Vampire Beach: High Stakes (5 page)

‘Thanks, Kyle,’ Jason said.

‘I’m driving a group of neighborhood kids home, one more is no problem.’ Kyle shrugged. ‘You have to be the designated driver sometimes, right?’

‘Right.’ Jason clapped him on the back.

‘I’ll help you get her out to the car,’ Adam offered, heading off with them.

‘She’s not even going to remember half of this,’ Belle sighed, watching them go. ‘Adam’s first big flirting victory, wasted.’

‘At least you know he can do it,’ Jason pointed out.

‘Maybe there’s hope for him yet,’ Belle agreed. ‘Where did Sienna go?’

‘To check on Paige.’

‘And now I’m back,’ Sienna put in, appearing at the top of the steps.

‘How’s your sister?’ Jason asked.

‘I’m perfect.’ Paige bounced up the steps and struck a dramatic pose. ‘Obviously.’

Everybody laughed. ‘Want to play a few hands?’ Van Dyke called to her. ‘We’re thinking of switching the game to strip poker.’

‘Not at my respectable party, Michael,’ Paige replied sweetly. ‘But that gives me an idea.’ She strode over to the poker table and snatched up a deck of cards.

‘Strip Twister?’ Brad joked.

‘Nope.’ Paige began shuffling, flipping the cards expertly through the air. ‘Better.’ She glanced around the room, meeting everyone’s eye in turn. Letting the tension build. ‘Vegas.’

‘Vegas?’ Jason repeated.

‘Las Vegas, Michigan boy.’ Paige flipped a card at him. ‘Sin City. The best place in the entire world!’

‘What about Vegas?’ Sienna asked.

‘We go there. Now!’ Paige sent the rest of the cards
flying
up into the air like a fountain. ‘Vegas, baby! It’s so much better than boring old Malibu.’

‘Boring?’ Jason said incredulously.

‘I like this idea, Paige,’ Van Dyke said. ‘I haven’t been to Vegas all year.’

‘Besides, think about it. It’s spring break,’ Paige went on. ‘All kinds of tourists are going to show up here, hogging our sand and surf. Who wants to deal with that? We should do something different, something exciting.’

‘No,’ Sienna said.

Paige whirled around, shocked. ‘No?’

‘We’re too tired from the party, and half of us have been drinking too,’ Sienna pointed out. ‘We can’t drive to Vegas tonight.’

Paige opened her mouth to protest, but Sienna beat her to it.

‘We’ll go tomorrow. First thing in the morning.’ That slow, sexy smile Jason loved crept across Sienna’s face. ‘I have the perfect dress for Vegas.’

Paige flung her arms around Sienna’s neck and laughed out loud. ‘Vegas, here we come!’

‘Shotgun!’ Paige called the next morning as Belle pulled her parents’ Escalade into the Devereux driveway.

‘Fine with me,’ Adam mumbled. ‘I can sleep better in the back seat. Whose idea was it to leave before the sun was even up?’

‘See that fiery yellow ball in the sky? That’s the sun,’ Jason told him.

‘Well, it’s not up very high,’ Adam grumbled.

‘It’s a long drive to Las Vegas. We have to get an early start if we want to get there and still have time to play,’ Sienna explained.

‘Besides, I called Belle and told her to bring us all coffees,’ Paige announced. ‘Prepare to wake up.’

Van Dyke’s Hummer pulled into the driveway behind Belle. The side window slid down, and Maggie waved. ‘Everybody psyched?’

‘You know it!’ Paige called back. She pulled open the passenger door and climbed into the front seat next to Belle, while Jason, Adam, and Sienna took the back.

Zach hopped out of the back of the Hummer and went over to Paige’s window. ‘Let’s make sure we have each other’s cell numbers in case the cars get separated,’ he said. ‘I’m assuming you’re not still using the international number.’

‘I got a new number the instant I got back to the States,’ Paige confirmed.

‘Paranoid much?’ Brad called from the Hummer.

Erin yawned next to him in the back seat. ‘Seriously.
We
just drive in a straight line from here to Vegas. How could we possibly lose each other?’

Zach ignored them and checked his phone against Paige’s. When they were done, he climbed back into the Hummer, and Van Dyke peeled out.

