Over the years I became an expert at fixing diseased roses. Occasionally though, one leaves me completely flummoxed. Like my Perle Noire. I came home from school to find it completely dead. I spent weeks researching and found nothing. What happened to that rose is on a list of many questions I want answered.
“IT’S TIME TO GO,” RICKI HISSED in my ear and ripped the blindfold from my head.
I blinked and Puck extracted himself from me. His eyes bore into me with bewilderment. He looked lost. I wanted to stay, to have Puck explain to me why he was different. Why, for a moment, I thought he was Kai. But Ricki had my arm in a death grip as she pulled me through the small crowd and out the door.
She raced home, only looking back once or twice to make sure I was still with her. When I opened the door to our hotel she ducked into the elevator and didn’t look back. Ricki chewed on her nail as the elevator sped to my floor. She didn’t look at me, but in the mirrors I could see the occasional tear slide down her cheek. When the door opened on floor 31, I hesitated, wanting to stay and find out why she was upset. When the doors started to close with me still in the elevator with her, Ricki punched the door open button.
“Go,” she said.
I stepped out and watched the doors close behind me.
Ginny was asleep so I got a glass of water and went to change. I flipped on the living room light and saw that the bud on the Tuscany Superb, the rose I’d attached to Puck, had blossomed. The flower was a deep crimson red, tipped with black. The heady wine-like smell made me swoon. It’s too bad that the flower had to go back to Alejandro next week. I took out my phone and snapped several pictures of it. I was impressed with the quality of the camera. The pictures were as good as the ones I took at school. Alejandro would be pleased.
Who was Puck? And Kai? And Alejandro? They were all connected, that much I knew. But why? And how was it that I managed to find them? Or rather that they found me?
Tomorrow I would find Puck again and get myself some answers and I would read the letter before I gave it to Puck. It was time for me to get the answers I needed. Sleep would come first though. I didn’t think I could handle any more news at the moment.
The next day I awoke feeling hopeful. Today was the day I would finally discover the mystery of Kai and hopefully more about who he was and when I would see him again. I turned on Ginny’s coffee maker and went out on to the balcony to watch the sun rise.
After Ginny left for work, I watered my flowers and checked my phone every couple of minutes. Not that I really expected anything. Puck didn’t have my number. But then I remembered one more phone number that I knew.
With trembling fingers I dialed. The phone didn’t even ring, it went straight to voicemail. Ruth’s bubbly voice floated out of the phone. Tears pricked at my eyes. I missed her. I wondered why she wouldn’t answer. I was just glad to hear her voice. I left a short message with my number, then I decided I needed to get out of the room.
I put on my bathing suit, grabbed my book, stuffed the letter inside and went down to the pool.
The pool was surrounded by beautiful people lazing about in tiny bathing suits. I found a chair with a shade and sat down. Without hesitating I opened the envelope. I knew if I hesitated I would talk myself out of it, tell myself the letter was none of my business. Which it wasn’t. But that was beside the point. I wanted answers and I couldn’t find Puck.
Whoever gets this needs to take it to the Council Guardians ASAP. And stop reading. This is not for your eyes.
Now, for those reading this. I’m close. But this is more twisted than I ever imagined. It will take some time to undo what the MD has done. I could use reinforcements when the first stage of my mission is complete. But it needs to be done discretely.
Give me one month. Vengeance is sweet.
By the way, the girl holding this is very dear to me. Please give her the utmost protection. She cannot go back to her home. Keep her in Vegas at all costs.
-Kai
Well that didn’t tell me anything at all. I sighed and opened the book. Guilt gnawed at my insides. Reading the letter was not worth it.
