The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) (4 page)

“It sounds like you’ve really
thought this through,” Jill said. “I would agree. If anyone would make a good
princess, it’s you.”

Karmela shook her head in
disgust.

“Jill, we should have been
talking about this a long time ago. We could have been working together. Maybe
there’s still time. How attached are you to this new girl anyway?”

“I hitched my wagon to her star
a long time ago,” Jill said. “There’s no turning back now.”

“Figured as much. But now you’ve
been warned. Not everything is as it seems, Jill. I know everyone is talking
about Samantha like she’s going to lose this contest, but mark my words, the
Rose Ransom will change everything.”

“Fair enough,” said Jill.

“So what is it you really want?”

Jill smiled. “I actually came
over here to admire your ring. Jenny was telling me about it the other day. Has
it really been in your family for four generations?”

Karmela looked skeptical at
first, but then vanity took over and she couldn’t help herself.

“Yes, four generations,” she
said with a smile. She held out her hand.

“Wow,” Jill said. “The garnet.
The color is so deep.”

“Warm is actually how a
gemologist would describe it,” Karmela said.

Jill was leaning over Karmela’s
hand now, looking closely at the ring.

“I want to know the whole
story,” she said.

Beaming with pride, Karmela
jumped into a tale about how her great, great grandfather tricked the Duke of
Argyll into playing poker with him on a riverboat.

“My family has a history of that
kind of shrewdness,” she said. “It was a good old fashioned hustle.”

Karmela was really into the
story now, and for the next ten minutes, she droned on, first about the poker
game, then about the ring her grandfather won, then how an appraiser in New
York determined that the garnet was “a uniquely warm shade of red,” making the
stone very valuable.

“The engraving on the sides
represents the two houses of Argyll,” Karmela said, pointing at the letters on
either side of the stone.

“What about inside the band?”
Jill said. “Is there some stamping from the Duke?”

“There is!” Karmela squealed.
She leaned closer and whispered, “Would you like to see?”

“Yes please,” Jill said with as
much excitement as she could muster.

Karmela handed her champagne
flute to Josh, then she pulled the ring off her finger. Jill took it with care.
Holding it up close to her eyes, she scanned the inside of the band. Even
though she was looking right at the Duke’s signature stamping and could make out
every detail, she said, “I can’t see anything. It’s so dark in here. Let me
take it to the window.”

Jill felt her heart rate quicken
as she stepped away from Karmela. Everything was going according to plan, and
the next part was simple. Still, she was nervous. This sort of subterfuge was
Nicky’s game, not hers.

“The stamp is a lion standing on
two feet,” Karmela said. “You really need a jeweler’s loupe to appreciate the
excellent craftsmanship.”

Jill was right at the window
now, holding the ring up to catch the light from the streetlamp outside.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “There it
is. A lion. I see two paws down, two paws—whoops!”

Her stomach lurched as she
dropped the ring, and she cringed when it clattered on the floor.

“What the hell?” Karmela said,
rushing over.

Quickly, Jill bent down to where
the ring had fallen, and picked it up with her left hand. By the time Karmela
arrived, Jill was holding the replica up to the light. The real ring was hidden
in the palm of her hand.

“You’ll be glad to know it’s a
tough ring,” Jill said.

Karmela snatched the ring from
her finger, saying, “Give me that!”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to drop--”

“That’s the last time I take
this ring off for anyone,” Karmela said.

Jill held back a smile. Mission
accomplished.

“I’ll see you around, Karmela.
Thanks for showing me your ring. It really is incredible.”

“Think about what I told you,
Jill. Nicky doesn’t have to win this contest. All that matters is that Kim
loses.”

“I’ll give it some thought. Have
a good night.”

With the ring on Karmela’s
finger, Jill felt no need to stay at the party. On the elevator ride down to
the parking garage, she sent a text to Zack.

You up for company tonight? I
need a place to crash.

Zack’s response was immediate.

I can’t wait. When do you arrive?

