We dropped them half a mile from a gas station, out of sight of any cameras or passing vehicles. Artemis would wait five minutes and then call Brett, who in turn would call Sacker with the good news of their release.
Both girls hugged me, and Ana too although not quite so tightly.
“Don’t be a stranger,” I murmured to Artemis.
“I won’t. Does it sound crazy to say this turned out to be a good day?”
“Yes, but we’re all crazy here, so you fit in quite well.”
Isolde gave me a shy smile. “Do you think Trick might want to go on a date with me someday?”
“Ask him. You’ll like the answer. But leave it a few weeks first, yeah?”
She nodded, and her smile turned into a grin. “See you soon.”
EPILOGUE
THE POLICE INVESTIGATION went nowhere. What did go somewhere? The chat group the “hostages” formed following their “ordeal.” In the sphere, they’d said they wanted to stay in touch, so Mack set up the app for them and Dan organised the invitations, although Artemis and Isolde didn’t receive theirs until after the case had gone cold.
Three months on, and I was oddly proud of everything we’d achieved on that day. Those teenagers came from different backgrounds, different social classes, even different countries, yet they were constantly building each other up. Anonymity had fallen by the wayside, and Dan was a member of the group too, just to keep an eye on things. Every day the kids helped each other with everything from homework to fashion advice to relationship woes, if going out for burgers counted as a relationship. Dan gave me regular updates, usually while we were waiting for our morning caffeine to kick in.
But the best part? Kayleigh Monteith’s cancer was in partial remission. The Cytoblin had worked its very expensive magic and kicked the cancer cells’ ass. Would it last? The doctors couldn’t say, but they were hopeful.
Bradley’s not-so-dulcet tones sounded from the hallway, then the front door slammed, and more voices headed in my direction—Dan, Trick, Vine, Race, Brett, Artemis, and Isolde. They’d all be staying at Riverley this weekend since the home Dan shared with Ethan only had two spare bedrooms. Black and I would decamp next door to Little Riverley because while I didn’t mind kids quite as much as I used to—as long as they came in small doses—I still valued my sleep. The group obviously couldn’t tell the truth about how they’d crossed paths, so they’d all arranged to be at the same pop concert a month after the SciPark incident, and that was where they’d officially met. I’d had to speak to David Sacker to set up today’s trip, and he’d called me by my actual name this time. Progress.
“Wait a second.” I grabbed Dan as she walked past me and flicked a piece of glitter out of her hair. “Okay, you’re good to go.”
“That damn stuff. I’ve had the car detailed nine times, and it’s still lurking in the cracks. I even had the floor mats changed.”
“Don’t worry, honey. You’re due a prang anytime now, so you’ll have a great excuse to replace the whole vehicle.”
“Never before have I hoped to hear the sound of crunching metal.”
Carmen had also suffered from the abundance of glitter, but after Nate borrowed her G-Wagen and turned up for a management meeting looking like Tinker Bell, he drove straight to the dealership and traded it in for a new one. Bradley was banned from going anywhere near it.
Speaking of Bradley, he’d given up on the rainforest idea. That should have been good news except he’d been up late watching National Geographic and now he had his heart set on meerkats, together with a desert vista for them to live in. Oh, and he wanted a full-sized Ferris wheel too. I’d been forced to ship him off to Milan in the hope that the boutiques would distract him for long enough to forget those ideas, and boy was my credit card taking a hammering. But the pain was worth it. Meerkats might have been cute to look at, but I’d done a little research and come to the conclusion that they were much better off living in Botswana than in my backyard. All I truly wanted was a hammock plus a gin and tonic.
“How’s it going?” I asked Artemis once the others had said their hellos and disappeared off to the swimming pool. She’d always been the most reserved of the group, but today, she seemed different. More relaxed, not quite so robotic. I hadn’t seen her in person since that day at SciPark, but sometimes I watched her YouTube videos. Still fucked up my eyeliner every time, though.
“Good. Like, really good.”
“Dan said your dad is easier to live with now?”
“The kidnapping totally unnerved him.”
“I bet.”
“Last week, he said it was an expensive lesson, but one he needed to be taught. That he’d had his priorities wrong his whole life. His dad taught him that success was measured by appearance, by shows of wealth and the number of zeroes on his bank balance, and he’d been so busy focusing on earning more, more, more that he’d forgotten to take care of the things that were important.”
“So he’s changed?”
“Sort of. I mean, he’s trying. Like, he stays home at least two evenings a week plus one weekend day now. We even eat dinner together. Plus he wants us to go on vacation, the whole family, and Carissa’s freaking out because she signed up to be a trophy wife and now she has to spend two
