Sugared

by Gina LaManna

  I giggled—a beautiful feeling—and squirmed even closer. He spun me around to face him, and I was treated to a gorgeous view of his face. Anthony’s breath, somehow fresh and magnificent, warmed my neck as he transferred his kisses to my collar bone.

  Then he pulled back and peered down at me. A hand came up and brushed my hair back from my face, only pausing for a second on the burned edges of it.

  “It doesn’t matter what your hair looks like, or whether or not you have eyebrows,” Anthony said. “I’ve already married you once, and I’d do it every damn day for the rest of our lives.”

  My hands reached for him, latching onto his arms as I laid my head on his chest. “Well, that might be overkill. I’d settle for once or twice more. The cake tastings are a real bonus to all of these weddings.”

  His hands ran through my hair as he laughed softly. “This is one of the reasons I’m marrying you.”

  “My scent? I smell like s’mores.”

  “You make me laugh, no matter what.”

  “Yeah, laugh at me.”

  “No.”

  “Is it possible for an already married woman to be a bridezilla? I think I’m a bridezilla.”

  “You are not. You got shot at, bombed, and threatened all in one night. That would make most brides a little shaky, not to mention most people.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “That’s why I’m not letting you out of my sight until this Zebra thing is under control, and we’re married and on our honeymoon.”

  “Anthony—”

  “Sorry, but that is not open to negotiation.”

  “Let me go, please, one second—”

  “No. We are going away on our honeymoon, even if it involves fake passports and a change in destination. I’ve trained those new kids for months to help the rest of the men while I’m gone, and I’m not letting that go to waste—”

  “Anthony!” I gave him a quick shove, whirled around before he could argue, and stuck my head in the toilet.

  I relieved what little contents were left in my stomach, wiped up after myself, and then faced Anthony sheepishly.

  “Sorry you had to see that,” I said. “But I tried to warn you.”

  “We’re going to the doctor.”

  “What? No, there’s no need. It’s just the smell of burned hair that’s making me sick.”

  “Yeah, and before it was the ocean. This isn’t normal.”

  “It’s perfectly normal—you said it yourself. I was bombed, threatened, and shot at in one night. A few weird reactions are expected. Instead of crying this time, I guess I’m puking.”

  “Then you won’t mind my scheduling an appointment with Dr. Gambino. You’re due to meet him in twenty minutes.”

  “But—”

  The doorbell rang, interrupting me mid-argument.

  “I’m going to go get that,” Anthony said. “And if you climb out any windows while I’m away, I will not be happy.”

  I had no intention of climbing out any windows, and instead, climbed back into the shower and let Anthony deal with whatever mess was outside the door. I’d had enough of visitors for a very long time.

  When I finished another wash and rinse cycle, a vigorous tooth brushing, and some lavender “stress-relief” lotion, I felt like a new woman.

  I cracked open the bedroom windows, surprised by an unusually warm gust of spring-ish air, and opted for a light dress and a sweater. I had no idea if The Zebra was coming back for me today, but I wasn’t going to die in ugly clothes.

  The sound of low voices came from the living room, so I cracked the door open to see who Anthony had found on our front steps. It couldn’t be Meg since Anthony would be locked in the bedroom. Clay had left early this morning, still whimpering over the loss of his robot. He wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

  Plus, the voice was female, and the pair seemed to be having a pleasant conversation. Anthony and pleasant conversation didn’t go in the same sentence together, so this had to be someone special.

  “Hey, Alessandra!” I stepped out from the bedroom to find Anthony and his sister holding cups of coffee and seated next to each other on the couch. “What are you doing here?”

  I was more than a little pleased to notice that Anthony’s eyes traveled across the room at the sound of my voice, locked on my dress, and drank in the view for a moment. I debated twirling for him, but refrained. It never got old when he noticed my attire—or whatever he noticed.

  “Hey, Lacey, are you ready?” Alessandra asked. “We should get going.”