Leaving the Hamilton now
,
she wrote back.

Once in her car, Jill sent one
more text, this one to Alvin Green.

Mission accomplished. The
ring is in place. I’m done for the night.

She hit send, listened to the
message whoosh away, and closed her eyes. Between the Date Auction, the
treasure trove of data she’d stolen from Tremblay Property Management, and the
Network’s recent run-ins with Melissa Mayhew, she’d had no down time for the
past two weeks. Sitting in her car, in the quiet of the parking garage underneath
the Hamilton, she felt like she could go to sleep right here. Just put the seat
back, close her eyes, and let it all fade away.

She shook herself awake and
started the car. An empty parking garage was the last place she wanted to be
right now. Alone in a car with no one else around—it was the exact setting
where Melissa Mayhew found Annika and looked in her mind.

“Get to Zack’s,” she said to
herself. “Just get to Zack’s and you can rest.”

She drove in silence, heading
north on the highway, enjoying the empty streets. She was only two blocks from
Zack’s apartment when her phone rang. Alvin Green was the name on the screen.

Her first thought was to let it
go to voicemail. She had already told Alvin she was done for the night. But she
knew how Alvin worked. He wouldn’t leave a message. He would keep calling, and
calling, and calling…

“What can I do for you?” she
answered.

“Everything looks good with the
ring,” he said. “I’m watching Karmela’s movements on my screen right now. Top
floor of the Hamilton hotel. She’s on the south end, overlooking K Street. I’ll
send you an app you can use to track her on your phone.”

“Thanks Alvin. Have a good
night.”

“I’ve been reading your briefing
notes on this Rose Ransom contest,” Alvin said, ignoring Jill’s plea to end the
conversation. “It seems like the Regents at the school choose whoever they
want. How are you going to make sure this Karmela girl is the one who gets
kidnapped?”

“I’ve taken care of it,” Jill
said.

“How could you take care of the
Regents?” Alvin asked.

“I finished the hack a long time
ago. When the Regents sit down to choose the princess, the data in front of
them will be crystal clear. They will choose Karmela. I guarantee it. And when
they do, this ring will lead us right to her.”

“But what if she isn’t wearing
the ring? You wrote in your notes that, wait a second, I’ve got them right
here.”

Jill heard papers shuffling in
the background.

“Here we go,” Alvin said. “The
Board of Regents meets on the Sunday after the Date Auction to choose a
princess for the Rose Ransom.”

“Alvin, please. It’s late. I’m
tired. Why are you reading me my own notes?”

“After the Rose Ransom
performance, Renata calls the princess up to the stage and takes her away,”
Alvin continued. “Whatever the princess has on her person at that moment is all
she brings with her during the abduction.”

“Trust me, she’ll be wearing the
ring,” Jill said. “Is there anything else, Alvin? I’m ready to be done
working.”

“Yeah, just one more thing.”

“Is it short? It’s almost three
in the morning out here.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. It’s
just, earlier in the night I got an alert on my phone that the servers are down
at the mansion. Do you know what that’s about?”

“The mansion? You mean Nicky’s
house?”

“Yes, Gia asked me to put a
monitor on the computer system we installed in the attic. It’s programmed to
shut itself down if--”

“I know when the servers shut
down. I wrote the routine myself.”

“So what would make them shut
off? Do you know what’s happening there tonight?”

Jill stopped the car in the
middle of the street, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“No, Alvin. I don’t know what’s
happening. I…”

She pinched the skin between her
eyes. Her night had been such a success until now. Alvin’s call was ruining
everything.

“Can you pull up the feed from the
security cameras and have a look at what’s going on there?”

“There are no security cameras!”
Alvin said. “Without the servers, nothing’s being recorded!”

“But what about the backups?”

A pause.

“The backups,” Alvin said.
“Didn’t think of that.”

Jill bit her tongue. She
reminded herself that none of this was Alvin’s fault. He was doing his job. It
wasn’t his problem that Jill was so tired.

