Momentum (18 page)

Kevin had absolutely no intention of doing anything that would enrage them. The best-case scenario would be for him to figure out a way to send them through the portal. Good riddance. As soon as his hands were free, he extracted his Ames card from the wallet and went to slide it, but froze.

“What?” Sophie glowered at him.

“Sh….” He nudged his head toward the window. A beam of light danced across it–security. It must be the security rounds. They dove to the ground and lay, barely breathing. And they remained still even after it all went dark again, giving the guards enough time to disappear from the vicinity. As soon as he felt it was safe, he tried to stand back up, his legs failing him once again. Dan grabbed him and pulled him up.

He slid his card and opened the door once he heard the click. They hurriedly slithered down the corridor with him leading the way. They took the back stairs to the basement where Kevin used the iris reader to access the portal elevator. Once inside, he felt safe from the security guards. They had no access to the portal.

The elevator stopped, and Kevin led them through another door which opened into a humongous steel hangar full of computers and other equipment. He felt his legs steady, and he let go of Dan’s arm to gingerly make his way to the main computer terminal. He accessed the portal files and the energy data. Everything seemed to be in order. It would have been better to have Larry available at the other end to receive them, but he had no way of contacting him.

“So?” Sophie paced, pulling at her bangs. “Can you do it or not?”

“Yes. What are you going to do at the other end? There’s no one there to receive you that I know of. Dr. Fox could be there, but I don’t know for sure.” It still hurt to talk so most of his speech came out a bit garbled, but he thought they could understand him.

“Don’t worry about that. I know my way around Ames. Remember, I worked there.” Sophie pointed the way they had come. “Let’s go get our stuff, Dan.”

“You’re not going to be able to take stuff through. Well, maybe you could carry a few things, but not all the stuff in the back of that van,” he mumbled. “Plus, why take the risk with the security guards outside?”

Sophie nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s just go, Dan. We can get what we need on the other end.”

Kevin entered the data. He was going to get rid of these nut jobs. Then he’d have to find a way to warn Larry.

“All done,” he whispered. “Ready?”

M
urder
. I noticed Kellan’s jaws tighten. His eyes bored into mine, and he reached for my hand. I took his, grabbed Harry with my other, and pulled them into the corner to huddle away from the ladies.

“Oh, my gosh! Do you think they mean a murder upstairs in the suite? Who?”

“I’m going to go back over and listen in some more. You two stay here so it doesn’t look too obvious.” Harry sauntered back, casually looking at a piece of artwork hanging on the wall.

I started to protest, but Kellan squeezed my hand, stopping me. I rolled my eyes at him, but resisted following Harry. The blonde flashed a smile, suddenly noticing him. What was not to notice? I never really
looked
at my brother, he was just Harry. However, seeing the blonde staring at him, I momentarily saw him through her eyes. His charm was undeniable. He was ridiculously perfect-looking and, in that outfit from Hermès, he looked like a GQ cover model. If that wasn’t enough, his smile would bedazzle just about anyone. It even worked on Mom in her foulest of moods. The blonde was practically drooling as Harry walked past their group pretending to look around for someone. She slithered over to him, totally ignoring her friends, who were all watching her as bemusedly as I was.

She said something to Harry who flashed his widest smile in response. I could only imagine the cheesy line she probably threw at him. I was ready to hurl. I turned around quickly so that my expression wouldn’t give him away.

I turned my face right into Kellan’s chest. Oops. “Sorry.” I giggled, embarrassed.

His hand came around my back to support me, keeping me from stumbling, but also keeping me from moving away. Awkward. I wasn’t sure what to do.

“It’s okay, Shrimp. Just ignore Harry for a moment. Let him do his thing. Some of the ladies from the group are staring at you, so just act normal.”

“Normal?”

“Yes.” He let go of my back, but turned to rest his arm on my shoulder. We both had our backs to my brother. What was the sense in that? I needed to see what was going on.

“Don’t turn around. Just pretend to be having a conversation with me. It’ll be easier for Harry if you don’t start cracking up.”

“I guess.” That made sense. “So what shall we pretend to have a conversation about?”

“We don’t have to have a pretend conversation. Just be normal.”

“Okay. So who do you think’s been murdered?”

“For all we know, they could have been discussing a TV show,” Kellan muttered. “However, there is a possibility that they were talking about what happened in the suite. When we left there last night, there were only two people there as far as we know–Simla and Rowena.” He shrugged. “I don’t like Simla’s chances against Rowena.”

I shuddered, feeling nauseous.

