Page 75 of Beautiful Prey

She hadn’t seen what I did. Before she could, I smacked the lid back on.

I thought of the man who had been watching me. Something about him had been all too familiar.

No. No, that wasn’t possible.

I went to grab for my phone, only for the lights to flicker and go out above us. Then I heard a loud bang—felt the sound vibrate in my chest—followed by screams from outside the bathroom.

“What’s going on?” the woman said, confusion and fear in her voice.

I started for the door and opened it, looking out. I could hardly see anything except for the streetlights streaming out of the wide window by the stairs. People were shouting and moving everywhere, most of them making for the stairs.

I reached for a man in a tux, catching his arm. “What’s happening?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said in a rush. “Some kind of attack.”

There was another loud pop and bang. Debris fell from the ceiling and the chandeliers began to swing.

“There’s a fire,” someone shouted.

The crowd panicked. They rushed the stairs. The man took hold of my arm. “You’re Martel’s daughter, right?” he said, keeping as calm as possible. “Come on, I’ll get you out.”

With him pulling me along and the crowd pushing me forward, I was forced toward the stairs. As we got half way down, the emergency lights came on, bathing the area in low white light, lengthening the shadows.

It was then that I saw him at the bottom. He glared at me in his silver mask, his body bent forward, one foot on the stair as if he was ready to lunge through the crowd to get to me. People moved around him, giving him a wide berth because of his size.

My heart lodged in my throat, a little cry moving past my lips. I tore my arm away from the man who—unbeknown to him—was dragging me toward the devil.

He turned on me. “What’s wrong? We need to go.”

Terror gripped me, and I started to back away, people bumping and pushing into me from behind. There was a brief moment between me and Emery where it was just us and no oneelse existed. He knew now I recognized him. He moved, taking long strides toward me.

Fuck.

I bolted back up the stairs, breaking through the crowd, pushing past them, seeing nothing but a sea of screaming, shouting masks.

I didn’t dare look behind me.

The Devil of Harper Pointe had come home, and he was looking to finish me off.

I saw the woman from the bathroom going through a door that said EMPLOYEES ONLY and I rushed for her.

I forced myself inside the little room with her and slammed the door shut, fumbling for the lock.

“Maam, what are you—!”

As I got the lock in place the door jolted off its hinges, the wood splintering on the side where he kicked it.

Thud. CRACK.

We both yelped in surprise. I stumbled back, pulling her with me.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” she shouted.

I turned around the room and saw it was full of storage supplies, but at the opposite end, there was a service elevator. “Come on.” I pulled her toward it.

“Why? Who is that?”

A monster in a man’s body. I shoved open the elevator door and the gate with it, then dragged her in and shut the door behind us, looking out to the storage room through a small circular window. I closed the gate just as the outer door burst open, wood splintering and flying everywhere, the door practically coming off its hinges. A scream tore up my throat as I jammed my finger on the down button. He came through just as the elevator buzzed to life and began to sink. He pulled open the elevator door and I backed myself into the corner as far fromhim as I could get. He tried to pull the gate aside but it was jammed in place. He tried to force it but it wouldn’t budge. By then the elevator was too far gone down for him to open the gate and get inside. He realized this and then watched me.

---