Death (Deck of Lies #3)

By Jade Varden

All In

I have no choice but to do my part to bury the truth again -- this time, someplace no one will ever be able to find it. But that’s the problem with lies. Once you start pulling threads, everything unravels.

No one is who they seem to be...not even me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jade Varden
• Release date: Jun 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476308029

Jade Varden

Jade Varden is a teller of tales from Louisville, Kentucky. The Deck of Lies series is the first in several young adult series and stand-alone novels Jade will publish in 2012 and 2013.

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Deck of Lies

Book 3: Death

By Jade Varden

Copyright © Jade Varden 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Created and published in the United States of America

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

I was still standing there in my designer party dress and four-inch silver sandal high heels. Standing there in a room that could’ve been in a magazine, with its perfect pink walls and pretty peach carpeting. Two beautiful blonde people were sitting across from where I stood, one devastatingly handsome in a tuxedo and the other as gorgeous as a manikin in a champagne-colored gown. One of them a killer, savage enough to end the life of a teenage girl -- my only real sister -- and still stare at me like I was the one with all the problems. And maybe I was.

My name is Glory Riordan, Chloe von Shelton and Rain Ramey. So far, at least. I was born Glory, to a woman named Elizabeth and a young lawyer named Edward. There were going to be married, but all that was stopped when Ed’s one-time lover Kathryn revealed that she was carrying his child. My half-sister, Laurel.

I didn’t get to know her until after she died, and even then our sisterhood was forged through the distorted lens of memory. I hated her, I missed her, I envied her…and I felt sorry for her. Laurel grew up in a ritzy home surrounded by luxury, but I was the one who got to have a real family. For a little while, anyway.

Those days were long gone that Saturday night in April, when the three of us stood inside my pink sitting room within the massive von Shelton mansion. Elizabeth’s brother, Asher, lived here with his wife and two children -- the aforementioned beautiful people looking at me with similar pairs of blue eyes from the pastel couch. He didn’t want me to live here with them, Asher, so he engineered a plot to have me kidnapped. In name only, of course. My kidnappers, the Rameys who called me Rain, were actually paid to take me far away. It just wasn’t far enough away from the von Sheltons.

Once I collided with Carsyn von Shelton, my whole world crumpled and fell apart. For reasons I didn’t quite yet understand, Laurel had already been silenced. But it was my time to speak. At last I could look the killer in the eye, and confront them with what I had finally figured out.

I rushed straight into it, barreling through the lies all around me. Stubborn, that’s what my kidnapper-mother used to call me. Stupid is more like it. I thought that telling the truth would change things, change them for the better. I thought that as soon as I revealed the big secret, the boy who had been framed for Laurel’s murder would be released from jail.

I still thought I was strong enough to face them, the von Sheltons. So I did…and, I wasn’t.

Chapter 1

"I pay attention, and I plan ahead." My words were said in a whisper, but they had more conviction behind them than a thousand shouting voices.

What? Sawyer von Shelton was wearing a puzzled expression that drew his fair eyebrows down over his blue eyes, casting them in shadow.

That’s what you said to me that day. I didn’t break eye contact. Slowly, precisely, I took a single step forward. You came into my room. I thought it was because you wanted to talk to me, but that wasn’t it, was it? When I saw Owen at the party, I remembered. Another step. My voice was quivering now, but not with fear. I was shaking with rage. Trembling all over with fury. And those calm blue eyes just stared straight back at me, unflinching. Uncaring.

And then there’s the credit card. My voice was a deep rumble. It didn’t sound at all like me. The police asked me about my credit card. I heard Violet talking about credit cards. It took me a long time to put it together. You’re always borrowing credit cards, aren’t you? Always running out of money. So no one gave it a second thought when you needed a new one right after Laurel’s murder. You couldn’t use yours anymore, could you, because you used it to buy the murder weapon. I was no longer asking questions, now. I took another step. Those blue eyes hadn’t blinked yet. But I wasn’t done. I wasn’t even close to being done.

But you couldn’t keep it, could you? So you found a way to give it to me. You switched our credit cards, so when I used mine to get gas I looked guilty. But you made a mistake. I didn’t realize it until later, but you gave yourself away before the police ever called me.

Rain, what are you talking about? Sawyer asked. "What is this?"

You were watching me, watching my room. That’s how you knew I was looking at my laptop all the time, reading all about the murder. That’s what gave you the opportunity to get rid of the credit card. That’s how you knew I went to the police station. And you didn’t like that at all, did you?

