The Tour Read online

  Shit!

  Are all those clothes soaking wet from the sprinkler system? Maybe I should get him some clothes, too.

  As we approach the shiny and brightly lit counter, we’re greeted right away. I ask to see their pocket watches, but when she brings out the tray, they seem generic. Meaningless.

  “Do you have anything else?” I ask. “Something unique? Maybe handcrafted?” The lady who’s helping us leans in a little and whispers.

  “What you want is at a small jewelry store inside the mall. They work with real artisans to create completely unique pieces.” My eyes widen as I know that’s exactly where I want to check. “I got my daughter a locket there with a music box inside. She loves it to pieces.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  “Are you Mia Phoenix?” she asks and I freeze for a second.

  “I get that a lot these days. But no, not me. Thanks again,” I say before I start to walk away in a hurry, trying not to be found out. “Let’s go,” I say to Riley, under my breath.

  “My owl necklace,” Riley protests, grabbing my arm. Oh, that’s right. I feel shifty-eyed and like a cat frozen in the middle of the street staring down a car. I want to run, but I can’t.

  “I can check you out here,” the lady behind the counter says but I’ve got Kolton’s card. She’s going to see his name and figure it out. But if I walk away, I’ll seem weirder than I already am.

  “Okay, Riles. Give her the necklace.” She rings it up and I hand over Kolton’s card. She looks down at the name with her glasses perched at the end of her nose. Her eyebrow cocks up, and then she swipes it and looks up at me. I smile as if to say, ‘Shit. Yeah, I lied.’

  “I’m sorry you didn’t win. That scene when you went back to your old house after it was rebuilt…” she sighs, putting a hand over her heart to guard it. “I voted for you, a lot. Sign here, please,” she says, handing me the receipt and the pen.

  “I don’t want anyone to know,” I tell her under my breath.

  “Nothing to worry about,” she answers. “Mums the word.” And then she hands over the card and the bag with Deloris’ present. “Do you need anything else? We have professional shoppers here if you need to buy more items and have them delivered.”

  Since I’ve been found out, I might as well get Kolton some clothes, too. All of us need clothes. I don’t want to leave without those.

  “Actually, yes. I need to get clothes for all of us.”

  She makes a call, and a stylist comes to help us. About two hours later, Kolton, Deloris, Riley, and I all have new clothes that are being shipped to Kolton’s parents’ house near Victorville. They were amazingly helpful and made the trip completely worth it. I’ve never had money at my disposal to buy whatever I wanted. It felt amazing, liberating, but completely surreal.

  “It would be best to wait here and have me bring the car up to the door. That way you don’t have to walk through the mall again,” Maggie says.

  “But—”

  “I just need the key,” Maggie directs.

  “No, I’m going to that artisan jewelry store. I need to get something special for Kolton.”

  “Ma’am. I’m concerned for your safety. While we’ve been in here, you’ve been noticed. It’s only a matter of time—”

  “But, if we leave this store now, that’s good, right? It’s going to be harder for anyone to catch up to me in the rest of the mall. I mean—it’s not like people are looking for us. This place is packed.”

  I can tell she’s uneasy about the whole situation. She’s been pacing back and forth for two hours, watching the door, watching people as they walked by us. I check my phone and there are two texts from Kolton.

  K-Royce Private

  2:02 PM

  Are you at a mall?

  3:15 PM

  Call me now

  I don’t want to call him right now. I really need to check that jewelry place to see if they have a nice pocket watch for his Christmas present. So I just text him back.

  3:55 PM

  We’re at this nice mall called Westside something. We’re almost done. Everything’s fine.

  I lock the phone and slide it into my back pocket. It buzzes immediately, so I take it back out and turn it to silent so I’m not constantly checking it, or my conscience. I can see I just got a text from Kolton, but I don’t read it.

  “Let’s go,” I say to Maggie and Riley.

