Chapter 9
BIANCA
The door slams behind Harrison, making Alissa jolt in her bed. Her heartrate spikes on the machine.
I grab her hand, squeeze it gently. “You okay?”
She nods slowly. “The sound of the door jarred me a little.” She sits up. “But tell me about these other clubs you frequented. I’m sure it was an intense evening.”
“It was.” I sit on the edge of Alissa’s bed. “The clubs themselves were marvelous. My sister doesn’t half-ass anything, that’s for sure. Whether it’s decoration or organ harvesting, she puts her all into it.”
Alissa chuckles lightly but then covers her mouth. “Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh at that.”
“Better to laugh than to cry.” I pat her hand. “Besides, Harrison and I will see this through. We’re going to make sure Rouge finally sees justice for what she’s done.”
“I hope so.” She bites her lip. “So…the clubs?”
“Right. The first place we went to was the Noir Parlor, and it was outfitted like a mid-century TV studio. Everything in black and white. Even the servers.”
She cocks her head. “How’d they manage that?”
“Makeup. Most of the people they hire at Noir are actors, so they have a decent idea of how to handle makeup anyway. They must put gray pancake all over their face and hands and then cover the rest of their bodies with clothes in shades of black, white, and gray.”
“Fascinating.” Alissa sighs. “Your sister is so creative. If only she used that creativity for good.”
“Agreed.”
“And Noir Parlor had missing waitstaff as well?”
I nod. “The head, Lucille, told us she never heard back from anyone who worked there except for one. Mr. Night?”
Alissa furrows her brow. “Mr. Who?”
“You probably don’t know him. He works in the Clubs section, which you probably didn’t check out too much since neither you nor Maddox are smokers. Very old man.”
She shrugs. “I might have seen him. To tell the truth, those first few days at Aces, I had eyes only for Maddox.”
I smile. “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
She blushes. “I am. I was afraid to say it out loud at first. Everything happened so fast, I couldn’t help wondering if it was just all the trauma that had made me develop feelings for him.
But once I accepted that I was truly, deeply in love with him, I realized we could get through anything together.
Even that horrible hotel, the two of us starving, we would talk through the wall, tell each other how much we loved one another.
I think that kept us going, if I’m being honest.”
“I’m so happy for you.”
She grins. “You feel the same way for Dr. O’Rourke, don’t you?”
I widen my eyes. “Oh… I mean… I definitely like him, if that’s what you mean.”
She laughs out loud. “It’s not just like. It’s not as if he’s your chum.”
“But it’s too soon,” I sputter. “I’m sure that in some time I’ll know for sure.”
She shakes her head. “You know for sure now. I can see it in your eyes. The way you look at him when he enters the room.” She grabs my hand.
“When I was in that hotel, it forced everything in my life into perspective. My whole life, I tried to keep everything neat and pretty. Straight lines, never bending. But there really isn’t such a thing as a straight line, is there?
Our planet is round. So even the most level street isn’t actually a straight line, though it may feel that way to us. It curves with the shape of the earth.”
I swallow. “I never thought about it that way.”
“I had a lot of time to ponder life’s deepest thoughts in that bloody hotel,” Alissa says.
“There are no guarantees. The world is a confusing place, filled with both great good and great evil. Things don’t make sense…
until they do.” She gazes into my eyes. “You and Harrison… Maddox and I… Through all the nonsense the four of us have been through, the love we have for one another has been our only source of stability.”
I brush a tear from my cheek. “My God, Alissa. I think you’re right.”
She chuckles. “I know I’m right. But I didn’t mean to get all philosophical on you. You were telling me about the clubs.”
I blink. “Right. Yes. So after Noir, we went to MINOS. Same thing, the guy who runs the club, Zeb, told us he’d never heard back from the waitstaff who left once their contracts were up.
And he also told us about this woman, Dishari, who got into a public argument with Rouge.
A few days later, a venomous snake escapes from the zoo and bites her, killing her in her sleep. ”
She gasps.
“Then we went to Second Star. Again, a waitress named Tina vanished into thin air. Same with the Jade Sanctum. Aus Waverly—the guy who runs it—told us he had a friend named Timothy Mann who was working at the club and disappeared one day.”
She crosses her arms, shivering. “This is clearly a lot bigger than Maddox and I initially thought. We thought we were dealing with two needless deaths. But if Rouge has been killing off people in her clubs since she started taking over…”
“Exactly. It could run into the hundreds. Rouge started taking the reins from my father when she turned eighteen. That was over two decades ago. Our father died right after I returned to Chicago, which was when she officially became the head of all our family’s enterprises, but she could have been organizing this organ harvesting deal for the better part of two decades. ” A chill runs through me.
Alissa’s face twists. “It’s difficult to think about all those poor people.
” She scratches her chin. “You know, Maddox didn’t just find red diamonds in that safe in Rouge’s office.
