by Stella Hart
“Yes, we contacted all of those who were on duty after the hospital reported an attack on the campus.” She rubbed her chin and looked at me curiously. “You’re absolutely sure you were in the quad when you were attacked?”
“No. Just near it,” I said, wishing I’d told a different lie. “I guess that’s why no one saw anything.”
“Possibly, yes.” Her forehead wrinkled. “You said the man seemed to disappear afterwards. Can you go over that again? Make it a bit clearer for us?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what else to tell you. One second he was there, and then he wasn’t. Like I said before, I was kind of distracted by the knife in my guts.”
“That’s fair enough,” Belson cut in. “I’m sorry about all the questions, Nate. You haven’t done anything wrong. We’re just trying to gather as much information as we can.”
I nodded slowly. “It’s fine. I’m sorry I don’t have more to tell you. It’s all so blurry.”
He leaned over and muttered something to his partner. This time, I could hear every word.
“I’m not sure if this is just an old urban legend, but I’ve heard there are tunnels running underneath Blackthorne,” he said. “The attacker could’ve gone into one of them. That would explain why he seemed to disappear. He might even be using the tunnels to get around without being detected.”
Fernandez nodded. “Good point,” she whispered. “If they really exist, we should get a team out to search them right away.”
Oh, fuck. They knew about the Blackthorne tunnels.
They wouldn’t be able to get into them anytime soon without the gate keys—or some sort of welding equipment, at least—but they’d search them eventually, and then they’d find Alexis.
If I didn’t get out of here in the next few minutes, I was totally fucked.
“Is that all?” I asked, raising my brows. “I feel pretty shitty. Wouldn’t mind getting some more rest.”
The detectives stood. “That’s all for now, yes,” Fernandez said. “Thanks for your help, Nate. We’re going to do everything we can to find your attacker. For now, it’s just a waiting game.”
“I understand. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Feel better soon.”
I sank my head into the cool pillow and closed my eyes as they left, feigning exhaustion. As soon as their footsteps faded, I sat up again, heart hammering so loudly it echoed in my ears.
I had to leave. Now.
I pressed the call button next to my bed, summoning a nurse within seconds. She was reluctant to take my IV out and fetch the discharge papers, but I insisted.
Fifteen minutes later, I was free and clear.
I found my car in the parking lot and tore away from the teaching hospital. After making a couple of quick stops along the way to grab some necessary gear, I headed back to the Blackthorne med school building and parked outside, keeping a close eye on my surroundings. Fortunately, there weren’t any cops swarming the area yet.
Still, I had to hurry. It was only a matter of time until they showed up.
After making sure there was no one around to see me, I hurried down the side of the building and brushed the large patch of ivy aside so I could open the trapdoor. Then I dashed down the steps and into the tunnel. I wasn’t supposed to be exerting myself like this with stitches in my abdomen, but it was an emergency.
I arrived at Alexis’s cell and stared down at her through narrowed eyes. She was cowering on the mattress, thin arms wrapped around herself. When she saw me, her eyes widened and her pale face went even whiter. “You’re alive,” she said, voice barely above a whisper.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I said. I raised a hand. “Get the fuck up.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“What the fuck do you think?” I growled, rattling the bars until she jerked back in terror.
“I… I... please…” Her low, petrified voice trailed into nothing, and I smiled down at her.
“I said get the fuck up, Alexis.” I leaned closer. “You’re done here.”
19
Alexis
Red and black spots appeared in my vision as terror rushed through me in violent waves. My knees buckled, and I wrapped my arms around my belly and lowered my head, every inch of me quaking.
“Please make it quick,” I murmured. I was too weak and exhausted to beg for my life anymore.
“Make what quick?” Nate cocked his head.
“You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?” I said, risking a short glance up at him. “Just make it quick. Please.”
“I’m not here to kill you,” he said in an acid tone. “I told you, it’ll be a long time until I’m done with you.”
