Finally the tears come. For Amelia. Not for Walt.
What caused it? Was it a gas leak in the other apartment? Oh God, was Aunt Vanessa in our apartment when it happened? She should’ve been there an hour ago.
No. No. No. Please, no! All the family I have left. Gone.
Just as my legs start to buckle, someone screams, “Talia!” I jerk my head around toward the voice. My aunt is frantically pushing her way through the crowd. When she’s ten feet away, the people start to part and let her pass. As soon as she reaches me, her dark eyes roam over my face, anguish and relief in her expression. Tears streak her cheeks, but she’s still wearing her work uniform and the bun in her dark hair is askew.
Guilt swells in my throat, making me croak when I try to talk. “I’m so sorry, Aunt Vanessa.”
“You’re okay. Thank God!” she says, grabbing me and pulling me into a tight hug.
“I need…” The words jam in my throat, wanting to be free. “I wa—want to tell you.”
“Hush!” my aunt gusts in my ear. “The firemen won’t let me go up, but I know…” she trails off, her voice cracking.
She’s gripping me tight, tighter than she ever has before. As I hug her back, I realize that telling her the truth would be more painful for her than the one she’s experiencing right now. Amelia might not have been hers, but she loved her like a daughter. Just like she has me, ever since my mom swallowed a bottle of pills when I was just a week old. Letting my aunt hold onto some pleasant memories is better than none, so I clamp my jaw shut and swallow my guilt and anger.
The wind picks up, encouraging the flames to spread. Several more firemen burst through the crowd, and we have to move out of their way to let them pass. When my aunt and I turn to watch the men try to contain the blaze, our entire lives floating in the debris with the smoke, she says, “This is going to be hard for a while, Talia. It’s just you and me now. Like it has always been.”
“I know,” I say and gulp back the anxiety clawing at my throat. We’ll have to sleep in a shelter tonight and probably for a while until we figure things out. We have no other family. My aunt had only just finished nursing school and was in her first nursing job. Even with her salary, I know she depended on Walt’s carpentry income—which was a crock. It’s a good thing she’ll never know the real truth—to make rent and her car payment. The idea of having to quit school and find a job gnaws at my gut. School’s my only chance of going to college…of making a better life. Sighing heavily, I hunch my shoulders and slide my hands in my pockets to stave off the wind’s sharp bite.
My knuckles drag against something metal, and I frown, curling my fingers around the object in the coat. When my thumb rubs across the watch’s face, I realize he must’ve slipped it into the pocket right before I got out of his car. Sneaky car thief.
My grief for Amelia still heavy on my mind, I lean into my aunt’s solid frame. She has always been much stronger than me.
When she squeezes me and says quietly, “We’re all we have to depend on,” I know we’ll be okay.
One day.
I clutch the watch in my hand, fisting my fingers tight around the metal. That’s not all we have to get us through. Thank you for the rainbow, Blackie.
Chapter One
‡
Eight Years Later
“Get up, sleepyhead,” Cassie says before landing a stinging whack on my butt.
“Ow!” I jerk my head up, morning sunlight making me squint as I glare at her through the tangled red curtain of my bedhead hair. “What’s wrong with you? The sun’s barely up. I’m not going to the beach this early. It’s probably too cold anyway.”
Cassie’s silky black hair slides forward over her shoulder as she giggles and rips the covers off me completely. “I know the Blakes are the real reason you came to the Hamptons with me for Spring Break. You should be thanking me. I’m about to make your wishes come true.”
Her mention of the Blakes grabs my full attention. Rubbing the chill bumps off my arms, I quickly sit up. “How’d you know?”
Cassie flops onto the bed beside me. “I’m your best friend.” Sweeping her hand around her lavish bedroom and then toward the French doors that lead out to the beach beyond, she continues, “I know lazing around here with me isn’t how you’d normally spend your Spring Break.”
