The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) (8 page)

“Get buckled!” she yelled at
Nicky. “He’s going to take off!”

Nicky stood in place, watching.

“Nicky come on, let’s sit,” said
Ryan.

She felt like none of this was
right, that the pilot had acquiesced too easily. She didn’t want to sit down
yet. She wanted to grab the phone and demand that the pilot come back and talk
to her.

But then the plane lurched and
Nicky fell to the floor. They were moving.

As the plane accelerated, Nicky
pulled herself up and slid into the chair. Out the window she saw the runway
rolling past. It was real. They were moving. They were getting out of here. The
captain was doing the right thing. She grabbed both ends of the seatbelt and
locked it around her waist.

“Safety positions everyone,”
came the captain’s voice.

Nicky looked up the row to see
the attendant crouched down in her seat, her hands over her head. From the seat
next to her, Ryan put his arm over Nicky’s shoulders.

“Let’s lean down,” he said
quietly.

The plane was still gathering
speed. Nicky bent over at the waist, and found herself face to face with Ryan.

“You have a lot of explaining to
do,” he said.

“I know,” said Nicky. “I will.
I’ll tell you…”

Amidst all the sounds around
them, from the revving up of the aircraft engines to the many alert bells,
Nicky heard a loud crank, and then a pop. She knew right away it wasn’t a sound
she wanted to hear.

She sat up and saw Heather
pulling on the lever of the forward door.

“No!” Nicky shouted. She tried
to jump up but the seatbelt caught her, and she had to stop to unbuckle it. By
the time she got to the front of the plane, Heather had thrown the door open,
letting the afternoon sun pour into the cabin.

And the plane was slowing to a
stop.

“Heather, what did you do?”

“Roddy told me to do it. And the
tower told him,” Heather said.

Nicky looked at Heather’s face,
all streaked and smudged in wet makeup. Her eyes seemed more composed than
before. Her body more relaxed.

“I’m sorry Nicky. They said we’d
be spared if we cooperated. We pretended to take off so you would get in your
seat and I could open the door. We are innocent. It’s you they want.”

An explosion happened somewhere
outside the plane. Instinctively, Nicky and Heather both ducked. A steel
cylinder soared over their heads, crashed into the back wall, and rolled to the
floor.

White gas came hissing out of
the canister, and everyone inside the plane instantly fell asleep.

To
: Network Headquarters

From
: Jill Wentworth

I am writing to report the
demise of our mission at Thorndike Academy. As I type this email, we have
declared Code Orange for all agents working on the mission.

I cannot take the time for a
thorough debriefing in this email, but will quickly report that Gia, Kendall,
and Dante are dead, killed by Melissa Mayhew. Melissa is also dead, killed by
Renata Sullivan. It is Renata who is the primary danger to our mission now. She
has been in the Bloom mansion. Her servants have stolen all the computer
servers and paperwork inside. We expect her to seek out Nicky Bloom and anyone
close to her for information.

Nicky is on a plane with Ryan
Jenson. Their destination is unknown to us. I have sent Nicky a message warning
her of the danger. I have not heard a response.

Phillip, Helena, and I spent the
night at the safe house in Arlington. Now that we have the cover of daylight,
we are leaving Washington. Per the protocol, we will leave on separate routes
and rendezvous at a secure location one week from now.

With regret,

Jill Wentworth

Jill hit send, she hugged
Phillip and Helena goodbye, and she watched them leave. Phillip and Helena both
headed south, driving away from Washington and the danger that awaited them
there. Jill, however, got into her car and drove north, back to her house in
Potomac.

It was hardly a safe place for
her to go. If her enemies were looking for her, the house was the first place
they would check.

She didn’t care. She had to stay
focused on the task at hand, and the task at hand was getting her mother out.

Two days had passed since Jill
learned the truth about her mother. Old emails between Walter, Merv, and Galen,
threads of evidence connecting those emails to the paperwork Jill and Nicky
found in Merv Tremblay’s house, memories of who her mother was and how she’d
always behaved—it seemed so obvious now that Carolyn Wentworth wasn’t a normal
person. It seemed absurd that Jill had spent so many years hoping her mother
would come around and the two of them could have a relationship.

