Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance) - By Dan Rix Page 0,73
lips went numb. “Where?”
“We don’t know. They’re gone.”
Gone. The word was indigestible. “Where?” he repeated.
“After her birthday, it was like she gave up. She stopped trying.”
Aaron squeezed his eyelids shut. “Does Clive answer when you call?” he said.
“Only for Dominic,” she said, “but he won’t tell him anything.”
“Then you can get a message to her,” said Aaron.
“How?” she said. “Her phone’s disconnected.”
“Yell the message into Clive’s phone so she can hear it,” he said. “Yell it loud. Blow out Clive’s eardrums.”
She was silent for a moment. “Yell what?”
Aaron lowered his cell phone to his chest and scanned his bedroom. His lungs stung with each shallow breath. Yell what?
Amber had already given up.
No—that had to be a lie. Amber never gave up. He pressed the phone back to his ear.
“Tell her I love her,” he said.
THIRTEEN
Plus 1 Day, 20 hours, 42 minutes
“Are you nervous?” said Amber.
Clive dropped the cord from his hoodie, which he had been fidgeting with, and fixed his gaze on her. “I’m proud,” he said.
“Of who? Yourself?” The limo drove over a pothole, and she felt a spasm of pain in her back.
“Of you,” he said. “The potentate will be delighted to see how much you’ve matured since the last time we visited the palace. You’re a beautiful girl, Amber.”
“Can you please stop talking like them?” she said. “Like who?” said Clive.
“Like our parents.”
Clive smirked, ignoring her comment. “Then again, I still have to teach you some manners . . . ” he leaned forward, “and that’s what the ten hour flight’s for, Mrs. Selavio.”
Amber felt her lip curl. She pressed her forehead to the window, but she could still feel his gaze. She loosened her hair, and a blonde curtain fanned out between them.
Clive’s cell phone rang.
Amber listened to the ring tone, and her pulse quickened. She glanced up at him. “Aren’t you going to get that?” she said.
“It’s them.”
The ringing stopped. The limo bumped the curb as they pulled onto the runway, and she winced again. She sat forward carefully, trying not to put too much pressure on her tender back. She resisted the urge to scratch the scabs. The less she scratched, the milder the scarring.
She felt the whine of jet engines through the soundproof, tinted windows, but heard nothing. The limo glided past small propeller planes and commercial jets, and beyond the private airport’s control tower she could just make out the mountains through the rippling haze—the mountains where she and Aaron had stargazed two nights before her birthday.
The memory stung her, and she felt a sudden, throbbing pressure behind her sinuses. She had tried to call him, but of course he was with his half. Now there was no way to reach him. Since she blocked Clive’s calls, she wasn’t allowed a phone anymore.
Amber closed her eyes and held her breath, but Aaron refused to leave her mind. Of course not, he had to ruin everything in there first and turn her into an emotional mess. The limo parked next to the potentate’s private jet.
“That’s a Gulfstream gee-six-fifty,” said Clive, nodding to the sleek, black aircraft. “Here to Italy without refueling.”
“Does it look like I care?” said Amber.
Clive’s cell phone rang again, just as the driver opened the door for her, and the scream of jet engines blasted her ears. Amber hesitated. What if it was an emergency?
“Could you give us a second?” she said to the driver.
He nodded, tipped his hat, and shut the door. Silence again. Clive’s cell phone was still ringing.
Amber faced him. “Didn’t Dominic just let you stay with him for an entire month?”
“He’s the one who owes me,” said Clive.
“For what?”
“For Father’s services.”
The phone went silent, then rang again.
Amber glared at him. “So you’re just going to ignore them?”
Clive sighed and jerked the phone open. “What do you want?” he said.
In the soundproofed interior, Amber could just make out Tina’s voice on the other end. “Can I talk to Amber?”
“I told you to stop calling,” said Clive.
“Is she okay?”
“Tina, I didn’t kidnap her,” he spat. “She’s my half.”
“Is she there?” said Tina.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” said Clive.
Then Tina yelled something. “Amber, Aaron said—”
But Clive slammed his phone shut before she finished. “Bitch,” he muttered, and then he turned his phone off. “Harper won’t be saying anything once Father deals with him.”
It took Amber a moment to process what she’d heard, and a moment more to realize Tina had been trying to send her a message—a message about Aaron.