Page 150 of Defiant Beta

I don’t know what Ms. Huffman is doing here, but when I saw her dart into the clock tower, my instincts screamed it was nothing good.

Does she have a weapon? Will she start picking off omegas from the roof with a rifle?

“You watch too much damned television,” I mutter to myself, yanking out a mouthful of hair when the wind whips it into my face.

I jump when the door slams shut behind me.

Ms. Huffman steps out from the shadows on my right, a small black gun aimed at me, and I realize I should have thought a little longer before I followed her up here.

She’s in a silvery gray ball gown, her blonde hair in a fishtail braid. Something about her expression is so different, I barely recognize her from the shallow, somewhat dim wellness instructor with a smooth, wrinkle-free face.

“How much do they know?” Her voice is different too. Not the high-pitched, irritating tone that I’ve come to hate. It’s as cold and metallic as the gun in her hand.

“I’m not sure I understand,” I say, regretting my life choices.

The sound of the gun cocking echoes across the roof, and my heart clenches in response. “Those cops who were here.”

I think she’s gotten the wrong idea about all of this.

“Cops? Look, Ms. Huffman. I just?—”

Crack.

I squeal, ducking away from the bullet she buries into the wall beside me. It was literally inches from my head.

“The math teacher, the gardener, and the fencing instructor. How. Much. Do. They.Know?”

“Nothing. They know nothing,” I lie, raising my palms to show her I’m no threat.

She gives me a long look, then nods, motioning with the gun to my left. “You’re going to jump.”

I don’t move. “I’m going to do what now?”

“You’re going to jump, and while everyone is scraping your body off the ground, I’ll be slipping away from the cops I saw in the ballroom.”

Is she nuts?

I plant my feet and cross my arms. “I’m not jumping.”

“Then I’ll shoot you.”

“No, you won’t. You’d have done that already, since for whatever reason, you want this to look like an accident.”

She’s not wrapped up in the mystery of who killed Pack Madden’s omega.

Shedid it. And I bet those omega murders over the last ten years will line up perfectly with the times she was away on her ‘spa retreats.’

It wasn’t just wrinkles she was getting rid of; it was omegas as well.

She moves closer to me, her finger tightening on the gun trigger. “You lied. They know something, don’t they? Did they send you here to snoop for them?”

“I am not their underling,” I snap.

Her eyes narrow. “Jumpor I’ll shoot you.”

“So, shoot. You’re already fired once. Someone would have heard the shot and is probably rushing up the stairs.”

I hope someone is, but the music in the ballroom was loud, and hardly anyone was outside except for me. I told Kylian I was going to the science building, so that’s where he’ll go looking for me. He won’t know about this little detour that’s about to get me killed.

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