  Together, we head out into the mall, which is decked out like a Christmas tree. I check the mall map and find the jewelry shops. The lady at the jewelry counter didn’t say the name, but the only one that’s not a familiar name known for weddings or costume jewelry is called Precious Trinkets. “This is it,” I point to a shop about mid-way through the mall.

  “Ma’am, if anything happens and a crowd starts to form around us, we need to go into the nearest shop and head toward their private back area. That will lead us to the outside.”

  “We’re going to be fine. No one’s recognized me.” I just really want to go. I’m antsy and want to accomplish what I came here for. I take Riley’s hand and, in no time, we find the store.

  It’s pretty packed inside, so I wait until a spot opens up at the counter and slip in. Turning, I check on Maggie and her face is stern. She’s stiff and has sweat on her brow. I put Riley in front of me and wait for the clerk to come.

  I think I hear my name but when I turn, I don’t see anyone looking at me. “Can I help you?” asks a young guy behind the counter.

  “I’m looking for a pocket watch with a chain. Something handcrafted. Unique.” His eyes light up and he walks to another section of glass, pulls out a felt tray, and comes back toward me. There are five different pocket watches. They’re nice, but nothing is jumping out at me.

  “There she is,” I hear behind me. When I turn, there’s a girl taking a selfie with me in the background of her lit up screen.

  I start to feel dizzy. “Do you have anything else?” I ask, as the store seems smaller than it was a minute ago.

  “There’s just one more,” he answers, disappearing into a door that leads to a private area. When I turn again, Maggie is talking on her walkie talkie. There’s two more mall security guards standing with her, and the crowd seems to have changed. They’re jittery and the air around us seems to be lit up with energy. My heart is beating in my ear and my hands begin to shake. I clasp them together. I don’t want Riley to know.

  I could jump over the counter and run into the back room with Riley—I’m practicing the move in my mind. Her first, then me. As I turn around again, the crowd reminds me of those small silver fish that swim together, following the leader. The ebb and flow of them, toward me, away from me, and back again.

  “How ’bout this one,” the guy asks from behind the counter. In his hand is a silver box with a pocket watch in the shape of a griffin in the center. I pick it up and run my thumb along the face. An image of Kolton’s tattoo, the one on his back for his family crest, flashes through my mind.

  “I’ll take it. Quickly,” I say handing over the card. As he looks wide-eyed at the crowd behind me before he walks over to the credit card machine.

  I feel as Maggie comes up behind me. “Mall security is going to usher us through the back,” she says, her voice short and flustered. “Get back,” she orders as I feel someone pull my hair out from the roots.

  “Ouch,” I scream. “Riley, jump over,” I demand, lifting her up so she can swing her legs over the glass case.

  “I got it!” I hear a girl exclaim, holding her hand in the air. When I look into her face, she’s blank and her eyes are void. She doesn’t see me; she sees what I am to her. I realize that to these people, this crowd, I’m not real. I am the ambiguous celebrity they think I am.

  As Riley lands on the other side of the glass, the employee yells, “Excuse me?” but seems to understand when he looks up to see three mall security cops and Maggie trying to fight back the crowd.

  “Is he huge?” a shrill voice screams into th
e air. “Slut!” another voice yells, as a cop shoves me over the glass case.

  It’s a moment of pure panic. The people. The sounds of screaming and flashes of phone screens. I hear it all and it mixes together, sounding like a hum.

  I duck and Army crawl behind the glass cases into the room. Somehow, their brains haven’t scrambled enough to jump the barrier. That’s a good sign.

  Maggie grabs my upper arm and lifts me up. “We’re going this way.”

  “Not without Kolton’s watch,” I protest. She shoves me, but I don’t budge. She sticks her head out into the loudness and comes back with Kolton’s card and the silver box.

  I grab Riley’s hand, shove the card and box into my purse, and we run through piles of stacked boxes—bumping into one of them, knocking it over—and she pops open a door that leads to a stairwell.