  “Get going?”

  “Our day together,” Alessandra said. “Don’t tell me you already forgot the plans we made yesterday.”

  “You’re going to have to convince him,” I said. “Anthony’s got me, uh...busy for the day.”

  “Actually,” Anthony said, quite pleasantly. “I think we have a deal.”

  I stared him down, wondering if I’d been in the shower for so long that Alessandra had managed to work some magic on her big brother. But, staring him down could be distracting.

  Anthony had thrown on jeans and a black t-shirt and looked all hunky. Alessandra exuded her sleek style as usual, dressed in stretchy black pants and a bright pink tank top under a cropped leather jacket. The pair looked like Mr. and Miss Smith—sibling edition.

  “A deal?” I surveyed both of them, one after the other. “Do I get a say in it?”

  “Sure,” Anthony said. “You can say yes.”

  “To what?” My teeth gritted together. No matter how much I loved the man, I didn’t love being told what to do. “I’m interested to hear more about this deal.”

  Alessandra winked. “I heard about what happened last night and figured Anthony wouldn’t be excited about you running around alone. Plus, we’d already talked about getting together and going shopping. What better way to spend the day?”

  “Shopping?”

  “For the wedding!” she added a little pointedly. “Interested?”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “We’re stopping by Dr. Gambino first,” Alessandra said, wincing. “Anthony hates the doctor. He was going to take you, but if I make sure you go instead, we get the day to shop.”

  “How much do you charge for babysitting fees?” I asked. “Since that’s what you’ll be doing.”

  “Lacey, we’re just trying to keep you safe for your wedding day,” Anthony said. “It’s not meant to upset you.”

  “I’m not upset. But I can keep myself safe. I wasn’t even the one who got us in trouble yesterday!”

  “You are very talented at many things,” Anthony began, watching me with caution. “But I’m curious how safe your eyebrows are after last night?”

  “We’ll get those fixed at the mall today,” Alessandra said quickly. “Either that, or you can sit at home, Lacey.”

  I stood and gave Alessandra the thumbs up. If I had to choose between a babysitter and a prison cell, I’d take the babysitter all day long. After all, it wasn’t exactly torture to spend the day with Alessandra.

  “Please be careful,” Anthony said. “Whatever you’re actually doing, just stay safe.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “We’ll try.”

  “Try very hard,” he said, pulling me to him with a hand at my hip. He murmured in my ear. “Or else you’ll have a lot of making up to do.”

  “I understand!” I squeaked, worming underneath his grasp and scurrying after Alessandra before anyone changed their mind. We climbed into her car and, once I’d fastened my seatbelt, I stared openly at her. “Anthony is going to kill me if he finds out we went to visit The Violet Society.”

  “Nah,” Alessandra said with a sly smile. “You heard him—you’ll just have some making up to do.”

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  She winked as I slid into the passenger’s seat. “Sweetie, that’s what honeymoons are made for.”

  Chapter 19

  Visiting Dr. Gambino was never pleasant. Mostly because I didn’t like pa
rting with blood, saliva, or any other body fluid that rightfully belonged to me. However, this time was quite easy. A few pokes, prods, one or two tests and a tiny bit of blood, and I was on my way with a clean bill of health.

  “I told Anthony I was fine,” I growled as I slid my sweater back over my shoulders. “The man doesn’t listen.”

  “Tell me about it,” Dr. Gambino sighed. “I haven’t managed to get him in for a physical in years despite my best attempts.”

  “How about we schedule one now? For him,” I suggested innocently. “I think as his future wife, it’s my duty to make sure my husband stays healthy.”

  “Sorry, but I’d like to keep my job, and my life. I’m afraid of Anthony.”

  “Don’t back down from him! Stay strong, Dr. Gambino!”

  “All set?” Alessandra asked, once I rejoined her out front. “Are you healthy?”

  “As a horse.”

  “Great! Now that that’s taken care of, we can get on with the day.”