“Okay hang on,” Alvin said. “I’m
bringing up the backups now….just one more second….just a bit…”

“Take all the time you need,”
Jill said, forcing calm into her voice.

“Got it,” Alvin said. “Last
backup was an hour ago. I’ll start rewinding from….”

“From what?”

Silence on the other end of the
line.

“What is it Alvin? What do you
see?”

She could hear him breathing,
but he wasn’t saying anything.

“Talk to me Alvin. Please.”

“We’ll need to get this footage
in front of you,” he said. His voice was shaky. “Are you someplace safe? Can I
send you a link?”

Zack’s apartment was just
outside her window. All she had to do was park the car.

“Tell me what you see,” she
said. “What’s on the video?”

“I see a bunch of people in the
mansion,” Alvin said. “They’re cleaning the place out. Boxes of papers. I don’t
know any of these people. It’s like I’m looking at a robbery. There are four…no,
five…maybe six of them. They’re taking everything. Where is everybody? How come
nobody’s home?”

Somebody was home
, Jill
thought.

“This isn’t good,” she said.
“This isn’t good at all. Upload all the footage going back six hours and send
me the link.”

“Okay, I’m scrolling back to
grab the last six hours from the backups,” Alvin said. “It’s uploading now.
I’ll have a link to you in a few minutes.”

“Thank you Alvin. I’ll be in
touch with you after I’ve watched it.”

“Jill, what’s happening out
there? How could all these people break into the mansion and steal everything?
Why wasn’t anyone home?”

“We had three agents in the
mansion tonight,” said Jill. “Gia, Dante, and Kendall were all there. The Bloom
mansion has been on high alert ever since Nicky had her run-in with Melissa
Mayhew...”

“Oh no. You don’t think--oh this
could be really bad, couldn’t it?”

“I need you to call Phillip and
Helena for me. Tell them they need to meet me at the safe house in Arlington.”

“But Phillip and Helena are at
that gala with--”

“Yes, I know. They’re not going
to want to leave. Tell them to sneak out if they have to. Our covers might be
blown any minute now.”

“Got it. The safe house in
Arlington. What are you going to do when you get there?”

“We’re going to watch this video
footage and figure out what the hell is going on.”

Thirty minutes later, Jill was
sitting on a grungy sofa in the Network’s safe house, texting with Zack.

Zack
:

Where are you?

Jill
:

Something came up and I can’t
come over tonight. Sorry.

Zack
:

So are you at home?

Jill
:

I’m someplace safe.

Zack
:

Are there any crazy people
chasing after you with syringes?

Jill
:

No crazy people here.

Zack
:

Can I come to you?

Jill
:

It’s late. Go to sleep. Let’s
talk tomorrow.

Zack
:

Promise me you’re safe.

Jill
:

I promise. You don’t need to
worry about me.

Zack
:

Okay. Buzz me anytime. Phone
is by the bed.

Jill
:

Good night, Zack.

The safe house was an old brick
home that could have had character and class if anyone took care of it. The
Network chose to leave it in a shabby condition to better blend in with its
surroundings.

The furnishings inside the home
hadn’t been touched in decades. Creaky, battered floorboards broken by metal
grates that spat dusty warm air from the ancient furnace, a sofa and chairs
that belonged in a dumpster, stains on the walls, and a persistent odor of
mildew—it was a disgusting, uncomfortable place made worse by the circumstances
of Jill’s arrival.

She put her laptop on the wobbly
platform that served as the dining room table and opened the link Alvin sent
her. Footage from the security cameras was rolling on her screen when Phillip
and Helena came through the front door.

“You’ve viewing it already?”
Helena said. “Alvin told us everything. What have you seen?”

Helena was wearing a black
evening gown. Phillip was in a tux. While Jill had gone to a party for students
after the Date Auction, they had gone to a gala for parents.

“Was Melissa Mayhew at the
gala?” Jill asked.