Page 129 of The Dollhouse

“And those are your boyfriends? Carter’s the one who…”

“Was at the party, yeah. And, honestly, it’s mostly Roman who likes the shows, because Carter’s usually on the stage with me—” I spotted how red his cheeks got the longer I talked, and I said, “Am I making you uncomfortable? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I guess I’m just more open than most people about this sort of stuff. Forget it.” I knew as I tried to dismiss what I’d been saying, Wyatt would feel bad and try to say he wasn’t uncomfortable.

And it was okay if he was. It had taken forever to get Lake more comfortable with the idea of being with me while two other men were, let alone share me at the same time.

“No, no, I’m sorry,” he hurried to say. “I’m just not used to… any of that.” Again, he flashed me a smile, although this time it came off as ten times more awkward than the previous one. He coughed. “Maybe I could… for a little bit, at least. Uh, you’re sure your boyfriends are okay with it?”

“I can give you their numbers, and you could call and talk to them yourself if you don’t believe me?”

Wyatt shook his head fervently. “No, I believe you. I do.”

“If it makes you uncomfortable, you don’t have to do it.” I’d never force anyone to do anything they didn’t want to do, even if there was more to this plan than met the eye. If Wyatt didn’t want to come, if it was too much for him, then so be it. I’d figure something else out.

Again, he shook his head. “I’ll come, just let me know when and where.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Great,” I said, “it’s a date. If you like my hair, you’ll love my tattoo.” I winked, and my wink only caused him to blush more furiously. He was too easily flustered, and I’d used that to my advantage.

By the time we finished eating and I walked with him back to work, my sister was gone, no longer hanging around outside the student union. A part of me wondered if it was just my paranoia, if maybe it wasn’t Willow walking by over and over again, staring at us as she did so. There were sidewalks around the union, and it wasn’t like they were vacant of students. It could’ve been someone else, my mind playing tricks on me.

Or it could’ve been my sister, watching through the windows, scheming, coming up with a plan she thought she could use to get back at me.

I went to class, wondering if she’d try to approach me before I headed into the lecture hall or not. She didn’t. I didn’t see Willow as I headed inside and picked my seat. In fact, I didn’t see her at all, even as other students filled up the room and the professor started his presentation.

Willow didn’t show up. She didn’t come to class. She was not here, and I found that insanely odd. Had seeing me and Wyatt together again set her off to the point where she couldn’t sit in class because she’d blow a gasket at me, or was it due to something else?

I ducked out of the lecture hall about halfway through to see if maybe she was waiting for me in the hall, but she wasn’t there, either. Willow was nowhere to be found. I could not hide the confusion on my face, and I checked my messages to see if maybe Wyatt had texted me. You never knew; Willow might’ve waited for me to leave his side only to pounce on him right after.

But there was nothing. Nothing at all.

Hmm. This felt weird to me, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I returned to class and pretended to pay attention. Had to take a pop quiz, too—surprisingly, I didn’t think I did too awful on it.

Next class rolled around, and it was like deja vu. Willow wasn’t there, either. She wasn’t anywhere. It was the weirdest thing. When the class let out, I hurried to pack up and be on my way. Something in my gut told me something wasn’t right here, that Willow wouldn’t just drop everything and start randomly skipping. I hadn’t even made a fool of her yet. Not really.

I was about to text Wyatt when I saw I had a text from Carter. About an hour ago, he’d told me to come home.

And then, it was like everything became clear. The sun broke through the metaphorical clouds, and I put it all together. I didn’t even need to text Carter back to know where Willow had gone. She’d told me all I needed to know on Tuesday.

The bitch had followed me home from the party, so she knew where I lived. She wasn’t here because she’d seen Wyatt and me together, she’d snapped, and she’d decided to go after the man she’d seen inside the house with me. She’d tried to go after my boyfriend yet again.

Only this time she wouldn’t be able to steal him.

I shut off my phone screen, jaw grinding. Just because she couldn’t steal my men from me didn’t mean I had no reason to be angry with her. I fumed as I walked across campus, practically storming my way home.

The bitch thought she could play dirty? Oh, she had no idea how dirty I could get these days, but she’d find out on Sunday. They’d all find out.

Chapter Ten – Carter

Roman was upstairs, talking to Sylvester about something. I didn’t know what, and I didn’t care. I only cared when I had a job in front of me, a name that needed crossed off life’s list. I only cared when it was time to stalk in the shadows and kill someone. Fuck, it felt like it’d been forever since I’d smelled lead in the air.

Not that I wanted to kill random people, but sometimes the urge just came over me, and I… well, I wanted to kill someone. When it was your job, you learned to love it. I’d followed Roman’s lead when it came to that.

I was downstairs in the kitchen, making myself an afternoon snack. Let’s be honest here: if we stayed here much longer, I’d start gaining weight. The only things to do around here were eating and fucking and sleeping, and when Zoey was in class that got narrowed down to two.

Like always, I counted down the minutes to when Zoey would get home, but the moment the microwave beeped with my snack ready to go, I heard the doorbell ring. Eyebrows creasing, I glanced toward the hall off the side of the kitchen, which led to the front of the house, where the vestibule was and the front door.

Who the hell could be here? People didn’t go door to door trying to sell shit in Hillcrest, did they? If there was someone at that fucking door trying to sell me their religion, I’d pull them into this fucking house and show them mine… and the only religion I had involved guns and bullets.

I left my food in the microwave, storming to the front of the house and throwing open the door before checking to see who it was. “What the fuck do you want?” I growled out, and then I blinked and realized it wasn’t someone selling their religion or girl scout cookies or anything like that.

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