I swallowed hard. “But… you just said that I’m done here.”
“Yeah. Here.” He lifted a hand and gestured around us. “The cops think the killer might be using the Blackthorne tunnels, so I need to move you.”
Relief flooded through me in waves, making me giddy. “Oh,” I whispered.
Nate dropped the bag he was holding and started pulling things out of it. A brush, wet wipes, makeup compact, mouthwash, clothes. My clothes.
“I stopped at your dorm room to get these,” he said, tossing them to me. “Get dressed and clean yourself up. It’s daytime, so we might see people. I don’t want them getting suspicious.”
“Where are you taking me?”
His expression twisted and his eyes went dark. “Shut up and get dressed, Alexis.”
He spoke my name like it was the foulest curse word he could utter, and as he stared at me, there was a distinct hardness in his gaze. I couldn’t blame him. Last time he saw me, I faked a pregnancy and jammed a knife between his ribs.
With trembling hands, I pulled on the underwear, jeans, sweater, jacket, and shoes he’d brought me from my dorm. Then I used the wet wipes to clean the smudges of dirt and blood from my face, throat, and hands.
“Fix your hair,” Nate said, tossing the brush toward me.
I opened the compact mirror and winced at my haggard reflection. Then I grabbed the brush and tried to neaten my hair. It was coated with grime and grease from the two weeks I’d gone without washing it, and some of the knots were so bad that the brush wouldn’t go through them. All I could do was gather up the strands behind my head, twist it all into a semblance of a French knot at the nape of my neck, and smooth the top.
“I can’t make it look any better than this,” I said, looking up at Nate with wide, fearful eyes. I was worried he’d change his mind and slice my throat open instead of taking the risk of being seen with me in public looking like I’d just returned from a thousand-year war.
His lips flattened as he stared down at me. “It’s good enough,” he muttered. “We need to hurry.”
He unlocked the cell and pulled me out with one arm. The other was laden with the bag he’d brought today and the other ones he’d left yesterday before I stabbed him, including the torture kit.
“Wait here.” He let go of me for a few seconds so he could stoop down and go through the black knife roll.
I didn’t bother running, even though I was out of the cell. I was too weak from hunger and dehydration, and I knew I wouldn’t get far anyway. The wrought iron gate near the tunnel entrance was undoubtedly locked, and only Nate had a key.
If I went the other way, deeper into the pitch-dark tunnels, I’d get lost within minutes. From what Nate had told me, there were other gates in there anyway, put in by the bootleggers back in the 1920s to stop any intruders from getting through to rescue the imprisoned snitches.
Nate rose to his feet again, brandishing a small knife. He put his arm around me and slipped his hand under my jacket, holding the knife at the small of my back.
“If we see anyone while we’re outside, you need to stay quiet and act normal. If you scream or do anything else to draw attention, this knife goes in your spine. Got it?”
I nodded wordlessly, chin trembling.
When we reached the tra
pdoor at the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the light, my eyes began to water. It wasn’t sunny outside, but I was so used to being in the dark that even the bleak gray clouds in the sky were enough to irritate me.
“Are you fucking crying?” Nate growled against my ear. “I told you to act normal.”
“It’s the light,” I whispered, back going ramrod straight as the cold steel of the blade pressed against my skin. “It hurts.”
With a grunt of annoyance, Nate reached into his pocket and grabbed a pair of sunglasses. “Wear these.”
I put them on with trembling hands. Then I started walking again, letting Nate guide me with the knife at my back. Shivers raced up and down my spine with every step I took. The wind was freezing, and the trees were all stripped bare, their branches thin and brittle. They looked vulnerable and exposed, which was exactly how I felt.
“Alexis?”
My head snapped around at the sound of my name. Nate swore under his breath. “Shit.”
My pulse raced as I caught sight of Laurel and Ruby on the other side of the giant patch of lawn we were heading across. Somehow, they’d recognized me, even with my disgusting bird’s-nest hair and big sunglasses covering the top third of my face.
