Page 12 of The Caged Girl

I pinched my lips to the side and suppressed my laughter. This was the first time in a long time that I found something funny. “Tonight is the best night for you to find out what the men get to do. And if I find out it’s more fun than this pussy party they have me tied down to, then I’m going to slap a mustache on and go there.” She winked at me.

“Okay.” I took her emptied glass. “Have a goodnight, Sage.” I spun around on my heels. This was the perfect option. The ladies would be busy, and the resort would be tied up hosting. I looked at Sage. “You would have fit in really well in the Ivory family.” She had the shiniest blonde hair, the softest green eyes with specks of gold, and flawless pale skin.

“I don’t know what that means, but I think you’re calling me a basic white woman.” She lifted a brow.

I smiled before leaving her. “Never. Goodnight, Sage.”

I couldn’t go down like this in all white. Marcie said it was dark down there and that the nightingales wore all black.

I walked to the elevators and the doors opened. It was Bradley. No, it was Warren—at least, according to Alister. I stumbled back as he looked at me. There was no birthmark on his face. Alister was right.

He was Bradley’s twin? I saw Bradley die in the ocean; I fed him a poisonous pill.

“Demi, I know I startled you. Alister informed me that you assumed I was…someone else?” He waved his hand toward the elevator. “What floor would you like to go to?”

“I’d like to go alone,” I whispered as my shoulder brushed the wall of the elevator as I cowered away in fear.

“I’m sorry, I cannot let you do that.” He patted his belt. Squinting, I saw it. There was a needle.

He’d drug me if I didn’t listen?

“My room. The sixth floor.” I walked into the elevator and stood to the side. “Bradley,” I called out, but he didn’t even flinch. He just stood there like a statue with no emotion.

The elevator arrived at my floor, and I ran out. Turning around, I watched the gold doors slowly shut as his green eyes disappeared behind, and just as they began to close, a smile grew on his face. “Bye bye, Demilion.”

Gasping, I slapped my hands across my mouth. It was him. I knew these liars tried to fool me.

But how was Bradley alive?

Walking backward, I was trembling as I reached into my apron and tugged my badge out. Sliding against the scanner, I began to sob as I raced to my room.

Just as I turned the corner, I slammed into Kandi. I screamed as she slapped her hand across my mouth.

“Demi!” Streaks of mascara were running down her cheeks. “Shh…it’s okay. It’s okay.”

She was crying, too.

“What’s wrong?” I stammered and kept looking behind me out of paranoia.

“Nothing. Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

I scanned into my room and watched the white doors slide open.

I had to find out what this was. I couldn’t save the girls in Charlotte, and I couldn’t save my sister. But I could find out what this was. I could end the entire Ivory family once and for all.

“Kandi, wait… I need your help.”

She wiped her tears away and smiled. “How can I assist you, Demi? Do you want me to help you get ready for the ball?”

“I need you to take this wig that you glued onto my hairline off. I need my black hair back,” I whispered as I saw the small camera blinking in the hallway.

“No, sweet Demi, you are to have blonde or white hair. I can lighten it for you? We are doves, after all.”

“Kandi, please. I’m going to rip my hairline off if I do it myself.”

Kandi shoved me into my room and waited for the door to close before looking at me. “What is this?” she hissed at me. “Only nightingales have black hair.”

“Are we being watched?” I cradled myself.

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