‘Vegas!’ Paige cheered as Belle took off after him.

Jason took Sienna’s hand and squeezed it. He could hardly wait to see the lights and crowds of the famous city. ‘I can’t believe my parents are letting me go to Vegas,’ he said.

‘Why wouldn’t they, with me here to chaperone you little kiddies?’ Paige joked.

‘Oh, that reminds me, nobody tell my father that Paige is with us,’ Adam put in. ‘He’s only letting me come because Jason is going. And, apparently, Jason is a fine upstanding boy.’

‘Your father loves me,’ Paige said with a dismissive wave.

‘He does say you were the most polite juvenile delinquent he’s ever known,’ Adam agreed. ‘And that he thinks you’re going to do very well once you get over your youthful high spirits.’

Paige turned in her seat. ‘You read my police reports!’

‘Every last one,’ Adam admitted. ‘I was thinking of doing a movie with a hot girl as the main character. She
has
a wild streak, but really she’s just misunderstood. I figured your history might inspire me.’

‘Are you kidding? I never even got arrested. Your dad just escorted me home a lot,’ Paige said.

‘I know, but it was fun reading anyway.’ Adam took a long swig of his coffee. ‘Hey, Jason, where’s your sister? How come she didn’t come along?’

‘She already had plans for spring break,’ Jason replied. ‘She and Kristy decided they wanted to hang in Malibu for the week, because, and I quote, “Why go to some strange place to meet hot guys when hot guys from strange places are going to be coming to Malibu for spring break?”’

‘I like their thinking,’ Adam said. ‘It’s very efficient. Maybe I should’ve stayed home and waited for all the hot girls from strange places to descend on me.’

‘It’s not too late,’ Sienna said. ‘We aren’t even out of Los Angeles yet. We can just drop you off.’

‘A tempting offer.’ Adam pretended to look thoughtful. ‘But there’s a
CSI
mega-shoot in the Mojave around Las Vegas this week. I’ve got to see that. Gil Grissom, in the flesh.’

‘He’s fictional, you know,’ Jason said. ‘You’ll only get to see the actor.’

‘Yes, but I have a vivid imagination. He’ll still be Grissom to me.’

‘How do you know about this mega-shoot?’ Belle asked suspiciously from the driver’s seat.

‘I saw it on
CSIFiles.com
,’ Adam replied. ‘Why, is that geeky?’

‘That’s a rhetorical question,’ Sienna told him.

‘
CSI
is boring,’ Belle commented. ‘I like
CSI: Miami
better. At least it has the beach.’

Adam clutched his heart. ‘Blasphemy!’ he declared.

‘You all need lives,’ Paige said cheerfully. ‘Thank God I got home in time to rescue you from your slavery to the TV schedule.’

Sienna yawned and leant her head on Jason’s shoulder. ‘Wake me up if anything interesting happens.’

You’re snuggling up against me, that’s interesting
, Jason thought. He leant his head on hers and closed his eyes, letting her warmth lull him to sleep.

‘Crap!’ Belle’s voice startled Jason awake. He sat up quickly, automatically glancing out of the window. Flat desert stretched as far as he could see.

‘What’s going on?’ Sienna mumbled sleepily beside him.

‘I can’t see Van Dyke,’ Belle muttered.

The voices woke Adam, on the other side of Sienna. ‘Are we there?’ he asked. ‘How long was I sleeping?’

‘All of you slackers have been asleep for two hours,’ Paige told them. She was turned in the passenger seat, peering out the back window. ‘Van Dyke’s been behind us the whole time.’

‘Well, he’s not there now,’ Belle said. ‘And that SUV is totally tailgating me. I don’t know when he got behind us. He must’ve cut in front of Van Dyke.’

Paige dialed Zach on her cell. A second later, Zach’s voice came over the speaker. ‘Paige.’

‘Zach? Where are you guys?’ she asked.

‘Sorry, we pulled over for a minute. Van Dyke thought we blew a tire, but it must’ve just been a rock hitting us or something. We’re on the way now. Just go slow and we’ll soon catch up.’

‘OK,’ Paige replied, and hung up.

‘Going slow is easier said than done,’ Belle complained, hitting the brakes. ‘This SUV is still right on my butt.’