But they couldn’t. Not until
Carolyn’s mind was released from the spell a vampire had put on it many years
ago.

The moment Jill learned that her
father had purchased a slave to make into his wife, Jill knew she wasn’t
escaping alone.
When I get out, my mother gets out too.
That was the
thought Jill used to set her mind at ease about the horrible truth she’d
unearthed.
Yes, my father is a monster and my mother is his victim, but I
can set it right. I’ll have her ready to leave by the time the mission is over.
We’ll get her to the Network’s best hypnotist. He’ll undo the commands that
hold her mind hostage. She’ll learn who she really is and why she needs to go.

Before Alvin called with news
that changed everything, Jill thought she had months to make her mother well.
Now she had hours. Now she needed to get her mother out of the house and in
front of a hypnotist before dark, and hope for a miracle.

She parked the car in the driveway,
ran through the front door, up the stairs, and knocked on the door to her
mother’s study.

“Come in,” her mother called
from the other side.

Carolyn didn’t turn to greet
Jill as she entered.

“Hi Mom,” Jill said.

“What do you need?” Carolyn
asked, her fingers clattering on the keyboard.

“I’ve come to take you
somewhere. I need you to close up what you’re working on.”

Carolyn continued typing. Jill
waited.

And waited.

“Mom?”

“Almost done,” Carolyn said.
“I’ll stop when I’ve finished this block.”

Ten minutes passed before
Carolyn stopped typing and turned around.

“Tell me again why you’re here,”
Carolyn said.

Jill felt an old resentment
build up at the words. Her mother spoke in a direct, almost rude tone of voice.
It was so easy for Jill to get irked at the woman. She had years of practice.

But now you know better
,
Jill told herself.
The proper emotion here is pity, not anger.

“I am taking you to see
someone,” Jill said.

Already, Carolyn was turning
back to the computer.

“Dad asked me to take you to a hypnotist,”
Jill said.

Carolyn stopped moving.

“When did you speak with your
father?”

Just as Jill expected. She
didn’t know or understand the particulars of the mind control that governed her
mother, but it had something to do with being an obedient wife. Carolyn worked
at the computer all day because it was what her husband wanted. But if he
wanted her to knit sweaters instead, that’s what she’d do.

“Dad and I talked on the phone
yesterday,” Jill said.

Carolyn turned all the way
around. For the first time since the conversation began, Jill had her mother’s
full attention.

“You never speak on the phone
with your father,” she said.

“I did yesterday,” said Jill.
“He called me. He’s all worked up about this idea of having you see a
hypnotist.”

“A hypnotist?”

Carolyn made no effort to hide
her skepticism. Jill was ready for this. She’d started rehearsing this scene in
her mind as soon as she left Arlington.

“Dad’s been reading books about
how the brain works,” Jill said. “He thinks you’ll be better at your job if you
take time to relax your mind.”

“I get enough sleep every
night,” Carolyn said.

“It’s more than sleep,” said
Jill. “Dad’s excited about the power of hypnosis for high performers like you.
He wants you to try it.”

Carolyn sighed. “He thinks he
wants me to try it,” she muttered.

“What was that?” Jill said.

“I just got started on my work
for the day. Can we do this some other time?”

“Dad was very clear,” said Jill.
“He found the best hypnotist in the area and the appointment is this morning.”

“Appointment? No, there will be
no appointment. This hypnotist’s time is not more valuable than mine.
Reschedule it. Put him on retainer. If I’m going to do this, we’ll do it when
I’ve reached a lull in my work.”

“Mom. This guy is the best in
the world. And all the businesses are doing this now. Dad will be angry with me
if I don’t get you to this appointment.”

Carolyn sat still for a moment.
Jill could see the conflict brewing behind her eyes.

On the one hand, Carolyn thought
this all sounded like a distraction from the work she was doing. On the other
hand, Jill was telling her that Walter wanted it. Jill braced herself, hoping
her mother was going to say something she wanted to hear.

