Page 150 of Say Yes to the Death

“What’s her name?”

“Wendy Flutter.”

Holy shit.

Claire’s mouth dropped open. Mindy flailed her hands beside her.

“What do we do with her?” another voice asked.

“You have twenty-four hours to find Miss Flutter and bring her here. Tomorrow night at ten p.m., we’ll show you what the eradicators do. And, as always when you’re in public, remember your cover. You are a member of Epsilon Sigma Alpha, a fraternity with unparalleled requirements for GPA and community service. You are bold, you are righteous, you are alpha. Go in justice.”

There was a shuffling on the other side of the door, and footsteps padded across the concrete floor. The flickering light went out. There was silence. Claire’s heart was going to beat its way right out of her body.

“Do you think it’s safe to go?” Mindy whispered.

The door opened.

They leapt away from the opening. A man walked into the corridor and blinked in surprise.

Claire grabbed Taser #3 from her purse and fired it. The prongs jumped the short distance in the blink of an eye. The ESA member went rigid and started to fall forward. Mindy nudged the sex doll over to break his fall, then hit him in the head with a hardcover romance novel from her purse.

Something rolled out of his pockets. Claire shined the beam of her flashlight over it. It was an expensive-looking silver pen, identical to the one she had found in the woods. She shuddered.

Nicole eased the door shut, then they turned and ran like hell. Claire made it about eight feet before jerking backward like a caught fish. Her heart leapt into her throat.

“Shit! The prongs are still stuck in him.”

Mindy whipped open her purse and pulled out cuticle scissors. She snipped the wires.

“Wait!” Claire called. An idea had struck her. She pulled out her tube of unflattering lipstick and uncapped it.

“Claire, what the hell are you doing?” Nicole hissed. “We need to go.”

Claire leaned over to the wall and dragged the lipstick across the surface. She glanced nervously at the body on the ground, but he didn’t move. Mindy must have really clocked him.

“Done!” She stepped back and admired her handwork.

TKE RULES

“Smart to try to blame it on another frat, but why would a TKE brother have lipstick?” Mindy whispered.

“Never mind. Let’s go.” They followed the beams of flashlights down the hallway all the way back to the chapel. Claire turned around no fewer than seventy-two times, but no lumbering ESA brother followed them. They snuck back through the basement and outside without incident. Once they had piled into Mindy’s car, they let out a collective sigh of relief.

“So. Wendy,” Nicole said. There was a cobweb in her wig.

“Right. Option A: we let them take her,” Mindy offered as she turned the car on. Air conditioning and pop music blasted simultaneously.

“We can’t let them kill her. Can we?” Nicole said thoughtfully.

Claire sighed. They had no choice. “You know what we have to do.”

“Call the police and let them handle it?” Nicole suggested.

“No. We have to kidnap her first.”

CHAPTER FORTY

To Do:

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