Page 59 of Wicked Games

She’s gaping at me now, her eyes wide and her mouth opening and closing like a stunned fish.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” I give her a little smirk-smile. “Now get the fuck away from me before you find out what happens when you really piss me off.”

I’m half expecting another hit to the back of the head or a shove as I turn and walk down the path in the opposite direction. Thankfully Natalie and her clones are either too stunned to do anything, or they’re too scared.

I hope to fuck it’s the latter.

Still shaking with leftover adrenaline and anger from my encounter, I cut to the left and jog down a narrow path that leads to a cluster of outbuildings near the wooded part of campus. Not many students venture out this way if there isn’t some sort of event going on. I won’t have to worry about any more run-ins here.

I’m just coming up on one of the main roads that connects the area to the rest of the campus when my phone rings.

Instinctively, I stop walking just as I reach the curb and pull my phone out of my pocket. Not only is that not the ringtone I use, but I know for a fact I put it on silent earlier. What the hell?

The screech of tires and the glare of high beams pull my attention from my phone. A car whizzes past me, going so fast I’m hit with a blast of air as it disappears down the road.

It takes a second for my brain to catch up with what just happened, and I slowly look back down at my phone. Instead of a phone number or a name, a line of zeros fills the screen.

The ringing stops, and a text appears in place of the numbers.

He’s still out there.

I blink at the phone as the message fades and another one pops up.

Be careful.

The message disappears, and my screen goes dark.

What the fuck?

I turn the screen back on and check my call logs. The call isn’t there. There’s no record of it. I close out of my calls and check my texts. Nothing. And I was right, the phone is still on silent.

Confused, I look at the road, then back at my phone.

I know it rang, and I know those messages were there. I might be having a bit of an existential crisis when it comes to my newfound love of letting my stepbrother boss me around and humiliate me, but I’m not crazy.

I know what I saw, but who the hell did it? And why are they trying to help me?

That car was waiting for me to cross, and the only reason they missed was because I stopped to check that call. They warned me that I’m still in danger, but why?

Only a hacker could have bypassed the security on the phone, but was it the same one who doctored the security cams? Killian hasn’t told me much about what they’ve found, or if they’re even still looking into what happened in the pool, but he did say that the person who attacked me probably hired the hacker to cover their tracks, and they otherwise aren’t a part of things.

Is this their way of atoning for participating in a murder plot? It would have been nice if they grew their conscience before they helped someone try to kill me instead of after, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

As much as I don’t want to go back to my room and face the reality that I’m going to have to go to bed at some point, I slip my phone away and jog back down the path.

Whoever tried to run me over is still out there, and I’m not about to make things easy on them by sticking around.

16

KILLIAN

I don’t bother beingquiet when I open the door to my room, but it doesn’t matter because the overhead lights are still on.

Felix is lying on his bed in a pair of gray sweatpants with an open paperback resting on his chest.

“It’s easier to read if you look at the words and don’t try to use osmosis to absorb them,” I say, just to be a dick.

“I see someone is their usual chipper self.” He puts the book on the bed beside him and watches as I cross the room to my side.

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