“Sorry. I can’t do that. Please get approval.”
I wanted to scream. Instead, I said, “Please put Pacey back on.”
The phone was handed over. “What’s happening?” she asked. “Am I about to get disappeared?”
I laughed. “No. It’s fine. Just hold tight. I’ll sort this out.”
“Okay. This guy is very intense, though. He keeps giving me this dirty look like I’m a terrorist or something.”
“I’m so, so sorry about this. I’ll figure it out.”
I quickly hung up.
For a brief moment, I felt dizzy and trapped. Anger flared through me. How dare they keep my friends out? I wasn’t a prisoner, except maybe I was. They brought coffee to my room, but they wouldn’t let me have a friend over. It was absolute madness.
Pissed off, I called my mom. I let it ring, but it went to voicemail. I tried to call another three times, but she didn’t answer.
What was I supposed to do? I rifled through the packet they had left at my door, but there were no useful numbers. I checked the drawers and by the landline phone, but there was nothing.
I felt so damn powerless. I didn’t even know how to find security, let alone how to find anyone that could help me.
And then I remembered.
I had his number. Lucas.
He had texted me the night before.
I looked at the messages, biting my lip. I really didn’t want to ask him for help. I really, really didn’t want to. But my friend was sitting out there like an asshole all because I was living in some mafia prison compound.
Taking a deep breath, I tapped his number.
“I knew you’d call,” he said on the second ring.
“This isn’t about that,” I said.
“What’s it about, then? I’m not sure I want to hear anything other than how badly you want me to come to your room and fuck you senseless.”
“It’s about my friend.”
“We can invite her too, if you want. I’m open to most things.”
I made a face. “No, listen, Lucas. I’m trying to have her over, but security won’t let her in.”
He laughed. “Not surprising. You’ve only been here a day. Nobody knows you yet.”
“Can you help me?”
“Of course I can.”
I paused. “Okay, will you?”
“What’s in this for me?”
“The knowledge that you’re not such a total asshole.”
“Not interesting. Sorry.”
I clenched my jaw. “Please. Make this easy for me.”
“Wear that dress.”
I paused. “No way,” I said.
“Come to my rooms tonight wearing that dress.”
“And do what?”
“Come inside, spin around once, and then leave.”
“No way.”
“Those are my terms. Take it or leave it.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “That’s it? I walk in, spin, and then leave?”
“That’s it.”
“Fine.”
“Great. See you later.” He hung up.
What had I just gotten myself into?
“You have got to be kidding me,” Pacey said. “This place is insane.”
“I know,” I said. “I don’t even know my way around it yet.”
“How could you? It’s freaking huge.”
We walked along the halls back toward my room. I’d given her a brief little tour of what I knew so far, which basically consisted of us wandering the halls until someone pointed us in a different direction.
Finally we found my bedroom door, and I unlocked it, pushing it open.
Inside, it was covered in flowers.
Hundreds of flowers, all different shapes ad sizes, dotted the room.
“Whoa,” Pacey said. “Did they put you in the green room?”
“No. I mean, these weren’t here when I came to meet you an hour ago.”
Pacey walked in and I followed her. There was a card propped up on the coffee table, and Pacey grabbed it before I could.
“‘Enjoy the flowers, ladies.’” She looked at me. “Lucas?”
My face darkened. “My stepbrother.”
“Is it normal for a stepbrother to send his stepsister flowers like this?”
“No. There’s nothing normal about him.”
She laughed, tossing the card aside. “Well, whatever. This place is absolutely amazing, Nat.”
I sighed, collapsing onto the couch. It was just too much. Between the whiplash of losing my family home and suddenly coming to live in a mansion, and my stepbrother wanting me, and me wanting my stepbrother, oh and marrying my stepbrother, it was all just too much.
“I can hardly believe it,” I said.
But Pacey didn’t hear me. She was too busy looking over the room, inspecting every little detail. She seemed more enthralled by the ornate display of wealth than I was.