I shake my head and snort. She knows me so well. Since Aunt Vanessa’s off on her umpteenth cruise with her new husband, I didn’t have to go home and work a retail job for extra cash like I always have in the past. But just because my aunt married well this past year doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working hard. It just gives me more time to work on my career, well…future career. The school newspaper is my “job” now, even if I’m not paid. “Okay, guilty, but how’d you know about the Blakes?”
She purses her lips and stares at her nails. “’Cause I followed you the other day.”
My back goes ramrod straight. Forcing myself to relax, I hug the pillow, guilt knotting my stomach. “I really did want to spend some time with you, Cass. It’s just that…well, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by. Getting the real scoop on what happened with Mina Blake could be the story that helps land me my dream job at the Tribune when I graduate in June.” Grimacing, I shrug. “Not that going to the Blakes that day did me any good. I couldn’t get past her father to see Mina. I tried again yesterday at a restaurant in town, but her two older brothers are just as bad. They didn’t let me within twenty feet of her. They’re protecting her like hawks.”
Cassie’s light brown eyes flash back to mine. “Maybe her roommate committing suicide really is why Mina withdrew from school. Her family’s probably just being protective, Talia.”
“No, there’s something more to it. I know there is. Too many rumors are flying around campus. Stories that Bliss might be involved, something about a distribution ring.”
“Bliss?”
I nod. “An upgraded form of Ecstasy and very expensive. Mina might know more. I want to hear what happened from her. If any part about the drug stuff is true, it just doesn’t make sense to me that either girl would take part in dealing drugs. They both come from wealthy families; neither girl needed the money.”
“Maybe they were taking the drugs too,” Cass says.
“I didn’t hear any rumors about drug use.” Just running drugs. But what made them do it? There has to be more to it. The memory of Walt’s stale beer breath, as he grabs my backpack and shoves a brown lunch bag inside it, comes back to me full force.
“Give these supplies to a carpenter buddy of mine on your way to school, Talia. He’ll be waiting for you over at the park gates.”
“But I don’t walk that way.”
“You do today,” he snaps. “And any other day I ask you to.”
“But I’ll be late for school.”
“Then leave earlier. Who do you think pays for your aunt to go to nursing school? So shut your damned mouth and get going.”
A scruffy guy in a ball cap tugs on his bill with stained fingers, then pushes off the fence when I approach.
“You got it, kid?” he rasps, snatching the bag I’d pulled out of my backpack to hand to him.
With dark stains under his fingernails, he looks more like a mechanic than a carpenter. My gaze stays locked on the H and F stamp on his hand as he digs through the bag. I recognize it as the Hounds and Foxes nightclub emblem, except the ampersand between the H and F is flipped in the wrong direction. Why would the nightclub use a stamp with a backward ampersand? Do they not know it’s backward?
“What the fuck are you looking at?” he snarls.
“Nothing.” I shrug and walk away.
Guilt flushes my cheeks that I’d played a part in dealing drugs all those years ago. I figured out it wasn’t carpenter supplies a couple months later when I finally worked up the nerve to look in the bag one day after I left the house. Blue, pink, and white pills filled hundreds of plastic bags inside. It explained a lot about Walt’s drinking buddies and
their “man cave”. The bastard and his cronies put together bags of Ecstasy for distribution.
I tried to confront Walt about it, because I was pretty sure Aunt Vanessa didn’t know. She’d never put me at risk like that. The only good that came out of that conversation was that Walt promised me if I kept my mouth shut and did as he asked, he’d keep Hayes away from me. What else could I do? Aunt Vanessa hadn’t finished her nursing classes, and I couldn’t imagine leaving Amelia, so I studied in school, kept my head down, and delivered stupid bags.
“You okay? You look flushed?” Cass asks, bringing me back to the present.
I nod. “I’m just thinking about all the possibilities.”
“Well, there might not be a reason for them dealing drugs.” Cass shrugs. “Ultra rich kids do dumb things all the time. Sometimes just for kicks. Trust me. I’ve seen it all. It’s like they live in a whole other world with a completely different set of rules.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re one of them.”
