“That wasn’t the game. If anything, it was the preliminary draft pick.”

  I stared at him, a million different responses rising to the surface, yet none of them fluent enough for me to vocalize. His eyes slightly narrowed, and he studied me for a few long agonizing seconds, his obscured expression doing nothing good for my nerves.

  “I can’t keep talking to you about this, not here and not with you being the equivalent of a newborn. It’s going to fuck your head up. You’ll be no good to me if you’re broken.”

  “I’m nothing to you at all,” I refuted.

  “We both know that’s not true. You’re just confused.”

  “Quit saying that,” I snapped, despite him being absolutely right. I had never in all my life been so fucking lost and confused.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know why the Saintes’ had a plot of land for massacres behind their house, but it went against who I was to ignore it altogether. I couldn’t tell him this, though.

  “I think I should just forget this night entirely.”

  His responding grin was beautifully sinister. “We both know it’s far too late for that, Puppet” He stepped away from me, and I hated that I missed his body heat. “Finish getting yourself cleaned up. I’ll wait in the bedroom. Everything you need is in the closet over there.”

  “Wait!” I reached out and grabbed his arm. “Where is my sister, Ciaran?”

  “She’s not here anymore.” He gently removed my hand and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

  I was left alone without the luxury of being able to sit and think. I needed to leave this house. I slid off the countertop and went to the closet he’d pointed to. Inside were multiples of the same items, for both guys and girls. It was a little unsettling, to say the least. I hurried to sort through them all, gathering what I would need to make myself look as close to the way I had when I left home.

  As I placed everything on the sink and took a hard look at myself in the wideset mirror, what he’d kept calling me settled into my chaotic thoughts.

  Puppet?

  True to his word, Ciaran was waiting for me in the bedroom. I exited the bathroom feeling somewhat refreshed, but still achy as hell. His eyes lifted from the screen of his cellphone and swept over me from head to toe.

  “Not too bad,” he remarked.

  “It almost sounds like you prefer me bloodied.”

  “I’d rather see you covered in someone else’s blood.”

  My steps faltered, a faint smile curving my lips. That was sweetly endearing. “Well, I’m sure when you check those news updates of yours, you’ll find I’ve been covered in my own. My parents are going to kill me.”

  “No, they won’t.”

  I quirked a brow. He sounded rather sure about that, but I knew them far better than he did, obviously. Even cleaned up, this was not the look of someone that went to see a movie. I could already picture their faces as I tried to explain what did happen. We already weren’t on the best terms.

  “Do you happen to have my shoes?”

  “On the dresser.”

  I turned away from him and went to retrieve my heels.

  With every step, I silently cursed this whole evening. This was going to hurt like a sonofabitch in the morning.

  “You never wondered why you were raised to be so accepting of violence and death?” Ciaran questioned, sounding genuinely curious.

  “If you asked me this earlier, I would’ve said for the same reason you were, but that obviously isn’t the case.”

  I grabbed my heels and cringed at the idea of having to wear them again. My feet felt like I’d walked over hot coals.

  Ciaran laughed softly, alerting me he wasn’t as far away as he’d been just a few seconds ago. I glanced over my shoulder and blinked in surprise. He was nearly right behind me. I hadn’t even heard him move. I slowly turned around, placing myself between him and the dresser.

  “Why are you trying to run away from me so fast?”

  “I’m not running. I can’t waste any more time here, but if I did run could you blame me?”

  I looked down as he closed the space between us, watching his shoes align with my polished black toes. Two fingers came to a point just beneath my chin, lifting my gaze back to his. “Don’t even think about trying to do something that stupid.”

  My eyes widened with awe at his brazenness and audacity. I brought my hands to his chest to shove him away from me, scowling when he covered them with his.

  “You can relax. Your parents were called away to an emergency meeting. By the time they get home, their precious little demon will be tucked into her own bed.”

  I ignored his demon goad and wondered how he pulled off maneuvering my parents. I knew Ciaran had far more power than I ever would, which was impressive because not only was he young, but he’d had to of earned every bit of it. We didn’t get handed our privilege because mommy and daddy were loaded, not in the way most imagined.

  Him having enough sway over someone that my parents could be lured away from home made him even more formidable. Maybe it was better not to know too much more.

  “I’m not even going to ask. Whatever you did or plan on doing, it won’t fool the security system on my house. It logs every time someone goes in and out. Thanks, though. I think?”

  “That’s handled too.”

  I managed to keep my expression impassive when all I really wanted to was gawk at him. My parents were never one for showing emotion beyond the privacy of our home. They always said that would be like flashing a winning hand.

  I’d been taught to follow after them and had a pretty impressive poker face under most circumstances.

  This was not most circumstances.

  “Anything else?” I half-joked.

  He smirked. “Your phones are in your middle console along with the fob to the car. There are extra movie tickets too in case you misplaced yours.”

  I hadn’t even realized I’d lost my phone. As for the tickets, those were the least of my concerns. “How did you get my fob?”

  His smirk lifted into a grin. “My swine brought it to me.”

