The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) Read online

  Speedboats, motorcycles, and explosions—that’s what the movie was to Nicky. She could hear it, but she wasn’t watching it.

  Her face was pressed close to Ryan’s. A kiss. A glance. Another kiss. All the nerves and jitters that occupied them both after the Date Auction had passed, and now there was only each other. The two of them headed out for a week-long date.

  Nicky didn’t know what she was doing. And she didn’t care. Ryan had that effect on her.

  She was going to tell him the truth. Whether the Network liked it or not, Ryan Jenson’s ten million dollar bid made him a part of their plan. When Sergio was dead and the mission was complete, everyone who was close to Nicky Bloom would be a suspect. Ryan’s name would be first on the list, and Nicky would be damned if she’d just disappear one night in the spring and leave him behind to sort out the pieces.

  “Something’s on your mind,” Ryan said. “What is it?”

  I should tell him now, she thought.

  The noise of the aircraft engines made it impossible for their conversations to be recorded. There were no security cameras. There was no place for an eavesdropper to hide. The lone stewardess who accompanied them on their flight was in her quarters at the front of the plane where she would stay unless they rang the bell for her to come. And the pilots were sealed off in the cockpit.

  They were alone.

  “You made an offer to me at the Homecoming Masquerade,” Nicky said. “We were dancing, and you asked me to walk out the door with you and never come back.”

  Ryan pulled away, and for the first time since takeoff, his lips weren’t within striking range.

  “Where would we go?” Nicky continued. “You know…if I took you up on your offer.”

  “Are you being serious?” Ryan said. “I don’t want to talk about this if you aren’t being serious.”

  “I am totally serious,” Nicky said. “Let’s talk about this.”

  “Well, I don’t know, we’re going to Italy now. What if we...”

  He didn’t finish. He turned his head away and blew air out from his lips.

  “What is it?” Nicky said.

  “This all feels too familiar, Nicky. You and me together, talking like this…”

  “Ryan, I--”

  “When you showed up at the Masquerade wearing a black dress I swore to myself that I would never trust you again,” Ryan said.

  “I know, and I’m sorry.”

  “I mean…first you’re this new girl at school that no one’s paying any mind to, and we’re going to lunch and we’re hitting it off, then you’re one of the girls wearing black, then you’ve got this thing with Art--”

  “I never had a thing with Art.”

  “I know it wasn’t real, Nicky. I know you have to play the game like all the other girls wearing black. But that’s why I don’t trust you. How do I know this isn’t just another game? How do I know you’re not saying what I want to hear because I’m part of some big master plan of yours?”

  “It’s not like that, Ryan.”

  “Then what is it like? You just said I don’t know the half of it. Tell me what it is!”

  His eyes were locked on hers as he spoke, and she knew. We’re safe here. We’re about to have a week together where we can work this out. He can ask me questions. He can think this through without all the pressures of home. Tell him now. Tell him now, Nicky.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you,” she said. She was surprised at how nervous she was. “First, crank up the volume on the TV, just in case.”

  Ryan had a puzzled look on his face at first, but then he figured it out. He was turning up the TV in case there were any electronic eavesdroppers in this plane. Nicky was about to tell him something good.

  Right as he reached for the remote control, the plane hit an air pocket, and his arm swayed the wrong direction, sweeping the entire contents of the end table to the floor. The remote, the empty popcorn bowl, and four soda cans fell to the floor.

  “W’oh,” Ryan said. “That one’s—oh my word how many of those cans are open?”

  Soda was gushing all over the floor, four open cans scurrying around the cabin like mice. One of them rolled all the way to the other end and slammed on the door to the flight attendant’s quarters.

  A bell rang and the flight attendant came over the intercom in the wall behind them

  “Hey you two, is everything alright out there?” the flight attendant said.

  Ryan pressed the button under the intercom and replied, “We’re fine. Just spilled some soda. No need to--”

  Before he could finish his sentence, the door opened and the flight attendant, a blonde bombshell named Heather, came out with a roll of paper towels.

  “Really, you don’t have to worry about that,” Ryan said. “I can get it.”

  “Nonsense,” said Heather, already getting on her hands and knees. “You two just stay comfortable and pretend I’m not here.”

  Ryan and Nicky sat in silence, as if gauging how long they would have company in the cabin. When Heather pulled a spray bottle out of an overhead compartment, Nicky excused herself and went to the lavatory. She didn’t need to go, but she figured now was as good a time as any to tell the Network what she intended to do. She pushed the lock closed on the lavatory door, took out her phone, and started a message for Jill and Gia.

  We need to bring Ryan into the fold. His bid at the Date Auction has complicated things. I’m going to come clean with him this week. Start preparing an escape plan for him and his family.

  She went to hit the send button and found it grayed out. Her eyes drifted to the top corner of the screen, where she saw zero bars.

  No reception. She flipped over to the settings and checked to make sure she was connected to the wireless on the airplane.

  But there was no wireless. Nothing coming through at all.

  She opened the door and stuck her head out.

  “Hey Heather, is the wireless working?” she asked.

  Ryan laughed. “I can’t sit on the toilet without my phone either,” he said.

