Page 13 of Cruel Charming Psychos (Necessary Evils 2)

When I enter the hotel room, Nick is standing beside the window in his underwear with one hand on the curtain, peeking outside. He cocks his head over his shoulder and passes me a mischievous grin. “You got here fast.”

I scratch at the back of my head. “There was an issue back at the motel that I didn’t exactly want to stick around for.”

“Tell me more.”

I exhale sharply, passing a hand over my mouth. “The Sheriff stopped by. It seems your father made a report about the discs I borrowed from his office.”

“Borrowed is an interesting choice of words,” he says, stepping away from the window and positioning himself on the opposite end of the bed. “If the police are suspecting you, then the best thing you can do is just return them. You should have destroyed them like I told you to.”

Yeah, that’s obviously not happening. Nick doesn’t know what’s on those disks, because I haven’t told him. More importantly, he hasn’t asked. It’s almost like he’s terrified there’s something really incriminating on them, which there is. It is all the evidence the Callaways need to lock me up and throw away the key, only they haven’t, which means there’s something I’m missing. Something is on the rest of the disks, but I can’t get past the encryption because I’m not a computer whiz and I don’t know of anyone I could trust to hack into them for me.

“Seriously, Addison. Destroy them or return them. If my father knows that you took them, then the authorities are just a warning. He won’t stop until he gets them back or knows they’re gone forever.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Fine,” he scoffs. “Tell me where they are, and I’ll put them back where they belong.”

Remember what I said about choosing which fires to put out? I don’t want to deal with this one right now, so I shift the conversation. And by shift, I do mean instigate an argument. “Don’t you want to talk about that man at the diner earlier?”

He unfortunately doesn’t take the bait. “I’m going to get a shower and when I get out of there, you and I are going to return the disks to my father’s office without him knowing.”

I offer him a nod, but I have no intention of following through. I just need him to get his happy ass in the shower so I can make my move. As he approaches the bathroom, he pulls his underwear down so that they pool on the ground, exposing his taut ass. He cocks his head over his shoulder, eyeing me for a split second before closing the door behind him.

I wait until I hear the shower turn on before dropping to my knees and pulling the lockbox out from underneath the bed. He’ll come out of the shower, confused about where I went. I’ll make up a lie on the fly, but right now, I’m concerned with getting the evidence out of the building before he has the chance to realize it’s gone.

I close the hotel door gently behind me before promptly making my way down the long hallway. The elevator is positioned at the end, where three hallways intersect. I press the button and wait, but it’s taking too long. It’s not that I think Nick takes short showers, he loves nothing more than basking in piping hot water, but I want to err on the side of caution. I huff and make the decision to take the stairs. It’s only six flights of stairs to reach the bottom.

The door swings shut behind me as my feet clap against the concrete floor. The sounds of boots clattering against the same stairs from above me echoes throughout the confined space of the stairwell. Paranoia strikes again. I begin to run down the steps, my heart threatening to skip a beat with every step. The echo of running grows louder and louder until the sound of the door on the floor above me swings open, stopping me in my tracks. The same door slams shut and I breathe a sigh of relief, but it’s short-lived.

The door beside me, marked with the number ‘2’ swings open, slamming me against the wall. A man with a black ski mask covering his head throws a hand around my throat with one hand as he pries the box from my other.

This is it.

This is how I die.

The grave that’s been waiting for me ever since I first stepped foot back in the Hamptons is ready to house my forever remains.

The man tightens his grip, but quickly releases me. I grab my own throat, massaging it as I catch my breath and watch the man retreat down the last flight of stairs, throwing the door open as he makes a mad dash for the lobby.

I climb to my feet and give chase, but when I exit the stairway door, the man is already gone. There’s an inkling in my gut that the SUV that tailed me here has something to do with it, so I run across the length of the lobby to find that the SUV is still there, the driver seemingly watching me.

ChapterSeven

ADDISON

I stare straight ahead, watching as the man continues to watch me. It’s like we are engaged in an old-fashioned western standoff, but neither of us are holding guns. My gut screams that the man is definitely following me, but it’s also telling me that whoever it is has nothing to do with the man that just attacked me in the stairwell.

I have a bad habit of making enemies.

My phone vibrates in the pocket of my jeans. I pull it out to see that Nick is calling and hesitate for a few rings before finally answering it, placing it against my ear. “Hello.”

“Where the hell did you go?”

“My mother called,” I say, lying through my teeth. “She says it’s an emergency.”

“Is everything all right?”

“Most likely, but I can never be too certain. I’ll call you in a little bit.”

---