Page 38 of His Wicked Revenge

“But you escaped. I didn’t. I stayed until I was allowed to leave.” My jaw twitches in anger.

“And I was never going to get out without… help.” A wicked grin pulls at her lips. I sit back in my seat and look at Myles and my sister.

They are having a conversation of their own, probably wanting to give Veronica and me space to get to know each other, but I’m done with my questions for now.

Everyone else engages in small talk, Chloe and Veronica talking about some book they are reading. Myles is like me and stays quiet while eating, shooting daggers at the woman across from him.

Once we are done, I pay for my and Veronica’s meals since it’s a gentlemanly thing to do, and I have to make a show of it for my sister.

“Alright!” Chloe beams while she stands up. “Let’s go bowling!”

CHAPTER 18

Leo

We are two rounds in, with me in the lead, followed by Myles. Chloe was never too good at bowling. She hated it after being old enough to play with the gutter rails down. Veronica is in last, which isn’t surprising.

I’m sure in her privileged life before the asylum, her parents never took her bowling. She’s maybe knocked three pins down in total since the game had begun. Every time she spun around after her turn, I could see the frustrated expression she was trying to hide.

This is probably the equivalent of her doing a puzzle with Eliza.

“You aren’t doing that bad!” Chloe attempts to cheer Veronica up.

“My score is probably the lowest in all of bowling history.” She rolls her shoulders, relieving the tension that’s building up.

“That’s okay! Leo,” Chloe looks at me. “You can help Camille, right? Show her how to throw the ball so it doesn’t land in the forbidden ditch?”

“The forbidden what?” Myles questions, an eyebrow perking up. Chloe waves him off, not bothering to answer his question.

My sister narrows her eyes at me and quickly slides her gaze to Veronica, who is looking at the scoreboard with her hands on her hips and her brows pinched together.

When Chloe finds me again, she speaks through her teeth. “Help her.”

Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I give in to make my sister happy and say, “Yeah. I can help her.”

Veronica’s head snaps to me. “What?”

Giving her a tight smile, I walk to the ball return and scoop up her pink-swirled ball. Holding it out for her in the palm of my hand, I tell her, “I’m going to help you.”

She eyes the ball, then lifts her gaze to mine. A mischievous grin spreads across her face. Her arms raise, and she snatches the ball from my hands. Stepping away from me, Veronica positions herself close to the lane, waiting for me to join.

I exhale an annoyed breath as I walk over to her. Standing behind her, I leave the smallest space between us, not wanting our bodies to fully touch, and wrap my right arm around her to help hold the ball.

A flash goes off somewhere around us, causing Veronica's focus to leave the lane to where the flash came from. To our right, Chloe is standing, giggling with the Polaroid camera at her side. In her other hand, she is shaking the photo.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“I’m being an annoying sister and taking a photo of you and Camille on your first date.” She grins, stepping forward to hand Veronica the picture.

She stares down at it and laughs to herself, almost out of relief. I dip my brows as Chloe walks away, leaving us staring at the photo.

“It was you,” Veronica states.

“What was me?”

She holds up the Polaroid picture, tapping on the bottom corner where the date is stamped. The same color and font as the one I slid under her door.

“Someone slid a photo under my apartment door. And here I thought I had a creepy stalker, but it was only you.”