“I will bring my laptop and work
while we drive,” Carolyn said. “And if I don’t notice any improvement after the
session, we won’t do this again. I want nothing more than to please your
father, but sometimes he is confused about what he really wants. I know your
father. He wants me to be productive. He thinks this hypnotist thing will help.
I think it won’t.”

Jill smiled. “We can tell Dad
all about it when it’s over. If you’re right, I’m sure he won’t make you do it
again.”

*****

Her mother in the passenger seat
typing away furiously on her laptop, Jill set the GPS to take them to Landover,
Maryland. When they got on the highway, Jill turned on the radio.

Carolyn turned it off.

“Please, could we listen to
that?” Jill said. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“That is your problem. I can’t
focus with the music on.”

“Alrighty then,” Jill muttered.
She opened a window.

“Close that,” her mom commanded.
“It’s distracting me.”

“I’m sorry Mom. I’m just so
tired. I need to do something or I might fall asleep.”

“You shouldn’t be tired at this
time of day.”

“Well, I am. I was up late.”

“You shouldn’t stay up late.”

“I’ll try to remember that for
next time.”

Carolyn let out a long, angry
grunt and typed more vigorously. She was practically slamming her hands on the
keys.

“Easy there, Mom.”

With a suddenness that startled
Jill, Carolyn reached up and slammed her hands against the dashboard.

“This is a waste of time!” she
screamed. “I can’t focus in this car! I need to be in my study! I’ve got work
to do! Roll up that window now, Jill! I can’t concentrate at all when it’s
down! And look where you’re going!”

Jill turned her attention to the
road and realized she was drifting between two lanes. She yanked the steering
wheel to the right. It was too sudden a movement for the speed they were going,
and the car lurched in response. For half a second, Jill was convinced it was
going to flip.

Apparently her mom was too.

“Are you trying to kill us?”
Carolyn shouted.

“I’m sorry,” Jill said. “It’s
just, I’ve never seen you that angry before. It surprised me.”

“Well stop being surprised. I
need you to focus on the road. And I need you to roll up the god damned
window!”

Jill did as her mother demanded.
It wasn’t like she needed the window open now anyway. Her brief loss of control
combined with her mother’s yelling was more than enough to wake her up.

They arrived in Landover just
before noon. The GPS guided Jill along the edge of town to a neighborhood that
once might have been home to families with young children, but now looked like
it only housed people waiting for death. The trees were old and brittle. Lawns
were overgrown. Fallen leaves were everywhere. The cars were all models from
Jill’s childhood, bought new ten or fifteen years back and run into the ground.

They parked in front of a slim
house with aluminum siding painted baby blue.

“Are we here?” Carolyn asked.

“We’re here,” Jill said.

She felt a sense of gloom in the
air as she stepped out of the car. Cold mist, dark clouds, a noisy wind—the
weather matched how she felt after watching that horrid footage and staying up
all night.

Jill wondered how the hypnotist
would react to this visit. She wasn’t coming to his door with a normal request.

A typical vampire slave had his
mind programmed into oblivion. He knew how to act in service of his master, but
wasn’t very good at critical thinking or problem solving. Carolyn Wentworth was
something else entirely. Her programming allowed her the free capacity of her
fabulous mind when she sat at a computer terminal, but made her a slave to her
husband’s whims. Would the hypnotist be ready for this?

Carolyn let Jill lead the way to
the front door.

“Not a very nice looking place,”
Carolyn said.

Aware that her mother almost
never left the sheltered world of Potomac, Jill said nothing in response. She
climbed up three concrete steps to a small porch and rang the doorbell.

No one answered.

“Does this mean we can go home
now?” asked Carolyn.

“No, Mom. Hang on.”

She rang the bell again. Still
nothing.

“I’m going back to the car,”
Carolyn said. “The traffic won’t be bad if we hurry.”

“Just a second, Mom. Please.”

“I don’t have any more seconds
for this nonsense, Jill.” Carolyn was at the car now, pulling on the handle of
the locked door again and again like a little kid. “Let me in!” she cried.