Chapter 8

EIGHT

COLLINS

“This is fine. Everything is fine.”

“You know you’re saying that out loud, right, bro?”

I bit my lip and glanced sideways at Tallulah. She was taking selfies in front of the blue tree. “Yup.”

“Very convincing.” She chuckled and flipped her hair, then struck a pose. “The cops haven’t come for us. Our parents said they’d handle it, whatever that means, so it’s all good.”

Is it all good? It didn’t feel like it. The other shoe was about to drop, though I had no idea when, how, or where. I glanced left and right at the casino around us. It was a little after eight on a Saturday night in Vegas, so The Sapphire was packed. We’d been here about two hours, hanging in the high rollers’ section, as usual, but I’d been jumpy as hell, so we’d taken an early dinner break. Now we were near the front of the casino in that pretty section between the hotel lobby and the gaming where they decorated out the ass.

The Wynn had always been my favorite, because it always felt like a fairytale walking inside of it . . . and then The Sapphire opened, and it made The Wynn look like a pretty princess story told to little girls—which wasn’t a bad thing. The Sapphire was edgy. Darker. Like you’d played a little too close to fairies and got sucked into another dimension. It was gorgeous and elegant, with almost every surface glittered with crystals and spikes.

And everything was a shade of blue.

The building told a story. The deeper you got inside, the less mundane it looked. The sapphire-blue, marble-y floors of the lobby stopped at the edge of a canopy of hanging blue-flowered vines that dangled just out of reach over your head. The cobblestones beneath my feet were a warm, midnight-blue. The trees on either side of the canopy were very much real, but every inch of them was wrapped in twinkling blue lights. Blue flowers and plants of all shapes filled this little forest tunnel.

At the edge of the canopy, the floor was covered in an elegant blue carpet in varying shades. There were walkways designed in the carpet that were rich sapphire-blue and looked like runways leading people around the casino. Everywhere else was a soft blue. It was really quite beautifully done. We stood right at the end of the main, widest runway that cut right through the heart of the casino and ended at the high rollers’ section. To our left were the tables for roulette and blackjack, and every table was crowded with two rows of people. To our right began the sea of slot machines, and there wasn’t an empty seat in sight.

“Collins.” She snapped her fingers, bringing my gaze back over to her as she shoved her phone back in her purse. “Where’s your head?”

That was a loaded question. My head was in too many places for me to just pick one thing. But then I spotted her purse, as in the one from her house and not the stolen one, and I groaned. “We didn’t find Lilian yet. We still have the stuff. I want it gone.”

She sighed. “I know, I know. But we know when she has classes and where. We’ll find her on Monday and give the stolen shit back. Then it’s off our plate. We can even bring my mom with us if you want, as backup. Or my lawyer friend.”

I nodded. She was right, yet it felt insufficient. Everything was . . . off. Like something had happened, something major that offset everything else. Which made no sense. I was a mess. I couldn’t even finish my pizza at dinner.

Tallulah tapped on my forehead with her finger and her silver rings twinkled under the lights. “Did you hear me?”

I flinched and then grimaced. “Guess not?”

She made a face. “Bathroom break? Imma go before we clock back in.”

I shook my head.

“Come with me?” She arched one eyebrow and pointed over her shoulder. “Or you wanna wait here?”

This was my favorite spot in the casino. It was so sparkly and the scent of the flowers was soothing. “I’ll wait here. Go ahead.”

She narrowed her green eyes at me. “Stay right here.”

“I will.”

“I mean, don’t move. At all.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bro.”

“You’re acting weird, bro.” She backed away slowly and pointed at me. “Stay. Bad dog.”

“I’m not moving. Go.”

She grumbled under her breath but turned and hurried the twenty feet to the bathroom. Her knee-high silver glittered boots sparkled like stars as she moved. The little kitten heel on them made my stomach turn—because I knew why we’d both worn teeny, tiny heels tonight. Though it did make me smile every time we wore our matching boots. I looked down at my feet and felt a rush of happiness wash over me. We had the same boots. We’d bought them for each other for Christmas a few years back without knowing it. They were made entirely of chunky silver glitter, and they just made me happy.

Tallulah paired hers with a zebra-printed cocktail dress and black tights, while I’d worn a metallic-white romper. Fainting in dresses was not fun. I reached up and fidgeted with my long brown hair, pulling the strands around to fall like a cape around my face. I was not in the mood to be seen tonight. Unless it’s by him.

I gasped.

