Page 104 of Romance Is Dead

“Down. Into the basement.”

“There’s a basement?”

Chloe sighed heavily. “Over there. Through the pantry.”

With Chloe staying close behind us, Teddy and I opened the pantry door and flicked on the light. I frowned—all I could see were shelves and shelves of products that looked far past their expiration date. But as I peered closer, I noticed a gap on the back wall where the space seemed to make a turn. Getting closer, I saw that around the corner, there was more space. And at the end of that space there was a door.

My heart sank. Mara would have called the cops by now, but how on earth would they find us? Not only would they not know to look in the pantry, but the door was so hidden it was nearly impossible to see unless you knew it was there.

Even if the police did get there in time, they wouldn’t know where to look.

Chloe stomped her feet behind us. “Get moving!”

Careful not to trip, Teddy and I gingerly stepped down the stairs. There was no light to illuminate the stairwell, so I prayed the whole way down that this wouldn’t end with me falling and breaking my neck. How anticlimactic would that be.

Reaching the bottom, Chloe stepped onto the ground next to us. “Here we are. Home sweet home.” She flicked on the light switch, and I gasped.

On the walls of the basement, which looked like it hadn’t been renovated or updated since the 1800s, were posters of me—my movie posters. There I was, running through the woods and looking behind me, the poster for my first starring role. Another showed me possessed by a demon, my head thrown back as my eyes glowed red. There was even a poster forEscape fromCamp Nowhere, a direct-to-streaming film that hadn’t done particularly well. I didn’t even know there had been posters for that one.

Creepiest of all, a mattress was pushed up against one wall, complete with rumpled sheets and a pillow that looked recently used.

“You’ve been living down here?” Memories of the strange sounds echoing through the house filtered back. The thought made me gag.

“Sometimes. Especially since I checked out of the hotel,” Chloe said cheerily. “Now get moving. Those chairs over there are for you.”

Following her directions, we sat on what looked like two old dining chairs. Keeping the gun trained on us, she deftly tied me to a chair with one-handed knots and then finished tying Teddy up on the other. I immediately strained my wrists and ankles, testing the knots: they were tight.

Chloe placed the gun on a nearby shelf and sat down in an old velvet armchair across from us, stretching out her legs and folding her arms behind her head. “Now. I bet you want to know all about how I did it.”

I rolled my eyes. Every fiber of my being wanted to tell her no, actually, I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of laying out her story piece by piece, bragging about how clever she was and how she avoided being caught the entire time. But the truth was I did want to know. Desperately.

“I guess I’ll start with a question. Quinn, do you remember the day we met?”

I nodded curtly. “The first day ofGhost of Puzzle Face, apparently.”

“That’s right!” Chloe looked genuinely delighted. “I was an extra, even though I was only six at the time. It was the best experience of my life.” She sighed wistfully. “There I was, playing hooky from school so I could be in a real movie. And there you were. You were amazing. I knew I wanted to be just like you when I grew up.”

“I’m not that much older than you,” I grumbled.

Chloe ignored me. “You were my hero. So imagine my excitement when I was cast in the lead ofHouse of Reckoning, which was already generating so much buzz.”

“Hang on—”

“That’s right,” Chloe snapped. “I had the lead, before production decided I wasn’t good enough and begged you to sign on instead.”

Could that be true? My mind raced back to the first conversation I’d had with production. It was true that I hadn’t auditioned and that they had approached me. They’d given me the pitch and were thrilled when I accepted. Then they’d said something, something I hadn’t registered at the time. Something about being relieved to have an “actual” professional on board for the role.

“Oh, shit.”

“Shit is right. I was late for a handful of meetings and made one single fuss about my storyline and they axed me. I spent years trying to break into the industry after that first bit part when I was little. And when I finally achieved my dream, I had it snatched away from me the day after my family threw me a huge congratulations party.” Her hands curled around the arm of the chair like claws. “It made me. So. Angry.”

“I’m sorry. This industry is the absolute worst.” At least I could agree with her on that.

“But hey.” Chloe’s face brightened. “It was a chance to work with my idol again, so I figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But then day after day, as we got closer to filming, I became more and more disappointed. I’d been so close to my dream. But I still tried to be nice to you the first day. And you were nothing. . . but a huge. . . bitch.”

“I’ve been nothing but nice to you! I let you eat lunch with me. We went to get coffee!”

“Oh, and it’s such a privilege to be allowed to eat lunch with you.”

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