Lost Girls(73)

Either way, my personal attempt to get away had failed.

A dark sadness enveloped me as I was taken through the screaming and cheering crowds. All along I’d been secretly hoping that I wouldn’t need to implement this stage of the plan. I’d been hoping that my short 9-1-1 text had gotten through and that my dad would show up at any minute, a cavalry of ex-military soldiers at his side, all of them armed and stronger than Hercules.

But he must not have gotten my text. And a sharp pinch in my backside was all the warning I got that my reign as Supergirl was over. I saw Nicole’s Murderer palm an empty syringe, dribbles of a black liquid inside, and my strength began to fade. My eyes struggled to stay open as my body fell limp. Two words were all that came to me as I slipped into a strange state of coherent unconsciousness.

Black Skies.

He had given me a shot of Black Skies, a knockout drug so strong it could overpower both Pink Lightning and Blue Thunder.

So strong it could kill.





Chapter Thirty-Eight


Nicole’s Murderer rambled on and on as he paced the dressing room, talking to his bodyguards and to himself. I struggled to stay awake, my eyes flaring open from time to time, only long enough to capture an image here and there. I had no idea how much Black Skies he’d given me. In my head, I was chanting, don’t die don’t die don’t die.

All the girls were gone, but I wasn’t sure where. The costumes had been packed up and the curtains that covered the large, two-way mirror still hung open. Fistfights and threatening arguments were scattered around the slowly emptying hall. Most of the fights were between two or three men, but one was a mass of punching arms and kicking legs and flying beer bottles, possibly fifteen men in all, with their testosterone spiking and voices bellowing.

“You’re not worth the trouble you cause,” he said, pointing a thick finger at me. “Phase Two is good for the community. We keep kids off the streets and out of gangs. But you come along and now we’ve got the FBI poking into our business. Four bodies!” He tucked his thumb into his palm, then held up four fingers and wagged them in my face. “Four! That’s how many people we have to get rid of tonight because of you—”

I blinked and forced myself to sit up straighter, all of my muscles screaming at me to stop. “Who are you getting rid of?”

His eyes glistened with something that looked like excitement. He’d been waiting for me to wake up enough to tell me this. This was his revenge, I could feel it. “They’re all out in the van right now and my boys are just waiting for me to give them the go-ahead. You want to know who they are? I’ll tell you. Komodo, because you beat her so bad the other night she was completely worthless onstage. That FBI agent, because you told him to come here. Madison, because she tried to help you. And Lauren, because you told her how to escape.”

An arrow of pain shot through my chest. Neither Lauren nor Madison got away?

He laughed. “They’ll all be dead within a few hours, but those girls could have been sold. If you hadn’t gotten involved.” He leaned nearer and pulled something from his pocket to show me, holding it in front of my face. My iPhone. “You thought Daddy was coming, didn’t you?”

A sick feeling twisted through my stomach and I thought I was going to throw up.

“Wanna see the texts we sent your precious papa? Look. First we said, sorry, didn’t mean to send that—after you sent that stupid 9-1-1 message. He replied, are you okay? We said, yeah, but I’m gonna spend the night at Lauren’s. K? We even matched your misspellings and abbreviations. He never suspected a thing. So, your parents won’t be looking for you until after school tomorrow.” He paused to study my expression, his gaze lingering on my lips just long enough to make me wish I could slug him. Then he held up two Platinum Level tickets. “Guess who these are for?”

I shook my head, a gesture that took all of my strength but was almost unnoticeable. Outside the room, the lights in the arena flickered on, then off, then on, but dimmer than before. I couldn’t hear what was going on because the intercom had been shut off, but some of the fighting men turned around, looking at something I couldn’t see, something in the corner of the room.

“These tickets are for your little friend. Zoe.”

“No.” All I could do was whisper, although I wanted to scream. Not her. She wasn’t strong enough for this place. She wouldn’t survive. I wanted to lunge at him and rip out his throat, my fingers on his windpipe to stop him from talking. The lights outside the room blinked off one final time. The only light left on came from the EXIT sign and the cherry glow of cigarettes that seemed to hang in the air like angry fireflies.

Nicole’s Murderer cocked his head, then traced one finger along my jawline. I shuddered. “We’re going to invite Zoe to Platinum Level. We’ll get her tomorrow night and that’ll help pay for all the damage you’ve caused. Maybe I’ll even set up a little fight between you two, after you’ve been worn down so far you don’t recognize her. I think the crowds would love a duo like that. Maybe I’ll take you both around the country.” He leaned even nearer, his lips close enough to touch mine. “That is, until one of you dies.”

Tiny pinpoints of fire flared back in the arena, on the other side of that two-way glass. I couldn’t hear it, but I imagined it sounded like sniper rifles firing rubber bullets, stuff used to control crowds during a riot. Those cigarettes fell, one by one, a puff of red and then the outline of bodies falling to the ground. Someone, probably one of the guards, flicked on a flashlight and for a brief moment, before the light was extinguished, I saw a team of men, all dressed in camo, their faces and skin painted with stripes of black and olive green. Then they turned into shadows again and everything out there was still.