True Lies: A Lying Game Novella by Sara Shepard

Author:Sara Shepard
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher
Published: 2013-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

9

TIED UP IN KNOTS

It’s eleven A.M. on Sunday, our last day in Vegas, and my last day to trounce Laurel in the Sudden Death challenge. We’re all standing in the lobby, considering what to do. I’ve already hit a sunrise yoga session, followed by a decadently long shower in our suite’s enormous rain-forest stall. I’m pumped. I’m focused. I’m ready for whatever they’re going to throw at me. After the jilted-bride stunt last night, I’m not going to let Laurel get the best of me again. I’ll do whatever it takes.

I spin on my heel toward the revolving doors and stare out at the street. “What do you guys want to do? I think we should ride the New York-New York Roller Coaster.”

“There’s a roller coaster here?” Laurel asks, wide-eyed.

“Dude, I kind of feel like I already am riding it.” Tucker, Garrett’s friend, groans and clutches his stomach. He, Garrett, and Marcus are all looking green and pasty this morning—they bragged that they’d gotten in at four A.M. from partying.

I put one hand on my hip and wag a finger at Tucker. “If you can’t hold your liquor, then you can’t keep up with us.”

Tucker gives Garrett a pleading look. “Can you reason with her? I can’t do a roller coaster this morning.”

“You boys can roller-coaster all you want,” Madeline jumps in. “But Sutton, Laurel, Char, and I have other plans.”

She says it with such authority that we all stare at her. “And what would those plans be?” I ask.

Madeline flushes and fiddles with the tassel on her purse. “You’ll see.” Mads heads to the revolving doors. “Meet me outside!”

Garrett touches my arm. “I need to take care of some trouble the boys and I got into last night.”

“What did you guys do last night, anyway?” I cock my head at him, imagining a Hangover-style scenario.

“We ended up playing poker out by the pool. We joined a game and this one”—he jerks his thumb toward Tucker, who has now collapsed on the chaise—“put up his father’s watch for collateral after he ran out of cash. We should go hit an ATM and get it back from those guys.”

I twirl my locket between my fingers. “You know you’d have more fun with me.”

He holds my gaze and smiles. “Trust me, I know. But we’ll catch up with you later. How about a one-on-one swim at the pool this afternoon?”

“Deal.”

He gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. There’s a sniff behind me and, out of the corner of my eye, I see Charlotte adjusting her tank top, pretending not to watch.

The boys head off. Now it’s just the four of us again, wandering down the strip, Madeline in the lead.

“Where are we going?” I call out to her.

“It’s a surprise,” Madeline trills. She shoots a naughty smile to Charlotte. Laurel smiles, too. Does she know? She’d better not, if it has to do with a challenge.

A bright white party van speeds past, house music pouring out of the tinted windows. A

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