Page 13 of Twist Me

She caught my gaze, meeting my eyes and giving me a dangerous glaring look before turning back to her newly made little friends as she sat beside them. It made my cock throb to see the fire in her eyes.

So, she liked to play games after all.

Smiling, I memorized every curve of her. It was going to be fun to wrap my hands in that curly brown hair, listen to the music made by her moans, and fucking euphoric to see those pretty pale eyes cry for me.

Not taking my eyes off her, ignoring the chattering from Judas and Roe, I waited for her to turn around again.

When she met my gaze this time, I smiled at her, mouthing one simple sentence I knew she could make out. “Welcome back, Little Lamb.”

About twenty minutes later, I slid into the puffy seat in the study. I had to hide my smile of shock because of the look on the big bad Goliath’s face. It served the asshole right. He didn’t get to greet me the way he chose just because I was the newbie. Plus, I had to go to the nurses’ office to get glass pulled out of my arm. Being injured and stalked was notthe welcome I’d expected. Apparently, I didn’t do a good enough job hiding my smug smile, though, because Megan chastised me.

“Zelle, don’t get cocky. Goliath is not the kind of guy you want to taunt.”

I shifted uncomfortably. Yeah, she was probably right, but honestly, I was pissed off. What kind of animal hunted a newcomer?

At least Quinn was okay. He didn’t seem very pleased about being knocked out and that I hadn’t been unconscious, too, especially since I didn’t have as much training as him. I was just a second-year police officer, but it didn’t take an expert to know he was fuming. Now, Quinn was trying to find the one thing cops needed to accomplish anything in an investigation—proof.

Goliath wasn’t stupid, unfortunately. He clearly had a million lackeys in this place doing his bidding. The hallways had been cleaned up, and the freaking window had even been replaced.

I looked over at Emmy, who was brushing her twin sister’s hair. I felt so bad about Lemmy. She had a disease that was far worse than anyone in here. She was unable to respond, existing in her life like an actual living doll.

Emmy was very careful with her. Even though she clearly didn’t understand emotions, it was obvious that her feelings were linked to her twin.On the far side of the study, I could see Goliath smacking something that looked like a toothbrush onto the table’s edge in front of him. The noise jarred me from my thoughts, and I looked back at Megan. She had a little baby doll tucked under her arm. Her file had talked about her losing her own child and ending up here because she kidnapped a student, so maybe that doll helped her cope in some way.

This place and its inhabitants’ pain felt like it was already changing me.

“You’re right,” I finally said to Megan, who gave me a motherly smile and went back to rocking her baby doll.

The black-haired girl didn’t talk much. Admittedly, she made me uncomfortable. She had an extreme version of pica. Besides chewing on top of pages of books, marker lids, and dead bugs on the ground, she often chewed on her hair.

Emmy said her name was Jillian, a.k.a. Jilly.

The study here was pleasant. It was the one place I’d seen so far that didn’t look like the creepy old type of asylum world that television portrayed inside a space like Hospital Twelve. It had books lined up in shelving units. I assumed the room was powdery blue to give people a calm feeling because people often associate emotion with colors. Red was romantic, yellow was creative, and blue was soothing, which I hoped did help to comfort the human mind. However, the TV mounted high on the wall wasn’t helping to soothe anyone. It was blaring on repeat, listing the names of the missing patients and the related deaths associated with them.

Would I be able to find The Reaper before this killer claimed more lives?

The glass panels on the far end of the room had the nurses safely behind the see-through wall, including the not-so-nice one who patched me up. Beside the door’s entryway were robotic guards that didn’t even seem to blink. They kept their hands poised on their weapons, waiting for any disturbance.

How the heck did they not see a patient disappear as another patient chased her like the boogeyman? Useless figureheads.

“They’re coming!”A guy suddenly ran across the carpet, disturbing the quiet of the room and screaming about someone.

I was the only one to turn my head and look around the room frantically for the threat. Emmy squeezed my shoulder and tapped the book in my lap—a silent way to warn me.Sure enough, the guy was clotheslined by the guards and hauled off into some other area. His screams echoed for a minute before anominous sound made by the sealing of a door finally ended his mania.

Okay, so maybe the guards were not just figureheads.

I had stupidly followed the guards’ movements, watching their exit and not paying attention to what was right in front of me.

One of the triplets—the one with dark brown hair falling into his eyes and a curved mouth that promised only good things—stood by my side. He flopped down on one of the cushions and grinned when I met his gaze. He didn’t seem as unhinged as his tallest brother, but he didn’t seem like a good guy either.

“I’m impressed, Little Princess.” His husky chuckle reminded me of a playboy I knew in high school. It was the kind of laughter my mother warned me to avoid.

“I don’t care what you are,” I grumbled, stubbornly turning away from him.I should have known that would have only made him more interested.

“I’m starting to get the appeal Lith has for you, Zee.”

That got my attention.

His words reminded me I was not in this hell hole as myself. I was Zelle, a complete-and-total-bad-mama-jama who ate and burned her victim for trying to escape his handcuffs.

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