“No, I’m not,” she huffs. “Remember my dad’s business didn’t take off until I was a junior in high school. I wasn’t born into wealth.”
“Sorry,” I mumble, feeling bad for judging. “It’s just that this whole ‘not worrying about money’ thing is a foreign concept to me.”
She sighs and tilts her head. “You’re attending one of the most prestigious colleges in the country and you still feel that way?”
“I got into Columbia on academics, not a trust fund, Cass.”
“But you can stay there on your step-uncle’s dime now, regardless of your grades. I guess what I’m trying to say is…it’s time to relax a little. Your aunt is enjoying her time and you should too. Give yourself a break. Stop running a-hundred-and-ten miles an hour. You’ll burn out before you’re twenty-five.”
I have to land a great job once I graduate. I never want to be in the position my aunt was, depending on someone to take care of her. Being financially secure while seeking the truth and uncovering injustices will be the ultimate career for me. “Wait? If you want me to relax, why are you going to help me with the Blakes?”
Her eyes sparkle with wickedness. “Because I have my own score to settle, and an exclusive masked party at the Blakes’ house this upcoming weekend is the perfect opportunity to exact my revenge.”
I raise an eyebrow. Who knew my friend had a vengeful streak? “I had no idea you knew that family. I would’ve just asked you to make introductions for me.”
Cass touches her collarbone. “Oh, I don’t know the Blakes. Celeste Carver does.”
“Um, if you don’t know them, how are we getting into this party?”
“All last week Celeste has been crowing on social media about how she’s been invited to this exclusive event at the Blakes’ estate this weekend.” Picking up her phone, Cass scrolls to Celeste’s latest post. “This morning she was bemoaning the fact she won’t be able to attend.”
“What does this Celeste chick have to do with you? And how does that get us into the party?”
Cassie grins. “Two reasons. One, I can pass for Celeste’s twin. A fact she made me hate up until I saw her post this morning. And two…” Frown lines smooth out with her wide smile. “When the invitation explicitly states: Anyone who removes their mask during the evening will be escorted out, it occurs to me that I’ve finally found a way to pay Celeste back for making me look like an idiot back in ninth grade.”
“That’s a long time to hold a grudge.” I frown slightly. “What did she do to you?”
“She told me that Jake Hemming liked me, but he didn’t know how to ask me out. And since Celeste and I were supposedly friends—we had a couple classes together—I believed her. I thought Jake was cute too, so I put on my big girl panties, screwed up my courage, and asked him if he’d like to go out to a movie that weekend.”
I can tell by her pinched expression things didn’t go as planned. “What happened?”
Tears glisten in her eyes, humiliation reflecting behind the mist. “Jake laughed in my face in front of everyone. Then, he looked me up and down and said, ‘You might look like Celeste, but you’re nowhere near her level. It’s bad enough she turned me down for Friday’s dance, but I don’t do middle class substitutes. Go back to being a nobody and stop trying to pretend to be someone you’re obviously not.’”
“What a shitty bastard.” I twist my lips in anger. “Let me guess, Celeste is incredibly wealthy?”
Cassie nods, fat tears spilling down her cheeks. Brushing them away, she says, “I know I should just let it go, but I’ve never been so humiliated, Talia. What she did made me feel less than worthless for a very long time.”
I lift my hands toward her. “But you don’t feel that way anymore. You’re the most confident girl I know. Your fearlessness is what drew me to you.”
She releases an ironic half-laugh. “Well, I wasn’t always like this. I had many therapy sessions and some growing up to do before I found my own way.”
Leaning over, I hug her close and whisper, “I had no idea.” Cassie’s story just goes to show that you never really know a person like you think you do, even someone you’re close to. Then again, she doesn’t know anything about my past either.
Cassie squeezes me, then leans back to smile. “Something my therapist said has stuck with me: ‘Our pasts define us, but we don’t have to let them rule us.’”