Rain? Sawyer looked between the two of us, and now his voice was shaking, too. What are you saying?

You knew River and I were friends. I told you myself that we were friends, and you saw me that day looking stuff up online about the murder. When I went to the police, you decided you had to act. I should have figured it out then. And I should have figured it out after I got River’s letter. He wrote me a letter, you know, Carsyn. He told me about the phone calls he got that morning when Laurel died, the calls that almost made him late to school. Calls made from a prepaid cell phone. Probably, the same sort of calls Laurel got just before she died. And you’ve used those sorts of phones before, haven’t you, Carsyn? I took another step forward. I was looking down on her now, the shining cloak of truth wrapped around me like armor -- figuratively speaking, of course. "Like when you had to go do volunteer work you didn’t really want to do. That’s why Laurel’s old charity doesn’t have the right phone number for you. That’s why it was disconnected. Because Carsyn von Shelton would never give her real cell number out to a place like that."

Sawyer made some sort of noise, maybe he was saying my name again, and there were too many emotions warring on his face for me to name even one of them. Fear? Confusion? Pain? What was he feeling? I didn’t know, didn’t even care. I was still locked in a battle of wills with those hateful blue eyes.

Tell your brother what you did, Carsyn. Tell him how you went out shopping, and bought a purse with a long strap. And you called Laurel, and sent her notes, and invited her to meet you in the middle of nowhere. Then you wrapped that purse strap around her neck somehow, and you squeezed until-

"Rain!" Sawyer leapt up like the couch under him was on fire.

Tell him! Carsyn won the battle when I screamed the words at her, my control shattered. Tell him what you did, Carsyn, or so help me I’ll see every single hair ripped out of your smug, pointy little head! And maybe I was even going to lunge at her, on top of it all, but Sawyer reached out to wrap both his arms around me, pinning mine to my sides.

She tossed her head, sending a silken thatch of blonde hair snaking behind her back. "You must think you’re so clever. Rain Ramey, the big scholarship winner. We’ve got it all figured out, have we? You know exactly why I did it, is that it?"

Leave it to Carsyn to spot my weakness and get straight to the heart of it. I had no idea why she’d killed Laurel, and at least a half-dozen different theories. She was jealous. She was angry. She was hiding something. She secretly hated River, and Laurel was just a convenient way to send him to jail. Maybe to Carsyn, jail was worse than death. What do I know about what goes on inside her pampered, blonde head?

No, I answered, and for a moment that wiped the smug little smirk off her perfectly made-up face. I stopped struggling against Sawyer, and he released me to take a step back. There’s one thing I can’t figure out, Carsyn. Why did you tell the police that you saw me that morning? You had me right where you wanted me. Why would you become my alibi, when you worked so hard to make me look guilty?

Carsyn rose now, and the gown glittered and slithered its way down her body to sweep against the backs of her gold heels. "You’re such a little fool. I’m not your alibi, Rain. You’re mine."

Carsyn? I’d forgotten all about Sawyer until I heard that broken word. When I turned to look at him, I saw the wet streaks on his cheeks. My heart clenched into a fist. I could have spared him this entire scene, but I’d wanted him here. I had wanted him to know. Seeing the look on his face that day, that horrible haunted look…I guess I’ll never know if I made the right decision or not, but I still see that look in my nightmares. Could this be true? Is she-- Did you-- Carsyn?

Sawyer sounded like a little boy, and I felt the sting of tears in my own eyes. I was watching him shatter and break.

"Just shut up, Sawyer," she snapped at him, and Carsyn didn’t sound like herself, either.

No, he has a right to know, I interjected. "And so do I. And so does River. I know how you framed him now, Carsyn, and I have the evidence. I can walk the police through the whole thing. But I don’t know why you picked him for this! Why River? Why?"

Because it was so easy! Now Carsyn broke, and her voice was shrill when she shouted her answer. "He was always walking around like a freak, a stick of dynamite waiting to explode. Everyone was afraid of him, and I mean everyone. But you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? Rain and her all-important quest for the truth. The truth! Barging into my hospital room like an animal, dragging me up here like I’m one of the help. You think you’re ever going to find out the truth, Rain? You don’t know anything." Her perfect white teeth were gritted as she spoke, pronouncing each word with a trace of doom in her voice.

