Page 81 of Beautiful Prey

“We have a friend who works with the feds and he’s on his way,” Jamie said. “He can get her somewhere.”

The officer nodded. “Alright. We’ll have someone come out and check up on you in an hour or two.”

“Wait, you guys aren’t staying?” Lena said.

“We have to be readily available for any occurrences on campus, and trust me, there’s a lot. You're not the only one whose party we have to show up to, Lena,” Cormin said.

“Yeah, well you didn’t get called here for a noise complaint this time, you got called because there’s a psycho on the loose and my friend needs to be protected,” she snapped.

“You said you have a friend on the way who can take her somewhere safe. Stay inside for now and lock the doors. Keep a lookout for anyone suspicious. If anyone tries to get in, you can call us right away.” They moved toward the sliding door. Lena wheeled toward me and Jamie.

“Guess it’s a good thing I got my brother’s revolver since I can’t count on these assholes,” she murmured to me.

They left, and Lena warned her roommates and their friends that if they let anyone in or left without locking the door after, she would see to it they would be kicked out of the house and never allowed back.

By then a lot more people left, more worried about facing Lena’s wrath than some unknown danger in the night. As Jamie rechecked every inch of the house, Lena brought me into her room. I sat on her bed, trying to calm myself, even though all I wanted to do was bolt out of the house and run. I felt jumpy, skittish, every little noise making my heart jolt in my chest. Lena wheeled over to her drawer next to the bed and opened the lowest shelf, taking out a lock box.

“Do you know how to use one of these?” she said, placing the box on the bed beside me and opening it to reveal the gun she had hidden away.

“I took lessons some years ago,” I said, feeling queasy at the thought of aiming it at Emery and pulling the trigger.

“Well, that’s better than me. My brother only ever took me once when he gave me this thing. Didn’t think I’d ever need to use it.”

I started to pace, panicked. “I need to get out of here, Lena,” I said. “I feel trapped, I feel like I’m putting you in danger just being here. I should just go.”

“Like hell you are,” Lena argued. “Eve, you can’t go out there alone. Just wait a little longer for Liam.”

“I don’t need him to do this, I can hide myself.”

“Where?”

I stopped pacing. Really, I didn’t know. I couldn’t go back to my apartment; I couldn’t stay here. There was only one other place I could think of, but only because I figured it would be the last place he would ever look.

My old family house was far enough out of the way from everyone and was gated. It had been sitting vacant and locked up ever since the night of the killings. But it was secure. Maybe if I—

There was a sudden loud popping sound from somewhere outside, and I jumped, backing away so I couldn’t be seen from the window.

Lena wheeled over and peeked out. “Just fireworks. I swear every holiday, no matter what it is, the OZ house is lighting them off.”

I rubbed a hand over my eyes.

“Hey, why don’t you change, get comfy,” Lena said, “or at least put on something you can run and get dirty in. In case, you know….”

I dropped my hand and glared at her.

“Bad joke, sorry.” She smirked.

I started to laugh quietly. “This is really fucked up, isn’t it?” I rubbed a hand over my mouth. “Yeah, I should get dressed and ready to go.”

There was a knock at the door. “It’s me,” Jamie called.

“Come in,” answered Lena as she moved over to her dresser. Jamie opened the door but only peeked his head in.

“Liam is ten minutes away, better start packing.”

“I’ll get a few things,” Lena said. “Eve, your clothes from earlier are on the desk there.”

Jamie disappeared as I took off my shoes. I set my phone on the dresser, then started to slip the dress off me. There was another knock on the door, more urgent than before.

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