The tiny food I ate rises up inside me and ends up in a pile on the floor.
“Shit.” Claudia tosses the knife to Noah. “Take over. I need to get George out of here.”
She grabs my arm and yanks me from the room. I close my eyes, but I can still see that half-circle of blood. My stomach gasps and twists, but there’s nothing left to come up.
In the hallway, Claws shoves me into one of the velvet armchairs. She kneels at my feet, taking my hands into hers. “What’s going on with you?”
“I didn’t know…” I shudder as the blood forms a half-circle across her face. I survived Galen’s brutal autopsy and watching Claudia bury her knife into that boy’s head. Brutal killings are easy for me now. I feel weirdly comfortable around death and gore. But this is a girl I’ve known since grade school, and now her finger is lying on the rug. And as soon as Claws is done with her, she’s going to lose her dad.
“You’re the one who gave me the information about her father.” Claudia’s fingers stroke my cheek. “You had to know what might happen.”
“But her dad…”
“George, I know you don’t believe in an eye for an eye. And that’s exactly why you need me. If anyone, anyone, ever tries to hurt you, I’ll do worse than cutting off their fingers, got it? You never have to feel afraid or alone again.”
I nod, drawing her words inside me and holding them against the gaping hole in my chest.
Claws continues, “But youalsodon’t have to become me. One bloodthirsty mafia queen is enough for any friendship. You don’t have to tough it out because of some sense of loyalty. We’re ride or die, got it?”
I nod, still not trusting myself to speak.
Claudia glances back at the door to room fourteen. Daphne’s scream mingles with the other moans and cries – just another of Nero’s clientele at the mercy of a lover. Only this time, it’s Noah Marlowe kissing a blade to tender flesh. I know Claudia wants to join her lover, wants to wield the knife herself and feel the moment of triumph when Daphne caves.
“Come on.” She drags me to my feet, punching the button for the elevator. The doors swing open and she pulls me inside. “Let’s see if we can’t find you some of those tiny profiteroles.”
“I do like profiteroles,” I murmur, leaning my head on her shoulder as the elevator doors close on us. Claudia kisses my forehead.We’re ride or die.
I think of Gabriel’s scholarship brochure burning a hole in my bookbag.
How can I desert this girl? How can I leave the best friend that’s ever happened to me?
The elevator doors open, and the guard holds the door open for us to re-enter the party.
But if I stay, what happened in that hotel roomwillbecome my life. I won’t be able to help it. And I don’t think I can hold my father’s memory in my punctured heart while turning into the monster from one of his films—
My whole body goes rigid.
No.
He can’t be here.
He can’t.
But he is. My body recognizes him before he even turns toward us. I stagger away, my back slamming into the elevator, my veins sparking with adrenaline as I fight my instinct to run.
He’s here.
Alec LeMarque.
17
Claudia
That bastard. That fuckingbastard.
Beside me, George is as white as a sheet. She’s never told me what Alec did to her, and she doesn’t have to. We’ve been friends long enough that I can read between the fucking lines, and it doesn’t take a best friend to see that Alec LeMarque messed her up.
And for that, he will die.
