What… What do I do? Am I to diehere? Like this?
“You love lollipops. I know this. And you can’t cook, but that’s okay. I can do that. Just let me love you. Deep inside.”
I can see it now. The president will explain it away that I took drugs and overdosed and got myself trapped in Sanguine Manor. A tragedy.
The POT will assign my poor widowed husband someone else. Someone awful. I’d have to come back from the grave and kill her.
A tortured sob releases from my lungs, slowing me down just thinking of him without me. Or me without him.
If I can get upstairs in time, I could drag something in front of the attic door. Cut him off and hide.
I burst through just as I did on Thriller Thursday. Desperate, I scan the room for anything I can use.
Anything…
A sofa.
I scramble over to it and shove my whole weight against it, but it feelsboltedto the floor. A wardrobe in the corner is also immovable. Hopeless, I release a silent scream.
The door flicks open, and Grayson creeps to a stop. “My Pandora…”
I back up until my ass hits an open third-story window. I glance down at the darkness falling so very far below me.
I know exactly what my options are.
Fight the man holding the scalpel?
Or jump.
forty-five
I chug water,but my heart won’t slow.
“I can’t…” Huffing in air, I bend over before I faint.
“Take a fucking breath, Griffin.” Aiden shakes his head and snaps at Valen. “That car. Zoom in on it.”
Valen does, and the two study the image on the screen. Images blur at the edges. My mind won’t focus. Drugs. Panic. It’s too much.
Lan’s still pacing. Muttering. I’ll deal with him later. Fucker looks just as destroyed as I feel.
“It’s a university car. One of the maintenance vehicles,” Valen says.
“Show the campus fleet?—”
“I’m already on it,Cardell.” Valen usually doesn’t sound this annoyed, except with his brothers. Fitting, now that he’s engaged to Aiden’s sister. “Back up. Give me some space.”
The lilt of hope in their voices gives me a glimmer of something positive. Something I latch onto. I hover overValen’s shoulder, crowding him on one side and Aiden on the other.
Ashlyn tries to shove a cup at Lan.
“I can’t drinkvodkaright now, devil woman!”
“It’s water.”
“No, you’re trying to poison me, viper! Get back!” He hisses and holds up his fingers like a cross.
Without looking up, Aiden bites his bottom lip. He glares at me for a second, as if he wants to say something, but doesn’t. “You two have this under control?”
