When Lily and Jane go missing one night after a party, ex-cop Luke Carillo does whatever he can to try and find them. He ends up undercover on an island run by the drug trafficker who was responsible for the attack, alone and without backup. Before...
Jane was my first model. We played around with my new camera in our bedroom, trying on one of the hundred outfits she had stashed in her walk-in closet. Jane posed so naturally, so beautifully, that I wouldn't be surprised if she too modeled one day.
"Have you ever been to Cori?" She asked when we had exhausted the pop playlist on her phone. She plopped down on my bed wearing her newest outfit, a red romper with a tie in the front.
"Where's that?"
"It's right outside Heatherwood. Downtown."
I'd only heard the name but never ventured there. I had only lived in tiny towns secluded from most of the population or Heatherwood. The only time I had heard Cori's name there. had always been a level of distaste on the speaker's tone.
"Wanna go?" Jane asked.
"Yeah. Sure." The parents were both gone on some trip to Hawaii, leaving Jane and me alone. Again. Even the housekeeper had taken some time off. I had forgotten what doing dishes was like until earlier that day. Somehow, I had missed it.
Jane told me to wear the most modest clothing I had. Since most of what I owned was old anyway, I didn't have any issues picking out a ripped pair of jeans and a plain black tank top. Even though I'd been a resident of this town for a couple of months now, I hadn't let it change me too much.
Jane had given up scrounging around her closet and came to me for an outfit. I wanted to take a picture. Never in history had this happened, nor would it ever again.
I sat in the passenger's seat of Regina's Lexus while Jane drove us to the gates. The guard looked similar to the one I had seen when I arrived, sporting a similar mustache and official green coat. "Where are you girls off to?"
"We're seeing some family." Jane replied easily.
"Alone?"
"They live on the outskirts. We'll be fine. Don't worry."
The man eyed us for a moment longer before opening the gates. When we were a mile away, I turned to her.
"Why did you lie?"
"They don't like it if we leave. Just like they don't like it if nonresidents come in." Jane told me. "I hate it."
It didn't make sense to me. Why did there have to be such a divide between rich and poor? It was as if the wealthy were afraid that poverty was contagious. Don't get too close or you'll catch it. Or maybe they were afraid people without money were all criminals.
The only criminals I knew of were the ones sitting in their ivory towers, protected by armed guards, hoarding piles of cash while the working class struggled to put food on the table.
It wasn't until Jane made it to the heart of downtown that I started to become afraid. Obviously, this town didn't get as much funding for infrastructure as Heatherwood did. The roads were cracked and scattered with potholes. There's no way we could get back without damaging the Lexus.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked as people walking on the streets eyed our very expensive car.
"I know a safe place to park. Don't worry."
Jane pulled into a parking garage that was half a mile away from the worst of it. She locked it and triple-checked that it was before we descended four floors to get to the street. Without our obvious sign of wealth, wearing the most basic clothes, we blended in with the crowd lining the streets.
It was more dense here. The buildings were tall, at least twenty stories in some cases, while apartment buildings were closer to seven. I spotted kids kicking around a soccer ball outside, dodging broken pieces of glass and plastic bags that were scattered around the pavement. A group of middle aged men eyed us as we walked past. I hadn't brought a purse with me but Jane did. I didn't realize it was designer until I noticed the looks we were getting.
"Why did you bring a Prada bag?" I hissed at her.
"I forgot."
I shook my head while keeping alert. There were a lot of people around since the work day was over. We were in a busy part of town where the chances of being mugged were slimmer. At least I assumed as much, since we would have witnesses. People didn't commit crimes when there were witnesses, right?
"Why did we come here again?" I whispered.
Jane didn't answer. I realized then that she didn't have to. She felt guilty. She didn't like how much money her mother had nor how she chose to spend it. One of the drunken nights we had spent in our room ended with Jane spilling her worst fear: that she would one day turn into her mother.
Before I could voice my concerns again, a man snatched Jane's bag from her shoulder. I yelled after him and was about to chase but Jane's hand on my arm stopped me. "Don't. It's not worth it."
I pulled out my phone and started to dial the police. She stopped me from doing that, too. "Police don't really exist over here."
"Why are you being so chill about this?"
"I knew it would happen." Jane replied. "I put a thousand dollars in the bag, hoping someone would take it."
I was speechless. What the fuck? Why the fuck?
"Obviously, he needed the money more than I did."
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