The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three)

by Baum, Spencer

  Raquel had a criminal record. She had terrible credit. She couldn’t get a loan, couldn’t open a bank account, and she couldn’t rent an apartment. But Teresa Silva could do all those things. And she did. Living as Teresa, Raquel became one of the fabulous people who wore pretty dresses, expensive necklaces, and danced the night away at The Avalon.

  And while she danced, she trusted that, at some point before the night was over, she would find her next conquest. There was another Shannon here in this club. Another rich victim to fleece.

  One song bled into another. Raquel danced under the moon, taking in the night air and the cool ocean breeze. She didn’t find a new victim on this night. But she did come face to face with an old one. When she finally decided to step away from the dance floor and approach the bar, she ran into the girl who used to be Teresa Silva.

  “Hello Raquel,” Shannon said. “I bet you weren’t expecting to see me tonight.”

  *****

  Some twelve hours after Jill sent her a text message, Annika called her back.

  “Hello, Annika? Have you landed?”

  “I’m still on the plane,” Annika said. “I just turned on my phone. What are these texts all about?”

  “Listen Annika, there isn’t time to explain everything. You just have to trust me. Renata is in Rio. She landed before you and went to Shannon’s old house. She’s headed to the Praia de Sol hotel right now. Call Shannon and get her out of there. Figure out a place to meet. Tell her that no one can know where she’s going.”

  “Alright,” Annika said. “I’ll call her now.”

  “And call me back after you talk to her!”

  For ten minutes, Jill sat in silence, watching on her map as Annika’s red dot sat in place at the airport, and Renata’s blue dot drove down the coast.

  “Shannon’s not picking up!” Annika yelled when she finally called back. “My call went to voicemail and she sent me a text saying she had to settle an old score and she would call me in a few minutes.”

  “Settle an old score? What is she doing?”

  “I don’t know! The text is the last bit of info I got from her! I think she turned her phone off.”

  “Is she in the hotel?”

  “I don’t know! I called the room and nobody answered there either. I think I should go to the hotel to look for her. Do you think it’s safe?”

  “Hang on,” Jill said. She looked at the tracking program. Annika was a few miles closer to the Praia de Sol than Renata was.

  “You can go to the hotel, but hurry. Renata’s on her way.”

  *****

  “You left me for dead,” Shannon said.

  They were standing in the middle of the dance floor, the party going on all around them.

  “But you survived,” said Raquel. “Good for you.”

  “Don’t act like you didn’t try to murder me. You took everything I had and left me in the slums.”

  People were looking at them now. Raquel knew she should leave. There was nothing in this argument for her.

  But she couldn’t walk away. She found herself with entirely too much to say to this spoiled American brat.

  “Who are you to have so much when others have so little?” Raquel said.

  “It looks to me like you’ve got plenty, Raquel.”

  It made her angry when Shannon said her name. It reminded her that, not that long ago, Shannon thought she was worthy of Raquel’s love. It reminded her how low she had been, how dirty she’d been forced to play.

  “Is that my mother’s necklace?” Shannon said.

  Raquel immediately put her hand over the silver pendant.

  “This is mine,” she said, her tone of voice daring Shannon to try and take it.

  Shannon shook her head in disgust, and Raquel felt herself growing more and more angry. Who was this little bitch to judge her? This soft, spoiled loser, daring to condemn Raquel, as if she had even the faintest idea how many years Raquel had waited to get into this night club.

  “You know how I found you, Raquel?”

  “How?”

  Shannon pointed at the hotel that loomed above them. “I just looked out the window from my room,” she said. “You stuck out like a sore thumb. This hotel, this nightclub, that necklace—they are meant for people like me! You left me in the slums to rot, but here I am, not two months later, back in the fanciest hotel in Rio. And you may have a little bit of pocket change right now after robbing my house, but one day you’ll have spent it all. One day, you’ll be back in the slums wondering what the hell happened, and I will still be staying at the fanciest hotels and dancing at the most exclusive nightclubs.”

