Page 7 of The Pretty Psycho

"And what's the other thing?"

Dante shuffled his weight from one foot to the other, crossing his arms over his chest. "I really need you to be calm, Adrian. We won't be able to do anything if you're not remaining calm."

"Tell me!" I roared, tired of people telling me to stay calm.

I couldn't fucking be calm. Not now. Not when I had no idea if she was alive or dead. Not when I had no idea if I would ever get a chance to look at her, to touch her, to tell her how sorry I was.

I’d spent half of my life living with regrets, unable to change the past because the people I've hurt were no longer among the living. Or even if they were, they were no longer in the right mind to listen to what I had to say. I needed her to be fucking okay, because I had to tell her everything.

"Okay, okay," he murmured, lifting his hands up. "Our scouts found another entrance."

Hope.

It was such a silly little notion, such a stupid fucking thing, but it kept me going all these days, especially now.

"Where?"

"Down by the lake. There's an entrance not too far from that vacant shoreline and we want to go and check it out. It might be nothing, but… Where are you going? Adrian?" I couldn't just sit and wait for him to finish.

"I'm getting ready. What the fuck does it look like I'm doing?"

"Uh—"

"You can tell me everything else on the way. I assume the team has already been assembled?" I looked at him pointedly as I went ahead and picked up my jacket. "Right?"

"Y-Yeah, the team is waiting at the main building. Andries doesn't know?—"

"Good."

"Adrian, he might be?—"

"No," I cut him off. "Andries is a bastard that needs to go, and the sooner that happens, the better it will be. This whole fucking mess wouldn't have happened if he didn't have his head so far up my father's ass. Had he actually tried to find the person responsible for all those murders, we wouldn't be standing here, debating whether or not the team is ready to go and save the girl I fucking love!" My chest rose and fell as Dante looked at me with wide eyes.

It took me a second to realize what just spilled past my lips, and while Dante wasn't exactly the first person I wanted to tell those words to, I didn't care. Not right now.

They all knew I cared for Vega, but none of them knew that I’d finally figured out what this feeling in my chest was.

I never really knew love. Not from my family, not from any of my past girlfriends or hookups, but I knew I loved her. I knew I would burn down the world for the girl with mismatched eyes and a soul that complemented my own. Somewhere along the way she managed to calm down the demons clawing at my insides, and I would spend the rest of my life trying to give her the same.

I just had to get her back first.

"Come on." I pushed him toward the front door, ignoring that shocked look on his face. "You can tell me all about the plan on the way. We don't have time to waste."

"Uh," he stammered, walking in front of me and turning back every now and then. "Yeah. No time to waste."

The cold November wind hit us from all sides as we walked, with Dante leading us toward the main building and me following, going over the plan and the list of people who were coming with us. They knew better than to exclude me from this, and while we all knew that I was in no shape to lead the mission, I had to be there.

Because if anyone was going to find Vega, it was going to be me.

Lake Valenheim shoneunderneath the moonlight, mesmerizing all of us with its beauty, yet I couldn't focus on it or the fact that it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, not with the mission ahead of us.

Ten operatives gathered in the circle, including Jax, Dante, and me, as my friends went over the plan and confirmed who would enter the cave. They found out a couple of hours ago that there was a hidden entrance through the caves, potentially leading all the way to the Academy. We'd failed to find it while searching the tunnels because the area heading to the entry was blocked, due to a collapse.

I couldn't help but think that the collapse wasn't something Mother Nature had intended, but something someone orchestrated on the night of the fire. Whoever took Vega, and I was getting more and more sure that she was taken, knew what they were doing.

All those murders at the Academy showed us that this wasn’t the first rodeo for the psycho behind all those horrors. On top ofthat, it would seem that they definitely knew their way around the Academy—there was no other explanation for all of it.

But as Dante went on and on about the possible dangers awaiting inside the cave, my eyes were focused on the hidden entrance, right behind some overgrown bushes, not too far from the main trail leading around the lake. If you had no idea what you were looking for, you would miss the small opening; it was barely big enough for one person to slip through. But I knew now, and if Vega was here with the monster that took her, I had no idea what I would do.

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