this paper over his head ever since. You convinced Ryan that Daciana would flip out if she learned Melissa was selling slaves to the highest bidder, that she would consider me an abomination and would insist that my mother and I had to go back to the Farm.”
Kim felt sick to her stomach. Her whole life, she was the one who knew everybody’s secrets, so she was the one with the power. But Jill had the power now. Kim could do nothing but stand there and listen.
“I have pages and pages of evidence,” said Jill. “Melissa Mayhew numbered her clients. My dad was number 11. Art’s dad was number 3. Your dad was number 2.”
And here it was. Jill was about to stare Kim down on her own family secret. The Renwicks were no different than any other family in Washington. They had a skeleton in the closet, and theirs was a doozy. All the many informants all over Washington and the world, the eyes and ears that told Galen Renwick everything he needed to know, who never questioned the ethics or legality of what Galen had them doing—all of them were slaves. All of them were bought from Melissa Mayhew.
“Well it appears to me that we’re both in the same boat, are we not?” Kim said. “We both know each other’s big, dirty secrets, and neither of us can do a thing with the information since we’re all guilty. If one of us talks, we all die.”
“You’ve got it,” said Jill. “Neither of us can do a thing. You know it, I know it, and now Ryan knows it, so don’t expect him to do what you say anymore.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Kim. “There are always more secrets to be found. Tell me something, Jill. How long have you known that your mother is just a glorified pet?”
“We’re done here,” said Jill. “Have fun on your date.”
“You didn’t know at all, did you?” Kim said, pleased that she could get in at least one barb. “Yes, I can tell. You went looking for secrets about Ryan Jenson, and instead you found a big fat secret about yourself. You learned that your beloved mother was a piece of meat who was born to be eaten.”
Jill turned and walked down the alley, but before she did, Kim saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes.
If nothing else, Kim could revel in the fact that she made Jill cry. It felt good to get the best of that girl, even as a parting shot.
Come to think of it, it felt pretty good to have that entire conversation out of the way.
For some reason, the terrible news that Jill had brought with her tonight left Kim feeling energized, even a bit rejuvenated.
Now she understood what she was up against. Now she understood what she had to do.
Nicky Bloom wasn’t the real enemy. She was just the face of the opposition.
The real enemy was the girl who was walking down the alley.
Chapter 42
Her assailants lying dead in the front room, Melissa spent a few minutes wandering the now empty house. Truly, it was a magnificent place. Whoever built this home had done so intending to capture and kill a vampire.
The windows had a layer of stress-resistant plastic in the center of them. There were compartments in the walls of every room, all of them stocked with guns, knives, and swords. She found three more steel cages in the ceiling, all identical to the one that almost trapped her. She punched a hole in the drywall and found a lattice of steel rebar built into the house’s frame. There was even a whaling harpoon hidden behind an upstairs shower.
“Incredible,” she whispered.
The enormity of Falkon Dillinger’s plan was clear to her now. She saw all facets of it. Between the information she had gleaned from the minds of the Evans family, and now this, she understood all that Falkon was up to.
She called Dominic to discuss. Together they came up with a few white lies they would stick to, lies that would allow them to tell the rest of the clan what they knew while casting Melissa in an innocent light. Then she called Lena and Bernadette, two of her sisters in the clan who would side with her in the coming schism. She told them both to come to the Bloom mansion in Bethesda at once, that she had uncovered betrayal of the highest order and the Bloom family was guilty.
Half an hour later, Renata came in the front door. Looking over the carnage spread out all over the floor, she said, “I see you’ve been having fun without me.”
“What are you doing here?” Melissa said.
“Bernadette called me to ask if I was coming to Bethesda,” said Renata. “She just assumed you had invited me to come learn your news. Did you mean to invite me?”
Melissa said nothing. She thought about the ceremonial hunt, about how Renata had been ready to fight to the death but Melissa had backed down. If it came to that again, she would be ready this time.
“I told the others not to come,” said Renata. “As the leaders of the clan, you and I should get on the same page first, don’t you think?”
Melissa sighed. This was so typical. The whole point was for Melissa to get the credit for this discovery, for the clan to unite under her leadership against the forces who wanted to destroy them. Now Renata would ensure that she got equal credit. Or more. By tomorrow night, Renata would be giving out orders as if she had discovered Falkon’s plot, as if she was queen of the clan.
“I’ll tell you,” Melissa said, “but there is something you must understand. This is my discovery. I am the one who worked hard to learn the truth. I am the one who risked my life for the good of the clan, and I will ensure that our sisters and brothers know as much. I am in charge of what we do next.”
Renata laughed. “Feeling a little threatened, are we?”
“I’m only telling you what to expect,” said Melissa. “I will not have you stealing my thunder on this.”
“No one is stealing anyone’s thunder,” said Renata. She came close and put an arm on Melissa’s shoulder. “We’re a family. I know I’ve been tough to be around since my bond and I parted ways, but I haven’t forgotten who my family is. I haven’t forgotten that you’re my sister.”
The words were like the perfect medicine for Melissa’s sickness. All these thoughts about wanting to be queen, about wanting to unite the clan and replace Daciana—they were nothing more than desperation in the face of change. What Melissa really wanted more than anything was to go back to how things were. She missed the days when she and Renata were close.
Could it be that Renata missed those days too? Could it be that Renata didn’t want to fight but Melissa was forcing her to?
“You say these things, but I don’t know if I belie
ve you,” Melissa said. “I remember how you looked at me at the hunt.”
Renata looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved that night,” she said. “It has been so hard for me. What you and Dominic have—I had it too, once. But then I lost it. Oh, Sister, breaking your bond is a terrible thing, and when you challenged me at the hunt I became incensed with anger. You have everything that I want, so why were you trying to take something more from me? I am so jealous of you and Dominic. The way you two are when you’re together. I want that again for myself. I just don’t know when it’s going to happen.”
Melissa put an arm over her sister’s shoulders. Why had they waited so long to talk about this? Of course Renata felt this way. Everyone knew that Melissa’s bond with Dominic was the strongest in the clan. How could Melissa have been so insensitive? She had been so angry at Renata for changing after her bond broke, she had blamed Renata for everything that had gone sour in the clan, never taking a moment to think about her own behavior. Her sister had lost her love. Renata needed her and Melissa hadn’t been there.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Melissa said. “We’ll get through it. Together. You will find another bond.”
“But when?” Renata said. “How long do I have to wait? Every sundown I wonder if this is the night when the feeling will come back to me, if this is when I will find another one to love, but it doesn’t happen. I just coast through the darkness, alone, barely any different than a freak like Sergio.”
“Don’t say that,” said Melissa. “It will happen again, and until it does, I’m here for you. I haven’t been a good sister. I know that now. But I’m going to change. I need you, Renata. The clan needs you.”
“The clan needs us,” Renata said. “Daciana is gone. Our sisters and brothers are lost. They are looking to us for leadership and we aren’t giving it to them.”
Melissa stepped away and looked her sister in the eyes.
The Festival of the Moon (Girls Wearing Black: Book Two) Page 30