You don’t know anything. I wish she’d slapped me instead. Then I could lunge at her and stuff her words back down her throat.

Why did you kill Laurel? Sawyer was a complete mess when he returned to the conversation. He’d been pacing around somewhere behind me, and in a few minutes had managed to get out of both his jacket and tie. His hair was a rumpled mess.

You know why, Carsyn spit at him, and she’d produced her iPhone from somewhere. I never saw her without it. Maybe she kept it taped to the back of her neck.

Put that phone down, I commanded.

"Or you’ll what, Rain? Accuse me of murder? Denounce me to the police? Run outside and tell everyone at the party that I murdered Laurel Riordan? And how do you think they’ll react, hmm?" She glanced up at me long enough to chuckle, coldly, and looked back down at the screen.

She was actually texting. Sawyer was having a nervous breakdown, I was a boiling cauldron of anger, and Carsyn von Shelton was texting.

"Put that phone down!"

She tossed it aside, carelessly, and still it fell perfectly on the couch cushion behind her. Face up, and all. That’s Carsyn. You’re going to be sorry for this, she warned me.

Her arrogance brought an hysterical giggle to my lips. Carsyn was oozing confidence all over the peach carpeting, an admitted murderer. She was still acting as though she had the upper hand. It was infuriating.

I’m sorry for a lot of things, Carsyn. I’m sorry I ever met you. But I’m not sorry I’m going to free River Scott and put the right person in jail. I’ll never be sorry.

I was too busy giving my self-righteous little speech to hear the footsteps, and maybe I would have mistaken them for Sawyer’s anyway. I didn’t know that Sawyer had frozen in place. I didn’t notice what was happening until I saw Carsyn looking past me.

What’s going on here? Why aren’t you three at the party?

I turned to see Asher von Shelton, the man I used to think was my natural father. I shot Carsyn a triumphant look before I moved forward, still clutching my purse in my left hand. Asher, I’m so glad you’re here. I know this is going to be hard to hear, but it was Carsyn. Asher, I’m sorry, but it was. Carsyn’s the one who killed Laurel. I tried to look for Sawyer for support, but he was simply staring at his father like Asher was some sort of ghost.

She knows everything, Daddy. Rain figured it out. Carsyn said from behind me.

I actually felt the world shift and change beneath my high-heeled feet. Realization came over me like a cold blanket, completely stripping me of that proud cloak of truth. I gasped, like a bucket of water had been dumped on me.

Oh my God, I said it out loud. You already know. You knew all along.

Asher’s expression was completely unreadable and stiff when he kicked the door closed behind him with one of his shiny, polished black tuxedo shoes. That’s enough, princess. I can handle it from here.

It took me until that exact moment to realize that I was in real danger, that maybe I was looking Death right in the eye.

Who would ever hear my screams, buried inside this huge house, with hundreds of party guests laughing and talking and sipping their fizzy drinks right outside?

Chapter 2

Dad? Along with the whimpered word, Sawyer’s labored breathing was the only sound in the room. I was still facing Asher, paralyzed by the cold look in his eyes.

Go on to your room and lie down, son, Asher didn’t turn his head to look at Sawyer. No one will be surprised if you’re having a hard time being around a lot of people right now. I’ll make your excuses for you.

Is any of this true? Did you know about this? Sawyer asked.

Now Asher did turn to pin his son in his gaze. Go on to your room, son. I’ll be in to talk to you later.

Surely Sawyer would stand his ground and demand some answers. Surely he wouldn’t leave me alone here with Asher and Carsyn, not now that he knew what they’d done to Laurel. I would be perfectly safe, so long as Sawyer stayed.

My faith was misplaced. The boy I used to think was my brother didn’t even look my way before he meekly turned to the door, opening it just wide enough to slip through before he disappeared. I was too shocked even to hate him for it. I wouldn’t hate him for that until much, much later.

Want me to go to my room, too, Daddy? Carsyn’s chirped query had a smug ring to it. I readied myself to trip her when I felt her coming closer. It wouldn’t quite be as satisfying as ripping the hairs out of her head…but I was feeling violent. Maybe she and I had something in common, after all.

No, princess, you go on back to the party. I’ll take care of this. Asher was back to staring me down, and I couldn’t even blink.

Carsyn made a wide circle around me -- too wide for a well-placed heel to do her any harm -- and actually popped a quick kiss on her father’s cheek as she moved to the door. I saw a slither of satin slide into the crack in the portal Sawyer had created, and then the door closed behind her.

