Page 43 of Lady Killer

It was past three in the morning when Hester and Jade drunkenly tumbled out of an Uber and into their home.

I watched from across the street as lights flicked on in the house, bright rectangles blazing against the vast blackness of night. Too bad it wouldn’t keep them safe from me.

Eventually, the house went dark again, and it was time for me to move. There was a security system, but it wasn’t anything that I didn’t have plenty of experience with. I went through the back and was in before you could say “lickety-split,” the door closing behind me with a pleasantshunk.

I didn’t bother locking it. No one would be going anywhere tonight.

Their rooms were on the second floor, and as I stole up the curving wood staircase, I fished around in my pocket for one of the syringes I’d brought with me.

Like I said, no one was going anywhere. Not until I was done carving Starbright’s present from their faces.

From my coat, I pulled out the pièce de résistance.

Based on Luz’s description, it’d been easy enough to find a plastic sheep mask online. I sincerely doubted that either girl would be talking after I was done with them, but it never hurt to throw some chaos into the mix.

First up was Hester.

I let myself into her room to find her passed out, snoring loudly, still wearing her cocktail dress, her heels kicked off next to her bed. The scent of vodka overwhelmed the space. She would’ve had one hell of a hangover in the morning, if I hadn’t gotten to her first.

I plopped down on the bed next to her.

Originally, I’d planned on waking her up first to make sure she was paralyzed with her eyes open. It was more fun when they could watch. Unfortunately, she was so drunk now I didn’t know if I’d be ableto rouse her.

“Here we go,” I sang before rolling her out of bed onto the floor.

She landed with a hard thud and curled into a fetal position, moaning.

Music to my ears.

In a flash I had her on her back, her eyes opening wide in horror as one of my hands slammed down over her mouth, silencing her scream, and the other jammed the syringe I’d prepared into her neck.

She continued to struggle for another couple minutes while the drug took effect. But eventually, the thrashing stilled and I was able to remove my hand, her eyes now frozen in an expression of desperate fear.

A perfect canvas for me to work with.

I reached over to pat her cheek. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

Jade’s room was in the rear of the house. She was equally drunk, sleeping with one leg dangling off the side of her bed. Didn’t anyone ever warn her about the monster under your bed?

I grabbed her ankle and wrenched her to the floor, watching as her face made contact with the hardwood with a satisfying crunch.

Unlike Hester, she screamed. Like Hester, she was easily subdued, and it wasn’t long before I was dragging her down the hallway to her friend’s room.

Throwing her next to her friend, I reached for my phone in my pocket.

Time for some mood music.

“Siri, play Christina Aguilera, ‘Dirrty.’”

Chapter fourteen

Luz

True to Alister’s word, I had a new phone by the end of the day. But that wasn’t all.

The day after, I got an email from campus that I’d received a number of packages, too many to be left at the dorm, and I would have to come pick them up.

Under Nixon’s watchful eye, I’d rushed over to find boxes upon boxes from Lululemon, Nike, and other high-end activewear brands stacked and waiting for me. All of them from Alister. All of them full of warm, sleek winter running gear.

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