Page 42 of Runaway Queen

I sprinted on silent feet along the hall, not daring to look back. The realization that I was running around my place of work wielding a knife registered dimly, but I couldn’t care about that right now, not when Chiara was in danger. I approached the art room and slowed, peeking through the circular glass window at the top of the door.

It wasn’t that dark inside. The desk light was on, and a figure dressed in black sat at my desk. The same neon mask sat over his face.

How had Nikolai beat me here?

I couldn’t see Chiara anywhere in the room. This couldn’t be where he was keeping her. I was still stretching up to peek in the window when my phone rang in my hand. I got such a fright, I nearly dropped it.

I answered, raising it to my ear with trepidation.

“You called?”

“Chiara?” I croaked.

“Yes, bitch, who else did you think you called ten times? My ringer’s off. We’re at the hospital, remember?”

“You are?”

“We are. You want to speak to the little lion?”

Her question came just as the figure at the desk inside my classroom turned its terrifying mask my way. I felt the moment his eyes connected with mine.

I backed away from the door. He’d just been trying to get me isolated, and like a fucking idiot, I’d fallen for it.

My back came up against something hard. I froze as hands closed on my hips. It was a person, standing flush against me.

“Boo.”

I whirled around, my knife rising as I registered that the person standing in the neon mask in the hall behind me couldn’t be the same person sitting at my desk inside my class.

My hand holding the knife made contact with the mask, turning the man’s head sharply to the side as the metal glanced off the hard plastic.

I didn’t wait around to see if it was Nikolai or not. All reason had left my head at this point, and I was in survival mode. In this case, survival meant getting back to a highly populated area. I was running before masked man number one recovered.

I sprinted to the end of the art wing corridor and nearly fell down the stairs that led to the science wing. The sound of footsteps in hot pursuit pounded through the stillness.

I got to the bottom of the stairs. There, the corridor split in two directions. One was the science classes, and eventually, the way back to the gym and safety. The other way was toward the shop classes, an area I didn’t know well. I knew it was the opposite direction from the gym, however, with a side door that led toward the woods. I took two steps toward the direction of the gym, people and safety, just as a figure strolled into view at the end of the hall.

It was one of the men; which one, I had no idea. He ambled toward me, his black-gloved hand trailing over the lockers. He was whistling a tune.Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.

The sound of the pursuing footsteps had stopped. I turned slowly, looking up the stairs. On the top one, only thirty feet away, the other man was sitting in an easy crouch, his mask tilted to the side.

I backed away. I had no options left. I turned on my bare heel and made for the shop classes, and that door to the woods.

I made it as far as the last classroom, when the small side door at the end of the corridor was nearly within reach, before someone caught up with me. His hand went around my mouth at the same time as his hard arm clamped across my stomach. Then, we were moving backward.

It was Nikolai, I could tell. It was the way his strong hands held me effortlessly but didn’t hurt. It was the scent of him. Like coming home after being lost for years. Was there a twisted sense of relief in that? Yes, as fucked up as it was, I’d prefer the devil I knew. Who the hell was working with him to terrorize me, I had no idea, and didn’t want to know. Having one psychopath in my life was already too many.

“Shh, prom queen. Stop squirming so much, it’s making me want to chase you down again.”

I stilled, trying to drag air into my lungs from behind his glove.

The door to the classroom closed behind us, as I struggled against him. He allowed me to twist in his arms before backing me into the edge of hard table. I hated his mask. It was even scarier when I couldn’t see anything familiar about him.

“Did you find your friend?”

His mocking tone sent anger through my panic. He was reducing me to an animal, mindless in my fear, while he was just playing with me.

He released my mouth.

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