  My mind flashed back to the man in the pig costume that had bumped into me. For someone that prided themselves on being aware of their surroundings, it was utterly embarrassing not to have known I’d been pickpocketed.

  “I was wondering why someone decided to celebrate Halloween a few months early.”

  “It’s their chosen method to keep their identity a secret,” he explained dismissively. “Your friends are safe and being tended to. Anything else?” he threw my words back at me when I didn’t respond.

  There was a ton of anything else. I had questions upon questions, but for the sake of my sanity, I shook my head no. I needed time to clearly process what had happened and what he’d already divulged. Then I could begin trying to figure out why I didn’t know about any of this.

  After regarding me for a few silent seconds, he stepped away and gestured to the door. I made the short trek across the room, carrying my heels, slowing when he reached for me again. I let him hold onto my other hand, ignoring his warmth as much as I could, following him out into the hall.

  The party was still going strong, maybe even stronger than it had been before we entered the bedroom together.

  I wondered who here knew what happened on the side of the woods and how many were none the wiser, outsiders aside. I stared at the back of Ciaran’s head as we made our way toward the stairs. He had such a good handle on what was happening. It brought more questions to mind.

  “Why are you helping me?”

  “Because it's beneficial for both of us.”

  “I don’t see how. You said I wasn’t supposed to be here, but everything that happened says otherwise.”

  He stopped without warning and let go of my hand. Right there in the middle of the staircase, he turned and slipped his arms around my waist. His hands gripped my hips like a lover would.

  “I knew the second you walked through Sainte’s front door. It wasn’t hard to swap a few names out with you and your friends. There were always going to be eight people in that barn tonight. It just so happened you got to be one of them.”

  “I could have died.” As the words left my mouth, it was the first time this dawned on me. The thought of dying hadn’t once crossed my mind. I’d been wholly focused on surviving.

  “You’re standing here in my arms, alive.”

  The simplicity of his reply and the way he delivered it pissed me off all over again. I pushed against him, hoping he’d let me go and fall down the damn stairs.

  He held me tighter. “You have a lot of reasons to be upset, but this wasn’t done to hurt you. I promise.”

  “That’s exactly what it did,” I retorted, immediately wishing I hadn’t. It was an omission that revealed vulnerability, something he hadn’t earned the right to see from me.

  He studied my face before leaning closer, placing his mouth beside my ear, he began speaking softly.

  “Beneath the spare tire in your trunk is a burner phone. Text me when you’re ready to talk.”

  I slightly leaned away, turning my head so that I could look into his eyes. “What makes you so sure I’ll keep my mouth shut or even want to speak to you again?”

  He released my hips and brought his hands to my face. Fingers tangled in my hair as he pulled my mouth to his and kissed me. It wasn’t soft or gentle. It was bold and borderline possessive. He didn’t seek my consent or shyly wait for my submission, he demanded both.

  His tongue swept between my parted lips and entwined with mine. As if possessed, I kissed him back, not submitting but giving in to what he wanted. I gripped the hem of his shirt, warming with need like I never had before. Maybe it was the way his hands held me or how his body felt pressed against mine.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, swallowing back a moan when one of his hands dropped to my ass. I wasn’t sure who broke away first. When we finally parted, he stared at my lips, his confliction evident.

  Both his hands slowly returned to my waist as he leaned down and whispered victoriously. “That’s how I know you’ll call me, Puppet.”

  I swallowed as our gazes collided. The look in his eyes was intensely covetous, threatening to drown me in their brilliant blue depths. I rolled my lips together and breathed him in.

  “There were a lot of other ways for you to prove your point.”

  “I was proving something to both of us. Do you know how long we’ve waited for this?”

  I went completely still, my brain zeroing in on his confession. No matter what kind of fantasies I’d had involving him, I never expected a single one of them to become a reality. I didn’t trust him enough to respond honestly, choosing to plead the fifth.

  “This shouldn’t be happening.”

  “This was inevitable,” he swore with a touch of anger.

  I forced myself to look away, suddenly remembering where we were. Sure enough, we’d garnered a fair amount of attention, which was to be expected. I didn’t let anyone put their hands on me. Not even my ex could get away with kissing me like this. Allowing Ciaran to do so was downright scandalous.

  “Do you know how many people are watching us right now?”

  “Of course, I do.” Clasping my jaw, he gently turned my face back towards him. “That’s exactly why I did it.”

  He showed no signs of remorse or regret. Without having to say a word he’d unapologetically told everyone here that I was his.

  CHAPTER SIX

  You’re not supposed to let where you come from define you or shape your future, but it's where I came from that made me who I was and paved the path I was expected to walk. It was the expectancy that made me so determined to be my own person.

  A few weeks ago, I graduated early at the top of my class. I suppose that’s something I should’ve been happy about. I’d worked my ass off to achieve honors, but it wasn’t done for any kind of self-gratification or for my future.

  A diploma meant nothing when you had a golden ticket that guaranteed you’d be riding shotgun straight to hell.

