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I pull my mask on, towering over her. I’m taller, a menace.

She doesn’t flinch.

“They saw me coming back here with him.” She jerks her head toward the dead piece of shit on the floor. “They’ll be suspicious if they find the body when no one saw me leave here. They have cameras in the hallway, not outside the window. You can run through there. I can’t. They’ll place me here at the time of the murder. It would look suspicious as fuck. I have to stay. I have to be the one to call the cops.”

Every instinct in my body tells me to fight her on this. Throw her over my shoulder and get the hell out of this place. Away from this poor excuse of a man.

Except she’s right.

We have more fun waiting for us here until Halloween.

Plus, I owe Jerome a favor and he hasn’t contacted me yet.

“I’ll be fine.” When she takes a step back, I’ve never hated anything more. No, that’s a lie. I hate the change in her eyes that I can’t understand. She’s plotting something. “I promise. Just leave. I’ll deal with this, then I’ll head home.”

I grumble.

“Alone,” she adds. The only person who’s ever given me orders. To ever get me to listen to them.

“Okay.” I pull the hood of my hoodie over my head, careful not to touch her and leave traces from my soaked clothes on her skin. That distance is also at the top of my list of most hated things. “Straight home, you hear me?”

“Straight home.”

Her eyes take another dark turn. I’ll force whatever it is out of her later.

Later, I’ll do a lot worse.

19

SHILOH

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

“Help! Help! Oh my God!” I scream into my phone, hoping Kaleb hears me from outside. I pray that he thinks it means I’m staying here and won’t be looking over his shoulder in the next few minutes. “Help me!”

“Ma’am, calm down,” the male operator says. His voice is reassuring, but I can sense the tension beneath it.

You learn to pick up on the small things when you need to survive an abusive father. Majoring in psychology helps, too.

“What’s happening?” he adds when I’m quiet. “Are you in any immediate danger?”

“Someone just killed my professor.” My wail is anguished as I tiptoe over Dempsey’s body. “Psychology. I’m in the Department of Psychology. I rattle off the name of my college and the room I’m in. “Help. Help. Oh God.”

“Someone is already on their way,” the man reassures me some more. “Are you hiding in a safe place? Is the attacker still there?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” I stick my head out of the broken window, watching Kaleb’s figure as he walks toward the gates.

From here, he’ll head to his temporary home. The place he’s staying in. I have to know where. The only way I can do it is by stalking him. The only way to get him to stop being reckless is by scaring the stubbornness out of him.

I need to wrap up this call quickly. I have to get out of here before the police arrive.

For that to happen, I need a good excuse to leave the crime scene.

“He’s here somewhere! I know he is!”

“Deep breaths.” Kaleb grows smaller as he gets farther away. He’ll disappear any moment now. “Ma’am, what’s your name?”

“Shiloh. Shiloh Talbot.” I inhale loudly, being obnoxious about it. My sheer terror needs to go on record. My fear has to be heard. Then this. “He was a short man. Stocky.”