Page 24 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Monday

No. No, no, no. Bennett! Even though my heart was demanding I bang on that window, I still took a step back. And then another. And another. Bennett had told me to run. And I really wanted to. I was a coward.

But what was Theo going to do when he caught Bennett? And where the hell was Zoey?

I pictured the freezers in the garage, just begging for more bodies. I couldn’t leave Bennett and Zoey in there alone with Theo.

But all I could hear were Bennett’s words: “Run, Emma.”

I took another step back. I’d go to the police station.

It was close by on Main Street. I’d get Officer Davis here right away.

If I told him Zoey was in trouble, he wouldn’t even hesitate to break down Theo’s front door.

The man was clearly smitten with her. And I was never so relieved that she’d been flirting with him.

I started running, hoping I wouldn’t be too late.

The alarms from Theo’s house could be heard all the way down the street. And I could just make them out on Main Street too. I turned the corner to go to the police station and ran right into Zoey.

“Emma!” She attacked me in a hug.

“You’re okay!” I hugged her back. “How did you get out? ”

“We heard an alarm and Theo went to go check it out. I ran right out the front door. Where’s Bennett?!”

“He pushed me through the window in the garage and told me to run. He’s still in there, Zoey.”

“Oh shit.” She looked back down the street like she wanted to run and go help him. But she didn’t move. “What are we going to do?”

“Let’s go talk to Officer Davis.”

“And tell him what? That we were breaking and entering and almost got caught? But that we left our friend behind and he’s being murdered?! We’d sound insane and wind up in jail ourselves.”

She was right. That sounded crazy. “We have to do something. We can’t just leave Bennett there. Theo’s dangerous. He has so many freezers.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Did you not hear what I was yelling down from the attic?”

“You yelled something? I never heard any of it. Bennett snuck up on me and told me I needed to get out. And that Theo was dangerous. What the hell is even going on?”

“Why do you believe it when Bennett tells you but not me?”

“I’m easily hypnotized by hot men! It’s my weakness, you know this. God, why does Bennett think Theo is dangerous?”

I had no idea why Bennett thought it. But I knew why I did. “Because Theo is Callum Walsh.” I pointed to his hoodie. “I found this in the attic. I told you he was lying. He was the coach of the Wildcats. This proves it once and for all. This was what we needed!”

“Emma, why are you wearing the evidence?! ”

“Because I didn’t want to drop it!”

“But now there’s no fingerprints or anything.”

“Is that even a thing on fabric?” Shoot, why had I touched it?! “Zoey none of that matters right now. We need to figure out how to save Bennett. We can deal with Theo being a lying murderer later. Or vampire. I’m really leaning toward the vampire thing…”

“I’m not the one that needs to focus. You are. Stop talking about vampires and come up with an idea to save that hot specimen of a man!”

I was really starting to think that Zoey had a thing for Bennett. I shook the thought away. “Look, I don’t care if Officer Davis thinks I’m nuts. He already does since you told him I was a stalker. We’re going to the police.”

“That’s exactly why we can’t go. Because one crazy thing is a little suspicious. But you were also the one that found a severed hand in the maze. And you just broke into someone’s house. Three crazy things is not okay! That’s way too many things!”

Good point. “But he’ll be able to help save Bennett.”

“Officer Davis isn’t going to do anything. Because he won’t believe a word out of your mouth. He’ll just lock you up. And me too.” She smiled. “Actually…that doesn’t sound all that bad. I keep thinking about those handcuff’s on Theo’s bed…”

Gross. “Zoey.”

“Sorry, right.” She shook her head. “Bad idea.”

“So no police?”

“No police,” she agreed. “My perfect breasts can only get me out of so much trouble. ”

“Then come on,” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward Theo’s house. “We’re not letting Bennett end up in one of those freezers full of dead bodies.”

“You saw dead bodies?!”

“No, but why else would he have so many body sized freezers in his garage? He’s sick in the head.”

“I can’t believe you were actually right,” she said. “There’s a serial killer loose in this town.”

Or a vampire… “There was so much old stuff in his attic. And I found that old portrait of him from the 1700s.”

“Focus, Emma!”

Why wouldn’t she believe me on this? We ducked behind a bush on the side of Theo’s yard.

I pushed aside some of the branches so I could see through it.

And I realized everything was eerily quiet.

The rain had stopped, but that wasn’t all.

I didn’t remember when the alarm had quit blaring.

Probably while we were arguing about going to the police.

“The alarm stopped. Do police usually show up when those go off?” Please, please let Officer Davis just come save Bennett without me getting sent to prison.

