“Five minutes,” he said, glancing at the timer before adjusting the settings. It felt like I was going uphill, and my heart rate and panting increased. “Then I’ll show you some moves.”
“Huh?” Is he flirting with me? “We’re supposed to be deadly enemies, you know.”
“I hadn’t forgotten,” he said in a steely voice for the first time since I arrived. There were two sides to this guy—the charming, laid-back disguise to hide the Warwick dark side. I wonder if he’s killed anyone? Or maybe he hires people to do that, like my father did.
“So, it was you who left the dead rat in my room,” I accused him, pointing my finger at his annoyingly handsome face as the vision of the masked me in my room whirled about in my mind. “Do you have a mask?”
He frowned again, trying to shrug off my comment as if I were being ridiculous, but then he said something that surprised me. “Everyone has a mask around here. If you don’t have a mask or some sort of disguise, then you’re the minority.”
Strange answer, but I couldn’t think too deeply about it because my heart rate was rising even more. I had to lift my butt off the seat to push the pedals harder, as if I was biking up a hill. Sweat started pouring down as my breath hitched in my chest, and I began panting. He raised his eyebrows, simmering. It took me a few seconds to realize that my breathing sounded like a woman’s orgasm.
Immediately, I blushed in embarrassment when I remembered that he caught me self-pleasuring at the window. God, I wish the floor would open up and swallow me whole. Luckily, I was already hot, sweaty, and probably red, so he might not notice.
“I’ve finished,” I announced, halting my pedaling and starting to climb off.
“Wait,” he seemed confused, resting his big hand on the handlebars. “You had one more minute, Adina. One more. You’re almost there.”
“No,” I shook my head, landing on the floor as if waved under my feet. “I’m leaving.”
“Why?” he asked, following me as I headed toward the punching bags, then paused when I realized I was walking in the wrong direction and turned back. “You spent four minutes on the bike. C’mon, Adina, let me show you some moves on the gym mat.”
“No way, and I don’t want you showing me anything,” I snarled in a warning tone as I stepped into the locker room, relieved that he couldn’t follow me in.
Opening my locker, I pulled my bag out and started pulling my clothes out. My overreaction was purely embarrassment over him catching me masturbating at the window. I couldn’t be around him after that because he’s a damn Warwick. Anyone but a damn Warwick. I'm basically handing him ammunition to use against me at another time.Stupid.
When I left the locker room, I was relieved that he wasn’t hovering nearby, but I kept looking for him. I hated him, but my radar sought him out to see if he was watching me, scrutinizing my behavior. But he was nowhere to be seen. Even when I walked into the reception area and Robbie was behind the desk, munching on a protein bar, I expected to see the tall, dark blond jock.
“Are you done?” Robbie asked as I walked by with my head down, hoping he wouldn’t notice me. Or maybe he would notice me and not remember who I was because there were so many other girls here. But no, he did notice.
“Yeah,” I breathed, struggling to find an excuse why my workout being so short. “I have to go.”
“Oh, okay,” he said casually, like he didn’t really care; he was just doing his job.
Once outside with the sun on my face, I took several deep breaths and then headed toward the bus stop, waiting for the next bus to arrive.
18
As soon as I heard her leave,I stepped out of my room, then knocked on her door to make sure to check her room was definitely vacated. Then once I was sure, I used the keycard Ez gave me and turned the doorknob. She left with a sports bag, so she’s likely going to be gone a while, so I had plenty of time and could chill out.
Her scent greeted me as I opened the door, and naturally, my gaze landed on her neatly made bed directly in front of me. As I stepped forward to conduct my plan, something sharp struck my cheekbone, and I propelled backward to take a better look at what it was.
Fish hooks. Big ol’ sharp as hell fish hooks used to reel in a large grouper or trout. A trap. I chuckled aloud, feeling an ounce of pride that she was no fool and hung these at eye-level and would’ve caused a lot of damage if it struck an inch to the left.
My fingers touched the area the fishhook had prodded to find that it was bleeding. Not much blood, just a little superficial graze. But the hooks weren’t hung there to cut the skin. They were there to poke the intruder’s eye out. Then she’d know for sure who snuck into her room - the one-eyed bandit.
Okay, so what else was trapped? I dodged the swinging fish hooks and carefully walked to her bed, expecting something to jump out at me. I had a rubber snake in my pocket, one of those that was scaly and cold to the touch like a real snake, and I pulled her blankets back and placed it inside. Then I smoothed down the covers, as if I had never been there in the first place.
Last time I was there, Ez stole a pair of her panties for the purpose of jacking off, because he’s a dirty fucker, so I was tempted to help myself to a pair as well. But my gut told me to leave it this time. Don’t do too many things at once. Make it nice and slow, little by little.
It crossed my mind that she might have installed security cameras, and I forgot to put on my mask, but when I quickly glanced around the room, I couldn’t find anything suspicious. I allowed myself a few more seconds just to breathe in her scent and was about to leave when my phone started ringing.
I recoiled at the sharp sound piercing through the silence, and my fingers fumbled over the buttons on the side of the phone to turn off the noise. Once again, I was immersed in silence, but I was about to leave when footsteps trotted up the wooden stairs. I quickly darted into the bathroom, hoping it wasn’t her returning.
I waited until the footsteps faded before I sidestepped the fish hooks, then opened the door a crack to check the hall was clear,then closed her door quietly behind. Once back in my room, I checked the gash on my cheekbone in the mirror, and it had a patch of blood that was already drying.
It was superficial and didn’t hurt, but it was on my face where it could be seen, and putting a Band-Aid over it would look stupid. So, if anyone asks about it, I’ll say that I wasn’t looking where I was going and walked into a thorny rose bush. There were plenty of roses that grew in the gardens and up the trellis at eye level, so it wasn’t that unrealistic of an excuse.
A notification popped up on my phone alerting me to a missed call from an unknown number. Then the voice spoke over the line, and my stomach twisted in knots. It was a special agent who wanted to interview me about the case of the dead body on the train. He’s going down the list of students in alphabetical order, and my surname is Ashthorn, so I was right at the top. Damn.
