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Feeble light streams into the bathroom through the half-shuttered window. Where my bathroom is made of dark wood and marble, hers is light and feminine, with white and pastel colors, and whimsical decor.
She folds her arms across her chest, but doesn’t speak. Only observes me with those hazel eyes. They don’t shine as brightly today as they usually do. Alize has changed again. The inferno behind her eyes is more like the sputtering flames of a fire left without fuel.
I’m tempted to pull her close and sweep the errant curls from her temple.
Pinkcurls.
And her hair isn’t the only thing that’s changed. There's a silver knob shining on one of her nostrils, and it looks like she’s got a tattoo too. I leave for a little more than a dayandallof this happens?
“I’m fine,” she finally says with a sigh. “He didn’t hurt me. I’m just a little shaken up.”
“Huh?” My voice is barely a whisper. “Whodidn’t hurt you?”
Confusion twists her features. “Liam. He broke in here last night.”
My eyes widen.
Motherfucker.
I storm out of the bathroom toward Ezra, who is basically in the same position I left him in. He looks up at me, the grin falling from his features. Upon closer inspection, his dark sweater is speckled with blood, much more than Alize’s nightgown. There’s even a light splatter of it on his fingers.
“What the fuck happened?” I shout at him, all the rage and fear and uncertainty that’s been plaguing me the past few hours finally spilling out. “Kellerbroke inhere?”
“Yes, but—”
“That’s something you put as a fuckingtopic sentencein your text message!” I shout.. “Why didn’t you answer my calls? What the fuck, Ezra!”
I’m coming apart at the seams. The thrum of my heart is reverberating through every inch of my body and Idesperatelywant to punch something. Alize is fine. But Keller was here, and that could have ended so differently.
Ezra doesn’t seem half as agitated as I am. He straightens.
“Calm the fuck down, Alex,” he hisses, pointing a finger at me. There’s dried blood in his fingernails. What the fuck happened here?“You saw Alize. She’s fine.” He gives me a stern once-over. “I did what you asked me to do, so spare me the tantrum.”
I take a deep breath. It feels like the first one I’ve had since I saw his texts.
Ezra continues. “I couldn’t tell you all that I needed to say over the phone, you twat. I’m not sure if you can tell,” he gestures wildly to the bloody floor, “but what I did could very much get us both in trouble with the school if it’s traced back to us.”
He’s making sense. He always does.
But it’s not what I want to hear. “Tell me what happened,” I demand. “Where the fuck is he?” I look down at the blood. “He’d better have fucking left here in a body bag.”
If I’m wrong, I only hope he’s alive so I can be the one to kill him.
Ezra chuckles. “Almost,” he said. “When I first texted you I was hoping you were already on your way back.” He folds his arms across his chest. “I kept him here and stable for as long as I could, but I eventually had to have him sent to the clinic for them to stabilize him.”
I’m a rapt audience as he narrates the story.
“He broke in through the window. Vance is outside right now looking at the weird pulley-system he jerry-rigged.” My room is on the third floor, with a clear drop below. It’s the last place I would have ever thought anyone could have broken in through, which is exactly why Keller chose it. “I heard him tussling with Alize. I got in there just in time to see him trying to throw her through the window.”What?“She stabbed him, though. Stunned him long enough for me to get him and tie him up.”
A ray of delight shines through the haze clouding my thoughts.
Keller was unprepared for Alize and her bejeweled knife. I almost took it from her after she stabbed me with it. Now I’m happy I didn’t.
I should get her a gun once I’m sure she won’t use it on me.
“I stabbed him two hundred and thirty times,” Ezra shrugs. “I was aiming for 467, but he started losing too much blood. I got a bit carried away with how deep I was going. I stabilized him and texted you, hoping you were on your way so you could get a few punches in or whatever, but you never responded.”
He picks up his phone from the dining table and turns the screen toward me.
