He drops his hand as his lips tilt into a smile. “Don’t like me anymore? I guessed Torin told you who I was when you canceled our date. It was me in the silver car, by the way. From the way your blinds were twitching, I know you were peering out of that window like a nosy grandma.”
I knew it.
“So why wait until now to grab me?” I ask.
“The only time your scent matches aren’t close by is when you’re at work. I knew the day they moved into the apartment near yours. I was just biding my time.”
His attention dips to my lips, and he reaches out to touch.
Leaning away, I knock his hand aside. “Don’ttouchme.” I’ve never hit anyone in my life, but he is not putting his hands on me.
He laughs, the rich sound filling the room. “The hard way it is.”
My heart stops beating when he fishes something terrifying from his front pocket.
A needle.
I press my back against the wall. “What’s that?”
His smile is so slick that I can’t believe I ever trusted him. “Thistriggers an omega’s heat. I’m going to trigger yours, and you, sweet June, are going to bemymate. It’s part of the deal I made to play this game.”
I scramble to the left. He slams one hand against the wall, inches from my head, blocking my one avenue of escape. Lottie is on my right, and she looks so ill that she might not survive that needle if it accidentally gets her.
“You didn’t have a problem with me before,” he says, crowding me.
Turning my face to the left to avoid his touch, I always keep one eye on the needle inches from my skin. “That was before I realized you were evil.”
“I’m not—uh.”
He grunts as he topples backward, landing heavily on his back and the needle flying out of his hand.
“Comeon!” Lottie grabs my hand and yanks me to my feet before I realize she’s gotten up from the floor.
I sprint after her, delighted. “You were faking!”
She grins at me. “For once. Come on. This is the only time they unlock my door.”
In the hallway, it’s quiet. I pull on her hand to slow her dash toward the staircase at the end. “Wait, what about your medicine?”
Her lips compress into a tight line. “I refuse to live in a room being fed pill after pill. That’s not living. And it doesn’t just trap me. It traps my friends.”
“But—”
“Fucking bitch!” an enraged yell goes up from behind us.
Thebangof a door slamming open propels us to run faster.
I peek over my shoulder, and immediately regret it.
Wilkes is sprinting after us, his handsome face twisted into an ugly, rage-filled snarl.
I whip back around. The staircase comes into view.
Lottie is about to charge down them as fingers brush the ends of my hair. With nothing but a germ of an idea in my head, I throw myself to the side and yank Lottie away from the staircase.
The sound Wilkes makes falling down the stairs will haunt me forever. The crack of a bone breaking makes me shudder as Lottie squeezes my hand. I squeeze hers back. Her face is white, and I have a feeling mine is as well.
“Come on,” I whisper, and hurry down the staircase where Wilkes is lying on his front, his head twisted unnaturally to the side, with a pool of blood forming under him.