It was amazing how quickly, and how slowly, two weeks pass. I found a routine for myself and it worked. Get up. Sit with Ginny outside for a half hour while she drinks her coffee. Go down to the cafe for a bagel and Mocha. Hope to meet Jason. Meet disappointment instead. Go to the bookstore. Buy a new book. Call Ruth’s phone. Leave a message. Sit out by the pool until lunch. Eat a sandwich. Watch three episodes of CSI and two movies, I had sixteen years of movies to catch up on. Tend to my roses for thirty minutes. Eat a late dinner with Ginny. Avoid Ricki’s silence and nasty looks. Go to bed. Start all over again the next day
I liked routine. Always did. At home, routine was the safety net that kept me from any unpleasant surprises. Plus if I didn’t have a routine with my roses, I’d end up forgetting about something. But here, in Vegas, I longed for something exciting to happen. And I wanted answers. Lots of them. Especially from Kai, Puck, and Alejandro. But I also wanted answers about my parents. Being here in Vegas allowed me to see how unnatural things were at home. No one here ever spoke of punishments.
That afternoon, I settled down to watch episode six of the third season of CSI when my phone rang. I jumped, excited by the prospect.
“Hello.”
“Naomi?” A deep voice asked. The voice was familiar, but I was having a hard time placing it.
“Yes.”
“Pack your bags. You’re coming home. Be ready, someone will be there to get you in six hours.” Then he hung up the phone.
A few seconds later I registered the voice.
It was my father.
I think the thing that bothered me the most when my Perle Noire died was that there was nothing I could do to protect it. I’ve always been able to protect my roses from harm. They are the only things I can take care of. A part of me thinks that if I do a good enough job protecting my roses, someone would someday protect me.
TEN MINUTES LATER, I still hadn’t moved. My phone was clutched in my hand. The only thought I had was that I would not be home in six hours. I’d be at Alejandro’s for dinner. He couldn’t find me there. Right?
Not that it mattered. He’d find me eventually. Then I’d have to answer for everything I’d done and I’d be given back to Dwayne who would probably kill me if my Father didn’t do it first.
Ginny walked through the door and I jumped. She wasn’t supposed to be home for a couple of hours.
She had a silly grin on her face.
“I thought I’d come home early so we could spend some time getting ready. We can go down to Rita’s and get our nails done.” She set down her purse and her keys and then looked at me.
I was still frozen.
“Naomi, are you okay?” She sat down on the couch next to me.
“Father called. He said I had to come home.” I dropped the phone.
“That’s impossible. He’s still in jail.”
“How do you know?”
She shrugged and then held up her finger. She dialed a number, walked back to her bedroom and shut the door. All I could think about was the beating he gave me when I threw a fit at dinner for taking a meatball. What would he do to me if I came home with green hair? He’d kill me. But probably not until the Master at church had his say. I’d be beat and cut in front of the whole church. No one would dare to do what I did again.
Ginny hung up the phone. “He is still in jail. You’re not going home.”
“No, Ginny, you don’t understand what he’s capable of.”
And then I spilled my whole story for her. I told her of the plans to marry me off, how my father beat me at the slightest provocation, about church, and how I found her cards in the attic and how I hid the money so that I could use it to run away.
She gathered me up in a hug. “You’re never going back to that awful place.” She stood up. “Let’s go get our nails done. We’ll feel better. And don’t worry about your dad or anyone el
se coming to get you. I’ll get you a bodyguard for a while.”
And suddenly my problem was fixed. If I have a bodyguard he couldn’t take me, could he? I should’ve run away years ago.
That evening I held the Tuscany in my hands with a death grip. Ginny opened the door to Alejandro’s again without knocking and I flinched, expecting to be shot or at least berated. The hallway was once again empty.
“Are we going back out to the pool?”
“No, Alejandro likes to cook so he’ll be in the kitchen.”
“Fully clothed, I hope.” I said, before I could stop myself.
Ginny froze.
“Did you make a joke?” Surprise crossed her face.
“I didn’t mean…”
“You did, you made a joke. I was beginning to think you had no sense of humor like your poor mother. But you do.” She grinned and kept walking. “We need to keep you talking. I think there is more to Naomi than we know.”
