Page 57 of Haunted Prey

She looked between Eve and Lena, her face going crimson. “What have you done?”

I turned to her. “What I said I would.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Only, she’s not alone. And I didn’t honestly think…” She put a hand up to her mouth, and I could see the horror in her eyes. I could only guess what she was thinking, what she thought I planned to do with Eve. But shewas wrong. “This is wrong,” she said, dropping her hand. “Just because the others think she can tell you anything, what’s done is done.”

Eve gazed at Andrea as she held her friend’s hand in comfort. “You look familiar,” she whispered. “Why do you look familiar?”

Andrea glanced at me, then cleared her throat and said, “I worked for your father.”

We stood in silence while I watched Eve try to understand what the fuck was going on. I imagined it was close to the same bewildered shit I felt when they first brought me here too.

“We met once when you were a child,” Andrea continued. “At one of your dad’s parties. I took a picture with you and gave you a jolly rancher. I used to stash them in my pocket for…for…”

“For us freaks from time to time, isn’t that right?” I added bitterly.

Andrea peered at me, all guilty. “Y-yes. Yes, that’s right.”

I tilted my head at her. “So kind-hearted, when she wasn’t helping the other nurses to strap us down to the table.”

Andrea’s gaze fell to the floor. “I help them now,” she said weakly. “To find some justice. To try to mend what I did.”

“Them?” Lena asked.

“Emery. And Dominic, Leslie, Cassidy, and Micheal.”

Eve’s eyes widened as she must have realized who Andrea was talking about.

“So what? That justice involves helping them kidnap us?” Lena snapped.

“It wasn’t my decision,” Andrea said.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. You can’t keep us here.” Lena’s glare turned on me, pulling Eve closer to her. “You—they said you—”

Her words were cut short as Lez appeared from one of the rooms, flipping his knife in one hand. Dom came to stand beside me and signed at Lez.

“Cassidy isn’t returning till early morning,” Lez said. “Micheal will come sometime later tomorrow.”

“Why don’t we get a room set up for you,” Andrea said. “There’s a couch in one of them and I can set up a spare air mattress.”

“W-we aren’t staying,” she tried to wheel herself back while pulling Eve with her. “We can’t. You can’t keep us.” She shrieked as Lez and I took a step simultaneously toward her and Eve. “Stay the fuck back, you psychopaths!”

Lez sighed. “I’ll get the rope,” he said, turning for the storage closet.

“No!” Andrea and I snapped at him.

“That won’t be necessary, Leslie,” Andrea added.

“They aren’t going anywhere,” I said in a low, dangerous voice, more threatening than I meant to, trying to keep my anger at bay. “Eve stays with me.”

“Eve isn’t going anywhere near you,” Lena remarked. “Not after what you did,” she hissed. “What you did to her. And if you so much as touch her—"

Eve stumbled back, clutching her chest as if the air had been knocked out of her. “Lena, wait… y-you can see…” Her voice broke, barely more than a gasp. Her pupils dilated as if the room had suddenly shrunk around her. “But he’s not r-real…” The words tumbled out, trembling. The color drained from her face, a tremor running through her as she stared, frozen in shock.

I got closer, unable to ignore that both she and Eve flinched. That stilled me for a moment but then I reached out for Eve, wanting her to take my hand. “Eve, no one will hurt you.”

She stared at my hand, but didn’t take it. “I don’t want to be alone…”

“You won’t be, I’ll be right here.”

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