  I’d been trying my best not to think about this, but wasn’t that how life was supposed to go?

  After high school, you planned out your next chapter. Really ambitious people set life goals even before then. I knew some girls that had their weddings planned by the time they were sixteen. My point is, that you made a series of decisions that would shape the rest of your life. I often dreamed of a life where I was that fortunate. Those kinds of decisions weren’t in the cards for me.

  Not yet anyways.

  I could picture the abhorrent looks on my parents’ faces if I dared to openly go against their regime. My rebellion was never bold and spontaneous. I weighed the pros and cons, always. Until recently that is. There was nothing like a little murder and the feel of a forbidden kiss to get you twisted up in a mess of secrets.

  It’d been two weeks since Sainte’s party and with each passing day, my list of questions grew along with the acceptance of what Ciaran had divulged.

  I lived in hoodies when I was at home because my family liked to keep the air on frigid, so hiding the marks hadn’t been too difficult. My broken nail was explained away without issue. Nails broke sometimes, we got them fixed. Me pretending nothing out of the ordinary happened was the real testament to my acting abilities.

  I didn’t think I would be able to pull it off. Those first seven days I made sure I didn’t slip up, not daring to breathe too hard in case my mother somehow linked that one heavy exhalation to the chaotic night I’d had. The next seven days were spent remembering a certain someone pressed against me and struggling to conceal the tumultuous emotions I’d begun to feel.

  More concerning was that I hadn’t heard a word from my sister since that night. Her phone went straight to voicemail for two days before ultimately being disconnected.

  I’d tapped all the resources I had to see if there’d been any sightings of her, but thus far there hadn’t been a single one. It was as if she’d vanished. Unfortunately, my only other option was guaranteed to have a catch.

  For Lamia, it would be worth it, but I had to consider my own well-being when it came down to attempting to make a deal with him. That’s if he would help me. I didn’t have much I could offer in return.

  I wasn’t the only one frustrated with past and current events. Mel rolled onto her stomach and stared at me from the opposite side of the massive L-shaped sectional. I saw her in my peripheral and tried to ignore the look she was giving me. Grace served as a barrier between us with her legs propped up on the ottoman.

  “You should make the call.”

  I pretended to pull my attention away from the cinema screen none of us were really watching. “What call?”

  “Lana.” Her tone said it all.

  “I just don’t trust him—them.”

  “You’re not even a little interested in hearing what he has to say about your sister or what Judicium was?”

  I gave her a mock glare. Of course, she caught my slip-up and of course, she was hitting on the money. Mel had witnessed the whole staircase spectacle and only let it go four days ago. Now she’d moved on to this.

  I’d been fighting with myself daily not to use the burner phone still hidden away in the well of my spare tire. I initially only sought it out so that I could make sure it wasn’t turned on. It would be hard to explain why my trunk was ringing if someone else at the house heard it go off.

  Ever since I’d seen the phone with my own two eyes, I thought of it and the kiss that shouldn’t have happened entirely way too much, among other things.

  “I don’t think they’ll hurt us,” Grace claimed in a quiet voice.

  Mel and I shared a look before settling our gazes onto our pretty blonde friend. Her eyes darted between the two of us. When she shifted uncomfortably, I bit back a smile. We knew each other too well.

  “Ky seems nice, that’s all.”

  “You mean Michael Myers reincarnation?” Mel deadpanned.

  “Don’t call him that. I’m being serious.”

  I worried my lip, wondering just how much she’d spoken to this guy. I knew of him, but I didn’t know anything concrete beyond basic information you could find anywhere. For example, he was the polar opposite of her. He was the epitome of an apex predator. She would be his prey. His twin wasn’t much better, but at least he could be around people without putting them into a state of terror.

  After being filled in about what happened during our brief time apart, I’d come to learn which mask Kyrous had been wearing.

  “This is the one that slit Cooper’s throat, right?” And hacked off his head.

  Her features softened and she nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, I don’t think they’ll hurt us.”

  I wasn’t understanding how that canceled out him being dangerous. I could tell Mel was thinking the same and seconds away from opening her mouth to stick her foot in it. I shot her a look that said to do otherwise. If Grace thought he was harmless, she had to have her reasons. She had me and Mel to stop her from doing anything too hazardous.

  “When did you last talk to him?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “I wouldn’t really say we talk. He texts me sometimes.”

  “Oh, really. What’s he send you? Pictures of dismembered bodies?” Mel joked dryly.

  I rolled onto my side as a sudden thought occurred to me. “You gave him your number?”

  “No, of course not! The number he texts me from was already saved in my phone.”

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to communicate with him at all?”

  Grace frowned. “Well, it can’t be traced back to him. It’s one of those texting apps or something. I looked it up.”

  She missed my point entirely. Bless her naïve heart. I hoped she never got so tainted by our world that it was snatched away. It was one of my sole missions to keep it safe.

  “How does that make him trustworthy?” Mel continued to prod.

  “That’s not what I’m saying. If they wanted to hurt us, they could have. It isn’t like the opportunity didn’t present itself multiple times.”