She pushed open a swinging door and I followed. Peppers, onions, and other spices permeated the room. A small cloud covered the bar in the middle. Alejandro stood behind the bar with an apron on and not much else. So much for fully clothed. Ginny swooped down on him and planted a big kiss on his cheek. He grinned and pointed at a rack of aprons behind him. She put one on, grabbed a head of lettuce and began chopping, chatting away with Alejandro. They looked so easy together I felt like I was intruding in someone else’s family.
The door swung open from behind and hit me in the butt. I jumped like I’d been goosed.
“You shouldn’t stand in a doorway like that,” said whoever walked through it.
“Sorry,” I muttered and headed for Alejandro with his flower.
He looked up and flashed his crooked smile, “Puck, it’s about time you got here. I need those tomatoes.”
Puck?
I turned around and sure enough Puck was heading for the bar with a large box of tomatoes. His hair was still wine colored, but he almost looked normal now. No eyeliner or mutilated black clothes. Instead, he had on a dark green t-shirt and blue jeans. He looked at me, his eyes wide, then away and smiled at Alejandro.
Alejandro handed the spoon he was using to Ginny and she took over stirring a pot of liquid. He walked to us and took the box of tomatoes from Puck. And then zeroed in on me. I was hoping he wouldn’t notice I was there. Puck wandered over to Ginny and picked something out of the bowl she was tending. She swatted at his hand and he laughed.
“Naomi, thank you for taking care of the roses. The pictures Ginny emailed me of the bloom were gorgeous.” Alejandro made to take away the flower, but I resisted. His eyes twinkled.
“Why don’t you and Puck take this back out to my greenhouses. I know you are dying to check them out anyway. Puck knows his way around.”
Puck looked up and his eyes met mine for a second then he turned and walked toward a swinging door. I followed.
He held the door open for me and I walked through it still clutching the rose. He didn’t look back as he moved easily past the pool and entered the greenhouse, once again holding the door for me but avoiding my eyes. A thousand questions flew through my mind, but I couldn’t find the courage to speak any of them and he would barely even look at me.
The inside of the greenhouse exploded with plants. I stuck primarily to growing roses. I found that it was nice to focus on one thing. Alejandro grew everything. The size of the pool house was deceiving. He had pepper plants, small oak trees, and lilies all growing next to each other. A fine mist of water blew on most of the plants. Puck had already made his way to the back of the greenhouse and opened another door.
“Alejandro keeps his roses out here.”
When I exited the green house I found myself in a courtyard surrounded by three more greenhouses. Puck walked straight across the courtyard without even pausing to admire the lotuses in the fountain. I wished he would slow down.
The far greenhouse contained only roses. This was heaven and it had the same feel as my greenhouse at home, music played that wasn’t really there and the smells were not all natural rose smells. I knew if I stayed long enough I’d have visions of wonderful things and tastes of exotic foods would suddenly appear on my tongue.
Puck took the Tuscany Superb from me. His fingers brushed mine and I shivered. I smiled and looked up at him. He frowned and turned to place the flower on a table. I wandered, admiring the mixed scents and the rainbow of colors.
Puck spoke a few minutes later startling me. “We should go. They’ll need help with dinner. Ginny and Ale won’t get any cooking done while we are out here. Although that may be why they sent us out.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “But can I come back after dinner?”
“Why are you asking me? I don’t care. Look, I really need to talk to Ale. Let’s go.”
He was so abrupt. The carefree, likable guy had turned to stone. I moved along behind him, trying not to be distracted by all the plants. Back by the pool the sun was setting over the mountain. I stopped to watch the brilliant oranges and reds, mesmerized.
Sunsets in Vegas held my attention like nothing else. Except my roses. The way the sun sank into the mountains took my breath away. It only took two weeks, but I no longer thought of Arkansas as home. Far from it. This was home. And the ever-present guilt was waning, just a little.
I watched until the top of the ball disappeared and then made my way back into the house. Puck had left the door open for me. I padded silently toward the pantry door.
