Page 123 of Soul So Dark

Raising my arms, I pound on the hood with a few resounding bangs before spinning around and letting out a feral yell into the trees. When there’s no air left in my lungs, I sink to the ground, hunching over and grabbing my head in frustration.

“Hey, skeeze,” a voice startles me and I almost fall on my ass in the dirt.

“Aiden?” I rasp, peering across the clearing at his tall, foreboding silhouette.

“Sorry to interrupt your nervous breakdown.”

I start picking myself up off the ground, “Where’d you come from?”

“Why haven’t you been answering our texts?”

Are there texts? I haven’t looked at my phone since I left my house.

He doesn’t wait for me to answer, “I knew you’d be here,” he smirks, glancing in the direction of the Lutz’s house.

“Where thefuckhave you been?” I growl as he saunters toward me.

“Damn, if I’d have known you were so desperate to see me, I would’ve cut my plans short tonight.” He reaches up and gives my cheek a pat. “You’re my number one, after all.”

I smack his hand away. “They saw you. They have you on camera.”

“Who?”

“Copenhaver, the police, they think you tried to kill Jordy.”

“Do they?” There’s a glint in Aiden’s eyes as his mouth stretches into a wide grin, accentuating his lip rings beneath each canine. “I still can, if you want. But it looks like someone got to her before I did.”

Then leans back against my SUV with a devilish grin.

“Bitch couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dallas

If I thought I had any chance of escaping this restroom before, it evaporates before my eyes when Tyler appears at Jordy’s shoulder. She glances at Jordy and then peers at me suspiciously with her teal eyes that I can’t read worth shit. Now the two of them are blocking my path to the door, and a sickening realization washes over me.

Tyler was in Jordy’s car that night at the old railroad bridge. Clearly, they’re friends, and she doesn’t owe me anything. Hell, she may not even remember that I was even there. But one thing’s for sure…

I am totally and utterly fucked.

“Hey, Tyler,” Jordy’s voice hitches insidiously, “did you hear that Alex is a pedophile now?”

As much as I want to start yelling at Jordy, I can’t take my eyes off her hands, still toggling the knife back and forth. Then she flips it open with a click, making my heartrate skyrocket.

“He wanted to keep it quiet,” she continues, “but some little gutter rat couldn’t keep her mouth shut.” She waves her hand—and the knife—making me flinch. “And he lost his temper!”

Tyler remains silent, her eyes shifting back and forth between us as Jordy speaks.

“He lost his temper and gutted you in this shitty bathroom like the trash that you are. Or maybe…” her lips stretch into a diabolical grin and she lowers her voice to nearly a whisper, “maybe he takes you out to the woods…”

My jaw tightens and I feel the veins in my neck begin to swell.

“Maybe Alex takes his piece of trash out to the woods, and after he kills you, he stuffs you in a pipe until you’re nothing but a rotting, faceless pile of shit. Just…like…your stepsister.”

My muscles tremble as the panic rises. But Jordy’s still not done.

“And then he’ll come home, lay down in his bed next to me, and I’ll help him forget all about the nameless dead girl who almost ruined his life.”