Burning Bright

* * *

Lizzy stretched her bare toes to press the accelerator of Theo’s silver Aston Martin and drove through the labyrinth of the desert city’s suburban streets between the dry hedges and rock-landscaped yards. The rough pedal caught the skin on her bare toes because she had kicked off her shoes while sprinting through Theo’s garage, running away from Mannix.

She jammed the pedal to the floor on that lazy spring Saturday afternoon where long gaps separated the cars and pick-up trucks that meandered over the asphalt, glittering darkly in the strong sunlight. Sometimes Lizzy whipped Theo’s car through the traffic to try to see if a low, black shadow was following her. Three times, she pulled over and parked in the shade, watching for Mannix, in case he was following a mile or more behind her.

She had lived at his house for two weeks. He had had ample to time to put a tracking program like Phind-My-Phone on her cell. She thought about turning it off, but she kept rereading that text from Theo, wishing that his last word had not been goodbye and hoping that he would text something else, anything else.

If Lizzy had gone straight back to the dorm after running out of Theo’s house and stealing his car, Mannix probably would have tracked her there or even beaten her to the dorm. He had stalked her enough over the last month or even fucking longer that he sure as hell knew which dorm was hers, so she drove around, zipping through the streets of the sprawling city. Dusty air streamed through the vents, and the chilled air dried her eyes until she blinked. She pulled over once to throw up in some bushes when she thought about Mannix floating behind her like a black mist.

Her phone stayed dark. She had her charger in her purse, so she plugged it in while she drove around, just in case. She got a limp salad from a drive-through fast-food place and parked behind a strip mall to eat it. She drove and hid and doubled-back and did all those spy things that they did to shake tails in movies for long hours, which she figured was enough time that, if Mannix had gone back to her dorm to wait for her, was long enough that he had probably given up.

At nearly three o’clock, Lizzy parked Theo’s silver Aston Martin near the back of the dorm parking lot, away from the pigeon-infested trees and the faded beaters that all the other dorm kids drove. Rich kids lived on Greek Row or off-campus in condos. A tarp would have protected the Aston Martin from flying gravel spit by frosh showing off their new hand-me-downs, but she didn’t have a tarp. Maybe she should scrounge up some bed sheets. Of course she had no intention of selling it like Theo had told her to, and she sure as hell didn’t want to return it to Theo with a big fuck-you scratch down the side.

A tarp or sheets might hide it so Mannix wouldn’t see it, too. Maybe she could bribe someone to do it for her because, once she got inside the safety of the dorm walls, she wasn’t coming out.

Parents, reporters, and Mannix, oh my.

She wanted to fucking run. She wanted to run to fucking Alaska and never look back.

The exhilaration of losing herself, of walking away from all the problems, shot through her.

Trying not to cut her bare feet, Lizzy picked a path across the gravel parking lot and jogged on the grass meridians. The sun-scalded sidewalk would have toasted her toes. The dorm was only a few blocks away through the university, a few blocks of walking down Main Street that connected University City to the north side of town, where Mannix would drive right by her if he had followed despite her best efforts to lose him or if he had just waited for her here, the place she was bound to come sooner or later, because it was so damn obvious.

Lizzy ran on the grass and, when the grass patches ran out, sprinted down the frying sidewalks to the dorm.

In the distance, every low, dark car crouched like a black Lamborghini Gallardo, gunning for her.

* * *

Lizzy slammed open the door to their dorm room, fluttering the bank statements pinned to the wall beside the door, and jammed it closed behind her, leaning on it. Stacked pizza boxes teetered on the top of the trash can, making the small room reek of oil and fried cheese so much that Lizzy could taste it on the back of her tongue.

“Georgie!” she called into the empty study room.

Mannix couldn’t get up there. The lobby had to buzz people through two doors if they didn’t swipe their ID, and he didn’t know which room of the two hundred was hers even if they did, probably. Lizzy yanked cords to pull the heavy drapes over the windows even though she suspected that might be a giveaway. Everyone else’s curtains were open to the sun. Darkness filled the room like a flood of black water.

Georgie wasn’t in the living room, but the textbooks were all lined up, and no paper littered the floor, and the electrical cords had all been combed out and bundled with cable ties. Georgie’s computer screen glowed with a picture of Rae and The Dom, both wearing really fancy evening wear. The Dom wore a white bow tie with some sort of blue ribbon and a medal under it, and a cold expression blanked any emotion on his handsome face. “Georgie!” Lizzy called again. “Georgie!”

The door to the bedroom opened.

“Just a sec!” Georgie was thumb-typing something into her phone. She held one arm out to Lizzy for a hug while she slid her other thumb over the screen. Without looking up, she said, “Tell me that you finally left Mannix fucking Bonfils.”

Lizzy ran two steps across the tiny dorm room and flung herself around Georgie like a small, blond octopus.

“Whoa, there,” Georgie said, blanking her screen and tucking it in her pocket. “Did you leave him?”

Lizzy nodded and, to her freaking horror, burst into tears.

“Good God, Lizzy! What the fuck happened? Do we need to call the police?”

Lizzy shook her head while she slobbered on Georgie’s shirt. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“You don’t look okay. What the hell happened?” Georgie wrapped her other arm around Lizzy’s shoulders and guided them both backward to the couch.

“I’m okay, but I fucked everything up.”

“We’ll figure it out. The most important thing is that you’re back, now. We can get tutors to catch you up in your classes. I have some essays that we can edit for you can turn in if you need to. We’ll get you through this semester somehow.”

