Page 45 of Look What You Made Me Do

I use my key to open the door. When we left, it was still light outside, so the apartment is pitch black when we walk in. The apartment smells fresh, like flowers, and I inhale deeply as Wyn flicks the overhead light on.

“Does anything look messed with?” she asks, tiptoeing around the studio.

“I don’t think he made it in,” I say. We’re both still wearing our robes. They’re not supposed to leave Rush House, but I wanted to get her home quickly.

I remove my hood and robe, then start pulling the rest of my clothes off.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Wyn asks.

“I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, taking my shoes off,” I say in a bored tone.

“I already told you, you’re not staying tonight.”

I stop what I’m doing and glare up at her. “There was a strange dude on your doorstep a few minutes ago. Do you really want to find out what he’ll do when I leave?”

She purses her lips. “Do you think it was Gabriel?”

“No,” I snap. “Gabriel is dead.” I’m not even trying to sugar-coat it at this point. I need her to accept that he’s dead, so we can all move on.

When I stand, the palace is so small that I’m practically toe-to-toe with her. She takes a step back, watching as I unbutton my black dress shirt. I pull it off and toss it aside. Then I peel off my slacks and toss those aside, too.

“Hm.” She’s trying to appear unaffected, but I can see that spark of interest in her eyes. “Boxer briefs. How predictable.”

I tug on the clasp of her robe, so I can take it off her. She doesn’t fight me, which is a goddamn miracle. “Why did you faint during the ritual?” I ask pointedly.

Her gaze flicks up to meet mine, and I witness that spark of interest fade to fear. She blinks a few times, before looking away. “I guess I didn’t eat enough today.”

I pluck the hood off her head and let it fall to the floor, then I push the robe off her shoulders, allowing the fabric to pool at her feet. “I’ll tell you what,” I say, tracing the tip of my finger over the swell of her very generous cleavage. “You tell me the truth…” I lean in and whisper in her ear. “...and I won’t make the punishment hurt too bad…”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Wyn

I stare up at Lucas,my mind working through all the lies I could come up with about why I fainted. He didn’t believe the not eating thing. A health condition? Exhaustion? In the end, I press my lips together, and opt for a fact, rather than the truth.

“I don’t owe you an explanation,” I say, lifting my chin defiantly.

Out there on the beach, during the ritual, I could have sworn I saw someone in the distance who lookedexactlylike Gabriel. It was dark, and he was wearing a hoodie, so I guess it could have been anyone, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was him.

Then, right before he vanished into the fog, he lifted his hand, like he was signaling to me or something. That’s when I must have passed out.

I know if I try to tell Lucas any of that, he’ll just mock me and tell me I’m crazy…

Lucas shakes his head and laughs under his breath like I just told him a dirty joke. When he looks back down at me a secondlater, though, that laughter is gone. “Yeah, that’s not going to fucking fly with me and I think you know that.”

“Why do you even care, Lucas?” I ask, lifting my hands helplessly.

Christ, this guy is so unbelievably frustrating. One minute he’s sending me death glares from across the room, then he’s finger-fucking me in the bathroom,thenhe’s whisking me off the beach like my white knight because I fainted. What the actual fuck is wrong with this guy? His ever-shifting moods are giving me whiplash.

He shrugs one shoulder. “You were my cousin’s girl. I owe it to him to look out for you.”

Yeah, I don’t believe that bullshit answer foronesecond.

“But you hate me,” I say, voicing that for the first time since all this shit with Gabriel happened. “And the feeling is mutual, by the way.”

His eyes narrow, like he’s pissed that I’m stating the obvious. Why, though? We both know it. We both feel it. There’s no use skirting around the simple fact that he blames me for Gabriel’s death.

“I can hate you and still do right by Gabriel,” he says.

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