That’s it. That’s what’s off. I was watching for him. I wasn’t sure why I was so convinced this random stranger would show up again. Maybe I just wanted him to. Maybe I was trying to manifest it into happening. Why do I want to see him? Everything got weird once he arrived. What’s even your plan? Hey, sir, did you somehow make me faint last night? Did you follow me home, and do you have wings? Because I thought I saw you fly onto my balcony. Did you come into my dreams and give me one of your necklaces?

I chuckled at myself. Yeah, that’s a quick trip to a grippy sock vacation. They’d have me in a straightjacket in a room with padded walls. It would sound crazy. I sounded crazy. I gripped the black tourmaline necklace in my palm and squeezed. Warmth rushed up my arm and down my spine.

My thoughts cleared a little. I took a deep breath. Snap out of it, Collins. Just go to work and do your job. Everything is fine. See? Everyone is gambling and totally normal. I forced myself to scan the crowd to prove nothing was awry when my gaze landed on a woman walking up the main aisle about fifty feet away.

My jaw dropped.

I’d never been romantically interested in a woman before, but this was hands down the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. My eyes locked onto her, soaking in every detail of her perfection. She was gorgeous. She was a goddess in human form.

She had pretty pink hair that fell in flawlessly manicured waves down to her elbows, like she’d just come from the salon. Her skin held a warm blush tone throughout, and her light eyes sparkled. She had the kind of long and lean hourglass figure only found on social media after hours of photoshop edits. The slit over her left thigh was high enough to be sultry but not indecent. Her red dress complimented her skin tone and pink hair, but it was the crystal straps on each shoulder and the crystal fringe on the slit that really caught my attention. I had no idea which brand her shoes were, and I needed to find out because I had to have them. The strappy heels had only ribbons made of crystals that coiled around her ankle and halfway up her shin. The glowing blue lights in the ceiling made it hard to know what color her eyes were— oh shit.

She was staring right at me.

Like I’d called her name out loud.

She walked that blue aisle like it was the runway in New York Fashion Week and I was Anna Wintour. I tried to glance around to see if anyone else had noticed her, but I was frozen in place. Her hips sashayed side to side. Her shoes glistened with every step. A massive rose quartz crystal hung from a thin chain around her neck and a rainbow of light shined out of it as she moved.

Still she stared.

What is happening? Why is she staring? God, is she walking over here?

The mystery woman lifted her hand and gently tapped a random man’s shoulder as she went by him, then she let her fingertips drag over the man’s girl beside him. The couple, who’d been quietly playing slot machines, dove for each other. Their lips crashed together in a frenzy. It was sudden and instant, like someone flipped their lust switch.

The woman kept walking. Without missing a beat in her catwalk, she threw her other arm and ran her fingertips over the back of a short, plump, bald man in a tropical printed button-down shirt. He threw his arm up and his brown cocktail splashed in his glass, spilling down his arm and onto the guy next to him. “WOOHOO! ALL IN!” he screamed without dropping the unlit cigar between his lips, then shoved his huge stack of chips onto the table.

The five other men at the table with him jumped and did a double take on his bet and then raised their glasses in cheer. One by one, they each shoved chips into play. It was like dominos with humans. I glanced back to that first couple and found them inches from illegal activities. My eyes widened. Other couples around them were following suit.

I looked back to the woman just as she ran her fingers through the long blonde hair of the cocktail waitress standing in the aisle. The waitress gasped and stood up straight. She whirled around, leapt across the aisle, and marched over to one of the blackjack dealers. With fire in her eyes and flushed cheeks, she pulled her arm back and slammed her fist right into his nose.

Blood gushed from his nose.

“That’s for grabbing my ass every night for three months,” the waitress screamed.

Everyone seated at that table gasped.

“I quit!” She threw her entire tray full of drinks into the guy’s face, then stormed off.

The woman tossed her wavy pink strands over her shoulder with a wicked smile. A well-manicured man dressed in black stepped out in front of her. She didn’t give him a chance to speak. She pressed her fingers to his lips, then kept walking.

She wasn’t even a foot by him and he’d already kicked off his shoes and threw his tie across the aisle. He Bruce Banner’d his button-down shirt off his body. Buttons scattered over the carpet and into a woman’s drink. One of Paulie’s security team guys, Randy, rushed over and grabbed the guy’s arms to stop him from pulling his pants off—and Randy froze. He blinked, then began stripping his own clothes off.

My pulse skyrocketed. Randy was a former Navy SEAL. He didn’t strip naked in the middle of a Las Vegas casino. At his place of employment. What the hell is happening here?

I eyed the woman again and found her still watching me. My stomach tightened into knots. My brain was trying to make sense of what I was seeing, but my thoughts were an odd blend of sluggish and erratic. My whole body seemed locked in place. I couldn’t feel my feet and hands. All I could do was watch.