“Play along,” Nate hissed in my ear as they hurried over to us. “If you say or do anything to fuck it up, I’ll kill them.”
I nodded and blinked back tears as emotion rushed up my throat.
“What are you doing here?” Ruby said excitedly, holding her arms out for a hug. I tentatively wrapped my arms around her, wondering if she’d notice how bad I smelled. “Are you back now?”
Nate answered for me. “No, we just picked up some stuff from her dorm.” He grinned and lifted the arm he was using to hold all the bags. “She’s making me carry all of it like a pack mule.”
Laurel gave Nate a strange look, obviously surprised to see him by my side. Then she hugged me too. “How are you doing?” she asked when she pulled back, curiosity flickering in her eyes.
The blade returned to the small of my back as Nate’s arm slipped under my jacket again.
I had to answer Laurel carefully. I couldn’t say I was fine, because I obviously wasn’t. People didn’t just drop out of college when they were fine. I couldn’t say I was doing terribly, either, because then my friends would insist on helping, and that would get them in trouble with Nate.
I pasted on a little half-smile. “I’m surviving, I guess,” I said. “It’s been pretty hard over the last few days. All I want to do is sleep. I’ve barely even showered or brushed my hair.”
Ruby nodded sympathetically. “I get it,” she said. “If it makes you feel any better, absolutely no one is talking about that stupid sex tape anymore.”
“It’s all about the murders now,” Laurel added. “Everyone is freaked out because the guy is still out there somewhere. Two hundred students have dropped out of their courses in the last week.”
I nodded as if I’d been keeping track of everything going on in the world. “I think I heard something about that,” I replied. “I guess I’m not the only one losing my shit over everything.”
She rubbed my arm. “Don’t feel bad. We’re just glad you’re dealing with it,” she said. She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “You’ve been going to that therapist you mentioned in your messages, right?”
“I’ve been a couple of times,” I said with a slight nod. Guilt struck at my core as the words left my mouth. I hated lying to her, but I had to. “It’s made me feel a little better.”
“That’s good.” Laurel turned her gaze to Nate. “So what’s this about?” she went on, motioning to the two of us. “Since when do you two hang out?”
Nate looked at me and arched a brow. “You haven’t told your friends about me yet?”
My cheeks flooded with heat. “Uh…”
“Wait, you two are dating now?” Ruby cut in, misinterpreting my fearful expression as embarrassment.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I said, forcing a smile.
“I thought you hated him,” Laurel said, brows rising. “No offense, Nate.”
Nate grinned. “None taken. It took a while to convince her to give me a shot, but I had to keep trying,” he said. He paused and leaned down to give me a quick peck on the cheek. “As soon as I saw her in that green dress at the stoplight party a few weeks ago, I knew she was going to be mine.”
“Ooh, I remember that dress!” Ruby said, eyes sparkling. “I’m not surprised he was obsessed with you after that, Lex. You looked so good.”
Laurel frowned. “What happened to that Harry guy?”
“He turned out to be a bit of a dick,” I said with a half-hearted shrug.
“Well, I guess it’s good that Nate kept hounding you, then,” Ruby said. She turned her attention back to him, giving him a warning look. “I hope you’ve been taking care of her. She hasn’t been feeling well.”
“I know.”
“He’s been great,” I blurted out. “He brings me food when I need it. Cleans up for me. Keeps me alive.”
It wasn’t entirely untrue.
“It’s the least I can do,” Nate said, leaning down to plant another quick kiss on my cheek. “You’ve had such a rough time lately.”
Ruby smiled. “I had no idea you were such a sweetheart, Nate,” she said, playfully smacking his chest.
“I’m usually not,” he said, lifting a brow. “But you know what Alexis is like. Stone cold fox. If I didn’t treat her like a queen, she’d throw me in the trash.”
