“I don’t think they will. I didn’t justcutthose wires. When they get the electricity flowing, they’ll get quite ashock.” He laughed again, and it was even more unhinged and also reallyannoying.
“Good grief, man, did you study bad sixties comic books to come up with that line?” I wasn’t going to sit idly by and let him scare me into submission. Nothanks.
His laughter stopped abruptly. “Bitch. You’ll be lucky if I let you live. You shot me.” I did? “But I’m here to ruin Griffin’s life like he ruinedmine.”
“Your life? He… seriously?” What a knob. “Some girl decided not to date you, and you lost your freaking mind over it. You’re hot! You could’ve found another, better woman. Did that not ever occur to you?” He really was hot, in a classic way. Chiseled jawline, black wavy hair, dark-brown eyes. And it looked like he worked out. Too bad he was a total nutjob.
“Don’t be a fool. I knew who she was. I grew up in Grenève. The great Princess Amandine, the heir to the Grenèvian throne. She was the doll of the country. They doted on her every word, and the selfish bitch went to America fornormalcy.” Spittle flew out of his mouth. He wasn’t angry at Griffin alone, he was justangry.
“You knew her in Grenève?” If I kept him talking, maybe one of the guys would come back or I could make some kind ofmove.
“I was training to be in the Royalguard.”
He gripped my gun, and I kept my eyes on his trigger finger as he wrapped it around the stock. If he moved it anywhere near the trigger, I was hitting thefloor.
“I’m a couple years younger than Ellion and Chandler. I don’t think they ever knew me in Grenève. And I used a different training academy than they did.” He motioned for me to go toward the door, and I did what I wastold.
At that moment he was mad as a hatter, but he wasn’t mad at me, not really. I needed to try to keep my smart mouth in check,though.
“Princess Amandine didn’t know who I was either. When I heard that she was going to America, I knew I had to follow. My mother was friends with one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting.”
I assumed he wanted me to go back to the living room so I headed that way. A chill traveled all over me when he pressed himself close against my back for the walk. I could feel the nub of the gun pushing into myspine.
“What did you think you could do to help her?” I hoped I didn’t offend him. I wanted the conversation toflow.
“She needed help. I was almost fully trained and obviously smarter than her. What sort of idiot would give up thethrone?”
We stepped into the living room, and I headed straight for the couch, trying to put some space betweenus.
“You told me before, in the barn, that you fell in love with her.” Keep talking, asshole, Ithought.
He alternated between pacing, peering toward the garage, and perching on the couch opposite me as he spoke. “She was different in America.” He stared down the hallwayagain.
I stayed quiet, sensing more to the story coming. I was right. “It was easy to forget who she was. I could see her as a person, not a princess.” He came back to the couch. “Amanda was a wonderful person. She wasn’t anything like the Amandine I’d watched on TV all my life. She was kind and warm. She had a great sense of humor—God, she wasfunny.”
I stood and inched toward the fireplace. “Do you mind if we sit by the fire? It’s a littlecold.”
He shrugged. “Sure, whynot?”
I sat as close to the fire as I could without raising suspicion. “Let me ask you, not to change the subject, but what’d you do with thechicken?”
That question made him laugh again. “It’s in the kitchen. I actually didn’t want to waste it,” he admitted. “It smelled reallygood.”
“We should eat. I’m prettyhungry.”
He glanced toward the kitchen for a second, giving me the opportunity to snatch up the pot holder and use it to grab the iron skillet that had been sitting on the fire. As he turned his head back to face me, I swung the skillet at his face, following through with the swing so the pan actually stayed on his face as he fell backward. It only seemed fitting since he’d given Griffinscars.
This sizzle of his skin nauseated me, and his scream cut me to my core. I was supposed to relieve pain, not cause it. He dropped my gun and clutched his face, in too much pain to consider revenge. The screams kept coming, intelligible words of pain. I grabbed the gun and scrambled backward, aiming at his center mass. I just had to wait for them toreturn.
“You bitch! I’m going to kill you,” hesaid.
I still had the frying pan in my left hand, though the pot holder by that point was prettywarm.
I raised the gun and the frying pan when he tried to stumble toward me. “Staythere.”
As I aimed at him, the lights flickered and went out again. I looked around, realizing they must’ve gotten the cords reconnected. Hunter’s words echoed in my mind. He said they’d get a shock. I had to get out there and warnthem.
“Get up,” I said. “We have to go help them before whatever you did killsthem.”
