Page 14 of Wicked Royals
In that instant, my stomach dropped and my veins seemed to flood with ice water. There was only one person in the tunnel ahead of me, and it wasn’t a Secret Service agent. It was a tall man in a suit with a grotesque black and silver skull mask covering hisface.
“Who are you?” I asked, my voice piteouslyweak.
The man didn’t answer. He simply took two more slow steps in mydirection.
Then he started torun.
4
Logan
Awicked grincurled up my lips as I dashed toward Willow. She let out a piercing scream as her face twisted with terror, but she didn’t run away. Her legs seemed to be rooted to theground.
Finally, her body seemed to catch up with her mind. She turned and took off down the right side of the tunnel, long legs dodging piles of stone and cold blackpuddles.
She was surprisingly quick for a girl in damaged stiletto heels. Despite that, I knew I could easily catch up to her. I chose to hang back instead, enjoying the thrill of the chase and the sound of her heavy, petrified breaths as they tore from herlungs.
She faltered in her frenzied steps a moment later. Her hands flew out in front of her, grasping at air in an attempt to regain her balance, and her body twirled and jerked as she fell, still clutching at nothing. With a bone-jarring thud, she ended up on her ass on the concrete, arms splayed behind her. Her cellphone flew over to the other side of the tunnel, and the bright flashlight app switched off, seemingly broken. Now the only light in the tunnel came from myphone.
A whimper escaped Willow’s sweet pink lips as she twisted around, fear etched into every inch of her face. My cock twitched at the sight. She’d always been a beautiful girl, but in this moment, she was perfection. The ultimatevictim.
“Leave me alone!” she cried, staring up at me as I approached. Of course, she had no idea who I was. All she saw was an ugly skull mask. That made it all the more terrifying for her; that chilling fear of the unknown. If she knew the exact identity of the person stalking her in the dark, she would still be scared, but a significant element would be missing from thatfear.
I couldn’t have that. I wanted her to feel it all. She deserved thatmuch.
I slowed my pace and cocked my head to the side, staring down at her. Her pretty face was bone-white and streaked with mascara. I chuckled at the sight. It hadn’t taken long to make her cry at all. Mere seconds. The thought sent a warm jolt of pleasure straight to mygroin.
I crouched down to her level and thrust my head forward. I was so close that I could smell her floral perfume, and if I took the mask off, I could easily lick one of the salty beads of perspiration right off herforehead.
“What do you want?” she asked. Her voice was nothing more than a pitifulsqueak.
“I want you to run, princess,” I murmured. The thick mask made my voice sound deeper than usual and far more guttural, so I knew she wouldn’t put two and two together and figure out it wasme.
“W-what?”
I picked up her phone, leaned even closer, and lowered my voice to a harsh whisper. “I said I want you to run,” I said, sliding the phone over toher.
Her eyes widened at my words, as if she couldn’t believe that I wasn’t grabbing her and dragging her into a torture dungeon now that she’d fallen right at myfeet.
One day that would happen, but not tonight. This was just a bit of fun. A little game of hide-and-seek.
Willow retrieved her cell with one trembling hand and pulled herself up on shaky legs, still staring at me. Her eyes shimmered with the threat of more tears. “Please… I don’t understandwh—”
“Go!” I roared, cutting heroff.
That was all the encouragement she needed. She let out another shriek and sprinted into thedarkness.
“Good girl!” I called after her, lips curving in a satisfiedsmirk.
I hadn’t actually planned on doing anything to fuck with her tonight, but when I overheard her and her friends planning their little tunnel expedition at the party earlier, I couldn’t resist. All I had to figure out was how to separate her from those vapid little bitches Marissa, Kate, and Simone once they got down there. For a half-baked plan I came up with on the fly, it worked surprisinglywell.
First, I pretended to be drunk enough to bump into Willow and spill a drink all over her dress. When I did it, I was holding a large cloth napkin in my free hand, and I pretended to help clean her legs as I crouched in front of her. Hidden beneath the napkin was a sharp cheese knife I pilfered from one of the party server’s food trays. All it took was a quick and skillful nick, and one of Willow’s left shoe straps was left hanging by a merethread.
I figured it would break within the next ten minutes or so, and when it finally did, I was fairly certain her nasty friends would abandon her while she figured out what to do. Most of those spoiled D.C. princesses had zero sense ofloyalty.
A small part of me had worried that one of them might suddenly grow a conscience and refuse to leave her alone in a dark tunnel, but my initial instincts turned out to be correct. It only took a few seconds for them to ditch Willow and leave hervulnerable.
None of them had any idea that I was down here, lurking in the shadows of a nearby alcove. They didn’t even know itexisted.