  Raquel had heard enough. With speed and strength she had developed over many years on the waves, she punched Shannon in the face. Shannon fell back into the crowd of dancers, who raced to get out of her way.

  What happened next surprised Raquel. She fully expected Shannon to run out with her tail between her legs. But she didn’t. She crawled back to her feet, shouting, “It’s on!” and then she charged, throwing her shoulder into Raquel’s stomach and tackling her to the ground.

  *****

  “I’m at the hotel,” Annika said. “She’s not in the room.”

  “Did you check the lobby?” said Jill.

  “Yes, and the bar,” said Annika.

  “Do you have a picture of her with you?” said Jill.

  “A picture? Yeah, I guess on my phone--”

  “Bring up her picture and start asking around,” said Jill. “Someone might have seen where she went.”

  “Really? Just start asking these people? Oh Jill, I don’t know. Maybe I should just go look around outside.”

  Jill looked at the tracking app on her phone.

  “Whatever you’re gonna do, you need to do it fast. Renata will be there in a few minutes.”

  *****

  Renata arrived at the Praia de Sol shortly before eleven o’clock. There was a long line of people waiting to check in at the front desk. Renata cut to the front and handed a photograph to the clerk.

  “Have you seen this girl?” she asked.

  The clerk was a young man with dark skin and unfortunate teeth. According to the badge on his jacket, his name was Victor.

  Victor glanced at the photo. He pushed it back at Renata. He was about to tell her to get in line, but she caught him with her eyes.

  Have you seen this girl? she asked with her mind.

  Victor’s pupils dilated. He had seen her. He just didn’t have it stored in his conscious mind. Renata made him remember.

  “She is here,” Victor said. “She is in room 1108.”

  “Thank you,” said Renata.

  But Shannon wasn’t in the room. Renata took a moment to inspect the place, looking carefully for a necklace with a silver pendant. She found nothing. So she went downstairs and checked at the bar. She showed the photograph to the bartender.

  “Yes,” he said. “I recognize her. But she hasn’t been to the bar tonight.”

  Renata went to the concierge. He too knew who Shannon was, but not where she was. Same with the bellhop, a woman from the housekeeping staff, and even a waiter at the restaurant. They all had seen Shannon before, but didn’t know where she was.

  She’s close, Renata thought. But where?

  She stood in the center of the lobby, imagining she was a seventeen-year-old girl. Where would I be at this moment?

  She heard music. Not the soft piano music of the hotel lobby. Something more distant. A thumping sound. The teenage jungle beats that kids loved to dance to these days.

  That’s where you are, isn’t it Shannon? The night is young and you’re out dancing.

  *****

  Jill was hunched over her computer screen, watching Renata’s blue dot and Annika’s red dot floating ever closer together.

  “I’m out on the beach,” Annika said. Jill had her on speaker phone. Behind Annika were the sounds of nightlife in the city. Dance music, people laughing, the chatter of the crowd. />
  “Annika, I don’t want you to panic,” said Jill, “but I need you to be aware that Renata is getting close.”

  “How close? You don’t think she can see me, do you?”

  “Just be cool and keep moving. You want to head north to stay ahead of her.”

  “Good Lord, which way is north? It’s the middle of the night and I’m in Rio de Janeiro!”

  “The opposite direction of the way you’re going now,” Jill said. “Put the ocean on your right-hand side.”

  “Oh, okay, that makes sense.”

  “The best way to hide from a vampire is inside a crowd,” said Jill. “Is there a crowd of people you can join?”

  “There’s a nightclub,” said Annika. “It looks pretty packed.”

  “See if you can get in there,” said Jill. “Renata’s getting too close to where you are. You need to hide until she’s passed.”

  “Okay, I see the entrance. I’m headed in there now.”