She was pretty much caught up, although everything was still at Theo’s house, damn it. “That’s not it.”

“Then what the hell is wrong? Your parents? I have all the phone numbers of the reporters who called. Most of them want you to tell your side of the story.”

Lizzy ran her hand through her short blond hair and ended up pulling it straight up, trying to force herself to make sense. “I’ve just fucked everything up.”

“If your version of fucking everything up involves getting away from Bonfils, then you didn’t fuck up. You finally got it right.”

“That’s not it. That’s partly it, but just because I did it stupidly and now he’s after me. Crap.”

“He’s after you?” Georgie glanced at her phone. “Yeah, I can see that happening.”

“And I screwed everything up with Theo and it feels like I ripped my own heart out.”

“At least you aren’t denying it. That’s a refreshing change.” Georgie typed something on her phone while she talked.

“And men were shooting at me. I’ve been shot at twice in the last week, and Theo thinks it this Santiago drug dealer guy but Mannix said that they were Russians, and shit! I forgot to tell Theo that I think it’s Russians, not his drug dealer.”

Georgie looked up from her phone. “Why would Russians be shooting at you?”

“My dad was in the Russian mob, and I think they’re trying to force me to go back to Pajari Gym, and I don’t know!”

“Do you really think your parents would put a contract out on you to scare you back to work for them? That seems illogical. If they kill you, you can’t work for them.”

“I don’t know! People shot at me! Twice!”

“Do you have a passport?” Georgie asked, texting again.

“Do I have a fucking what?” Lizzy nearly fell to her knees with exasperation and panic.

“A passport. If you think Bonfils is after you, let’s leave the country.”

“But, class! You have class on Monday!”

“We both have class on Monday, Lizzy. Evidently, we’ll be home Monday morning.”

Lizzy was so spun-around that she forgot to panic. “What the hell is going on?”

“While Rae didn’t actually say where she is, I know that she was in Paris a few hours ago, so I’m betting that she’s still somewhere in France.” Georgie held the phone up. “Here is everything that I know.”

Lizzy squinted at the tiny screen, reading the texts.

Georgie: Did I just see you on TV at that freaking royal wedding in Paris?!?!?!? W/ The Dom? WTF?!?!?!?!?

Rae: U have passport?

Georgie: Yah.

Rae: Throw some clothes in overnight bag. Get a cocktail dress or 2 from the DH. NOT SLUTTY. Plane tix will be at Lufthansa counter for 8PM flight tonight.

Georgie: Have class next week.

Rae: Will be home Monday morning.

Georgie: Lizzy is here at dorm. Can’t leave her.

Rae: Will be tix for her, too. Get her butt on that plane b4 she gets stupid again.

Lizzy said, “I’m not stupid.”

“Of course you’re not. Get your passport.”

“What’s going on?”

Georgie sighed. “How am I supposed to know? Group Dom-date? Maybe that kinky fucker is into menage now.”

“I am so not down for that. Not now. Not ever.” Lizzy didn’t want any man to touch her just then.

“So we’ll ask her when we get there. Get your damned passport and pack some clean underwear. If they’re buying last-minute plane tickets, we’re going to have to go through all kinds of ass-probe security before they’ll let us on that plane.”

“I don’t have any clothes here.”

“So poach some of mine. We’ll just pin up the pants and waists. Let’s go.”

Lizzy ran in the bedroom to throw some clothes in a bag. While she was at it, she yanked the sheets off her bed and rolled them into a tight bundle.

Georgie came to the door. “I got a text back from Rae, but it’s not an answer. Snarky little minx.”

Lizzy peered at the texts on Georgie’s phone.

Georgie: K. Wanna tell us WTF going on?

Rae: Tell you when you get here. Secret!

Georgie said, “Yeah, she probably wants a four-way. I told you that my puh-sexual puh-sychic abilities said that she was a closet kink. Let’s go on this free trip to Paris and tell her no when we get there.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.” Lizzy kept changing her mind from running to Alaska to hiding in her bed so much that she felt like she was vibrating. “I have to check my bank account. I couldn’t get into a computer for the last couple days, and I didn’t even think about it until now, but maybe Mannix did something there, too!”

“Use my computer,” Georgie said, tugging her out to the living room. Lizzy grabbed the sheet bundle as Georgie towed her to the living room and plopped her in her desk chair.

Lizzy scrabbled at the keys, typing in the website and her password, and she read the screen. “It’s been locked. It says there was suspicious activity and it was locked a couple days ago until I call them.” Relief swamped her so hard that she fell forward and caught her forehead before she bashed Georgie’s keyboard.

“If it’s locked, then it’s okay. We can take care of that when we get back. Let’s get to my car. We’ll swing by the Devilhouse on our way to the airport, but let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Lizzy held up the sheet bundle. “I just need to do something real quick before we go.”

Georgie looked behind Lizzy. “I’m not sure what we should tell Rae about Hester when we get there. She came back from spring break yesterday and was sniffing around, asking where Rae was.”

“You didn’t tell her!” Family problems sucked.

“She’d been crying and got really upset when I told her that Rae went to France. I think she may have put herself out there for Rae. This may be a problem for her.”

Still trembling, Lizzy went with sarcasm. “If that family throws Hester out, maybe we can get her a job at the Devilhouse.”

Georgie laughed. “She’d probably do well, considering that she’s bi.”

Lizzy gawked. “Seriously?”

“Oh, my God. Hester is as ambi-sexual as a salamander and as kinky as a broken slinky. She just hasn’t figured it out yet.”