Page 54 of Such A Bad Girl

Frantically, I moved my wrists around, hoping for some tiny bit of movement in the tight ropes.

My head swam in confusion. I still had no idea who this person was, or what they wanted. The thought of my mother being behind all this haunted me. And if it wasn’t her, then who?

I had no idea where I was. All I knew was I needed to get loose and then I’d figure out what to do after that.

But I knew one thing for certain. The first thing I needed to do when I got out of here was tell Theo how much I loved him. The thought of not being able to do that was all the motivation I needed as I kept trying to maneuver the ropes.

When I heard footsteps coming down the stairs again, I froze.

My eyes widened when I saw the scissors in her hand. Evil glimmered in her eyes and fear churned in my stomach as she neared.

She reached out with her empty hand, cupping my face first and then grabbing a handful of hair and running a tangled lock through her fingertips.

“You used to be a lot prettier, Everleigh. I think Hollywood has hardened you. God, everyone loved you back then, didn’t they? You were the cool girl, the homecoming queen, and the girl most likely to succeed. I guess they voted correctly, didn’t they? It didn’t take long for you and West to take Hollywood by storm. Fuck, I can’t go anywhere in this country without being bombarded with your faces these days. It makes it really hard to forget the past. I tried to forget. I promise I did. I just can’t. And you know what?”

She wrapped the lock around her fingers and pulled hard enough that my head went along with it. Horror ripped through my heart as she quickly brought the scissors up to my hair, the dull blades hacking and sawing at the ends of my hair.

I screamed, my voice still muffled by whatever she’d stuffed inside of my mouth. As I attempted to scramble away, she laughed. An evil, self-satisfied, hateful laugh that pierced my soul.

I tried to push myself away from her but I had no leverage. She was the one in control.

She held the lock of hair up in the air, letting it dangle in a graceful curl from her fingers. Then she let it drop. She grabbed another fistful of my hair and hacked at it. Then another. Then another and another, all the while laughing gleefully. I twisted and turned to no avail, terror turning my veins to ice. Chunks of my hair flew through the air.

“I wonder how much I could sell this for on the internet?” She laughed again, the sound echoing through the darkness. My stomach turned as she grabbed the pile and held it up like a fucking trophy. “I guess there’s more than one way to get rich, huh, Everleigh? I might get even more for a tooth or something, don’t you think?”

With that, she left me there in the darkness once again. Her footsteps slowly faded away as the fear in my body left me shuddering and sobbing.

My long blonde hair was part of my identity. My brand. Without it, I was lost.

Despair and deep fear rocked through my body. I had to get out of here fast, before this fucking madwoman killed me.

I couldn’t die like this.

This couldn’t be the way everything ended for me.

It just couldn’t.

Chapter Thirty-Three

THEO

As Kaylee and I went through my phone together, I received a message from Jill but I ignored it.

“Who’s that?”

“Just a girl from the coffee shop. We had a coffee date. She doesn’t matter, just ignore it.”

She nodded and used her phone to call her friend. Within moments, she’d put a trace on both my phone number and Everleigh’s. Then, while West and Rian listened on intently, she went right into police officer mode and began her questioning. “Tell me everything you remember about Austin.”

I gritted my teeth. This was taking too long. “I did already, Kaylee.”

“You glossed over it, Theo. I need details. Anything you can think of might be helpful, even if you don’t think so.”

“Okay, fine,” I sighed. “West was at his first big audition in Hollywood. I was at the end of the summer party at Town Lake. We had it every year. It was hot as fuck, as it always is in August in Texas. The heat makes everyone a little crazy and that night was no exception. Everyone was drunk, some people were stoned, but it wasn’t too rowdy. Mostly, everyone was dancing and having a good time.”

I paused, the feeling of that night overwhelming me as it all came back so clearly.

“Everleigh was there with her friends, holding court on the tailgate of her truck. Everleigh was the cool girl, everyone loved her,” I glanced over at West, hoping my face wasn’t giving anything away. “Everyone wanted to be with her or be her. I watched over her when West was gone. But that night, I was in the woods taking a leak when I heard Avett talking about his plans.”

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