Page 48 of The Masks She Wore

?Now I was trapped in a maze with a stalker who claimed to be my half-brother, and a psychopath whom I willingly followed in here because I was horny.

?I really needed to call a therapist.

?With a breath, I started walking. I couldn’t feel my feet anymore, I couldn’t stop shivering. All I could think about was getting homeand taking a nice, long, scalding hot bath in a tub filled with bubbles and scented salts. Hunting him wasn’t worth it, not tonight. Not after everything I had delt with up until this point.

?I came up to a corner and peered around it tentatively. I wondered if he could see me. I wondered if he could hear me. I wondered if he had never come to this stupid maze and had watched me run into it thinking I was some sort of whorish lunatic.

?At this point, I was wondering the same thing because what was I doing? Searching for a guy because he fucked me last night? I should just turn around. I was proving Max right by continuing on.

?I walked around corner after corner. Taking rights, lefts, the music never drifting through the air, not a sound coming from anywhere.

?I was thoroughly lost.

?I was angry and freezing and completely lost.

?Fuck you, Nottingham.

?This had been ahugemistake. I didn’t even want to fuck him anymore, I just wanted to leave.

?I turned around yet another corner and found a dead end.

?I groaned, letting my hands fall with a slap to my thighs, my shoes hitting my leg, leaving a bruise, I was sure.

?This is what I got for not letting my mother’s death go. For allowing captain Bard to treat me like he did, for all of it. I deserved this. I deserved the pain I would feel in the morning from being onmy feet for so long and the shame that would come once I realized that this had all been a huge fuckingjoke.

?What was the next best option? Scream? Would anyone even hear me? Would anyone care? They saw me run in here, they knew it was me. They would probably just roll their eyes and wait twenty minutes to ‘show me a lesson’.Fuck,I never should have come in the first place.

?With a huff, I turned and immediately jumped. I gasped and stumbled back a step, the man standing ominously in the entryway of this little section of the maze.

?My heart skipped a beat, eyes widening, lips parting. Shit, this was an absolute mistake. All of it. Accepting the invitation, walking up to the captain, walking up those stairs, talking to the captain’s wife, standing up to Max, walking willingly into this maze. If there was an award for making stupid decisions, I definitely won it three times over.

?He tilted his head to one side, a slight smile touching one corner of his lips. “You came here searching for me and now you’re shocked that you found me?” He took a few steps forward. “Interesting.”

?This was a bad idea. It was such an unbelievablystupididea. “How long have you been following me?”

?“Tonight, or in general?”

?“In general,” I replied, taking another step back, my back hitting the wall of shrubs.

?I hissed as the branches dug into the soft skin of my back. Shit. Not the best thing to wear when you’re trying to hide from someone.

?But I had been looking for him, right? That was the game. I had come in herelooking for him. What does a person wear when hunting someone in a maze at night? Definitely not expensive heels and an even more expensive dress, that’s for sure.

?“25 days.”

?My breath caught at his confession. “Why?” I breathed out.

?He ignored me, stepping closer.

?My grip tightened around my shoes, but he was already clicking his tongue. “We know how the bat ordeal ended, don’t we?”

?I glared at him, dropping one shoe and lifting the other despite his threat. “Why are you following me?” I asked again, readying myself to gouge him.

?He closed the distance, ripped my shoe out of my hand and grabbed both wrists, shoving me against the shrub.

?I cried out, the sharp branches slicing into my skin.

?“Quiet, Princess, I would hate to interrupt this just to kill someone for watching me fuck you.”

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