Ruby giggled, cheeks flushing pink.
Laurel wasn’t so easily fooled by his shallow charms. She wrinkled her nose at him and then looked back at me. “Are you coming back soon?” she asked. “Or have you dropped the whole semester?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said, nervously twisting my fingers. “I haven’t really thought about it.”
“You’ve only missed a couple of weeks, so I think you could catch up easily enough if you wanted to.”
I nodded slowly. “Maybe. I’ll see how I feel in a few days.”
“I’ll email you my notes just in case.”
“I wish my friends were as nice as yours,” Nate cut in, lifting a brow as he nudged me. A smile broke out on his handsome face again. “Hey, we should have them over for dinner soon.”
I tilted my head. “What?”
He ignored my confusion and focused on Laurel and Ruby. “Alexis is coming to stay with me for a while, because I don’t like the idea of her being all alone in that cramped little dorm when she’s having such a shitty time,” he said. “You two should come over sometime when she’s feeling up to it. Keep her company.”
“That’d be awesome!” Ruby said. She turned to me. “Seriously, Lex, he’s right— we totally have to hang soon!”
“Yeah, for sure,” I said, knowing Nate would never actually allow my friends to visit. This was probably the last time I’d ever see them.
“I know you said you wanted to be alone for a while, but it’s been so long already, and we’ve missed you so much,” she went on. “I think it’ll make you feel better to be around people.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I said in a small voice.
Laurel tilted her chin to the side and knitted her brows as she looked at me. “So you’re going to stay at the frat house?”
Nate chuckled. “No, I’m taking her to my house. Not the Skulls house.”
“Ooh, fancy,” Ruby said, arching a brow. “You’ll be living on a giant estate like a princess while the rest of us peasants are stuck here in the dorms.”
Nate flashed me a sickeningly-sweet smile. “Well, she’s my princess, so she deserves it,” he said, digging the point of the knife into my back until my nerve endings cried out. The message was clear. Get rid of them. Now.
“We better head off,” I said, pasting on another smile as bile rose in my throat. “I know it’s really early, but I already feel like crawling back into bed. I’m so tired.”
<
br /> “Okay, we’ll let you go. We have to get to the library anyway.” Ruby smiled back at me. “I’m glad you’re starting to feel a bit better.”
“Me too,” Laurel added. “I hope you can come back to class soon.”
“Yeah, I hope so too,” I said. My lips felt like they were about to split open from all the fake smiling.
“We’ll have to figure out a time when we’re all free so we can set that dinner up,” Nate said. “Next week, maybe, if Lexie is feeling up to it.”
“Sounds good.” Laurel leaned in to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she added in a whisper.
I swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah. Not a hundred percent, but I’m getting there.”
“Okay. Remember, just text me if you need anything.”
The girls waved and headed off in the opposite direction. Nate pushed on my back, digging the tip of the blade into my skin again. “Hurry up,” he muttered.
I winced and picked up the pace as I stepped into the nearby parking lot. “Could you possibly have made that any more awkward?” I said in a low voice. “I think Laurel noticed something wasn’t right.”
“The only thing that made it awkward was you being so weird and jittery,” he said, shooting me a dark look.
“Bullshit,” I muttered. “Those queen and princess comments were way over the top.”
“Shut the fuck up. Your friends don’t know anything.” He unlocked his car and shoved me inside.
“Are you really taking me to your house?” I asked as I clipped my seatbelt.
“Yes. But you won’t be staying there.”
He didn’t offer any explanation for what he meant by that, and I didn’t ask.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the sculpted black gates of the Lockwood estate. Nate clicked a button on his key fob, and the gates swung open, revealing the formal landscaping and four-story Gothic mansion beyond.
We headed down to the end of the long driveway and parked next to a large marble fountain.
“This way,” Nate said after we stepped out of the car, guiding me away from the fountain and onto a hedge-lined path which led down the south-facing side of the mansion.
