Page 40 of Zero Chance

“Let mego!”she cried, fighting and wriggling against me.I lost my hold once, but as soon as she broke free, I captured her again, just as determined to discover her identity as she was to conceal it.

When she elbowed me in the gut, I grunted.“Careful, dammit.Are you trying to kill me?”

“No.I’m trying to get loose.Now let me go.”

“Sure.Just as soon as you tell me who you are.”

She growled, literally growled, like a wild, trapped animal.It made my dick twitch because—fuck, I don’t know why.And that pissed me off more than anything.The lying, treacherous she-devil shouldnotbe able to turn me on so easily.

I definitely wasn’t fucking letting go until I had the truth.

“What the hell is going on?”I heard Makayla—the real Makayla—demanding in confusion as she made her way up the opposite steps into the gazebo.

“Makayla,” I panted, still struggling with my captive, who felt like nothing but sharp, pointy elbows, knees, and hipbones against me.“Turn on a damn light, would you?”

“No!”the fake Makayla cried in despair.“Please.Let me go.”

“Keene, are youattackingsome poor girl?”Makayla muttered before a phone light pierced the night.

“No.I’m just trying to figure out who she?—”

I spun the imposter around to see her, and in the process, she was able to free one of her arms, which she used to shove her hand in my face, nearly ramming my nose into my brain with her palm as she obstructed my view.

Cursing in pain, I caught sight of a small, simple tattoo of a feather on the side of her wrist as I blinked away stars and tears and batted her hands back down.

“Will youstop?”I muttered, trying to capture her wrists.

She evaded me, though, and attacked.With her knee.Right into my crotch.

“Fuck!”White light exploded behind my eyes as pain flooded my system, streaking from between my legs and out every pore of my body.

I dropped like a stone to my knees and clutched my nuts.

The sound of retreating steps clattering down the wooden stairs told me my mystery girl was successfully escaping while I curled in around myself and tried not to vomit.

“Keene?What—?”the real Makayla asked, touching my shoulder in concern.

“She nutted me,” I rasped, expelling a breath and blinking as the sparse amount of light from her phone lit up the area around us.“Oh fuck, she caught me right in the family jewels.”

Makayla frowned as if I were insane.“Whowasshe?”

“I don’t—” I started to mutter, only to send her an incredulous blink.“You didn’t see her face?”

“No.Why?”

“Dammit.”I struggled my way to my feet on wobbly knees.This meant war.She couldn’t just hijack my hookup, rock my world, and then kick me in the balls to keep her identity from me.

I was finding out who this girl was.

I straightened to my full height, or at least tried to, and my first few steps were a stumbling mess that caused me to curse and groan; doubling over, I cupped my bruised boys tenderly but kept going anyway, determined to catch the fraud.

“Keene?”

“Gotta go,” I panted, waving over my shoulder at the real Makayla and leaving her there in the dark.“Talk later.”

I had no idea which way Mystery Girl had gone.If she’d rushed back into the party, I’d lose her for sure; she’d just blend back in with everyone else since I had no idea what I was actually looking for.But she liked the shadows, and I had a feeling she’d go off by herself and try to meld in with the night instead.So I took the path that looked darkest.

It led into a gravel alleyway, where I bumped into an empty trash bin.Pain streaked up my hip, but I kept going.After looking both ways, I swore I saw a figure with long hair dart onto a sidewalk at Beecher Street.

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