Page 85 of To All the Guys I Killed Before

Time to pivot.

Thinking fast, I give a little giggle. I’m going for young, dumb, and horny, but between my fear and my desperation, I have no idea if I’m pulling it off.

“We are so, sooooo sorry,” I say in a breathy, girlish voice. “We heard this house was gonna be empty, and we snuck in because…” My brain stalls until I blurt out, “because we have a… a danger kink.”

Hugo’s incredulous gaze swings to me, and I grimace, grateful Hawaiian Shirt’s at my back.

Play along, I beg him with my eyes. Try to look kinky. Don’t get me shot.

Please don’t get me fucking shot.

“You’ve got a what?” Hawaiian Shirt scoffs.

Hugo’s furrowed brow tells me he’s just as confused as the guy with the gun. Even without the cardigan and the glasses, his genuine bafflement’s so sweetly Dr. Mohr that I can’t breathe for a second. Then his expression clears, and a split second later, it’s Gomez and all his confident charm shooting the guy a lopsided smile.

“C’mon, man. You get it.” His whole body relaxes into a sexy, unconcerned slouch. “Haven’t you ever put on a mask and broken into somebody’s house so you can fuck a stranger you met online?”

He winks at me, and I almost pass out because fuck, that’s hot.

Hugo is so unbelievably hot.

Not what I should be focusing on, I know. It must be the arm around my neck cutting off the oxygen to my brain.

Hawaiian Shirt grunts. “That’s not a thing. Nobody’s breaking into houses to fuck in masks, especially not my stepbrother’s house.” His chest puffs out behind me. “He’s a cop, you know.”

Lester Timms has a stepbrother? Judging by the increased tension around Hugo’s eyes, he doesn’t know anything about this guy either, which means I’m going to have to improvise with a gun to my head and a dog with a bondage fetish trying to lick my ankle.

When Hawaiian Shirt looks down to shout at the dog, I catch Hugo’s eye and cut my gaze down to my left hand, where it’s resting against my thigh. Without moving my wrist, I lift my thumb to point at myself and flick my pointer finger at the ground. Next, I point at Hugo, then to the left, toward the mudroom and the exit.

I drop. You run. As I mouth the four words, I point to the left again, hoping he’ll notice my knife waiting for me there.

Shit, Hawaiian Shirt’s done yelling at the dog, and I don’t know if Hugo understood me. I need another distraction so I can try again.

“Wait, so you didn’t break in, too?” I ask in my perkiest, most confused voice. “I heard about it from a guy who heard about it online. Some kind of sex party, I guess.”

“I-I don’t go to those parts of the forum,” Hawaiian Shirt says stiffly.

Ah, so he is one of the Philosopher Kings. Now I know what language he’s fluent in.

“Forum?” I laugh like I don’t have a thought in my head or terror in my belly. “I don’t know anything about that, but I love a man who likes a risky fuck.”

Hugo follows my lead and drops into bro territory again. “And look at her. She doesn’t even need the mask, am I right?” He smirks like he’s expecting the guy to high-five him, but Hawaiian Shirt just grumbles and pulls against the leash.

“Cosmo,” he snaps. “Lauf. Walk. Goddammit, get up and walk the other way around us!”

Hugo drifts to my right, still several feet away from me and moving in the direction of the guy’s gun hand, not the exit. He repeats my first signal with his pinkie finger, pointing at me, the floor, and the door to my left, then tapping his own leg to indicate himself before pointing his pinkie toward the man with the gun.

Fuck, he wants me out of the way so he can take him down.

No! I mouth.

When Hawaiian Shirt gives up on getting the dog to follow his orders, Hugo steps forward with a friendly smile. “Want me to take his collar off or⁠—”

“I told you to stay there!” the guy shouts. “Fuck!”

He lets go of my neck to shove at my back, trying to push us apart. It works to give us a little bit of separation, but it’s not enough for me to slide down and out of the loops.

“I came here to get Les’s mail,” Hawaiian Shirt mumbles. “I didn’t expect to have to kill anybody.”