Page 26 of No, You Hang Up

The knife is back a second later, and I close my eyes as if I can distance myself from the sting of the blade on my skin. “Look at me, Kai.” He doesn’t speak again until I open my eyes, making myself do just that as I stare up at the frightening red and black mask.

“No one is going to call the cops for you if you scream. Do you know why?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “Because you’ll only getonechance. You’ll scream once, if that, then this night will become a lot less fun for you. I’ll carve out your pretty tongue.”

“I can still scream without a tongue.”

“Then I’ll slit your vocal chords and fuck your mouth while you bleed out in the grass.”His snarl is sharp and unexpected, and I flinch away from him as the mask’s grin tilts to the side. “Oh, that was really scary of me, wasn’t it?” Huxley laughs. “Sorry, pretty girl. I get a little carried away, sometimes.” He sheathes the knife, his gloved hand coming back to grip my face in his long fingers. “This is new for me, you know? Playing with someone without the intention of…” he trails off pointedly, but I don’t need him to finish the sentence.

I know what his normal intentions are by now.

“Is there an incentive for me to run?” I look up at him again, my voice soft as my heart threatens to slam right out of my chest. Honestly,I can’t blame it. I’d also like to find a way out of this when he says shit like that.

“Would you like there to be?” Hux chuckles. “I figured the incentive was you being awake when I fuck you this time. That the incentive would be the pleasure of my company. I didn’t realize you needed something else.”

“You have to…” I trail off. “You have to answer my questions. I get to ask you what I want, and?—”

“You’re turning this into something it doesn’t need to be.” His fingers tighten, and he yanks my face up to him. “If you ask me questions—and actually want them answered—you won’t be able to pretend I don’t exist. You’ll be too involved, Kai.” There’s a warning in his words I don’t expect. Something that isn’t entirely selfish. “Curiosity killed the cat,” he tells me, mimicking my words from yesterday.

“Until satisfaction brought her back.”

“And how do you know I’m willing to satisfy your curiosity instead of just killing you for it?”

Fuck, I don’t know. There’s no way for me to know for certain, or even to form a reasonable hypothesis on what he’ll do. “Because you’d be bored,” I say finally. “Because…you wouldn’t get to play anymore.”

His mask tilts one way, then the other. “I can play whenever I want.”

“This isn’t the same,” I disagree. I know I’m pushing it. Especially when he drums a finger against my jaw while he thinks about my words.

“We’ll see,” Hux says finally. “No promises, but I’ll consider it. Now are you going torun, or am I going to have to give you a reason to scamper away from me, little bunny?”

The nickname makes my stomach flip in both terror and anticipation. His grip loosens, and I tear away from him across the yard, glad there’s nothing back here for me to cut my feet on. Still, I’m so cold by the time I stumble back to the patio, and I yank open the door before whirling around to slam the heavy glass closed.

Or try to, anyway.

Huxley is there before I can shut it, his shoulder shoved between the door and the frame as he cackles, then asks, “Trying to lock me out?” he goads. “What? Think I won’t break the glass, Kai?”

“I think that’s a lot more work than you’re willing to put in,” I gasp, trying to wrestle him for control of the sliding door. I’m so close, and if I can just get him to take a step back, I’ll be able to close and lock it.

I figure that’ll give me a chance to decide what the hell I’m going to do now that he’s here.

Absently, I glance down at the patio chair by the door, expecting to see my phone I left behind. But it isn’t there, and I have a sinking feeling that yet again Huxley has been smarter than he has any right to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if my phone is in his pocket, so I can’t call the cops. He’s clearly better at this game than I am, and I reel back from the door, smacking at his hand and getting barely a snarl in reply.

“Do better.” Hux laughs, throwing open the patio door so roughly I can almost hear it bounce off the track. Both of us glance at it, and he shrugs his shoulders. “Don’t look at me. I’m not your handyman.”

“No, that would be too convenient.” I whirl and grab the first thing I can—which happens to be a plastic pitcher from my counter that needs to be washed—and chuck it straight at Huxley’s face. He knocks it away easily and lunges for me quicker than he has any right to be until I’m shoved up against the wall next to the door with his mask inches from my face as I pant against it.

“Why a knife?” I gasp as I fight his hold on my throat. “Why not a gun?”

“Too loud.” He lets me go and I bolt again, making it to the sofa as he prowls after me. “Guns are too easy. And in a bad situation, I’d rather my prey get my knife than a gun. I can overpower you with a knife, but a gun could level the playing field.”

I launch the tv remote at him, which he simply lets hit him in the shoulder as he tilts his head to the side. “Yeah, okay, but give me points for my continued enthusiasm.”

“Sure, pretty girl. Next question?” In a surprisingly graceful move, he leaps over the back of the couch in one smooth movement, and I trip back toward the coffee table.

“Why the drugs? Why the…?” Fuck, I’m going to butcher the name of it right now with most of my brain focused on keeping some kind of distance between us. I’m not quite as afraid of him as I was the first time, but he’s certainly notsafeby any means. There’s no way for me to be sure he won’t decide to kill me.

Or that it hasn’t been his intention all along, and he’s not just lying to me.

“I swear I’m going to write it on your hands next time. Midazolam. Say it with me. Mi. Da. Zo. Lam.” He sounds it out like I’m a toddler he’s teaching a new word, and I throw a nearby book straight at his face, which he knocks away with his hand. “Because I’m a paramedic, and I know my way around sedatives.”

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