Page 7 of Wild Elite

The vase smashed right on his chest, showering the floor with shards of blue and white. He didn’t even flinch, but the sudden crashing sound made me shudder and let out an involuntary squeal. I brought my hand to my mouth to muffle the noise, but it was too late.

Through the crack, I saw the girl’s head jerk around to face the cupboard. “What the… is someone in there? You better fucking come out!” Her voice had risen an octave, and she was beginning to sound even more unhinged. “C’mon, join the party!”

She took a step closer to the cupboard, and my heart began to pound painfully. Maybe finding me watching her would be all it took to set her off with the gun again. My mouth dried up and my chest ached with tension and fear. I could see Elias staring toward the crack in the cupboard door as well, his eyes wide with concern.

“Look, you’re right, okay? Kylie was here, and she’s still here,” he said, his eyes darting from me to the girl. His voice was loud, thunderous, enough to make her forget all about the cupboard.

She turned to face him. “What?” Her eyes were wide as saucers.

“I said you’re fucking right. I know exactly where they’re keeping her. I can take you to her, but you need to put the gun down, because someone called the police, and they just walked in.” Elias’ gaze rose above her shoulder, looking down the hall. “You don’t want them to see you waving that thing around, or else you won’t live long enough to see Kylie again.”

The girl whirled around to look at the officers ostensibly heading her way. Elias took the opportunity to grab her arm and twist it around, making her shriek with pain as she dropped the gun. He kicked it over to the cupboard and called out to me. “Grab it, Tatum!”

I did as he said and crawled out from my hiding spot to pick up the pistol. It was cold and heavy in my hands, but I held it shakily, staring up at Elias and then at the hall behind him.

No police officers were coming toward us. Everything he’d just said was clearly a lie to distract the girl so that she wouldn’t find me. Kylie Burns wasn’t really here in the Van der Veer mansion, and Elias couldn’t have taken the girl to her even if he wanted to. All lies to protect me.

“Thank you,” I whispered raggedly.

Elias held the sobbing, thrashing girl in a tight, furious grip and looked down at me with an expression that suggested I belonged right where I was on the floor. “I didn’t do it for you,” he said coolly.

I shook my head with confusion. What the hell was his problem? He’d clearly just saved me, but for some reason he’d gone right back to acting like an arrogant prick who either despised me or didn’t give a shit about me.

Before I could say anything, I heard the thundering of heavy, fast-paced footsteps, and I looked back to the hall to see three bloated security guards racing toward us with guns drawn. Willa was behind them, looking decidedly unkempt. Her usually-flawless hair had become ruffled and disheveled in all the chaos, and her eyes were wide with fear as she hurried toward us.

“She stole an invitation from someone to get past the guard at the gates. For some reason he didn’t think to wonder why the fuck she wasn’t dressed up like everyone else,” she said shakily, biting back a sob and leaning down to help me up as two of the guards detained the hysterical intruder and hauled her away. The third carefully took the gun from me and followed the others. Elias strode away with him.

The girl screeched back at us as the guards dragged her down the hall. “I know you know what happened to her! You all fucking know!”

“What’s she talking about?” Willa asked, her curious eyes falling on me again as I rubbed my sore ankle and took off my broken shoe. “Do you know why she was here?”

I filled her in on what happened, and her brows shot up. “Wait, she thinks that missing girl is right here in my house?” she said. “God, I think I’d know if someone was being kept here!”

Part of me wondered if she would even know. The sprawling mega-mansion was the size of a shopping mall, so someone in her family could probably keep a secret captive here without anyone else ever realizing. After all, a group of people had been having some sort of wild orgy on the second floor earlier, and Willa didn’t seem to know about that… so what else could be happening right under her nose?

I pushed the thought aside. No, that was silly. The girl with the gun had just been unstable and hysterical, crazed from the unfortunate loss of her sister two years ago. She’d finally snapped and come here tonight in a cry for help, seeing as one of the last things her sister had ever done was attend a party at this mansion.

“I’m so sorry,” Willa continued miserably, staring down at the remnants of the vase on the polished floor. Her hands were shaking like mad, mirroring my own. “I can’t believe this happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said softly.

“I’ll never be able to throw a party again. I’ll just be that girl who nearly got two hundred people shot because of shitty security.” She sniffed. “No one willever want me to host anything again.”

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. As nice as Willa was, she was still prone to the sort of egoistic self-centeredness that often came with the territory of budding socialites.

“Tatum!”

We both turned to see Katie sprinting toward us. She’d obviously heard the guards arriving and knew it was safe to come out now. When she reached us, she wrapped me in a tight bear hug, splashing hot tears on my shoulder as she squeezed me. “I didn’t know where you went! I thought you were...”

She was far too choked up to continue. I patted her back. “We got separated. Not your fault,” I said soothingly. “I hid in a cupboard, so I’m fine.”

She drew back, her eyes shining with relief. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” She looked at Willa. “Are youokay?”

Willa nodded and began to fill Katie in on what I’d just told her about what went down with Elias and the girl. As they spoke, I took a deep, shaky breath and eyed the front door, all the way down the other side of the entry hall. I knew the police would want everyone to stay here for now so they could get witness statements when they arrived, but still, I couldn’t wait to get out of this place.

I was now two for two when it came to crazy, harrowing stuff happening at the parties of America’s elite. Clearly, this gilded world wasn’t for me and never would be. I needed to stay far, far away.

And yet, something in the darkest recesses of my mind told me that soon, I was only going to get sucked in further…

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