Chapter 24 #2
“From the gratuitous F-bombs just now, I can assume you were at a party at the Moon Room the other night?”
I wince but don't answer.
“Evie—“
“Yes, okay?” I mutter. “I was.”
“With Gabriella De Luca.”
My jaw tenses. “So?” I snap.
Roman blows air into the phone. “Evie, you understand who was throwing that fucking party, right?”
“AND?” I hiss.
“And I have a right to be worried about you hanging out with Val’s Bond-villain brother’s band of psychopaths!” he yells back. “Evie, The Syndicate is fucking dangerous, okay?!”
“And we were raised in the freaking bratva!” I spit back. “Roman, I know you think of me as this little Disney princess, but I didn’t literally grow up surrounded by dancing woodland creatures! I'm a big girl, and I can take care of myself!!”
“What the fuck you were doing at a Syndicate inner-circle party!” he roars.
“None of your fucking business!!!”
I stab the end call button and start to pace, seething.
I mean, I love my brother, but are you fucking kidding me?!
I draw in a deep breath and then exhale, trying to flush away the tension.
I should call him back.
But I also just want to get home. I can talk to him there later.
I heft my bag onto my shoulder and then walk to one of the side doors. Out in the hallway, I grumble to myself as I head toward the neon red exit sign.
“Don’t fucking move from this spot,” I sing-song to myself snippily. “My meeting is only an hour.”
Yeah, and then he just gets his little girlfriend Sabine to tell me he’s too busy to come back.
I scowl as I kick open the exit door and step outside. The night air is cool, and I frown as I glance around.
Fuuuuck.
I’m on the opposite side of the building from the parking lot.
The Fonteyn Theater sits on the edge of campus, near the woods, and because I’ve taken the wrong exit, I’m now standing in the shadows, near those woods. At night. Alone.
Great freaking job, self.
I grumble to myself and quickly start down the paved pathway that leads around the building, back towards the parking lot.
A stick cracks nearby.
I freeze, my ears pricking and my head snapping around as my gaze pierces the shadows near the rear door to the theater.
“Hello?”
My voice breaks a little as I heft my bag higher onto my shoulder and frown into the darkness.
Nothing there.
Just as I’m dialing my paranoia back, movement rips my head back. I gasp sharply at the dark shape of a man who's just appeared from around the side of the theater and is standing ahead of me on the walkway.
The hulking silhouette starts to advance on me, sending a chill up my spine.
“Vaughn?” I whisper hopefully.
The figure laughs darkly.
“Try again, bitch,” a man’s low, rough voice rasps.
Suddenly, he’s not walking toward me.
He’s running.
I whirl as a scream rips from my throat, dropping my bag and running headlong back down the pathway. I slam into the wall next to the exit door and yank on the handle, only for my heart to drop like a stone.
It’s locked.
I glance over my shoulder and see the man in black rushing toward me, something metallic glinting in his hand. The color drains from my face.
Holy shit.
Adrenaline roars through my system as I spin and bolt, screaming as I run away from him as fast as I can.
I can actually feel him chasing me, sending panic charging through me as the crunch of his heavy boots on the walkway gets closer and closer.
“HELP!” I scream. “SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! HELP!”
I know I should run to one of the other buildings—maybe one of the dorms. But with the theater being located where it is, and me being on the wooded side of it, there’s nowhere nearby.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the blue light from one of those campus safety emergency phone station things. But it’s too far away.
Instead, I run as fast as I can toward the trees, the footsteps chasing behind getting closer and closer.
Utter darkness swallows me as I bolt off the main campus walkway and onto the one that winds through the woods.
It’s well-lit. But I don’t want that right now.
I want to disappear.
I hurl myself off the edge of the path, sprinting through the underbrush and hoping to fuck the shadows hide me. Then I hear the crash and snap of branches close behind, and my heart climbs into my throat.
I haven’t shaken him off at all.
He’s closing in.
He’s so near I can hear his rasping breath and smell his cheap cologne.
Suddenly, he grabs me.
I shriek as he tackles me face-first to the ground.
“Fuckin’ got you, bitch!”
I scream and thrash and kick, still crying out as the man violently rolls me onto my back and climbs on top of me. His eyes are gleaming, and he grins wickedly as he presses the knife in his hand to my throat.
“I’m just ’sposed to kill ya,” he leers. “But fuck that, I think I’m gonna have me some fun first.”
He reaches for the hem of my hoodie, and ice water floods my veins.
“NO!!”
I scream and buck and kick. Suddenly my face explodes with pain and I’m choking on the taste of copper.
The man backhands me again, knocking my head to the side, making my vision blur.
No.
No, no, NO.
I go limp as I feel him shove my hoodie up my body and reach for my t-shirt.
…Suddenly, his weight is no longer pressing down on me.
His sour cologne is no longer invading my nose.
Suddenly, he’s the one screaming.
I open my eyes, trying to focus as I watch a second dark shape drag the man away from me. My attacker is kicking and flailing, his face a mask of terror as the hulking shadow slams him against a tree.
“You fucked up,” the shadowy shape snarls.
Wait.
The shadowy shape is Vaughn.
“Please!!” the attacker gurgles as Vaughn grabs him by the jaw and shoves his face around and to the side at a horrific angle. “Please! I—”
“The fact that you think you can beg your way out of this is fucking insulting,” Vaughn rasps in a dark, cold tone I hardly recognize. “You touched her.“
The moon filters through the trees, and I shudder at the venomous glint in Vaughn's ice-blue eyes when he shoves the man’s head back, exposing his throat.
“Please!” The man chokes. “I’ll do anything—”
“No deal.”
Vaughn’s other hand slams against the man’s windpipe, grabs it so tightly that his knuckles go white, and jerks his arm back.
Holy GOD.
My stomach heaves as Vaughn rips the man’s throat out. A wet, gurgling sound echoes through the forest as blood pours from the gaping, shredded hole in his neck.
The body drops heavily to the ground. Vaughn turns to me, blood dripping from his fingers.
“I—I—I—!”
My vision swims as he rushes toward me.
Then it all goes black.