  “You hush,” Nicky said.

  Heather had finished cleaning the floor and was wiping off the end tables.

  “I know. I’m so sorry about that,” she said. “There are all sorts of problems out there.”

  “What do you mean?” Nicky asked.

  “I don’t really know,” Heather said, punctuating the statement with a little giggle. “Something with the satellites. The pilots aren’t getting all the info they’re used to either. They’re navigating this flight the old fashioned way.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” said Ryan.

  “It’s fine,” Heather said. “Both of them did this flight hundreds of times before satellites did all the work for them.”

  “So it’s not a problem on the plane.”

  “That’s what they’re telling me. Some satellite in outer space is on the fritz. What do you want to bet that will be an expensive fix?”

  She let out another little giggle.

  Nicky was about to press for even more info. For some reason, Heather’s news about the wireless made Nicky anxious, and she wanted to ask if they were sure they didn’t need to reboot the server, or the router, or whatever it was that made the wireless work on the plane.

  “Thanks for your help, Heather,” Ryan said, using a tone of voice that told Heather it was time for her to leave.

  “You’re quite welcome,” she said. “Buzz me if you need anything.”

  She disappeared behind her door. Ryan patted the bed with his hand.

  “We were having a conversation I’d really like to continue,” he said.

  “Yes. Me too.”

  Nicky sat down. She grabbed hold of Ryan’s hand and leaned close so they could speak quietly.

  “The truth,” she said.

  “The truth. I am so ready to hear the truth.”

  “Geez, where do I even begin?”

  “How about about at the beginning?”

  The
beginning seemed like a ridiculous place to Nicky. But they were on a transatlantic flight with hours to go. Maybe starting at the beginning would give this story enough context that Ryan would actually believe it.

  “If we’re starting at the beginning, you should know that Nicky Bloom isn’t the name I was born with.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Ryan. “Did this secret consortium Jill keeps talking about give you a new name?”

  “Yeah, I suppose they did. But even they aren’t what they seem—I mean…”

  Telling this story was surprisingly hard. She liked her relationship with Ryan exactly as it was right now. She liked how he looked at her, how he kissed her, and she wondered if those things would change when he knew the truth.

  “Let me try again,” Nicky said. “My real name is Celeste Nicole Allen.”

  “So Nicky’s taken from your middle name.”

  “Nicky is what everyone’s called me for as long as I can remember.”

  “And how long is that?” Ryan said. The question was meant to be playful, but to Nicky it was all too serious. Her encounter with Sergio before the Date Auction, his insistence that her recurring dream was based on a real memory, the fact that she her childhood memories didn’t go back nearly as far as everyone else’s…

  “When I was little…how can I say this? I had a very strange childhood, at least, by Thorndike standards I did.”

  “You mean you weren’t always filthy rich?”

  “Far from it, actually. I was a jackal.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s a word everybody uses to describe homeless children. A word they use outside of Washington, that is. You guys are a little bit removed from what life is like for the rest of the world.”

  “You were homeless?”

  “We had a camper. My dad moved us around a lot.”

  “Who’s we? You, your dad, your mom--”

  “Not my mom. I never knew my mom.”

  Ryan’s eyes opened wide.

  “Yes,” Nicky said. “The people I live with in Potomac are not my real mother and father. My real parents are dead. I don’t know how my mom died. My dad…”

  My dad was killed by a vampire. Just say it, Nicky!

  She couldn’t. Something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right about any of this.

  It was good to tell Ryan. He deserved to know the danger he was in. He deserved the truth. Why didn’t she want to tell him?

  It was the wireless. As much as she tried to tell herself the broken wireless on the plane was nothing, something about it bugged her.

  On a private plane for one of the girls wearing black, the newest, nicest, jet in the world, on a clear night, and the wireless isn’t working. It doesn’t make sense.

  “It’s okay, Nicky,” Ryan said. “You don’t have to tell me about your dad if it’s too hard.”

  “No, it’s not that, it’s--”

  It’s the questions spinning in my head. Questions like, Who could arrange for the wireless to go down? Who would benefit?

  “Hang on a second, Ryan,” she said. “I just need to talk to Heather one more time.”

  “Talk to Heather? Can’t it wait until we’ve finished this conversation?”

  “No, I’m sorry. It can’t.”

  Ryan gave her a look that was becoming familiar. She had disappointed him.

  “I’m sorry, Ryan. I’ll be right back.”

  “Take your time,” Ryan said. “I think I’m gonna get some sleep.”

  “Ryan, I just need--”

  “No, forget it. You obviously don’t want to talk about this now and I’m not going to make you.”

  “I do want…I mean, I…”

  She couldn’t even say the words for fear they were just another lie. Did she really want to tell him? The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a bad idea, at least right now. With no wireless, she had no idea what was happening on the ground, no clue how things were going back at the mansion, where Gia and the rest were on a nightly lookout for Melissa Mayhew.

  If something went wrong between now and the end of the year, the vampires would round up all of Nicky’s supporters and look in their minds. If that happened, Ryan’s best chance to survive would be his own ignorance. The vampires would make him tell the truth. They would learn he knew nothing about the mission. They would find a guy who got involved because he liked Nicky Bloom. An innocent victim, strung along so the Network could access his money.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said.