  *****

  Who knew a rich white girl had so much fury inside her? Raquel was shocked to find that Shannon could hold her own in a fight. She was like a crazy weasel, thrashing and kicking and clawing as the two of them rolled through the crowd.

  Raquel threw her knee in Shannon’s face. It was a good shot, and Shannon went tumbling across the dance floor.

  Raquel stood up and looked around her. The bouncers were pushing their way through the crowd. This fight was almost over.

  One more good shot before it’s done, Raquel thought. One more punch to put this brat in her place.

  Raquel was about to charge across the floor when she got distracted by a sound from the crowd.

  “Shannon?”

  “Who said that?” Raquel demanded.

  Shannon and Raquel both turned to see a blonde in street clothes working her way through the crowd.

  “Shannon!” the girl said. She had an American accent. “It’s me! It’s Annika!”

  Taking advantage of Shannon’s distraction, Raquel landed a quick sucker punch to Shannon’s face. It sent her reeling to the floor, where she landed hard, right at the blonde girl’s feet.

  The blonde put an arm around Shannon and lifted her up. The bouncers arrived and offered to help. The blonde waved them off and pointed at Raquel.

  The bouncers came at Raquel and grabbed her by both arms.

  “It’s time for you to leave,” one of them said.

  “What about her?” said Raquel, nodding her head in Shannon’s direction. “What are you doing to her?”

  Dragging Raquel across the dance floor, they said nothing.

  “What about her?” Raquel screamed. “What about her! Throw her out too!”

  It was maddening. The bouncers were going to let Shannon and the blonde girl stay in the club, but had firm grips on both of her arms and were carrying her down the stairs.

  “Do you know who I am?” Raquel screamed. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to be here?”

  *****

  Renata stepped through the front door of The Avalon nightclub to find two beastly men dragging a young woman across the floor against her will.

  She was putting on quite the show as they dragged her out. Flailing and kicking and screaming, Do you know who I am? Do you?

  And then she saw it.

  Dancing around the girl’s neck, the pendant sliding every which way as the girl thrashed like an animal.

  The girl looked nothing like Shannon Evans.

  Renata approached the men. “Be still,” she commanded. Everyone within earshot of her voice stopped moving, including the girl.

  Renata squatted down and put her hands on the necklace.

  A silver pendant with a black onyx stone and eight lines coming out on all sides. Renata pressed on the onyx with her thumb and a USB port shot out of the bottom.

  “Well, hello there,” Renata said.

  She tugged on the pendant until the chain broke, then, holding the necklace in front of the girl, asked, “Where did you get this?”

  The girl, speaking with as much conviction as Renata had ever seen in a human, said, “It’s mine.”

  “Really?” said Renata. “But where did you get it?”

  Again, this time with an air of defiance in her voice. It’s MINE.

  The poor girl was nuts. Renata leaned in closer to her face, looking directly in her eyes, and said, “This necklace isn’t yours any longer. It’s mine now. And you will forget you ever had it.”

  The girl was breathing heavy. There were scratch marks running down her cheek and her neck. Her lip was bleeding.

  “It’s….mine,” she hissed.

  Renata clicked her tongue. “Such a shame,” she said. “I was content to let you go. But if you’re not going to listen to me.”

  “It’s mine! That necklace is mine! Give it back to me!”

  Renata grabbed onto the girl’s head with both hands and gave it a quick twist. The girl fell dead on the ground.

  Renata stood up and looked at the bouncers, who were still held motionless by her command to be still.

  “Have a good night,” she said.

  Chapter 46

  We are on a bus headed south. We’ll find a hotel and hide out until sunrise. Then we’re getting the hell out of this town.

  The text from Annika came at a few minutes past one in the morning. It was over. The map on Jill’s screen had Renata and Annika’s dots traveling in opposite directions.

  Jill composed a return text.

  Take care. Keep that ring with you for awhile. I’ll get in touch with you if I hear anything you should know.

  A few seconds passed, then one more message from Annika arrived.

