Page 43 of EverGreene
“Unpopular opinion: Running from the cops makes it hotter,” I called back to her.
“What’s so special about being chased by four masked men?” The man in the green mask asked.
“You can blame MaskTok for that bullshit,” Cole replied. “Women go crazy over a man in a mask.”
“Trust me, Ever knows.” Katy snorted right as her foot caught a fallen tree branch and she stumbled forward, caught by one of the other three men.
Every snap of a branch or crunch of a leaf in our vicinity acted like fuel, propelling us forward in the dark, headed toward the light ahead of us as though it was leading us to the promised land.
“Take your masks off,” Green Mask commanded when we reached the ridgeline.
Underneath me, I could feel V’s body stiffen, but not in a good way.
“Oh, yes,” I said, giddy, “do take off your masks.”
When we cleared the woods, V finally set me down, quickly motioning for the others to join him in a huddle near the back of a CVS.
“What is going on?” Green Mask asked, obviously irritated with V.
Huh. Must be not all of his buddies know about me.
“I call dibs on the one that just manhandled me through the woods like some George of the Jungle shit,” Katy said, watching the four still masked, half-naked men huddle in a circle together. “What do you think the giant cross inked across his back means?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, shivering slightly in the chilly night air. “Maybe he’s a priest or something.”
“That would be my luck.”
One by one, the men looked up at Katy and me, and we waved at them with smiles on our faces as they continued their heated powwow.
“The one in the blue has been quiet,” I observed.
“Yeah, that’s because your mystery man gestured to him to stay quiet when he saw him standing at the bottom of the stairs.”
“What?” I looked up at V and the man in blue. “Are you sure? What kind of gesture? Maybe you misinterpreted it.” Katy put her index finger and thumb together, drawing them across her lips as though they were gripping a zipper. “Huh. There’s no misinterpreting that. I wonder how I missed it.”
“I mean, your ass was in his face at the same time you were dangling over his shoulder, staring at his ass, too, so it’s completely understandable how you could have missed it.”
The council of hot masked men disbanded, having adjourned their impromptu meeting. Cole and the man in the green removed their masks while V and his cohort in blue left theirs on.
The man in blue must be a clue to his identity.
“Hot damn,” Katy said, eyeing the maskless men. “I had high hopes Mr. Green Mask would be good looking, but I was completely prepping myself for aBeauty and the Beastscenario.”
“ABeauty and the Beastscenario?”
“You know, when the Beast turns back into a prince and is more facially challenged than we thought he would be.”
“I don’t know. I thought he was kind of cute.”
“Well, now I’m highly questioning your taste in men.”
“You weren’t before?”
“What? With V? A masked stalker iseveryone’stype.”
“I’m Malachi.” The man formerly in the green mask walked over to us to introduce himself.
“And you’ve met me,” Cole said.
