Page 11 of Sinister Lies

Islidtheenvelopeunder the door and stood tall, sighing as I stared down at the remaining ten in my hands. Now that the male recruits were finished, I had to make the long trek across campus to the girl’s side.

I was exhausted and frankly not in the mood to do this shit, but Phantom and Isaac were persistent that the recruits receive their summonses tonight. The first trial was next week and per Father’s orders, we had to advise a meeting, and basically give them a heads up so they could prepare. We’d planned on throwing another party at the clearing this Friday, but there was next to nothing left in our drug supply, so we had to cancel and replace it with the meeting. Father said he’d call and arrange a meet-up soon with the crew from Clover Bay. Until that was taken care of, we had no other choice but to focus strictly on the trials.

Some of the female recruits were roommates, so when I made it to the other side of campus and stepped out of the elevator, it took me no time at all to eliminate half of the stack. I’d just delivered the sixth envelope when I looked down to see who was next.

Samara.

My eyes swept over her name again, and again, each time making my chest squeeze tighter and tighter. By the time I could wrap my head around these ridiculously torn thoughts, I heard the sound of a door closing ahead of me.

I glanced up, spotting someone dressed in all black looking to their left, near the elevator. As they glanced to the right, my lips parted when our eyes instantly locked.

It was Samara.

She was here.

I didn’t think she’d come back. After what happened at the club, I only assumed she must’ve seen us, known her cover was blown, and fled. Or at least that’s what I’d hoped for. I could see now that wasn’t the case here. For her to come back meant only one thing. She didn’t see us. She didn’t know weknew.

Butwhat was she doing? Why was she leaving the dorm this late?

A flicker of fear swept over her face as I took a step toward her, my name feathering off her lips. After a moment’s hesitation, she bolted.

Shit.

I shoved the envelopes in my jacket pocket and ran after her, shouting her name and demanding her to stop.

She was already inside the elevator, and as I came charging closer, readying myself to jump in as the doors began to close, my breath choked in disbelief. Samara had a gun in her hand. She cocked it, and with zero reluctance, aimed the damn thing at my head.

I halted dead in my tracks with my hands raised, my aghast gaze wide and locked on her tight, flashing blues, her armed hand shaking.

I couldn’t move.

All I could do was watch as she expelled a relieved breath just before the doors fully enclosed her in.

I urgently smacked the button to resummon the elevator, cursing the longer I had to wait. As it finally opened, I dashed inside, mentally kicking my own ass for not taking the window of opportunity to tackle or disarm her while I had it.

The elevator dinged, and as I ran out, I was jerked backwards from behind, then hit hard in the back of the head by something dense and metallic—the butt of a gun, perhaps.

I went down, groaning a bit before I forced myself to roll over flat on my back. I blinked a few times, eventually gaining a clearer visual of Samara hovering over me. Both hands were on the gun and a finger was on the trigger, ready to shoot.

“You won’t do it,” I rasped through a slight cough. “If you really wanted to kill me, you’d have done it already.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” she whisper-shouted.

“I can ask you the same question. What I’d really like to know is why you have a gun and what you intend to do with it.”

“I don’t have to tell you shit!”

“Technically, you do. You’re a recruit. I have every right to question you however I see fit. This ismyturf, and I’m in charge. So, you can either talk to me, or we can embark on a short adventure over to my dorm. Then you’ll have to answer to three of us.”

She scoffed at my retort, then put the gun away and backed off. I hadn’t expected her to do that, but it proved I made the right choice and that my intuition was spot-on. If it were her real mission to kill me, she would’ve done it already.

And she sure as fuck wouldn’t have hesitated the first time.

“You first,” she boldly commanded as I pushed myself to my feet. “Why are you sneaking around the dorms?”

“I wasn’t sneaking around.” I nudged my head down to the envelopes that had fallen out of my pocket. “I was delivering those to the recruits.”

Samara kept her eyes padlocked on me as she wordlessly moved forward and reached down to pick one up. Ironically, she grabbed the one with her name on it. She opened it and eyed over the first few sentences.

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