AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The man reaches a hand down to where I’m looking, and I swear he’s frowning behind the mask. “I’m not going to hurt you. Not as long as youstoplooking for trouble. Now, before this goes any further.” He presses against me, eating up the empty space between us and forcing his thigh against my center, which I’m hyper aware of. Especially when he moves, his jeans rubbing against my leggings, and it’s suddenlyreallyhard to breathe in the cold, enclosed space.
“Promise me you won’t go looking for a killer, Bailey,” the man orders, and it’s hard enough to come to terms with the fact he knows my name, when he’s so close I can feel the heat from his skin radiating to me.
God, he’s like afurnace.
“I promise,” I agree without hesitation, breathless with fear
“Mean it.”
“I literally mean it. And I don’t know how to convince you that I do,” I promise, my voice wavering. “Let me go.”So I can run home and hide under the blankets.
He hesitates, searching my face like he wants something else. Somethingmore.But I don’t know what else I have to give, especially when his fingers brush over the skin of my throat, still holding me against the wall.
“It’s such a shame I don’t get to play with you,” the man sighs at last, pulling away so he’s no longer touching me. “But he’d be upset…so.Run away, Bailey.” His voice turns sharp, prompting me to jerk away from him as my heart pounds in my chest, no part of me believing I’m going to get out of this unscathed.
“W-what?” I ask stupidly, eyes wide as I pull away from the building.
“I said run,” he repeats, stepping toward me. “Now.”
I don’t wait for him to change his mind, and I’m quick to escape, my feet flying over the ground as I run away from the meetinghouse and the stranger who has every part of me on high alert.
“Hate to break it to you, Bailey, but there’s no physical way that Phoenix could’ve killed anyone two nights ago.”Nic’s voice is apologetic, as if she’s under the impression this is somehow important to me. That I need Phoenix to be the killer, or some bullshit.
In reality, I’d rather him not be. But the hunch has been there, and only now do I feel my grasp on that certainty slipping away, as does the fear from this afternoon.
I haven’t told Nic about what happened. Not yet. And maybe I just…won’t. Not until I know how to say it or what I’m going to do with the memory of what had happened.
“How?” I ask, dragging my knee up to my chest as I swivel on my gaming chair. My headset cord pulls slightly beside my knee, the pink microphone too close to my mouth. I brush it away lightly, being careful not to snap the light pink and silver headset appendage. “Yesterday he…” I trail off, definitely not wanting to talk about yesterday at the store. She doesn’t need to know, and something like embarrassment keeps me from telling her. “How do you know that for sure? Are you telling me it was accidental again?”
“No,”Nic informs me with a sigh. “I’m telling you that he was killed about twenty minutes before you showed up at the park, and Phoenix was already there, waiting for that other guy who showed up later. Sorry to burst your detective bubble, Bailey.”
Some private investigator I’d make, I guess.
“But it was definitely a murder, right?” I ask, probably with too much enthusiasm, by the way Nic pauses. Again the man from the fairground swims into my thoughts, and I look at my fingers trying to remember his face more clearly.
“Yeah. It was definitely a murder. They’re not releasing it on the news, and Mom would kill me if she knew I was telling you, but…”I can hear the indecision in her voice, even as she goes on. “He was stabbed about twelve times. Insides all ripped out. It was bad, she said. One of the worst things she’s seen ever, even back in Portland.” Hearing that this murder was one of the worst things the former Portland, Oregon police officer had ever seen is certainly something to think about.
“Had to have been someone who really hated him, huh?” I ask, trying to think through a list of Jack’s enemies. I can’t think of many offhand, except one.
But she’s, well, dead.
Then again, if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t know much about what their circle does anymore. Not since Daisy died. Emily, Jack, Jayden, Evan, and Ava were still as close as ever, from what I know, but that’s not much. But maybe they pissed off a serial killer or held a seance and there’s a ghost that’s now taking them out one by one, horror movie style.
“I wonder if the others are afraid,” I find myself murmuring, before I can stop the words from leaving my mouth.
“What?”Nic not hearing me is probably a blessing and I tilt my head back to stare up at my ceiling.
“I was just muttering. Sorry.”Just muttering, because that’s probably not a very normal thing to say, given the situation. My fingers drum against my thighs, nails catching my leggings every once in a while as I try to work through the thoughts taking up too much space in my brain.
The way he’d looked at me. The way he’d spoken and the tone of his voice…I’d thought for sure he was the killer, and taunting me with it. But maybe he was just taunting me with his innocence instead. The idea isn’t incredibly far-fetched. Especially if he had been trying to scare me off.
“Bailey?”Nic’s voice is hesitant, concerned, and makes me wince, though I’m thankful she can’t see it. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” It’s great that she’s trying so hard not to talk about the things that she thinks will trigger me, since it gives me so much extra time to dwell on them in my own head instead. “Thanks for telling me. I hate asking you about super secret police stuff.” I do, because she doesn’t always like going behind her mom’s back, even when it’s something she knows Nolan and I will die to hear.
“It’s okay. It’s a special occasion,”Nic snorts. “But are you sure you’re okay? Do you want to come over tonight?”
“Nah, I don’t think so. I’m helping my parents with caramel apples tonight.” With only two more days until the fair starts, Mom and Dad are in hustle mode. Meaning, they’ll take all the help they can get. “But—”
