Page 17 of If You Dare

That’s a mask.

An all-white mask with a cluster of pinprick holes at the mouth.

Shit. Who the hell wears a mask on campus in broad daylight? Is he following me or just headed in the same direction? His clothes don’t give anything away. Inconspicuous, plain black shirt over a pair of dark jeans.

But the combat boots—

No. Not him.

Anyone but Wes.

Part of me wants to break into a run. But there’s no way I could outrun Wes Novak. He’s a hockey player in the best shape of his life. He practically sprints across ice—he could close the distance between us in seconds.

Fuck.Fuck, fuck, fuck. Wes can’t be following me for any good reason. He said he didn’t want me on this campus, warned he’d do anything to make my life a living hell. He’s going to hurt me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

Maybe somebody will spot us—a timid girl hurrying down the sidewalk and a suspicious masked man following her—and they’ll intervene.

All I have to do is make it to my residence hall. Nobody can get into Nohren without a student ID registered to the building. Wes can’t do anything to me once I’m inside anyway. Minus the stairwells, cameras monitor our movements in every corner. If he hurts me, I’ll have evidence.

Not that they’ll be able to identify him.

My heart’s pumping wildly when I finally reach the door, but I breathe a little easier when I swipe my card and the automatic door swings open. I’m almost there. Almost away from him—

Feet rush toward me, thundering up so fast, I don’t have time to move. All I can do is squeeze my eyes shut and brace myself.

The footsteps pass me with a small breeze. When I open my eyes, Wes is strolling through the door.

I let him right in.

The RA at the front desk glances up when we enter and an amused smirk pulls at her lips. “A little early for Halloween.”

Wes shrugs off her comment, and she drops her eyes back to her computer. Of course. Students have worn stranger things on campus. He’s not streaking, so why should she care? As far as she’s concerned, he’s probably going to surprise his girlfriend with a mask kink.

Besides, he’s Wes Novak. The captain of the hockey team can wear wherever he wants.

Do whatever he wants.

I dart for the elevator, hoping he’ll head for a friend’s dorm and forget all about me. But when I step through the open elevator doors, he follows me inside.

My lungs shrivel. I expect him to keep his back to the doors, block my exit, but he hits a button for the next floor and stands right beside me. His looming presence makes me gulp, the scent of his cedarwood cologne wrapping around me in a lover’s caress that chills me to the bone.

We stare at each other’s reflections in the shiny elevator doors, his stormy blue eyes glaring through the holes in his mask and glued to my face. Melting me where I stand.

The walls close in on me as the elevator lurches, my body growing a thousand degrees hotter.

I’m literally trapped with Wes Novak.

I can’t see it, but there has to be a camera in here. He won’t hurt me, knowing the evidence will follow him.

Except that’s why he’s wearing a mask. To hide his face. Will anyone believe me if I say it was him?

My nails bite into my palms.Shit, shit, shit. I don’t know what to do. My mind scrambles for a way out of this, away from him, but comes up empty.

The elevator grinds to a halt on the next floor. My empty lungs ache, longing for air I don’t dare give them.

“This is your stop.” His low command echoes in the metal box, loud and clear despite the mask.

I double-check the buttons, but this is the second floor. My dorm is on the fifth floor, the number lit up. “No, it isn’t.”

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