Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 176345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 882(@200wpm)___ 705(@250wpm)___ 588(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176345 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 882(@200wpm)___ 705(@250wpm)___ 588(@300wpm)
Milo.
I’d recognize that long figure and his red-dyed hair anywhere.
My feet freeze to the ground when he begins to talk with them.
What the …?
He smiles.
He’s actually fucking smiling at them.
This has to be either a joke or a trap.
My hands ball into fists. I march over, determined to make him eat my boot, but the moment our eyes connect, lightning practically crackles between us.
“Hey, Lana!” Irina says.
“Oh hey, Lana, didn’t see you there,” Brooke says.
But I grab them by the arms and drag them away from Milo. “Don’t talk to him.”
“What? Why?” Irina asks.
“Yeah, Lana, why can’t they talk to me?”
His voice grates on me already, and he’s right behind me too.
“I’m nice.”
Sure you are, Mr. “Nice guy” Killer.
“He’s a Phantom; they can’t be trusted,” I hiss. “You said it yourself.”
“But he’s only talking with us,” Brooke responds.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Crystal asks, approaching us.
“Just … don’t interact with any of them,” I tell my friends. “They’re … not good people.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about someone you don’t know,” Milo butts in.
I turn around to face him and shove my finger into his chest. “Stay away from them.”
“Or what?” He tilts his head, and that same wicked smile appears on his face again, his eyes glinting with excitement. “You gonna puncture me with that heel?”
“Don’t tempt me,” I growl.
He leans in. “You’re turning me on.”
One more word out of that mouth, and I swear to God I will personally castrate him.
“Go on … do it,” he eggs me on.
“What did you say to them?” I hiss.
“Afraid?” he muses.
Fuck. Is he going to tell them about what I did that night?
Or did he already fill them in, and are they all pretending they don’t know?
“Guys, guys,” Crystal says, pushing us apart. “Don’t fight. Can’t we all just be friends?”
“No,” I bark back.
“What’s going on here?”
A voice behind me makes chills run up and down my spine.
I know that voice.
“Oh hey, Nathan,” Crystal says, and she immediately runs to give him a big hug. “We haven’t talked in such a long time. How are you feeling? Is your leg better yet?”
“Much better,” he replies, and he crushes the can of Coke in his hands and shows off with a trick to punt it into the bin. “Almost back to normal.”
“Except for the finger,” Brooke mutters, but the glare he throws her makes her voice squeak. “Sorry.”
Nathan tucks his hand into his pocket. “You done here?” he asks Milo.
“Yeah … I’m finished.” Milo winks at me.
He actually fucking winks. That bastard.
But as they walk off, he throws me another glance over his shoulder.
The words that follow tilt me off my axis completely.
“If I were you, I’d get myself another knee to the pussy.”
I stare at my lunch, but whenever I think of swallowing a bite, I feel sick to my stomach.
Another knee to the pussy …
How did Milo know?
“Are you gonna eat that?” Jason asks, glaring at my sandwich like he wants to devour it.
I blink a couple of times, trying to process what he just said. Then I shake my head. “Take it. I’m not hungry.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” he says, and he’s already stuffed all of it into his mouth like it’s all disappearing into a black hole.
I gaze at him and his knees, and I can’t help but wonder if he really did all of those amazing things while wearing that mask… or if it was someone else.
Someone like Milo.
As Jason swallows it down, he turns his head and grins. “What are you looking at?”
I shrug. “Uhhh …”
I’m not sure I want to tell him.
But I have to know.
“Can you do something for me?” I ask.
“Depends on what,” he replies, snorting.
“Kiss me like you did the other night.”
His brows furrow even more, his mouth still open, but then he shrugs and says, “You don’t have to ask me twice.”
He leans in without grabbing me and presses a soft kiss onto my lips.
His lips …
My eyes widen as his mouth is still on mine, tingles spreading throughout my body.
The bad kind of tingles that make your skin feel icy cold.
This wasn’t the kiss.
Not that night he licked me, nor the night he choked me.
It wasn’t him.
I pull back, staring at him while fear and fire settle in my bones.
“What’s wrong?” Jason asks.
I scoot back my chair and get up.
“Lana?” he calls as I walk off, but I can’t say a word. I wouldn’t know what to say even if I could.
I head straight for the first bathroom I come across and shove open a stall, locking myself inside.
My mind spins around in circles like the water in this toilet bowl, and I feel like the world is flushing me down with it.
Until I get a text message.
I fish my phone from my pocket and check.
Unknown: Do you like it when he kisses you? Does he take your breath away like I would?