There was also a manifest. When we were there, we saw the last two names were May and Svetlana, the last two women to disappear.
I bet that manifest lists every single person they’ve done away with.
Not just at Aces, but everywhere else, too. ”
I widen my eyes. “So if we get hold of that manifest…”
“That in tandem with the cooler of organs you found might just be enough to put Rouge away. She’s got power and influence, but no one can fight the court of public opinion once all the evidence has been revealed to the world.”
“I agree. The chief of police is in her pocket, but even he won’t be able to look the other way at this.” I frown. “Speaking of which, why do you suppose you and Maddox weren’t killed and harvested as well? Obviously, I’m glad you weren’t, but still…”
“I’ve thought that over as well. Maddox comes from a long line of politically powerful people. I think Rouge wanted to keep him around, break him in the Caterpillar Hotel, and then use his influence to add to her power.”
“Then why keep you around?”
“I would have been leverage. He’d have to do as she said or she’d have me killed.”
I swallow. “Thank God it didn’t come to that.”
She frowns. “The only thing that doesn’t gel with that theory is the fact that Rouge left us for dead. Maddox was already passed out when you arrived. Harrison himself said he wasn’t sure he would make it.” Her lip trembles, but she steadies it.
I shrug. “Honestly, I have no idea how Rouge’s mind works.”
“But she’s your sister. Surely you have some idea—”
I hold up a hand. “I’ve never been able to figure her out.”
* * *
I love playing with my dollies.
In their world, I’m in charge. I choose what they wear, who they have tea parties with, what they do.
Mommy gives me a new doll almost every week. I have so many now that they take up almost all the space in my playroom.
Honestly, the dollies are the only attention I get from Mommy. She and Daddy spend all their energy oohing and aahing over Rougey. Daddy used to pay me lots of attention when I was littler, but now he’s focused only on my sister.
She’s six years older than I am. Just turned thirteen. She’s great in school, and she’s immediately good at everything she tries. Piano, art, archery, softball, fencing.
I’m okay at stuff. But Mommy tells me that I’m best at being pretty and playing with my dollies.
So here I am.
A sudden wave of frost shivers through me. It’s a feeling I’m used to. It comes every time Rougey is near. I look up and sure enough, she’s standing in the doorway.
She walks in, sneering at the dollies. “Playing dolls again, Bianca?”
I swallow. “Yeah. Mommy says it’s what I do best.”
She rolls her eyes. “You realize that’s not a compliment, right?
Mom thinks you’re dim in the head, that you’re never going to amount to anything.
” She tosses her long red hair. “Not like me. She thinks I can be anything I want to be. Daddy’s already talking about giving me his clubs when I’m old enough. ”
Daddy runs clubs downtown. I don’t know a whole lot about them. I know they’re different from like chess club at school. It sounds like they’re a place where grown-ups go to dance with each other. Seems silly. You can dance at home, and you can do it in your jammies there.
“That’s great, Rougey.” I don’t know what else to say.
She squats down, frowning. “You know, if you want to make something of yourself like I will, there are different games you can play. More grown-up games than tea party with your dollies.”
“But I like tea parties with my—”
Rougey holds up a hand. “No, you don’t. You just think you do. Mom doesn’t see your potential.” Something changes in her eyes. “Not the way I do. Isn’t there anything else you like to do?”
I scratch my head. “I guess I like to sing. It would be fun to do plays like the ones we see downtown.”
“There you go. Keep thinking in that direction.” She picks up one of my favorite dolls, a Malibu Barbie. “In the meantime, you’ll have to stop playing with dollies if you want to get there.”
“But Rougey—”
She snaps my Barbie’s head right off.
I gasp and start to cry. “Mommy! Rougey broke my—”
But Rouge is behind me in a flash, covering my mouth. “Mommy isn’t here right now, Bianca. And our nanny is on the other side of the mansion. Neither of them can hear you. So crying isn’t going to do you any good.” She uncovers my mouth.
I wipe my eyes and sniff a few times. “Why did you break my Barbie?”
She grins. “Because you’re so much more than Barbie. You’re Bianca.”
I get up and grab a tissue to blow my nose and wipe the rest of my tears away. “Then what kind of games should I play? What are the grown-up games?”
She extends her hand. “Come with me down to the basement. I’ll show you.”
I get to my feet and follow Rougey, but as I do my left eyebrow twitches.
That’s weird. I’ve never felt that before.
Mommy sometimes has a twitch like that in her eyebrow. I asked her about it once. She said she just had too much coffee that day, but she looked a little scared when she told me.
She then got a phone call and learned that Daddy had been in a car accident. He was in the hospital, so she scooped me up and took me along. I never got to ask about her twitch again.
My eyebrow twitches a second time.
It’s probably nothing.
I’ll ignore it.