‘You’re supposed to slow down when somebody is tailgating,’ Paige replied. ‘It makes them realize they’re behaving badly.’

‘OK.’ Belle slowed some more.

Jason shook the sleep out of his head and looked around. The highway was only one lane in each direction here, with desert on both sides. Out the back window of the Escalade, he could see a black SUV
following
closely. But the windows were tinted, so he couldn’t see the driver.

Belle slowed to a crawl. ‘Why doesn’t this guy just pass me already?’ she asked. ‘There’s nobody coming the other way.’

‘Hang on.’ Paige hit a button on the dashboard, and the sunroof slid open. She unclicked her seatbelt and stood on the seat so that she could stick her head out of the sunroof.

‘Paige!’ Sienna protested.

‘Go ahead and pass!’ Paige yelled to the SUV. She waved her arms to encourage them.

After a moment, the SUV pulled into the other lane, sped up, and roared past the Escalade. ‘There’s Van Dyke,’ Belle announced, checking the rear-view mirror.

‘Hi, everyone!’ Paige yelled to their friends in the other car.

‘Paige, sit down,’ Sienna begged. ‘They can’t hear you, anyway.’

Paige plopped back down in her seat and put the seatbelt back on. ‘Well, that was exciting,’ she joked.

‘Not worth waking up for, though,’ Adam said, settling back to sleep.

‘I guess we should’ve gotten more coffee,’ Belle commented.

‘The desert is making us sleepy. It’s boring,’ Sienna said.

‘Not to me. I’ve never seen it before,’ Jason said. ‘When we moved from Michigan, we flew over the desert. I think it’s cool this close up.’ He gazed out of the window, taking in the variations of brown and red in the rocks surrounding them. He’d always assumed that the desert would be sandy, but in fact it was mostly just rocky ground and short, scrubby plants.

And a black SUV with tinted windows.

‘Hey!’ he exclaimed as they passed the SUV, which was now parked on the roadside. ‘Isn’t that the car that just passed us?’

‘Where?’ Belle asked.

‘Pulled over on the side,’ Jason said.

Belle glanced in the rear-view. ‘Could be. I didn’t really notice it.’

‘Lots of people stop to stretch their legs in the desert,’ Paige said. ‘It’s a long drive with no rest stops.’

Jason frowned. He was positive that it had been the same SUV. Why would it have pulled over so soon after passing them? he wondered. He figured the only reason to pass another car was because you wanted to go fast.

Unless they never wanted to pass us at all
, a voice whispered in his mind.
Unless they were following us on purpose, and now they’ve pulled over to wait for us
.

‘Something wrong, Jason?’ Sienna asked, studying his face.

‘No,’ he said quickly. ‘Nothing’s wrong.’

He hoped it was the truth.

‘
MICHIGAN BOY’S FIRST
glimpse of the Strip,’ Adam said in a deep narrator voice, his camcorder trained on Jason’s face.

‘Hey!’ Belle cried from the driver’s seat. ‘I thought I said no filming during spring break!’

Adam dropped the camera and gaped at her. ‘That rule can’t possibly count now that we’re spending spring break in Vegas. There is much to record here, woman!’

‘I’m forced to agree with Adam on this one,’ Jason put in. ‘This place is incredible.’ He rolled down the window to get a better view. And there, about six metres away, was a
pyramid
. With a sphinx in front of it. And an obelisk. ‘That pyramid is huge!’

‘It’s a hotel,’ Sienna told him. ‘Most of the rooms are inside the pyramid, and you have to take an elevator that goes on a slant in order to get to them.’

Jason grinned. ‘Cool ride!’

‘I like the Eiffel Tower better,’ Belle said. ‘The whole Paris Hotel is my favorite hangout in Vegas.’

‘Ugh, I don’t need to see Paris again, even in miniature form,’ Paige commented. There was a sour tone in her voice that surprised Jason.

Apparently Sienna caught it, too. ‘Why? What was so bad about Paris?’ she asked.

Paige turned and shrugged. ‘Nothing. I just like New York New York better. It has a replica of the Statue of Liberty out front,’ she told Jason. ‘And a really fun rollercoaster that goes all around the hotel.’

‘A rollercoaster in a hotel?’ he asked skeptically.