  It’s hollow. Our footsteps echo and pound like a flock of beating wings. Her walkie talkie is making static noises and she occasionally talks back. “We’re coming through the door marked E14,” she says, pressing her strong hand against the blue metal door, but doesn’t open it. She’s waiting for a sign.

  I realize she has an earpiece. She leans down and asks, “Ready?” before nodding toward the voice in her ear, and pressing the long door handle. When the light shines on our faces, I see a black car. Kolton’s car.

  Devon jumps out as the back door pops open and Riley and I are shoved into the back, right into an angry Kolton.

  “Drive,” he orders, as Maggie and Devon jump into the front seats.

  “Kolton?” I ask. His eyes narrow on me until I sink into the seat.

  “Put your seatbelts on,” he demands, seething. His jaw tight, his eyes like flames. I reach over and hand Riley her belt before clicking my own in place.

  He lifts his hand to his upper arm, where I know the cut from Katharina is. He peels his eyes away from me, as if I’m disgusting, and looks out of the black glass toward the crowd that has gathered.

  How did they find out I was here? I’m breathing heavy and my hands are wet and glistening. I look at Riley and realize her lips are quivering; she has tears coming down her cheeks.

  “What have I done?” I groan into the top of her head. “I’m sorry, Riles. I’m so sorry.”

  When I open my eyes, Kolton is shaking his head, his hand balled into a fist on his lap and he’s biting his bottom lip. He’s turned his body away from me in anger but he doesn’t need to punish me, or shun me.

  I get it.

  What I’ve done was a huge mistake.

  We’re not in Sacramento any more.

  CHAPTER SIX

  After the Escape

  After sitting in a super-charged silence I peek up at Kolton. I’m still shivering from the adrenaline, but Riley is calm now, probably from me running my hand over her hair, petting her. Her cheek leans on my arm.

  I watch Kolton’s chest rise and fall, fast and deep. His eyes are intense as if there’s a horror movie playing in front of them. Then I notice his hand, the IV needles and tape still in place from the hospital. They didn’t even have time to take the IV needles out before he left?

  “Are you going back to the hospital?” I ask softly, wincing as his gaze shifts from the black window to me.

  He doesn’t say a word as his teeth clench and he looks away. I decide not to try talking to him anymore. He’s a grown up and can get himself back to the hospital if that’s where he needs to be. But words bubble up and out of me anyway. “Fine,” I quip. “I know you’re upset, but I didn’t do any of this on purpose. You said to go get Christmas presents. So I did.”

  Immediately, I wish I hadn’t said a thing. He looks at me like I’m the root of all of his problems and maybe I am. I feel like digging myself right out of his life. It might leave a hole, but our roots aren’t deep enough yet to do serious damage.

  We drive like it’s the only thing keeping us sane. I close my eyes and wait for the fight that I know is lying in wait. His hatred toward me reminds me of the voices in the mall. Angry voices. They called me a slut that I slept my way to the top.

  For the first time, I realize not all my fans adore me. They’re sort of acting like when a pretty nerd starts dating a really hot guy in high school. All the jealousy is what drives couples apart. I’ve seen it happen several times.

  I wonder if it’ll work this time.

  The sunlight flicks on the silver box with Kolton’s present inside. I lean Riley’s head against the headrest, pick up the box, and tuck it into my purse. But where is his credit card? As I’m searching the carpet for the sliver of black, he takes notice of me. “What are you looking for?”

  “Your credit card. I think I dropped it when I got in the car.”

  “If it’s lost, I’ll cancel it. Just stop wiggling around. It’s bugging me.” His voice is weak, but laden with disgust.

  I sit upright, set my shoulders back, and take to staring out the window, too. I might have made a rookie mistake today, but I don’t deserve his anger. I watch as the blur of buildings and trees becomes a chain link fence, a tunnel, and then we turn into a small airport.

  I bite my lip to keep from asking questions about where we’re going, who’s flying, if we’re bringing Deloris, and the myriad of other questions bouncing around my brain like a hurricane.

