“What?”
“You’re…” He grins.“Short.”
“I’m notthatshort.”
I get to work trying to brush as much of the cherry-red sparkles from my arms as I can.The sweat and blood makes them stick, and then it’s on my hands, and I can feel it falling onto the tops of my feet.Fuck.
“You’re shorter than me.”
I’m eye level with the center of his chest, but I don’t think that would be a new experience for him.He’s taller than Campbell.Laurie, too.But it’smyheight that makes his eyes seem to sparkle with amusement as I hold out my hand for my weapon.
“Is that a problem?”
“Not at all.”He still looks amused, and I pin him with a warning look.
“If you say I’m cute, it won’t be the killer you have to worry about.”
He places the bottle back in my palm, his fingers lingering against my wrist, and for a moment I think I could forget we’re trying to escape if he touched me like that again.If he touched me like that on other parts of my body, but slower, firmer, for longer.Especially when he says, “I don’t think you’re cute, Jamie…”
His eyes dart down to my bare feet and then slowly draw a path all the way back up to meet mine before he adds, “Not at all.”
The way he holds my stare afterward has the potential to make my knees weak and send me back onto the booth again.Okay, so we both don’t think the other is cute.Good to know.
I’d like to ask what other words he’d use to describe me, but I’m aware Campbell and Laurie are standing guard since I had my graceful collapse, and we are most definitely still being chased by a psycho.So I gesture out to the corridor and walk past him, situating myself back in formation with Laurie and hoping he can’t spot the blush on my face.He walks out a moment later and heads to the front of thegroup, leading us to the neighboring alcove and conducting the same check he performed on the first one.
Laurie catches my eye while we wait, and though she doesn’t open her mouth, her facial expressions are loud enough that I can confidently translate the dip and fall of her eyebrows—and my subsequent silent responses—as thus:
What was that?
Nothing.
Nothing?Stop eye fucking him!
I am not!
Oh, really?You’re not?
No.
Youliar.
But you love me.
God knows why.
By the end of the conversation, we’re wearing matching tight-lipped smiles.I glance behind me and it’s clear Campbell has witnessed the whole exchange and hasn’t been able to understand any of it.Before, he was nervous.Now he’s confused.It’s not a good mix and he looks extra twitchy.More like Norman Bates before he goes full “Mother.”Like he’s one sudden sound away from bolting.
We reach the third alcove, and something isn’t right.Wes stops a few feet away, and when he points to it with the chair leg, glancing back as if to confirm it’s not just his mind playing tricks on him, I nod.I see it, too.
The curtains closest to the hallway are bulkier than the others we’ve seen.Lumpier.And while the flickering effect of the gas lamps against the sheen of the velvet makes all the curtains look like they’re undulating, this one is definitely moving.Like blood pulsing through an artery, and the more whoever is hidden behind it realizes we aren’t walking past their hiding spot, the faster it pulses.
It’s most likely one of the daters, but we can’t be sure it’s nothim.The killer.I know I’m making a lot of assumptions about whoever is doing this being a man, but in my defense, itisa more male-dominated activity.Mass murder.Not to say the killer can’t be a woman.Fictional female killers like Baby Firefly or Mary Lou Maloney could go toe-to-toe with the most iconic male Big Bads.But when it comes to real life?
Women are usually just better emotional regulators.
There’s a cord hanging down near the doorway, and when Wes steps forward to reach for it, looking over his shoulder to make sure we’re all ready, I move into the space next to him and hold my broken bottle out.I don’t even think about it, and when I’m there, there is a part of me that wants to back right out again.But I also can’t let Wes be alone in the line of fire if a knife is going to appear from behind the curtain.It’s not just because I lied to Laurie, and I was definitely eye fucking him a few minutes ago; it’s because I know this night would be much worse without him.
He tries to get me to move back with some sharp head movements, but I ignore them and gesture for him to open the curtain already.Laurie has her back against mine to watch the corridor.Campbell is useless.When Wes sees he’s fighting a losing battle, his jaw tenses in defeat and he swaps the wood to his other hand, reaching for the cord.