“Captivating isn’t she?” Alejandro’s voice floated out from behind the door. I stopped and listened, not wanting to interrupt.
“Ale, I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was one of yours.”
Alejandro laughed. “Puck, she’s not one of mine. I didn’t realize you knew she’d been taken.”
“Then who the hell does she belong to? You’re the only Major Guardian in Las Vegas.”
“Kai,” said Alejandro. My heart leapt at the sound of his name.
I heard Puck groan. “Shit, you mean I kissed one of Kai’s girls? Oh, I am so dead. Did Kai give you a heads up? Why didn’t you warn me?”
“Kai did no such thing. Naomi told me.”
“You mean she knows?”
I’d had enough. They had answers and were going to give them to me. I mustered up my courage and pushed the door open.
Love is such a foreign concept to me. My parents certainly don’t love me and I don’t particularly love them. I respect them, but love is not part of the equation. But I love my roses. And I take care to find roses that love me back. Like the sweet smelling Love Call or the raspberry scented Love Potion.
I DIDN’T SPEAK WHEN I PUSHED OPEN the door, but Puck’s expression faltered.
“What did you—?” Puck began, but Alejandro interrupted him.
“Did you enjoy the sunset? They’re glorious from the pool patio.”
“I want answers,” I said. “You know who Kai is.” I crossed my arms and glared at both of them.
“Not now,” said Alejandro, leading me out of the pantry. “Ginny wants to eat and it would be rude to keep her waiting. Puck will be sure to enlighten you later this evening.”
“Uh, no I won’t.”
“Yes, you will.”
“What am I supposed to tell her?”
“Whatever you think she needs to know. You’ve been at this long enough to know what not to say.”
He threw his hand up in the air. “Yeah, everything.”
“Puck, really, we must go eat.”
I sat across from Puck and tried in vain to catch his eye. He looked at Ginny, he looked at Alejandro. He even looked at the food on his plate, but not me. I’d never been a button pusher, but tonight, tonight I felt a change in the air.
“So Puck, how do you know Alejandro?”
Anger flashed in his eyes. He swallowed his food and glanced at Alejandro who studiously avoided his gaze. Puck took another bit
e and didn’t answer. Finally Alejandro spoke.
“Puck’s father is a very good friend of mine and is out of town for awhile. I agreed to keep an eye on Puck.”
“Does his father approve of his parties? I attended one the other night.”
Ginny choked on her food. My hand gripped my fork even tighter. I shoved a bite of steak into my mouth so that it wouldn’t betray me anymore.
“Puck’s old enough to make his own decisions. I check in on him every once in a while. I doubt his father cares much whether or not Puck throws a party.”
After dinner, Alejandro had a waiter pick up all the plates. His eyes smoldered as he stared at Ginny. She was busy grilling Puck about his hair. Apparently that wine color was hard to pull off.
Without taking his eyes off of Ginny, Alejandro spoke. “Puck, why don’t you take Naomi for a walk? There is a nice bike trail with a view of the city.”
Puck closed his hands into fists and opened his mouth to say something. I realized that if I was going to get answers then I needed him alone.
“That would be wonderful, let’s go,” I said and pushed my chair away from the table. Puck hesitated, then got up. I followed him out to the back and down the stairs to a trail that I hadn’t noticed before. The trail wound back around the mountain. Puck strolled along in front of me, not waiting for me to admire the plant life.
He paused for a second and turned around. “If you want answers, keep up.”
I scurried to his side.
“How long have you known Kai?” he asked.
“Two months,” I answered and he whistled.
“And how do you know who he is?”
“He told me.”
“When?”
“He left a note a few weeks after he started visiting me.”
Puck stopped walking and stood in thought for a long while. I stared at the sky trying to find the nearly nonexistent stars.
“Did you ever see him?” he asked.
“Yeah, I woke up one night while he was there and I saw his face. And then—”
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 12