And Evan breaks out the most twisted smile I’ve ever seen. “I caught her after you left. She was so beautiful. I hated having to throw her to the coyotes.”
Everything solid in me melts away as it all finally comes together.
Ivy’s never going to find Vanessa’s body, because it’s sitting in a thousand-plus dollar coffin in Forest Lawn Memorial.
The ISB identified the wrong body as Paisley.
I bet I know which human destroyed that corpse’s teeth.Bile rises up my throat. I steal a glance at Beck, and she’s white as a sheet, a deer stuck in headlights.
We have to go. But there’s no way our pocketknives and pepper spray can beat a gun. My backpack is at my feet. He’ll shoot if I make any sudden movements.
“Where’s Paisley’s body?” I demand as Beck and I raise our hands and step toward the door. “Why move Paisley’s body and not the others?”
Does he have Paisley’s body?
Suddenly, all I can see is the only other door here, the one that leads into what I assumed was a bathroom.
He’s going to kill us. I can’t die without knowing what really happened to Paisley.
“Paisley’s here, isn’t she?” I ask. “You stole the videos off her phone, so where is she?”
“Stop talking!” He trains the gun right at chest level. “Stoptalking!”
And he fires.
I cry out in shock. The sound is so much louder than I thought based on what I’ve seen in movies. It rings in my ears. My hand throbs, but—
—but nothing else hurts.
I look over to Beck. She’s not bleeding either.
I spare a glance behind us.
The bullet has buried itself in the wall.
He missed.
Beck springs for my backpack. She removes the pepper spray.
She sprays it right into Evan’s face, less than five feet from him.
Evan screeches as the gun clatters to the floor.
He drops to the ground, rubbing his face with his sleeve. Beck and I lock eyes.
Evan looks up, his eyes devil-red.
We all jump for the gun.
Everything happens in a blur. Bodies slam together, heat and rocked skulls. Fingers clasp in a frenzy. Mine touch the hot metal. Too hot, so hot I have to pull back.
The gun goes off again.
A splash of wetness hits me, the liquid hot.
Too hot.
And red.
