Page 21 of Twilight Mask

This one’s coming from upstairs.

It’s ringing, just like my phone had been a second ago, except my phone is in a million little shards.

“What the fucking hell?” I walk up the stairs, mystified, clutching my hammer. “Angelo? Elena? Davide? Simon? If any of you are messing with me, you’d better stop.” I yell out into the empty house, feeling like a moron. The ringing is coming from my bedroom. “Seriously, I’m going to murder you with a hammer. That’s not an empty threat.”

I head toward the sound. In all the horror movies I’ve ever seen, this usually ends with some masked monster with a knife stabbing the shit out of the dumb girl victim. Except there are no monsters here, none aside from me, and I hope some idiot tries to stab me. That’d be the best thing to happen to me all week.

Nothing moves upstairs. The ringing is coming from my bedroom, and my heart starts to accelerate as I push open the door. It’s meticulously clean inside, everything neat and orderly, the bed made and crisp, and it takes me a second before I can figure out where the sound’s coming from.

It’s my laptop. The screen’s closed, and it should be in sleep mode, but it’s making this terrible ringing noise. I walk over to my end table where I keep it plugged into a dock and yank it out, cursing at the thing, tempted to smash it with a hammer but then I won’t be able to stare at the screen and watch random anime while falling asleep tonight. I toss it down and flip it open, teeth bared and pissed beyond belief?—

When the image of a jackal emoji stares at me from a black screen.

It’s jiggling like a call’s coming through.

And the emoji is smiling.

I stare as my heart goes haywire. It keeps ringing, ringing, the jackal head dancing, and I reach out with a trembling hand to move the cursor on top of the small green accept button.

I click and my heart’s in my throat.

Chapter 10

Laura

The mask appears in a shroud of blackness. I can’t make out anything in the room behind him. There’s only the mask, that familiar mask. My legs are weak as I sit down on the bed, and he’s staring at me, his gray eyes just barely visible through the darkness. I don’t know how, but I’m sure he’s smiling.

“You should have just answered when I called.”

I stifle a moan. It’s been so long since I heard his voice. My body’s betraying me big time here. “I didn’t know it was you.”

“I’ll send you a new phone. You shouldn’t break your toys.”

My mouth opens and I look around. “How’d you know?”

“It went abruptly offline and I know you, little demon. You wouldn’t just power it down. Don’t worry, I’m not watching you. Not yet, anyway.”

I stare at the screen and a cold sweat breaks out on my skin. “This computer is on the Bianco network. How are you connected to it?”

“Like how your phone was supposedly hackproof?” He laughs softly like that’s the funniest joke in the world. “Your family is good at a lot of things, baby, but this is my world.”

I try to formulate a rational response, but my head’s a little mushy. “Why are you doing this right now? You couldn’t wait, could you?”

Now it’s his turn to look a little knocked off balance. His head tilts and he leans back for a moment. “No, I couldn’t,” he says, his voice harsh. “Why are you having another show?”

“I wanted you to see my new pieces.”

“Who says I’ll come?”

“You’ll come.” I’m not sure of much, but I’m sure about that. There’s no way in hell Jackal would miss another chance at bossing me around on the roof.

He’s quiet, studying me. I stare back and wish he were here in the room. I’d let his hands roam my body—let them push up my shirt, squeeze my nipples, tease my pussy?—

God, I’ve lived without this kind of need for so long, and now that it’s back, I’m like a horny teenager or something. I have no discipline, no self-control, nothing at all but this stupid, brainless, animalistic ache between my legs.

And I hate it. But I also love it.

“If you want me to show up, you’ll need to earn it.” His voice takes on an edge and excitement blasts through my core.

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