  We drive past parked airplanes and pull into a parking spot next to a large helicopter—not the one he’d flown before. Manny emerges from the car next to us and when the light comes on inside, I see Deloris through the dark tinted windows.

  “He’s on his way,” Manny says to Kolton when he rolls the window down. How did everyone get here so fast? Deloris is out of the hospital, too? And Manny is done being interviewed?

  “Everything cool?” Kolton asks.

  “Yeah. We’re good,” Manny answers, indicating that they’ve let him go, and he steps back to open the trunk of the car Deloris is in. Devon gets out and helps, the two of them placing the small bags inside the large helicopter.

  A tall man comes up and shakes Devon’s hand and then Manny’s. Devon says something, and the man lifts his arms and widens his legs. Devon frisks him and then inspects the paperwork he’s brought before opening the door and jumping inside, as if he’s flying the thing.

  Manny helps Deloris out of the car. She walks slowly toward the helicopter and steps up. “Go ahead,” Kolton says harshly to me and Riley.

  I narrow my eyes on him as I lean down and whisper to Riley, “Deloris is here.” She perks up and pops open the door. I watch her run toward the helicopter and disappear inside. “You don’t have to talk to me like that.”

  “Just go,” he orders.

  “No.” I don’t know why I’m forcing this fight but I want to have it now. “Why are we leaving now? Why can’t you stay in the hospital?”

  “You’d been trending on Twitter for two hours. People spotted you there, posting pictures of you the whole time you were at Nordstrom.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that when you texted me?”

  “Because I was drugged and sleeping in the hospital, Mia. I woke up and got worried when I couldn’t get a hold of you. I called Devon and he did the rest. He called the mall. He probably saved you and Riley from being seriously hurt. I mean, that was stupid as fuck.”

  “I didn’t think—I mean—I know it was a mistake now. But I didn’t mean for it to happen. I don’t need you to be mean to me to teach me a lesson.”

  “I haven’t even begun to teach you a lesson. Get in the fucking helicopter. Now!” His face is red and he’s holding his chest.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, reaching for him, but he swats me away.

  “Go!” he demands. I want to go but not anywhere with him. This is a huge mistake. There’s no way I’m running off to hide from the world who hates me because of him, with him.

  For a minute, I think about saying those words out loud, but then I remember he’s hurt—his sacrifice is what saved mine and Riley’s lives. I climb out of the car with only th
at thought of Kolton dominating my thoughts. If not, there’s no way I’d go anywhere with him.

  Once I climb up into the back of the helicopter, I see Deloris in her robe hugging Riley in the back of the cabin. It’s huge inside, decorated in white leather and deep wood tones, with two bench seats along with a single seat in the back. In the middle there are four larger comfortable seats, and the front is separate from the back passenger section like a large airplane.

  “Are you okay to fly?” I ask her, sitting down across from them.

  “I hope so,” she replies. “We left in a hurry, that’s for sure.”

  “Manny picked you up?” I ask.

  “He did. He said the police let him go.” I nod and then settle down in the single seat and put my seatbelt on. I can hear Deloris whispering soft things into Riley’s ear about how much fun they’re going to have decorating the tree when we get to our new house. It pulls on some longing inside me for those things, too. Or maybe I’m a little jealous that Riley kind of has a mom figure and I don’t.

  When I look back toward the car, I see Devon and Manny helping Kolton out. He looks wilted and slow in his baggy jeans and white T-shirt, which takes me down a notch or two on the anger scale. They help him up the steps and into the middle section, into one of the VIP seats facing front. I notice the two of them talk to Maggie, who’s now standing by the car. I wave toward her when I realize she’s not coming, but I don’t think she sees.

  It bugs me that Kolton exiled himself from us. My heart feels the magnetic pull to him, but I ignore it and stay in my one-seater facing the rear of the aircraft. Better to let him calm down by himself.

  Mannie and Devon take their places beside Kolton in the plush first row that faces away from us, and soon we’re flying toward Christmas at Kolton’s childhood home.