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He steps away from her backwards, shaking his head with an annoyed scoff. The guy is smart not to create a scene, and I get to stand here with a grin knowing he didn’t get to arrest me this time. Damn, it feels good.

“What happened here, Headmaster Johnson?” Dana asks, pulling out a voice recorder.

She looks at me, and I know she has to hate that I’ve won. Licking her lips, she says, “Well, it started when Ms. Lucas and Ms. Saunders got into an altercation. I broke them up and brought Ms. Lucas to my office to reprimand her when her uncle showed up and—”

My hearing goes completely deaf when adrenaline and anger pumps through me like a goddamn freight train. Blackness envelopes from the outside of my vision, pulsing to the beat of my racing heart.

Turning without explanation, I march straight for the exit with one thing on my mind: finding Billie and killing her abusive, piece of shit uncle.

“Christian!” Dana shouts after me.

But I’m not stopping for anyone or anything. I won’t stop until I find her.

Jumping in my car, I squeal the tires and make a 180-degree turnaround. Reaper Academy disappears in my rearview mirror as I shift gears and fly down the mountain roads.

I press a few buttons on the steering wheel until Holden’s name lights up the touch screen and ringing fills the car. I’m so fucking livid, and I may need someone to come with me so I don’t do something stupid and get taken from Billie and Zeke for the rest of our lives.

“Christian, talk to me,” Holden answers.

“Zeke’s been arrested, and Billie’s with her uncle. I’ll be at your place in five, and I need your help. Bring the mask.”

Hanging up, I glance at the Michael Myers mask sitting in the front seat and shift into the next gear with murderous thoughts swirling through my thoughts.

Chapter 22

BILLIE LUCAS

“Yaknow,Billie…”UnclePatrick says as he stalks around me in a circle, undoing his cufflinks. “I’m really disappointed in the young lady you’ve become.”

I say nothing, tears welling in my eyes as I watch him. He still has blood on his knuckles from punching Zeke in the face. The cops hadn’t arrived yet, but I wish they had because they’d have seen what a lying piece of shit my uncle truly is. Instead, they fell at his feet and asked him what they should do.

“And the kids you spend your time with are nothing but negative influences on you. You’re not to see Zeke ever again.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” I say through clenched teeth. The vein in my neck throbs as I clench my fists at my sides, ready to attack him if need be.

He laughs, stopping to face me. “I can, Billie. I’ve given you freedom since I’ve been here, but that ends today. My threats are no longer words. Your dormitory room on campus has been revoked and—”

“What?! You can’t do that!” I shout.

Storming up to me, he grabs me around the throat and squeezes. His eyes are wild, staring down into my wide gaze as I smack at his arms and gasp for air.

“You’re done talking back, you little bitch,” he snarls.

There is something in his eyes that terrifies me—something dark and menacing, as if he’s no longer human. His eyes say everything. He wants to kill me. And I think he actually might.

My lungs burn as I pull what I think are final breaths into them. His face comes in and out as tears build, and the pulsing ring of black invades my vision.

“Just like your mother—always talking shit, always the prettiest girl in the room; always the one everyone loved.. Well, I fucking hated that cunt. And now I hate you, too.”

He spits in my face before releasing me with a shove back. I land hard on my ass, crying out when I can finally take my first breath. Sobbing, I clutch my throat and crawl backwards until I hit the office wall. He doesn’t move toward me as he goes back to his cufflinks.

Throwing them at me, one clanks off of the wall and the other hits me in the cheek. I sink into myself, trying not to react. He’s slapped me in the face or grabbed my arm roughly, but this… this was way more malicious than anything before. He means business now, and no matter how much I despise this man, I know he’ll actually hurt me if I try to be She-Hulk.

He rolls up his sleeves and turns back to me, sitting on the edge of his desk. I didn’t know he had tattoos, but these don’t seem like tattoos people would have on their arms. There are tons of symbols of all sizes inked into his forearms and small paragraphs that are written in an unfamiliar language. What the hell are those? He’s thelastperson you think you’d see with ink.

“Back to what I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me. I canceled your dormitory room. My driver will take you to and from Reaper Academy every single day. Any extracurricular activities are no longer permitted.”

It sounds like he’s trying to be the warden of my life, locking me behind physical and mental walls until I go mad. Maybe that’s what he wants out of me—to drive me so crazy I get institutionalized, so there’s nobody left to take my mother’s money and estate. If it’s money and status he wants, he can have it.

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