Page 27 of Royally Bad

The blinds. They broke yesterday morning and ...

I’d covered the whole window with a big piece of cardboard. Now it was sitting on the floor against the wall, propped up exactly like someone had taken it down and set it aside carefully. But I hadn’t done that, so who—

In the hall, I heard my stairs squeak.

Someone is inside my home!

Whoever it was, they’d broken in through my bedroom window. Good people didn’t do that shit. Panic gripped me, smothering any chance I had to scream. Shooting my eyes all around the room, I made myself focus. Fear swirled up, my mouth tasting like the inside of an aluminum can.

I need my phone.Shit, my purse was downstairs.A weapon. I need a weapon!Twisting, my eyes bulged and throbbed—everything in my skull was pressurizing. I’d never imagined I’d be in a situation like this. Was it a robber, amurderer?

I caught motion in the hall just outside my open door. I froze, and whoever was standing there froze, too. I couldn’t see their face—it was too dark—so to me, this intruder could have been the devil himself.

We stood so still that I began to hope maybe he’d just go away.

Maybe ... maybe everything would be okay.

He stepped forward, moving into the light. He was big—and I could have sworn Iknewthat face somehow.

His hands came up, as threatening as any weapon. In that second everything shattered. Filling my lungs, Iscreamed.My ears rattled, and the man rushed forward to silence me. He never got that far; the pile of dress on the floor caught around his ankles.

He slammed onto his chest, giving me the chance I needed to run past. I hadn’t stopped screaming, my voice echoing through the stairwell. A thousand bees stung my throat, and still I just pulled in more air and began again.

Get your phone—no, get to the door!

The stairs behind me stormed with the thudding of heavy boots. He was following me, and the only advantage I had was that I knew my home in the dark better than he did. Or did I? Had he been waiting in here for me? Had he wandered my home for hours?

Had he seen me getting naked minutes ago?

The idea made me want to throw up. I felt violated, and that made me bristle with rage. Who the hell was this person to break intomyhome?

Don’t do anything stupid!I cautioned, taking the corner of the stairs so hard I bounced off the kitchen wall.Get to the door, just—

Fingers dug into my hair, yanking at me. Somehow I slid away, creating a distance between us that I wished was a mile wide. Vertigo conquered my world as I spun; I stumbled against something cold.My sink.

The attacker hadn’t said a word, but his heavy, rasping breath filled the nearby blackness. He didn’t know my home as well as I did. He didn’t need to.

He just had to be faster.

Lifting my eyes, I saw the shiny faucet. My face looked back, the figure moving over my shoulder. He was coming for me, and whatever he had planned, it was going to happen. If I did nothing else ... this would be it.

The only item in the sink looked back at me with the familiarity of a prized possession.

In the metal, I saw him waver closer. He was on top of me. This was it.

When had I stopped screaming?

Whirling around, I lifted the horse-shaped coffee mug high. It connected with a satisfying crunch against my attacker’s skull. He flew back, cradling his face and yelling louder than I even had. “You bitch!” he shouted. I didn’t stay to listen to what he would say next. The mug fell, shattering; the noise was soft in my blood-throbbing ears. Every noise had become a faint buzz, my focus on running for my front door. My other senses were shutting down.

Fumbling with the knob, I exploded out into the night. “Help!” I choked, falling onto my elbows in the street. “Please, help me! Call the police!” I had the awful premonition that no one would step up. I lived in a bad area, people heard gunshots the way other neighborhoods heard the laughter of children.

Tires screeched, headlights blinding me. “Sammy!” a familiar voice yelled, his firm hands lifting me to my feet.

In disbelief, I gazed on the man I’d never wanted to see again. “Kain?”

Impossible. Why was he here?

His warm eyes fixed on me, imploring—concerned. “Are you okay?”

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