  “Violet Society?”

  “You can say no if you want,” she said. “And I can take you to fix your eyebrows instead.”

  I lifted a hand and touched the space where tiny tendrils of eyebrow were singed. “No,” I said on a sigh. “My eyebrows can get in line behind Beckett.”

  We made it across town in record time. It helped that Alessandra was a skilled, fast driver, but it doubly helped that she wasn’t trying to lose a tail this time. Instead of weaving all over the city, we made a straight line toward the same alley as last time.

  “Sorry about the other day,” I said, once we crossed into the alley. “We were only following you because we were worried.”

  “I know.” She reached out, squeezed my arm. “That’s the same reason Anthony is following us right now.”

  “What? No, he’s not. I’ve been watching this whole time!”

  “Look again.” Alessandra nodded, glancing in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know when he caught up with us, but that is his job, I suppose, to find people.”

  “Yeah, amongst other things,” I said. “How are we going to lose him?”

  “Same way I lost you.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know how you did that. Meg thought you were legitimately a witch.”

  “Maybe I am.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “If I tell Meg I have magic powers, do you think it will blow her mind?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t even know.”

  “In order for us to disappear, I just need Anthony to be distracted for a second.”

  “That’s impossible,” I said. “How did you distract me and Meg?”

  “Are you kidding?” At my lack of response, Alessandra cleared her throat. “Lacey, you and Meg pay less attention to the road than anything else while you’re driving. I don’t know how you haven’t totaled more cars.”

  “Oh, I’ve totaled my fair share,” I said. “Don’t you worry.”

  “Here.” Alessandra raised a hand, pressing a button to make the sunroof slide back. “Stand up and flash him.”

  “I can’t flash him, I have a dress on.”

  “Well, do something! We’re running out of time. Five seconds.”

  “Five seconds?!”

  “Lacey—stand!”

  I stood, made eye contact with Anthony, and couldn’t think of anything to do.

  I glanced down at my dress, but nothing was happening there. I asked Alessandra for help again, received a growl in response.

  “Two seconds,” she mumbled. “Do something.”

  At the last second, I flicked my eyes up, looked straight over Anthony’s head—banking on the fact that Anthony couldn’t stand to be out of the loop. Shielding my eyes, I stared hard behind him, as if there were something there worth seeing.

  There wasn’t, but he didn’t know that.

  So, when he turned his head ever-so-slightly to see what I was staring at, I shouted for Alessandra to move. Anthony was half a mile behind us at the most, giving us just enough time for whatever she had in mind.

  From below came a soft whoop of excitement, and then a sudden plummeting in my stomach. Alessandra’s arm came up, yanked me down, and I fell into my seat just as darkness engulfed us.

  Chapter 20

  “Nice work,” Alessandra said. “Perfect timing.”

  “Cool.” I glanced around us, but the room was too dark to see much of anything. I spoke into the silence. “What’s happening?”

  “Now, we wait,” she said, voice hushed. “They come to us.”

  We fell silent, engulfed in complete darkness save for the lights and screens of Carlos’s borrowed car. If I wasn’t mistaken, we were still descending, deeper and deeper, the air cooler as it filtered in through the sunroof.

  “How did we get here?” I asked. “And where is here?”

  “Welcome to the entrance for the St. Paul Violet Society headquarters. To get here, I needed to make an appointment. Then it’s my job to make sure I’m not followed inside, and they handle the rest.”

  “Right. You expect me to believe that this Society...this huge, fancy-pants criminal organization is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota? Nope. I don’t buy it. Why not Rome? Beverly Hills? Moscow? Madagascar?”

  “Are you done?”

  “I’m serious!”

  “This isn’t their official headquarters,” Alessandra said with a quick smile. “You are correct. There isn’t one headquarter facility, there are, however, as many as there need to be.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “They move around, pop up here and there. Open for a day, a week, a month, and then close. Poof, gone like magic.”

  “And how do you know all of this?”

