Page 67 of Lady Killer

Whoever said gingers shouldn’t wear red clearly had never met her.

“What about you?”

I looked up from my own nails that I was painstakingly shaping. Autumn and I were doing a girls’ night in.Empire Recordswas playing on her laptop, and we were both wearing one of her expensive face masks and making our way through the large box of chocolates Simone had given her as a pre-Valentine’s Day surprise.

“What about me?”

“You know what I mean, Luz. Are you doing anything with either of the twins?”

The file veered off my nails, snagging on my cuticle.

“I told you, there’s nothing going on.”

She looked up at me like the cat that ate the canary. “And Simone and I are, like, just really good friends.”

I rolled my eyes, playing it off with a giggle.

It’s official. Peopling has made me a coward.

In the face of the Blackwells, I felt fierce. But when confronted with the possibility of disappointing Autumn, I felt real fear.

“It’s not like that.”

Say it enough times and maybe it will come true.

“If you say so . . .” Autumn trilled with a wink, tucking her head back down to finish her paint job. “But me thinks the lady doth protest too much,” she whispered smugly.

She seemed happier these days, and I had to credit Simone.

We still hadn’t talked more about her parents, and I suspected not all was right there.

After Valentine’s Day . . .

I would deal with that then.

With my bestie off in the city, I had the weekend to relax by myself.

Guilt continued to eat away at me, my thoughts consumed by the killer and the missing girls.

The Virgin Sacrifice Killer was linked to my past. If I had never come to Hollow Oak, would those girls still be alive . . .

A knock broke me from my ruminations.

My brow furrowed, I scrambled to sit up.

Autumn and Simone had left a couple of hours ago, and I absolutely was notexpecting—

“Open up, Starbright. You know I’m getting in one way or another.”

I hurried to the door, certain Everest was not above causing a scene.

Sure enough, I opened it to find him glaring down the hall, presumably at one of my poor hallmates, his favorite blade twitching between his fingers.

He wasn’t alone.

Alister’s broad frame shadowed Everest’s leaner one, and while he wasn’t staring anyone down with murder in his eyes, the tattooed giant didn’t exactly give off a welcoming energy.

With no other options, I grabbed Everest by his jacket and yanked him inside my room before he could start anything. Alister followed silently, the door shutting behind him.

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