Page 81 of Make Me Scream

It’s been a few months since I last ran a search on Chloe, so I Google her while getting dressed. I didn’t expect to find anything new at this point. No one’s posted about her. She obviously hasn’t. At least no one’s reported her missing.

With energy to burn and no Gwen around, I grab my wallet and keys to go out for a jog. Before I can leave, however, someone rings the buzzer for my studio.

Did she leave something here? She didn’t text or call.

“Who’s there?” I ask, thumbing the intercom switch.

“It’s Rush.”

Fuck.

He came all the way out here? Why?

“Come in.”

I run a quick mental catalog of the studio: there shouldn’t be anything problematic left out in the open. Nothing of Alistair, or of Gwen. Hopefully this won’t take long.

Mundell smiles politely when I open the door to let him in, but there’s frost in his narrowed eyes.

“I wasn’t expecting visitors, Rush. What brings you out this way?” I ask as he steps inside. He’s tucked a black umbrella under his arm, matching his turtleneck and beret.

“Well, I had a hunch you’d be here, and I had to see for myself.”

“See what?”

Rush laughs, marching into the studio.

“Well, the way you’ve been acting lately, I had my suspicions.”

I tell myself to stay cool, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing good is going to come of this conversation. I could make an excuse, pretend now’s not a good time, but it wouldn’t help.

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Why else would you be at your studio, Lane? You’ve started painting again, haven’t you?”

Oh holy fuck. Is he serious?

“You missed Tichenor’s exhibition at the Florentine last night. I figured you must have something important going on.”

Damn. I did mean to go to that.

“I’ll apologize to Tichenor later. I completely forgot.”

“Good,” Rush says. He inhales deeply through his nose, and nods to himself. “Well, so I came here excited to see the fruit of your rekindled inspiration, but then I saw Ms. Carpenter outside.”

His smile turns to a scowl, dark as an approaching hurricane. I hold his stare, not letting him see the fire igniting under my skin.

“I realized what an idiot I’d been. Here I had this grand hope that a generous muse had driven you back to your art. I wanted to find you hard at work, possessed by creative zeal like the artist I once knew. But no. You were fucking a student. Again.”

Maybe if at some point I had helped Gwen withThe Ohio ZooI could claim innocence, but that’s not going to work. He can probably smell the sex in here.

“Now I get why you keep this squalid den,” Rush continues. “You could afford a much nicer loft close to home, but here you have much more privacy.”

“That was the theory,” I snap. “And she’s not my student. She never took a class with me.”

“Oh, stop. That doesn’t matter.”

“Of course. What matters is you had eyes for her too.”

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