I was alone with Asher von Shelton. He’d once promised my biological father, Ed Riordan, to take care of me as his own. Instead, he’d paid the Rameys to pretend to kidnap me. It was more than fourteen years later when Rain Ramey’s fingerprints were taken, and found to be a match against Chloe von Shelton, the missing baby reported as the daughter of Asher and Violet von Shelton.

I’d liked Asher, when I was returned to his home and his family. I’d searched for myself in his face, and I’d felt warmed every time he called me Rain, the name the Rameys had given me, instead of Chloe, the name he and Violet had given me. Never was I known as Glory, the name my biological mother actually gave me.

Asher certainly wasn’t giving me a warm feeling now. His hazel green eyes were as hard as marbles as he continued to look at me in silence, and I was mentally counting the steps toward the cabinet that held the wineglasses over my mini-fridge. A wineglass isn’t much of a weapon, but it was the only thing serviceable in my suite of rooms that held tons of designer clothes, jewelry, big furniture and not much else.

He hadn’t so much as stirred since Carsyn’s exit, and my nerves had reached their breaking point. I couldn’t wait any longer for something to happen, couldn’t keep standing and staring at him while my heart hammered against my chest. My breaths were coming out in short, ragged little gasps. My eyes kept moving downward to stare at his hands. Long fingers, buffed fingernails, a thick platinum wedding band on one finger and an elaborate pinky ring with a black diamond. Had those hands helped to wrap the strap around Laurel’s neck? Would he raise them now, against me?

I always knew it would be you, he said at last.

What?

I knew you were going to cause trouble the first moment I saw you, he continued, and under his hard stare I couldn’t even summon up the courage to swallow past the lump of fear in my throat. It’s the Riordan genes.

I gasped involuntarily, and my mouth opened. But nothing came out.

Did you think I didn’t know? His tone was icy, so cold I practically shivered. You thought you and Sawyer could go gallivanting up to New Jersey in my private plane and I wouldn’t think twice about it? Whose name do you think he used to get that rental car? Sawyer isn’t twenty-five, Rain. He can’t even legally rent a car in his own name.

I think some part of me understood what he was saying, knew what he was getting at, but I didn’t put it together until he spoke again.

How was my sister Elizabeth, anyway?

I did shiver then, and finally broke the eye contact between us by looking down at the floor. I shouldn’t have done that. It was the moment he truly knew he had the upper hand. It would take me a long, long time to get it back. My mother is fine, I snapped.

I’ll bet she is, Asher muttered sarcastically, and I felt my cheeks burning. My biological mother had spent my entire life behind the walls of an institution for the very wealthy, a glorified madhouse in an idyllic setting of rolling green lawns and handsome old buildings. She walked around in mink coats, wearing ropes of diamonds, still obsessed with things that had happened in her past. Elizabeth’s present frightened me. I was afraid I was seeing my own future. I, too, was obsessed with the past. But at least on that night, I was thinking of the recent past…and not the childhood I’d been forced to leave behind.

Why did you do it? I knew who had taken Laurel’s life, but I still didn’t know why. And I had to know why.

Still he waited before replying, until I was sure I was going to start screaming. I didn’t do anything, Rain, except protect my family. My daughter. As he spoke, those hands swung behind his back. He clasped them together as he walked in front of me, pacing a small circuit before the doorway. It was maddening to watch. Asher hadn’t so much as broken a sweat since entering the room, walking into the dramatic scene I’d created in my hysteria. Now that the red rage was fading from my vision, I was feeling nothing but terror. The moment I put the pieces together in my mind, I’d rushed straight into accusing Carsyn and dragging Sawyer in here to hear it. If only I’d stopped, for even one moment, to really think about what I was doing.

I don’t understand. I’d like to be able to tell you that my voice was clear, calm, strong. It sounded squeaky instead. My throat was so tight, it was hard to force the words out.

That’s because you don’t have your own family, Rain. One day you will, and then you’ll understand, Asher answered. He was perfectly poised, his back straight as an arrow. Every step looked so precise, I was sure I could measure the exact same distance between each one if I tried it. It struck me that he probably paced just like this in front of juries, in courtrooms when he was trying to sway them over to his side.

He didn’t stand a chance of getting me on his side, not ever again. I had scarcely seen Asher since I learned the truth about my birth and subsequent kidnapping from my biological father, but as I stood just a few feet away from him in