Page 124 of Lady Killer

Locke, looking at me with murder in his eyes, snatched up a napkin as the blood rolled down his neck to stain the collar of his sharply pressed shirt. “You know, all it wouldtake is one word from me and your girlfriend would be out of Hollow Oak.”

“And all it would take is one slip of my blade and you would be dickless for the rest of your life. What’s your point?”

For once, the insufferable man didn’t take the bait.

“You should think about it, boys. If she isn’t at Hollow Oak, the killer can’t get to her. I’m just thinking of her safety.”

Everest froze in place, head tilted as though he was considering it.

Absolutely not.

“You have no way of knowing the killer’s reach, and you’re underestimating Luz’s ability to protect herself,” Alister said.

“Right yes, with her poisons. How could I forget?” Locke tossed the bloody napkin on the table, still clutching his ear. “It’s a little cliché, don’t you think? Poison is a woman’s weapon.”

I cut off a bite of steak and chewed gingerly before deigning to respond.

“Only an insecure man would consider a method as clever and accessible as poisoning effeminate. Some of us prefer to work smarter, not harder.”

Locke’s smirk turned sour, Alister smiled outright, and Everest lifted my hand to his lips.

An image of Morticia and Gomez ran through my mind.

“And what will you do when the killer gets you alone? Ask him to—‍”

“Locke, enough,” Lucian cut him off, earning himself a murderous look.

It was like herding cats with these boys. No wonder we hadn’t caught the killer yet.

“We need to try again,” I said.

My announcement was received with uncomfortable silence.

Lucian’s brows rose before his expression shuttered. Alister’s smile disappeared, and Everest fluttered his eyes with a blank expression of disbelief.

Nixon was the first to react. “She’s right.”

Everest’s other hand wrapped around his steak knife. I grabbed it.

“I don’t think we can assume Clayton is guilty or innocent," I said. "Aaron waited a whole semester before he made his move on me, so it’s entirely possible he’s operating under the same instructions.”

At Alister and Everest’s . . . encouragement, I had informed Lucian that, based on what I heard on Halloween night, someone was leading the sheep, and based on the available evidence, I believed that person to be a killer.

He was . . . not happy, but as Alister pointed out, the terms of the deal we brokered said nothing about me disclosing information to him.

An amendment he then sought to propose, which led to a counterproposal from me, and so on and so forth. Many hours later, we had a long contract drawn out, and the two killers who claimed me looked pained at how casually I negotiated my death with the head of the Blackwell family.

“A deal’s a deal,” he said at the end, reaching out to shake on it.

His large hand engulfed my own, and I had been taken back to our charged moment in the hall.

The man wanted me dead, and there was still something about his presence I felt straight down to my core.

In the present, I continued to explain my plan to lure the killer out once again.

To my surprise, none of them seemed enthused about what was obviously the best option, except for Locke who looked like he planned to hand me over to the killer himself.

“You’re not going back to your dorm,” Everest said.

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