She flicked her diamond covered right wrist, and everyone at the tables immediately threw their money and chips around in a panic. Fifteen tables worth of people turned to chaos. They shouted and hissed and clawed at each other like wild animals fighting over a carcass.

Without breaking eye contact with me, she half-turned her face to her left and blew a kiss. Every single person sitting at the dozens of slot machines stopped and pounced on the person next to them. Complete strangers were hooking up in the blink of an eye.

This isn’t normal. People didn’t just go nuts in the blink of an eye. Paulie raced into the madness from off to the left, then disappeared into the thick of it. Other casino security officers descended on them like wolves.

The woman was the only person who paid the chaos no attention at all.

And she hasn’t taken her eyes off of me for even a second .

Who are you? What have you done? It has to be you—but how? It made no sense. There was no logic. I wasn’t blind. I knew the moment she interacted with people their behavior changed. There was no way in hell Randy would ever behave like that, yet there he was standing there in his boxers with wild, almost rabid eyes. How is this possible? What is happening?

Oh God . . . IS this happening? Last night’s hallucinations ran through my mind, and suddenly I wasn’t sure.

“Tallulah . . .” I heard myself whisper. “ Tallulah. ”

Then the woman stopped in front of me, and for a moment . . . she just stared into my eyes. The scent of roses filled my senses. This close, I noticed with a start that her eyes were actually the same pink hue as her hair. The rose quartz necklace radiated warm energy, but it was overwhelming. I wanted to run and hide from her, and it made no sense.

She reached up and pressed her fingertip to my chest, right over the frantic beating of my heart. Chips shot up off the tables and hit the blue-lit ceiling. Gold coins burst out from inside the slot machines, even though the machines didn’t use coins anymore. People’s glass cups shattered in their hands as the ice in their drinks leapt like tree frogs. Her pink eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed. She grinned and pressed her entire palm to my chest. The moment her skin touched mine, the world exploded around us.

The vines and branches from the canopy trees stretched out across the ceiling and over the walls. Large flowers and roots burst through the carpeting under our feet. It was like someone was playing Jumanji and rolled the wrong turn.

She threw her head back and cackled in ecstasy, like she’d never had this much fun.

“ Tallulah! ” I shouted between clenched teeth.

I saw a flash of red and then something slammed into the side of the woman. I gasped and the lock on my body vanished. I leapt back just as the woman was tackled to the ground. I blinked and looked down—it was Tallulah.

Relief rocked me hard. My body was still sluggish. My reaction time was delayed. I couldn’t get my shit together. I’d just convinced myself this was another hallucination, but Tallulah tackling the woman suggested this was very, very real.

Tallulah scrambled off the gorgeous woman and leapt for me. “brO, GO!” She gripped my elbow and pulled me into a run.

My legs were wobbly, so Tallulah was dragging me. I looked over my shoulder and my eyes locked with hers. She was on her knees, grinning up at me with a sharpness that sent a chill down my spine.

“ WHAT THE HELL? ” Tallulah shouted over the chaos of the casino. “Whoa, watch out?—”

“Oh, shit.” I jumped over a fallen barstool and stumbled a few feet before Tallulah caught me. “What is happening?”

“You tell me! I was only in the bathroom for a minute!”

Tallulah’s hold on my arm was vise-grip tight. I glanced over my shoulder and gasped.

“She’s gone.”

“Who?”

“The woman!”

“Who the hell was she?”

An icy-cold chill slid down my spine.

“There!” a woman screamed as we raced into the canopy. “Those two!”

Red and blue lights flashed through the lobby’s glass doors and reflected off the marble floor. There was a sea of people blocking our path to the door, but Tallulah was charging through without pause or care.

“Hey, WAIT!” a raspy male voice yelled from behind us. “Smith! Stop them!”

A tall young guy dressed in his blue uniform jumped out in front of us. His dark eyes were wide. He threw his hands up. “Hold on, ladies.”

We slid to a stop, but we’d been moving too fast, and the laws of physics sent us crashing into the officer. I saw a wall of navy-blue and then my face pressed into the fabric. A thick arm wrapped around my body as we stumbled a few feet. Just as my heels lifted off the ground, a set of calloused hands gripped my biceps and yanked me back. The world wobbled. My ears rang. Tallulah cursed and growled.

A man in a black suit stepped out from behind the uniformed officer. His thick, dark brow was scrunched down low. He narrowed his hazel eyes and used his pen to point at us. “I’m Lieutenant Logan?—”

“I have no idea what’s going on?—”

“ Tallulah. Don’t speak, ” I whispered.

