Page 24 of Look What You Made Me Do

Wyn

Two days later,it’s evening and I’m back in my apartment. I talked to the building manager and she had sturdier locks installed that same day. I think she was spooked by the police presence from a couple of days ago.

I also get a couple of cheap cameras, placing one above my front door, and a couple pointing out my windows, with very visible signs that say, “You’re on camera.”

“You doing okay?” Alexis asks, her soft voice traveling through the phone.

“Yeah, I’m hanging in there,” I say.

I didn’t end up telling her about the voice memo from the masked man, because…I don’t know why, exactly. And I never reported it to the police, which I know will be a mistake in the end. If I bring it up later, there will be questions about why I didn’t report it right away.

I guess I just want to pretend none of this ever happened. Just ignore it and move on. The last few months have beenabsolute shit, and this is just one more thing I have to deal with. So what if I just…don’t?

“My professors gave me a couple of days off, but I think I’ll go back to classes tomorrow,” I tell Alexis.

Just bumbling around my apartment isn’t good for my mental health. I’ve only taken a couple of days off school and already I’m feeling a bit of cabin fever. I’m used to being active. I’m used to being around people, and being alone with my thoughts isn’t helping.

“I think that’ll be good for you,” she says. “You want me to pick you up in the morning?”

“Nah, thanks,” I say. “I’m good. I’ll see you on campus.”

“Lunch tomorrow?”

I nod, even though she can’t see it. “I could do lunch.”

We’re about to hang up, when she says, “Oh, shit, I almost forgot. There’s an initiation tomorrow. Rush Beach. I think it’s at eight. We can go together.”

I pause at the mention of another Burning Crown event happening so soon. I hadn’t prepared myself emotionally for that. But I’m dying to confront Kai. He told the police that he just drank too much and passed out, which is why I’m assuming they don’t believe my version of the story. His is a lot more plausible. But it’s also bullshit, and Kai knows it.

Would he look me in the eye and dare to say the same thing? He hasn’t texted me since the incident, but if he’s out of the hospital, then I know he’ll be at the ceremony tomorrow.

“Ah, yeah, sounds good,” I say.

When we hang up, I pull up my texts to Kai. I asked him how he was doing two days ago. No response. He’s deliberately ignoring me. Is he embarrassed? Or…wild thought, maybe he’s working with my stalker, and that whole scene at my apartment was orchestrated? Why would he do that, though? What’s in it for Kai?

Ugh,see, this is why I can’t stay home alone. My thoughts start spiraling in all kinds of crazy directions.

Pulling out my laptop, I start watching something online, but eventually, I get bored with that. I could really use some coffee right now. But glancing up at my kitchen, I realize coffee isn’t happening. I had to clear everything out of my cupboards the other day in case my food was laced. The tea was drugged, for sure, but what else had my stalker gotten into? Did he drug several things, and the tea is just what I happened to drink that night?

Ugh,I can’t be here right now.

Blowing out a breath, I get up and throw on some leggings, then toss my long hair up into a messy bun. Sliding some flip-flops on, I grab my purse and my phone and head out the door.

I’m betting Rush House has coffee. Ever since Lucas’ consort, Ava, took over as queen, there’s been food in the cupboards. The girl knows what she wants, and I have to admit, I like her. Her relationship with Lucas is strange, though, and I’m not sure what to make of it. She’sreallyinto him, but every time I see him, he has a new chick crawling all over him. And the wild thing is that Ava knows. Open relationship, maybe?

I mean, everyone knows the Sacred Sons are man whores. Water is wet. The sky is blue. The Sacred Sons will fuck anything with tits. It’s a fact of life. Maybe Ava has survived this long as queen consort because she’s willing to accept that fact.

It’s just getting dark when I pull up to Rush House. The gothic Victorian mansion is all lit up, and there are several random Burning Crown members dancing drunkenly on the front lawn.

Oh, right. I’d almost forgotten. Shit always gets wild right before an initiation ritual. If it’s a guy being initiated then there’s usually an unofficial party the night before. I was told it’s because initiation is so brutal for the guys that there’s always achance he could die in the process, so the night-before-revelry became a tradition.

With a deep breath, I pop out of my car and walk past the gargoyles flanking the gate, and up the walkway to the huge house. It’s at least a hundred years old, and it's on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. At night, the place looks creepy, haunted by the ghosts of dumb rich boys from centuries past.

Austin isn’t at the door to collect our phones, because the party isn’t an official Burning Crown event, though most members are encouraged to attend out of respect.

I walk in, and it’s a fucking mad house. It’s only seven in the evening, but already people are stumbling around drunk. Techno music is being pumped out from the ballroom, the heavy bass rattling the ancient windows. With this kind of treatment, it’s a miracle this house has remained standing for the last hundred-plus years.

I don’t see any of the Sacred Sons, or the man of the hour, Dominic, but he’s probably in the ballroom, getting a blow job while he does vodka shots or something. You know, the usual.

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