Kellan pulled me in closer, and I put my arms around him, allowing him to comfort me. I had no idea what my relationship with Simla was
supposed
to be like. Whatever had happened between us, or
allegedly
had happened, like the restroom stuff, I just didn’t remember. To me, Simla was just another girl at my school. I would hate for anything bad to happen to her.

I could feel Kellan’s muscles tighten through the fabric of his shirt as I trembled at the thought of Simla lying murdered in a hotel bedroom.

He gently kissed my forehead. “It’ll be all right, Shrimp.”

“How? It’s got to be Simla, right? She wouldn’t stand a chance against Rowena.” I fought back tears, gulping them down.

“We don’t know that anyone was murdered for sure.”

I nodded, burying my face back into his chest and closing my eyes. I hoped he was right. Simla was just a girl. I wished that I had made more of an effort to get to know her. I was always so busy with cheer stuff. If it wasn’t games, it was practice. She had made so many attempts at trying to hang out with me at school. I had never totally blown her off, but I had put her off with promises to hang out later because I was always busy. I wished I had taken the time to go to one of those movies she’d asked me to go see with her. Or even had her come join the team on one of our nights out. But I hadn’t. And now it might be too late. The tears broke through and soaked into Kellan’s shirt.

“Shrimp, Harry’s just waved goodbye to those ladies and is walking toward the exit. Let’s follow him.”

I nodded, letting go of him and drying my eyes with my sleeve.

“You okay?”

“Not really. Let’s go find out if Harry knows anything new.”

We followed Harry to the Bellagio fountains–the fountains we’d seen dancing in the dark last night from our suite window, before all this happened. Harry had stopped in front of the fountains and was gazing at the water jetting up through the nozzles. We walked over and stood beside him.

“So?” I sidled closer to him.

“It’s what we guessed. But all she knew for sure was that the cops were at the hotel earlier, and a body was removed. She didn’t know whose body, though, or what happened.”

I froze. The confirmation that someone had actually been murdered, someone we knew–whether Simla or Rowena–was simply horrifying. My knees turned to Jell-O, buckling under me. Luckily, Kellan caught me before I fell.

“We have to get away from here,” Harry said suddenly. “I mean, there’s a chance that we’re in danger.”

“But what if it was Rowena that killed Simla and she’s looking for us to take us back to Gramadea?” I whispered. “Shouldn’t we try to find her?”

Harry closed his eyes, clenching his jaw. He looked totally stressed out.

“We’re going to have to do both.” Kellan crossed his arms. “We can’t take the chance and hang around here. If we’re in danger, we need to lay low. But let’s keep our eyes open for Rowena.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “And we need to figure out a way to make some money. Who knows how long we’re gonna be stuck here? Let’s walk down the strip and try to figure out a plan.”

“Why don’t we just try to get home?” I suggested. We needed to be back there for Mom. And for Dad… he must be falling to pieces. And we needed to find Ella. Gramadea had mentioned that she was with Sally. Hopefully, they’d left her there.

Harry nodded. “That does seem like the best option. We’re still going to need money, even if it’s just to rent a car. Then there’s gas and food….”

“I could maybe get a job waitressing?”

“I doubt it. You’re the only one without an ID. No one will hire you,” Harry mused. “Plus, I don’t want you to be out in the open on your own. One of us needs to hold onto you at all times in case Potomal’s group tries to whisk you away again.”

I looked down at my hand, which was firmly grasped in Kellan’s again. I did feel safer, more grounded in the knowledge that should someone try to wander me off, Kellan could pull me back. But could he? “Harry, if someone tries to grab me, will this really help?” I pointed to Kellan and my entwined fingers.

“It’s got to be better than nothing, right?”

“I suppose.”

“There’s no way I’d let go of you, Shrimp. No matter what,” Kellan stated emphatically.

I looked at him and believed him completely.

“Now, Clara mentioned that she would find me a job this evening. We don’t have a lot of money left, and I don’t think whatever Clara will come up with will pay enough for our room and food and leave any left over for a car rental. However, this
is
Vegas….”

“Poker?” Kellan looked around at all the hotels surrounding us. I followed his gaze. Each one had a casino.

“Yep. I’ll need to get a fake license, first–”

“Why? Won’t your driver’s license work?” I asked.

“Nope, you have to be twenty-one.”

“That sounds like you could get into a lot of trouble, Harry. You better not.”

“You’re right, but we could be stuck here for a long time if I don’t.”

“What about Abercrombie?” I blurted, as we walked past the store. Another light-bulb moment. All of us had done our fair share of modeling, and Harry and Kellan were the Abercrombie stereotype.

“You’re kidding?” Harry laughed.