“I feel like you usually just talk to someone on the phone and give them a password to stop it or something. He’ll probably just tell the security people that it went off by accident.”

Darn it. I was really hoping Officer Davis would be able to do the saving because no other ideas were coming to me that didn’t end up with me in one of those freezers. “So…what do we do?”

“I can call Theo again…”

“And talk about hydrangeas? That’s not helpful. ”

“Hey, it was spur of the moment. I did my best to try and distract him so you two could escape. It’s not my fault that he doesn’t tend to his own lawn.”

“Do you tend to your own lawn?”

“No, I have a lawn guy for that.”

She was ridiculous. And I was pretty sure she had a guy for everything. I let go of the branches and sat back. “I think we need to sneak back in.”

Zoey stared at me like I was the ridiculous one. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“I’m definitely open to suggestions.” Because I wasn’t just going to sit here and do nothing.

“Why don’t you call Theo and tell him you need help lifting something? Or reaching something on a really high shelf? Or opening a jar? Guys love when you stroke their ego. He’ll come running to help you.”

Honestly that wasn’t a terrible idea. Complimenting his height and strong arms… Stop thinking about his biceps! “Do you really think that will work?”

“Yeah and then when he arrives you can stroke something else as a thank you.”

I stared at her. “Why didn’t you stroke him earlier?”

“I figured you wouldn’t want me to. Because you have a crush on him.”

I don’t have a crush on a murderer. I pushed the branches aside again to stare at the front door. God, it had been too long since I’d left Bennett alone in there. Zoey and I had been talking nonsense instead of taking action.

“Don’t do anything crazy like walk up there. Call him.”

“Fine.” I grabbed my phone. “Wait, I don’t have his number. ”

“Well, I do.” She pulled out her phone and started reading me the number.

“Why do you have it?”

“I asked him for it when he stopped by the house earlier…”

“Did you let him inside?” I asked.

“Of course.”

“You’re not supposed to invite vampires into your house, Zoey!”

“That’s not a thing.”

It most definitely was. I think I’d seen it in a movie. Or a show or something. God, we were all going to die. I pressed the call button.

“Put it on speaker,” Zoey hissed.

I pulled the phone down from my ear and hit the speaker button. Okay, I was going to go with the jar opening thing. I always had trouble opening jars. It would be an easy lie.

It rang, and rang, and rang.

Please pick up. I need jar help!

It rang once more and finally went to voicemail. “Crap.”

“He’s probably busy butchering Bennett,” Zoey said.

“That’s not helpful!”

She shook her head. “Now we’re never going to figure out how big his dick was.” Zoey sighed like not knowing the length of Bennett’s penis was the travesty. And not the fact that he was most likely dead.

I ignored her and looked back down at my phone. “Um…Zoey?”

“Yeah? ”

Shit. God, what had we just done? “It’s recording a voicemail.”

“What?!” She grabbed the phone from me. “Make it stop!”

It was too late. She’d already said that she thought Theo was a murderer and that she wanted to measure Bennett’s cock.

We both just stared at each other.

I reached out and hit the call end button.

“Why did you do that?!” she shrieked. “If we waited there may have been a thing where we’d talked too long and then it would ask us if we wanted to re-record.”

“I didn’t know that was a thing!”

“Now we’re going to be murdered next!”

I shook my head. “I don’t know when it started recording. Maybe it only caught us talking about Bennett’s penis.”

“Or it recorded all of it. And now Theo will know we think he butchers people. He’ll come for us next to silence us.”

“Then there’s no reason to delay the inevitable. Maybe we can at least save Bennett before Theo comes for us.”

Zoey shook her head. “Emma…”

“I’m going in.”

“Wait.” She grabbed my arm. “I have one last idea. Let’s go to the grocery store and buy some eggs. Then we can throw them at his windows. He’ll be so distracted he’ll forget that he was about to kill Bennett.”

“That’s your plan? You want to egg his house?”

“They’re a mess to clean up. He’ll come out to stop it. ”

“Zoey, we don’t have time to go to the grocery store right now. I’m not waiting another second.” I stood up. “Wish me luck.”

“But he’ll kill you!” She grabbed my arm and pulled me back down behind the bushes. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before. But Bennett said he was dangerous and he seemed really serious when he told me. You can’t go in there alone right now.”

“What else am I supposed to do? I can’t just stand here and let something happen to Bennett.”

“What are you two doing?” said a deep voice.

Zoey and I both screamed at the top of our lungs.