Page 28 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

I felt him tickle the side of my stomach. “Tickling me is definitely not going to make me feel better.”

“Good. Because I’m not going to tickle you.” He continued to tickle me.

“Stop touching my stomach!” I laughed.

“I’m not touching you, Tucker.”

I laughed. “Stop!” He was full on tickling me now. But when I looked over he was just sitting in the passenger’s seat staring at me like I had lost my mind. I glanced down at my stomach and saw a small blob moving beneath the fabric of my shirt. And I screamed at the top of my lungs. It was so piercing that it hurt my own ears.

For some reason, my scream made Damien scream, until we were both screaming and staring at each other instead of at the road.

I slammed on the brakes. The car slid on the leaves on the road and almost did a 180. I jumped out of the car before it even came to a complete stop.

“Kill it!” Damien yelled as he ran up beside me.

I started hitting my chest and stomach as the blob ran around beneath my shirt. And then Damien started beating me with the handle of his pistol.

“Ow! Stop it!” I jumped out of his way, reached up beneath my shirt, and grabbed on to something slimy. Ugh. I pulled it out from under my shirt and threw it to the side of the road before I even got a chance to look at it.

Whatever it was landed in a pile of leaves and skittered into the underbrush. Leaves crunched in a path as it ran away from us.

“What the hell was that?” Damien asked. He was patting himself down, looking to see if there was anything on him.

“Some kind of reptile? How should I know?”

Damien smoothed his shirt back into place and then started laughing. “You should have seen your face.”

“You should have heard your scream.”

“Mine? You sounded like a wild banshee.”

“How do you think that thing got in my car?”

“I don’t know. But let’s get out of here. Nothing good ever happens in these woods.” He patted me on the back before walking to the car.

I looked at the spot where I had thrown the creature. What the hell was it? And how did it get on me? I shuddered. My cellphone started to buzz in my pocket, startling me again. I quickly denied the call when I didn’t recognize the number.

Violet’s house was warm and inviting once you were inside. But Damien was right. These woods were unsettling. It almost felt like I was unwelcome. Like someone was telling me to get out. To run away while I still had a chance. I shook my head and climbed back into my car.

Chapter 13

Violet

Of course Detective Reed wasn’t answering my calls. I had threatened him. I had practically begged him to never speak to me again. But two minutes later, avoiding him was no longer an option. He had Lizardopolous. I had to get my son’s pet back. It was his best friend. How did I let this happen?

I looked back down at my cell phone. Maybe I had called the wrong number. I tried to picture the business card he had given me before I burned it. No, I definitely had the number right. I knew I did. Shit. I felt myself gripping the phone tighter. I should have driven after him right when I realized what had happened.

“Mommy he needs breakfast! We have to find him!” Zeke pounded on the bathroom door.

“Okay. One sec, little dude.” I flushed the toilet even though I hadn’t peed. Pretending to need to use the bathroom was the lamest excuse ever to hide from my son. But I didn’t know how else to make the phone call without Zeke realizing what I had done. I already felt bad enough.

“You know what?” I said as I came out of my hiding spot. “Maybe he’s in the kitchen waiting for breakfast. Let’s go look there.” I was stalling. I knew what we needed to do. I just really really didn’t want to have to.

“He doesn’t eat in the kitchen. He eats in his aquarium. You know that. It’s your rule.”

“Then let’s recheck his aquarium. He’s gotta be around here somewhere.” Lies, lies, lies. I’m a horrible person. Just tell him the truth. Go fix it.

“What if he ran away?” Zeke looked up at me and his eyes were all watery like he was seconds away from crying.

---