I offer a wry smile and fiddle with the gold chain around my neck, sliding the two floating hearts between my fingers. Keeping a part of Amelia close reminds me how quickly life can change. “If your past isn’t ruling you, why are we going to this party?”
Cassie flicks her tongue against her front teeth. “Because I’m in the mood for a bit of fun mischief by doing something that snobby Celeste Carver would never be caught dead doing. And hey, maybe we can finally get you laid in the process. At least the pool of candidates will have great pedigrees.”
I scowl at her, hating that she’s made it her mission this past year to pop my virginal cherry. It’s like she sees it as a crime that I might graduate with it still in tact. Well, the figurative one. Most likely my battery-operated-boyfriend (aka BOB) took care of the physical one. The truth is, I just haven’t found the right person yet. So far, none of the frat guys Cass hangs out with have done anything for me. Nor has any other guy I’ve met in class given me a reason to go beyond a coffee date. No one has measured up to that guy who taught me to look for rainbows. He’s the one I think about during my BOB fantasies. I don’t need a friend-with-benefits. Not when I have memories and BOB.
Cass wags her finger at me, snagging my attention. Her gaze narrows. “If you don’t try to get out there and give some guys a chance, Miss Too-Picky-For-Her-Own-Good, I’m going to throw BOB in the trash and force you to lower your standards.”
I glare at her, mentally vowing to move my vibrator’s current hiding place as soon as I get back to school. “This party is a clandestine, not a candlelight, mission. Give it a rest.”
Hopping off her bed, she waves her hands as if clearing my frustration from the room. “Hurry up and get a shower. We have to go costume shopping.”
My eyes widen. “Costumes? You didn’t say anything about costumes.”
“Oh, didn’t I?” She presses her finger against her pursed lips, then winks. “You’re going to have to come up with a fun fake name too. The invitation also mentions that no real names are to be used.”
I snort. “I can see how this party will be great for me, since apparently the whole Blake family is aware of what I look like, but if everyone’s going to be incognito, how will anyone know you’re supposed to be Celeste?”
Cassie barks out a laugh, then flips her hand arrogantly in front of her, adopting a pretentious tone. “You have no idea how over-the-top Celeste can be. She’s larger than life and acts like she’s a movie star wherever she goes. You, of course, will come as my favorite guest, and all the guys there will wonder what wealthy family you hail from.”
I sn
icker at her Celeste imitation. I haven’t even met this Celeste girl, but I’m sure Cass has her down to a T. That kind of snobbish personality definitely stands out. Rubbing my hands together, I slide off the bed. “The five day countdown starts now. Let’s get Operation Revenge underway.”
Chapter Two
‡
“Stop fidgeting with your hood,” Cass snaps as we wait for the butler to open the front door at the Blake estate. “There’s no way they’ll recognize you. Even I think you went to extreme lengths dying your hair blonde. A wig would’ve sufficed.”
I drop my hands to my sides, tucking them under the red cape’s velvet folds. Exhaling slowly to calm my racing heart, I say in a low voice, “I can’t help it. If I get caught again, I’m sure a restraining order will be in my near future.”
Cass purses her lips as she adjusts her black and white French maid’s skirt. “Maybe give up the idea of trying to talk to Mina tonight. That’s one way to guarantee you won’t get caught.”
“I’m not the only one with an agenda, Miss Vixen-of-Vengeance,” I say, raising my eyebrow behind my black mask. “Care to call yours off?”
Cass makes sure the black choker around her neck is centered, then adjusts her own black mask. “Not a chance.” Smirking at me, she flicks something in front of my face. “Just in case.”
My cheeks flame at the foil wrapper between her fingers. I smack at her hand. “Put that away.”
Cass laughs and then folds it under her fingers while ringing the bell.
“Classy,” I say in a low tone to her sheer delight.
As the chimes ring throughout the house, barely heard over the upbeat dance music playing inside, I skim my gaze over her costume’s short skirt that barely covers her ass and spiked black heels. Cass had spared no expense on our outfits, keeping them authentic but also very sexy.
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