Page 9

He led me toward the passenger side, his palm settling at the small of my back, warm through the thin fabric of my wrap dress. A scent drifted from him, woody and warm with a trace of citrus. Expensive. I breathed it in without meaning to.

The car was dark and spotless. He opened the door and waited while I tucked my dress in, then closed it behind me with the gentlest of clicks. Cool air raised goosebumps along my arms. Through the window, four small figures waved at the end of the pathway, and I waved back until I could no longer tell which of them was Imani.

The locks engaged with a soft, expensive sound.

Tonight was going to be perfect.

❦ ❦ ❦

The car smelled of leather and his cologne. He had offered me a bottle of water from the console the moment I buckled in, with a grin that said he knew I was nervous.

“This is a very nice car,” I said, taking the bottle from him. “How can you afford it?”

“I hustle here and there,” he said, glancing at me before his eyes returned to the road.

I cracked the seal and took a sip. The water was shockingly cold. It felt so good, because even with the air conditioning on full, I was warm from nerves.

Streetlights slid across the windscreen, one after another, gold and steady. The indicator ticked.

“Damn,” he muttered.

“What is it?”

“I left my wallet at home.”

“Oh, I can—”

“No. No. I asked you out.” He gave me a sheepish smile. “We can swing by mine. It won’t take long. Is that okay?”

Something small stirred at the back of my mind. I didn’t want to look at it. Mika would have called it a feeling. I called it nerves.

“Sure,” I said, taking another long sip.

He drove up the ramp for the freeway, and the city fell away beneath us.

My eyelids grew heavy, as if someone had hung weights from my lashes. My mouth turned dry. My heartbeat felt wrong, fluttering against my ribs like something trapped. When I forced my eyes open, the world swam. The streetlights smeared into long gold ribbons that stretched and bent and would not hold still.

A sickening feeling began to gnaw at the pit of my belly. Something was wrong. I knew it the way you know a step is missing in the dark, a moment too late.

My clutch sat in my lap. I fumbled at the clasp, but my fingers felt thick and foreign, as if they belonged to someone else. The phone lit up and swam. The group chat. The hearts, emerald, ivory, emerald, ivory. I tried to find Imani’s name. The letters would not stay still.

My thumb slid off the glass.

Polished. Mika’s word surfaced, slow and ugly, from somewhere far below.

The dizziness took hold. My head dropped against the seat. I tried to call out to Adrián, but my tongue was too big for my mouth and the words came out slurred and strange. “Ad… Adrián…”

The bottle slipped from my fingers, dropped into my lap and rolled down my leg. Cold water soaked into my dress. I could barely feel it.

The freeway hummed beneath us. The indicator kept ticking, calm and steady, carrying me away from everyone who loved me.

“You look tired, babe. Have a nap. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you.”

The words sounded perfectly normal. That was the worst of it. The voice was the same, warm and smooth, and nothing in it had changed. Only I had.

As the dark closed over me, his laughter reached me, deep and unhurried, and it turned my veins to ice.

❦ ❦ ❦