Free The Rose Ransom (Girls Wearing Black: Book Three) by Spencer Baum Page A

help.
I think it won’t.”
    Jill smiled. “We can tell Dad
all about it when it’s over. If you’re right, I’m sure he won’t make you do it
again.”
     
    *****
     
    Her mother in the passenger seat
typing away furiously on her laptop, Jill set the GPS to take them to Landover,
Maryland. When they got on the highway, Jill turned on the radio.
    Carolyn turned it off.
    “Please, could we listen to
that?” Jill said. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”
    “That is your problem. I can’t
focus with the music on.”
    “Alrighty then,” Jill muttered.
She opened a window.
    “Close that,” her mom commanded.
“It’s distracting me.”
    “I’m sorry Mom. I’m just so
tired. I need to do something or I might fall asleep.”
    “You shouldn’t be tired at this
time of day.”
    “Well, I am. I was up late.”
    “You shouldn’t stay up late.”
    “I’ll try to remember that for
next time.”
    Carolyn let out a long, angry
grunt and typed more vigorously. She was practically slamming her hands on the
keys.
    “Easy there, Mom.”
    With a suddenness that startled
Jill, Carolyn reached up and slammed her hands against the dashboard.
    “This is a waste of time!” she
screamed. “I can’t focus in this car! I need to be in my study! I’ve got work
to do! Roll up that window now, Jill! I can’t concentrate at all when it’s
down! And look where you’re going!”
    Jill turned her attention to the
road and realized she was drifting between two lanes. She yanked the steering
wheel to the right. It was too sudden a movement for the speed they were going,
and the car lurched in response. For half a second, Jill was convinced it was
going to flip.
    Apparently her mom was too.
    “Are you trying to kill us?”
Carolyn shouted.
    “I’m sorry,” Jill said. “It’s
just, I’ve never seen you that angry before. It surprised me.”
    “Well stop being surprised. I
need you to focus on the road. And I need you to roll up the god damned
window!”
    Jill did as her mother demanded.
It wasn’t like she needed the window open now anyway. Her brief loss of control
combined with her mother’s yelling was more than enough to wake her up.
    They arrived in Landover just
before noon. The GPS guided Jill along the edge of town to a neighborhood that
once might have been home to families with young children, but now looked like
it only housed people waiting for death. The trees were old and brittle. Lawns
were overgrown. Fallen leaves were everywhere. The cars were all models from
Jill’s childhood, bought new ten or fifteen years back and run into the ground.
    They parked in front of a slim
house with aluminum siding painted baby blue.
    “Are we here?” Carolyn asked.
    “We’re here,” Jill said.
    She felt a sense of gloom in the
air as she stepped out of the car. Cold mist, dark clouds, a noisy wind—the
weather matched how she felt after watching that horrid footage and staying up
all night.
    Jill wondered how the hypnotist
would react to this visit. She wasn’t coming to his door with a normal request.
    A typical vampire slave had his
mind programmed into oblivion. He knew how to act in service of his master, but
wasn’t very good at critical thinking or problem solving. Carolyn Wentworth was
something else entirely. Her programming allowed her the free capacity of her
fabulous mind when she sat at a computer terminal, but made her a slave to her
husband’s whims. Would the hypnotist be ready for this?
    Carolyn let Jill lead the way to
the front door.
    “Not a very nice looking place,”
Carolyn said.
    Aware that her mother almost
never left the sheltered world of Potomac, Jill said nothing in response. She
climbed up three concrete steps to a small porch and rang the doorbell.
    No one answered.
    “Does this mean we can go home
now?” asked Carolyn.
    “No, Mom. Hang on.”
    She rang the bell again. Still
nothing.
    “I’m going back to the car,”
Carolyn said. “The traffic won’t be bad if we