She cursed and threw her hands up.

Lieutenant Logan pulled a small spiral-bound notebook out from his back pocket. He glanced down at it and nodded. “That may be, but I recognize two of you from a case I’m working on next door.”

I gasped and my body turned cold.

Tallulah grabbed my hand and squeezed.

They found us. It’s over. Lilian, you bitch.

“—you’re under arrest.” Lieutenant Logan gestured for the uniformed cop. “Smith, cuff the little one.”

Little one? Really? It didn’t seem like an appropriate way for a cop to refer to me. But then I felt the rough grip of a man’s hands on my wrists as the young cop pulled my arms behind my back. Lieutenant Logan was halfway through reading us our rights when I felt the slide of cold metal on my wrist. My heart dropped. We were being arrested.

Just breathe, Collins. You’re allowed one phone call. Mom WILL answer. She’ll know what to do. All we have to do until then is not say a damn thing. We can do that.

I looked up to signal for Tallulah to keep her mouth shut when a gust of wind brought the scent of spicy vanilla slamming into my senses. It was like a shot of electricity through my body. I jerked upright. I knew that smell. My head snapped back and forth like I was trying to give myself whiplash.

“ Collins? ” Tallulah whispered.

I leaned back to look around her—and my gaze landed on a pair of moonstone eyes.

“Okay, load them up,” Lieutenant Logan barked, and my body was pushed forward.

I cursed and stumbled until I caught my balance. The young cop led us through the lobby. I craned my neck around and scanned the sea of chaos and people for him. He was gone. NO! He was there. Wasn’t he? He’d been standing by that column with the diamonds.

“Watch your head.”

I spun just in time to not slam into the open door of the police car. The cop put his hand on my head and helped me slide into the back seat. The leather was rough on my bare legs, and it was stuffy in the back, but somehow being arrested wasn’t my biggest concern. In my peripheral vision, I saw Tallulah get pushed in after me and the door closed. I turned to look out my window.

Fire trucks and police cars flew into the driveway of The Sapphire. The sidewalks were littered with tourists, most of them snapping pictures of the mess on their phones. We were probably already going viral on TikTok as the girls who blew up a casino. I pressed my face to my window to look for him.

Tallulah rested her head on the window and softly sang the No Doubt song Don’t Speak.

I glanced over my shoulder to her. “Really, bro?”

She snorted and then burst into laughter.

“This is not funny.” I shook my head and turned back to the window. “You are not really laughing right now?—”

THERE YOU ARE! Mr. Moonstone stood with his arms crossed over his chest on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard in the shadow of a column. Those pale moonstone eyes sparkled in the dark. The car was moving too quickly. We were passing him too fast. I leaned forward to get a better look when the car took a sharp left turn. No, no, no!

The force of the turn combined with my hands being cuffed behind my back sent me falling over onto the seat. My head landed in Tallulah’s lap, which sent her into a whole new round of giggling. It took me a second to get upright again, and by then we were at least two casinos away from where I’d seen him. Just when I started to think I’d hallucinated him again I spotted him standing on the median right in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard but we flew right by him.

I spun in my seat, but again he was gone. I groaned and sat back against the seat as the car rolled to a stop at a traffic light. This made no sense. Humans couldn’t move like— WHAT? He was across the street on the opposite corner. There was absolutely no way he could’ve gotten over there that quickly. We’d passed him on the median . . . I didn’t know how he made it ahead of us.

My stomach rolled. I’m losing my mind.

Something heavy slammed into the back of the car. I gasped and looked back—and my heart stopped. Mr. Moonstone was crouched on the trunk of the sedan. His pale wings fluttered in the breeze as our car cruised down the street. The cop hadn’t slowed down or stopped. Tallulah was still singing that song to herself with her eyes closed.

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. My breath left me in a rush. My whole body trembled. Human beings didn’t move like that. Humans didn’t fly. Humans didn’t land on the back of moving cars and stay there. I was either losing my mind or he wasn’t human.

Or both.

Bile rose up my throat. I climbed up on my knees and peered up at him, but his eyes were locked on the sky. He leaned forward and three crystal necklaces popped out the top of his white shirt. My eyes widened. Wait a second. THREE necklaces. He had four before. No, no, no, no, no. That can’t be. I had to have made it up. Lilian must have been behind that.

I whined.

“You okay, bro?” Tallulah leaned closer. “What are you looking at?”

“You don’t see him ?” I flinched and spun to stare at her. “Please tell me you can see him,” I whispered, nodding my head toward him.

“No.” Her face paled. She shook her head. “We have to tell your mom now.”

I looked out the back window . . . and he was gone.