Chapter 41
chapter
forty-one
CALDER
In the parking lot opposite Shay’s apartment, I stared up at her window. The light rain created a fuzzy, golden haze.
Saturday night.
Right now, Shay was home, and her sister was at the club. To be certain, I once again glanced at the unmoving dot on the map that marked Shay’s location.
She was home—alone.
I fiddled with the mask, rubbing the soft black fibers between my thumbs until bits of light poked through.
There was an odd, hollow ache settling in my chest the more we crossed items off her list. A reminder that this was going to end. I was starting to want things I had no right to want. Wishing this had no end—
I furiously rubbed flour off my wrists.
“You fucking idiot,” I said to myself in the rearview.
I slid the mask on my face and went to the building. The air was fresh. Crisp. Fragile. Glass-like.
Shay lived on the fifth floor, so I pressed number five and leaned against the mirrored elevator wall, arms folded, and hummed.
“I think the apple’s rotten right to the core—”
The door opened on floor two, and a woman who could be in her early seventies got on. She had a small dog that looked strikingly like its owner. When she saw me, her eyes widened.
“Charli XCX,” I said.
She stared forward, and even though she’d pressed the fourth floor, she got off on three.
When the elevators closed, I caught my reflection. Half my face was covered by a mask with skull teeth. I wore all black.
Oh.
Shit.
I dragged my hand across my jaw as the doors opened on the fifth floor. Probably not the smartest decision throwing on the mask first.
I was learning I wasn’t the smartest when it came to Shay.
Early two thousands girl pop came muffled through the wood when I got to Shay’s door. I pulled out my lock-picking kit and got to work.
Upbeat, pop punk rushed in like a wave crashing when I opened the door. The lights were on in the living room, and it sounded like Shay was cooking. I walked toward the kitchen, adjusting my mask.
I wanted to give her the best fucking time of her life.
Selfishly.
So when I had to let her go, maybe a piece of me would stay.
The kitchen was empty, left in the middle of use, like something frozen in time. A large, stainless steel pot of boiling water bubbled. Butter lay on its wax paper, half torn as if about to be used.
A little thrill edged up my spine.
She was playing a game. She wanted me to find her—
It happened all at once. Thick sauce was thrown over my head, obscuring my vision. An angry, measured voice.
“Don’t fucking move.”
Shit.
That was not Shay.
I wiped the sauce from my eyes—red, marinara—finding Shay’s sister a few feet from me. She gripped uncooked pasta, brandishing it like a knife. I raised my hands—
“I said don’t fucking move.” She jabbed the pasta at me, and I took a step back. It wasn’t that the pasta was threatening so much as the look in her eyes.
“I will shove this pasta so far up your ass that your stomach acids will cook it for me.”
Jesus Christ.
Never mind. The pasta was now definitely a threat.
Though…I was less concerned about Shay’s lock, knowing her sister was here.
“Let me explain—”
Before I could get the words out, Lithie screamed. An ear-piercing, glass-shattering scream.
Fuck.
Fuck, shit. Fuck.
I spun left and right, like some bumbling thief in a crime movie. This was not good.
Behind me, I heard the front door slam against the wall. Seconds later, two people I recognized as her friends, Eames and Olivia, came barreling in. They also brandished makeshift weapons, but had…dildos? Eames had a long, purple tentacle. Olivia brandished a monster dildo.
A few seconds later, Shay followed, coming to a skittering stop behind Olivia and Eames, holding a long, thick, and spiky lime-green dildo.
“Oh my god,” she said. “Is today Saturday?”
Olivia and Eames stuttered at her question, with her sister Lilith shooting her a look like, What the fuck is wrong with you?
“You picked the wrong house, motherfucker,” Olivia said, returning her attention to me.
Shay’s eyes found mine. Her mouth dropped, eyes wide, grip slipping on the dildo.
Then Olivia and Eames ran at me.
“Wait!” Shay called out. “I’m fucking him!”