  Thank you, Jill. My girl would be dead three times over if it weren’t for you. I’ll never forget what you’ve done.

  Jill closed the tracking program and crawled into bed. She slept for the next ten hours. She woke up to find Tarin seated at her desk, looking at the laptop.

  “You’ve done it,” he said. “You’ve finished the hack.”

  Jill sat up.

  “Yes,” she said. “We figured it out.”

  “What was it? What were we missing before?”

  Jill told Tarin everything she knew, starting with a phone call from Nicky, going through the encryption scheme, and ending with everything that happened after she cracked open the phone.

  “This is very good work,” Tarin said. “You should be proud.”

  Tarin unplugged the laptop, folded it closed, and put it under his arm.

  “What are you doing?” Jill said.

  “Your assignment is finished,” said Tarin. “I’ll take it from here.”

  “But what about Nicky and Ryan?” said Jill. “The third Ransom clue. I was hoping you came here because you figured it out.”

  Tarin smiled and shook his head. “You heard what Renata said. The third clue is impossible.”

  “Only because it leads someplace where humans aren’t allowed to go,” Jill said. “But maybe one of her slaves is allowed.”

  “I don’t know the answer, Jill.”

  “Well then you can’t take the laptop. It’s our only chance of finding them. Renata and Falkon might say something that tells us where they are.”

  Tarin took a deep breath, then he leaned over so he was staring right at Jill.

  “Your work is done,” he said. “I will take it from here.”

  Jill was frozen in place for a second, then she said, “You’ll take it from here.”

  That makes sense, Jill thought. Tarin solved the first two Ransom clues. He’ll take it from here.

  “You can forget all about this laptop and everything to do with Renata’s phone,” Tarin said.

  “Yeah,” Jill said. “I’d like that. You take the laptop. I’m tired of working on it.”

  Now that she thought about it, it was a great idea for Tarin to take it! What a relief it would be to have it out of her sight. She had been so stressed about it. But she could just forget it. Wouldn’t t
hat be so wonderful?

  Her work was done. Annika and Shannon were safe. Her hacking assignment was complete. Tarin was going to take care of the final Ransom clue.

  Jill could just go to school, live her life, and relax. For once in her life she could relax!

  “You will wait to hear from me,” Tarin said. “Until then, you will be quiet and well-behaved.”

  “Nothing would make me happier,” Jill said.

  She watched Tarin walk out of her bedroom, the laptop under his arm. He was all the way out the door when it hit her.

  Something didn’t seem right.

  I will be quiet and well-behaved? No, that’s not what I do. I do something else. I choose something. Choose to do….

  “I choose to do what’s right,” she said. The words sputtered from her mouth before she could stop them, but once she heard them, she remembered. I choose to do what’s right!

  “Tarin, wait!” she yelled. She ran out of the bedroom. Tarin was already at the front door. How did he get there so fast? He was pulling the door open, about to leave.

  “Tarin, this isn’t right!” she said. “I need you to come back so we can---”

  An explosion, a bright light, and the sound of machine gun fire, all at once. It sent Jill diving to the floor.

  She saw Tarin, driven back by gunfire, his chest bursting with small, bloody explosions.

  “Tarin!” she yelled. “The back door! Use--”

  But the back door was no good. Men wearing black ski masks were coming up behind him with more weapons. They were in her house! How did these people get in her house?

  Three of them, each with a rifle in-hand—they were spraying Jill’s house with bullets. Shots were blasting Tarin’s chest and going right through him, the bullets smashing into the walls after they exited his body. Broken glass, gypsum, splintered wood, and smoke filled the air. Her body flat against the second-floor landing, Jill could only make out bits and pieces of what was happening. There were bright lights shining through the smoke now, lights that were bouncing everywhere, as if her house had been filled with mirrors. The lights were hot and dangerous, at least, that’s how they seemed. Tarin screamed in pain as he went through them. His clothes burned. His skin singed and turned black.