Read The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) for Free Online

keys to Sergio, who took them and slipped them into his pocket.
    He nodded in the direction of the gallery and led the servants inside.
    A few minutes later, Sergio and Daciana having drunk their fill of the two servants, Giordano dragged the bodies out into the hall. Sergio wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, “May I make a suggestion?”
    “Since when have you ever asked before making a suggestion?”
    “It’s just, the first semester of school is at an end. I’ve been trying to put myself in the mind of our enemy. By the time we return to America, there’s a good chance Renata will be on her way here.”
    “Here?”
    “She doesn’t know Falkon is dead. She doesn’t know you’re alive.”
    “You’re saying we should stay.”
    “No, not both of us. I think one of us should pay a visit to Renata’s mansion, and the other should wait here. If Renata comes here and neither of us is present to greet her--”
    “She’ll flee,” Daciana said. “That is the last thing we want. Good idea. We will split up. I will go to America.”
    “If I may,” Sergio said, holding up his hands, “I’d like to suggest a different approach. I believe if you had your choice, you would wish to deal with Renata yourself, yes?”
    “Of course!”
    “Then let’s make certain you get the opportunity. I will go to America. If Renata is there, I will capture her and hold her for you.”
    “And I will stay here in case she is already on her way,” Daciana said, nodding her head. “This is a good plan. This is why I need you, Sergio. You know, I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you yet for what you’ve done.”
    “Really, it’s nothing. You can always count on my loyalty.”
    He wished the words were true, but to his ears, they sounded like another lie. In truth, his plan had nothing to do with loyalty to his maker, and eve rything to do with Nicky Bloom.

Chapter 4
     
    Zack felt drawn to the girl.
    She was leaning against the back bumper of a silver Mercedes, her curly hair glistening under the yellow light of the sodium lamp.
    She was entirely out of place in the dirt lot. Both the girl and her car were too lovely and sophisticated to be at the Red Rocket.
    It was nearly two in the morning—hat-and-mittens weather on this night—but the girl’s hands and head were exposed. Looking out on the jumble of cars that had made it impossible for her to leave, the girl breathed into her hands as she rubbed them together.
    She was stuck.
    Zack had seen this before. There was a bit of anarchy to the way people parked their cars behind The Red Rocket. If you didn’t know what to expect, you could get boxed in.
    As he approached, Zack felt a tickle in the back of his throat. A shiver ran up his arms, escaping through his shoulders. He was nervous.
    More than nervous. There was something about this girl that frightened him, in a very good way.
    “It’s no good,” he said to her. “This bar doesn’t empty out until two-thirty most nights.”
    When she looked at him, his whole being came unhinged. Everything he thought he knew about this moment, about the girl, about himself—it was all up for debate now. She was so much more than another pretty girl at another bar on another Saturday night.
    “Do I know you?” he said. “I feel like we’ve met somewhere before.”
    She looked at him. No, not at him. Through him . He felt like an open book as he stood there, this girl appraising him with her eyes and seeing the absolute truth about who he was.
    As sudden and complete as his connection to her was his realization of how empty his life had become. For months now, some important part of his life had gone missing. He hadn’t even realized it until now, but here, in this moment, with this girl…
    Even as he told himself the very idea was ridiculous, he couldn’t help but think that it was her, that she was what he needed in his life.
    “No,” the girl said. “I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
    Her voice