  “Connections.”

  “Beckett?”

  “I pick up on things.”

  “Okay, so this is a temporary headquarters? This seems extra suspicious what with The Violet Society having their headquarters in the Cities at the same time Beckett died.”

  “Or, they created these headquarters after the fact.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “I don’t have all the answers.”

  “Well, riddle me this—where did we actually go? It feels like we just disappeared.”

  “Down,” Alessandra said. “The entrance is through the road. It is the road, actually. Have you seen those lift bridges that part in the middle to make way for boats that are too tall? It’s like that, except reverse. The road dips down at a button push, and we drive down a ramp. It snaps back up, and nobody is any the wiser.”

  “But Anthony wasn’t far behind us.”

  “The driver usually stops when we disappear,” she said. “Just like you did. By the time they get their bearings, the entrance has sealed, and it’s too late.”

  “Oh.”

  “They’ll be here anytime to let us out. They’ll strip you of your belongings and electronic devices, but don’t worry, you’ll get them all back.”

  “Lucky me.” Before I could put one shoe out of the car, a series of brilliant lights flicked on, sending us into fits of blindness. I closed my eyes and covered my face. “Can’t see a thing.”

  “Relax, Lacey. They’re expecting us.” Louder, to someone outside the vehicle, Alessandra continued. “It’s just me, boys. I brought a friend.”

  I blinked rapidly, struggling to regain my sight in the harsh spotlights trained on our car. The room was stark white—a complete contrast against the former blackness. Four men entered the room. All were different sizes and ethnicities, but the things they had in common included sharp suits, intimidating physiques, and eyes that gleamed with cunning intelligence.

  “Put your hands up,” Alessandra said. “They’ve got to search you.”

  “For what? All I have is a tube of mascara and a few bucks.”

  “Your phone, personal information, the receipts at the bottom of your purse...” She winked. “Halfway kidding about the last one.”

  None of the men smiled, so I did as she sa
id and stuck my hands in the air. At this, a blond man who looked like a Nordic Viking approached without speaking, did a quick pat down of my pockets and removed, as Alessandra had explained, everything that might be deemed personal. A second man was relieving Alessandra of her devices, while the last two checked the car for other paraphernalia.

  Finally satisfied, the largest man of the group waved for us to follow him. He wore a sharp suit, just like the rest of his friends, and walked with steps so big we had to jog to keep up.

  “Hey, quick question,” I said, hoping to get a jump start on the interview process. “What’s your name? Did you know Beckett?”

  He pretended not to hear me.

  “Do you know this guy?” I asked Alessandra. “Or any of them?”

  “They don’t talk until we’re in the main building,” she whispered, pointing toward the figure striding ahead of us. “Never seen him before, but I saw the one who patted you down. I think he’s the Norwegian representative.”

  “Where are they taking us?”

  “To the main house. That’s where they’ll pawn us off to whoever’s in charge. Stay patient—we have a few more hoops to jump through before we make it inside. Here’s Exhibit A.” She gestured toward a door ahead of us. “Go on inside.”

  “What is it?” I stepped into a room that looked like a solitary confinement holding cell. “I don’t think I like it.”

  “They’re scanning us for electronic devices.” Alessandra pushed me further inside to make room for herself behind me. “If we managed to sneak anything by security, it’ll be fried in here.”

  “That doesn’t sound safe.”

  “I came out alive last time.”

  “No, seriously. I can’t be fried right now. It’s a bad time for that.”

  “I’m kidding! It’s perfectly safe. Just fritzes up your electronics.”

  A few seconds later, the door on the other side opened, and we passed through. We were then led to another small chamber that acted as a metal detector, followed by a third chamber, and so on until we’d passed through a minimum of six chambers.

  Finally, Alessandra pointed ahead and declared us almost inside. Sure enough, the white cement walls came to an abrupt end, and through the next glass doorway filtered sunlight, modern appliances, and the sound of light classical music.