  Ryan shook his head and turned away.

  Twenty minutes later, Nicky having thoroughly grilled both Heather and the co-pilot about the wireless situation, Nicky returned to the bed to find Ryan fast asleep. She lay down next to him and let her hand fall into his.

  He interlaced his fingers with hers.

  Hours later, Nicky having gotten lost in the dream about the silver sphere and her mother, Heather opened one of the blinds on the windows, allowing daylight to flood the cabin.

  “I’m so sorry to wake you,” she said, “but the captain is beginning his final approach. You’ll need to get strapped in your seats.”

  Nicky and Ryan said nothing as they moved from the bed to the row of chairs on the wall. Nicky held up her phone, waiting for the plane to get low enough to pick up a cell tower signal from the ground.

  Right as they touched down, the phone updated its time and location. Milan. 2:30 pm.

  A backlog of messages started showing up. Turning her phone so Ryan couldn’t see the screen, Nicky brought up a text message from Jill.

  Two words in the text jumped out at her.

  Code Orange.

  “No,” she whispered. “Can’t be.”

  “Is everything okay?” Ryan asked.

  Ignoring him, Nicky yanked up the blind and pressed her face against the window. She scanned up and down the runway. Nothing but clear road to the east, to the north, to the south…

  No, there was something coming from the south end of the strip. The reflection of the runway was so bright it was hard to see. Nicky cupped her hand over her eyes and tried to get a better view.

  A car. A van. A black van. There was a black van driving across the tarmac.

  She went back to her phone and brought up the whole message from Jill.

  Code Orange. Have the pilot take you to a different airport. You will have trouble waiting for you when you land.

  “The wireless,” Nicky whispered.

  “What’s that?” said Ryan.

  “They wanted to make sure no one could tip me off.”

  “Tip you off? What are you talking about?”

  She undid her seat belt.

  “Nicky, I think they like you to keep your seat belt on until the plane…hey, where are you going?”

  She ran to the front of the plane, where Heather was strapped into a chair on the wall.

  “I’m sorry Sweetie,” Heather said, “but the rules are you have to stay--”

  “Tell the pilot to take off again. I’ve changed my mind. I want to go to a different airport.”

  “A different airport? I don’t know that we can do that.”

  “I’m the girl wearing black. This is my plane. Tell the pilot to go back to the runway now and take off.”

  Flustered, Heather undid her seat belt, got out of her chair, and grabbed a phone on the wall.

  “The passenger wants to go to a different airport,” she said.

  Nicky couldn’t hear what the captain was saying back to her, but she knew what the answer was.

  “The pilot says we’ll need to refuel and get clearance to take off again,” the attendant said. “It will be at least two hours.”

  Clearance. That was the sticking point. Nicky wasn’t really in charge of this plane. Neither was the pilot. Someone from the Samarin clan had given the order that this plane wasn’t going anywhere.

  She ran back to her seat.

  “Nicky, what the hell’s going on with you?” Ryan said.
>
  Ignoring him, she pressed her face to the window. The black van was a hundred yards away and closing. She went to the other side of the plane and looked out that window.

  “Clear on this side,” she said.

  “You know you’re acting like a crazy person, don’t you?” Ryan said.

  “Listen to me,” she said, getting close to Ryan and looking him in the eye. “We’re in big trouble. I don’t have time to explain everything, but there’s a black van out there waiting to take us away. When this plane comes to a stop, a team of men in gas masks is going to come inside and flood the cabin with knockout gas.”

  “Knockout gas?” Ryan’s eyes drifted down to the phone in Nicky’s hand, then he turned and looked out the window. “Nicky, this is an airport. Vans like that…maybe it’s just for luggage or something.”

  “It’s not for luggage,” Nicky said, reminding herself that Ryan had no context for any of this. He grew up in a mansion in Potomac. He had no more idea about the black vans that stole people away than little Nicky Allen knew about Coronation contests and girls wearing black.

  “What kind of trouble are you in here, Nicky?”

  “It’s not just me,” Nicky said. “They’ll take all of us.”

  She was looking around for something she could use as a weapon, but there was nothing to be found. It was an airplane, after all, with all the usual security. No knives, no guns, not even a pair of scissors.

  “What do you mean take both of us?” Ryan said. “What’s happening?”

  “We’re going too slow,” Nicky said. “Feel that? The plane is about to stop. We’re nowhere near the airport.”

  “Sometimes we have to stop during our taxi to the gate,” Heather said. She was speaking in a soothing voice, the way one might talk to a crazy person.

  “They’re going to take you too,” Nicky said to her.

  “I’m sorry, what?” said Heather.

  Nicky was standing in the middle of the aisle now. She had nothing in her hands. The plane had come to a dead stop in the middle of the runway. Outside, the black van was pulling up next to them.

  On the speakers there was a quick bell chime, then the captain’s voice came on.

  “Hi friends, we’ve been asked to stop here and await further instructions,” he said. “Apparently there’s some sort of mixup at the gate. I’m sorry about this. It will be just one minute.”