Page 46 of Crown of Death
I nod. “He cheated on me. With one of my best friends. So, as you can imagine, it kind of wrecked the rest of the schoolyear.”
I hear a sound. Low. Rumbling. At first, I think it’s the plane. And then I realize it’s coming from Cyrus. I look over to see the heat of embers rising in hiseyes.
“I didn’t care about losing Anderson,” I say. “It was the sting of betrayal from one of my closest friends that hurt the worst. That’s when I first learned to keep my circlesmall.”
He nods,understanding.
“From there, it was just a series of unfortunate events, financially,” I continue. “My dad made decent money as a contractor, but not enough to pay for my college. I worked my ass off the summer after graduating to earn enough for the first year of college. I made it, too. Everything I needed to pay for tuition, books, and most of myhousing.”
My fingers roll into little balls, my fingernails pressing sharply into mypalms.
“I was on the way to the bank to deposit the second half of the money,” I grit out. “I had to stop for gas, though. I’d run inside to pay with cash. But like an idiot, I forgot to lock thecar.”
“Someone stole half a year’s worth of money,” Cyrus fillsin.
I nod. “I couldn’t believe it. That it was just gone…all that timewasted. And that I could only pay for one semester. And I was too embarrassed to tell my parents what had happened. So, I just pretended that nothing had. I went to a bank to get a studentloan.”
My chest tightens, remembering the stress, theanxiety.
“The bank ran my credit. You don’t need much of any to get a student loan. But when it came back, to them, it looked like I had over a hundred thousand dollars in debt to my namealready.”
“Identity theft,” he once morepredicts.
Once more, I nod. “Someone had stolen my identity six months prior and opened all kinds of accounts. The bank told me the sources to contact to work toward a resolution, but they couldn’t loan me the money forschool.”
“What did you do?” Cyrus asks, shifting forwardslightly.
My eyes snap over to him. “I took care of myself.” My jaw clenches, to match the tightness in my chest. “And I keep taking care of myself. I’ll keep doing it, until Ican’t.”
I’m donetalking.
And thankfully Cyrus gives methat.
* * *
Only two hoursafter taking off, we descend into Las Vegas. The lights really are mesmerizing. The sparkle. The busyness. Even from the air, I can feel the electric energy of thecity.
The jet smoothly lands on the airstrip. Carefully, we taxi over to a slip and I hear the engines shut off, the plane cooling andsettling.
Fredrick and Mina’s voices softly cut through the plane. They frantically wrap up plans, arranging everything for ourstay.
“Welcome to Las Vegas,” Cyrus says. And I don’t miss the little bitter edge to hisvoice.
I get the feeling he doesn’t like thiscity.
The stairway opens and Fredrick and Mina exit first. Extending a hand for me to go ahead, I stand, and walk out thedoor.
The heat issuffocating.
Even though it’s nearly midnight, the temperature must still be in thenineties.
A gigantic stretch limo waits before us. Black as night, it has to be three times longer than a normal SUV. And just as I step out onto the asphalt, one of the doorsopens.
And out steps EdmondValdez.
“Well, hello,” he says, flashing a charming smile. “It’s good to see youagain.”
My pulse immediately skyrockets. My palms sweat, and my wrists feel sore, as if bound by chains again. My hand rises to the side of my neck, where the woman who had been with him jabbed me with a needle, knocking me out for thenight.