Page 88 of The Invite (The Massacre Ball #1)

Nessa

(Two weeks later)

“Just one more.”

“August! My leg is fine now,” I protest loudly. Except for a slight numbness that the doctor said will heal with time. “It wasn’t even broken.”

I got lucky the knife didn’t puncture any nerves to leave permanent damage.

Still, my protective boyfriend can’t help but be sick with worry.

“You were complaining about a cramp last night,” he counters, distracting me with his touch as he runs his palm up my right leg. God! He looks so sexy with the sun shining down on him and the fierce set of his features. “You still need to exercise.”

“Oh, I’m exercising all right.”

Day and night.

As soon as I was discharged from the hospital, Augustus fucked me every chance he got. No complaints from me. After almost losing each other, our dependency on one another has multiplied. Some might say it’s unhealthy being inseparable, but neither of us cares.

We love and live on our own terms.

Mirth dances in his eyes at my cheeky reply but concern for my health overshadows it, and he becomes more stern. “Give me one more stretch.”

“I like that sentence when it ends with orgasms.”

“Nessa,” he growls, his pupils dilating with lust.

I hide my triumphant smile when he stands and picks me up before carrying me into Maverick’s cabin and straight to the upstairs bedroom. I’m burning with anticipation of him fucking me when he removes every piece of fabric from my body until I’m naked.

But he doesn’t.

I turn onto my stomach, lean up on my elbows, and rest my chin on my hands, giving him a pout.

“Stay like that,” he rasps.

My gaze follows him sauntering to the corner desk and picking up his sketchbook and pencil. I’m warm for a whole other reason. Dragging the chair to the edge of the bed, he sits down and perches the book on his knee.

I remain still as he regards my form with dark eyes. The usual storminess in them is replaced by gentle waves lapping against a shore.

“You take my breath away, little prey.”

His velvety voice sends shivers erupting all over my body. His wrist shifts as he begins to draw. A concentrated frown pinching his forehead as he becomes lost in every stroke on the paper. Everything he does heightens his sexiness.

We’re both fiends for each other’s bodies.

Yet fucking is undoubtedly second close to moments like this, where I watch him sketch me for hours. They are what I crave the most. I feel closer to him in these quiet hours.

Being an artist’s inspiration is an indescribable feeling.

An act more intimate than being connected physically.

His paintings of me are my most prized possession.

Every now and then, he glances to study me with artistic eyes. It’s not because he needs help remembering my features. He knows them by heart. Every little detail. From the shape and color of the freckles on my face to the thin scar near my hip bone.

I know it because I challenged him to draw me without peeking.

He did it within minutes, leaving me amazed and teary-eyed. I never knew love like this existed. Not outside of fairy tales, at least.

Augustus puts the pencil down and pins me with his gaze. “Come here.”

Smirking, I slowly crawl toward him. A little payback for earlier. His expression narrows, as he runs his tongue between his teeth. As I climb down the bed and straddle his lap, one arm bands around my waist possessively.

Trailing wet kisses from my breast to the sensitive skin below my ear, he nips the flesh. “Brat.”

I tilt my head down and lock my lips with his, coaxing them open. I sigh when I push my tongue inside and swirl it with his. Caressing his square jaw, I suck his bottom lip before pulling back to gaze at his lap.

My black-and-white face peers back at me.

I never feel more beautiful than when I see myself through Augustus’s eyes. I graze the sketch with my fingertips, in awe at how gifted my boyfriend is. “You were serious.”

“About?”

“Drawing me every single day.”

“I want to capture our happily ever after as we spend the rest of our lives together living it.”

“Won’t you get bored?” I tease.

Rising from the chair with my front flush against him and my legs wrapped around his hips, he takes us both down on the bed. Leaning down until our temples touch and his breath gusts over mine, he murmurs, “A man never stops being obsessed with his muse, little prey.”

***

“The others will be here soon,” informs Augustus after we get out of the shower.

My eyes pop open as he stops drying my hair with a towel. Since Ace and Maverick came to save us that night, shortly before the cops and the ambulance arrived, Augustus and I have been cooped away from the world at Maverick’s cabin.

The very next day, the news of the attack was all over the town. I had experienced the media’s suffocating scrutiny once before and didn’t want a repeat of it. When I was discharged from the hospital, Augustus brought me to this cabin that’s on a secluded property.

Both of us only wanted to be with each other.

It was his presence that kept the nightmares away. I told him everything. How I was under the witness protection program, my parents being serial killers, and working with the FBI. I know now they always wanted to use me as bait to draw out my mother.

I also confessed about Detective Arjun and how they’re looking into his uncle’s murder. I haven’t been approached again but that doesn’t mean they won’t come to me in the future. The danger to the Grayson family is real.

“Are you ready to do this?” Augustus softly asks.

“Yes. I want to put it all behind us.”

It’ll be the first time the group will be meeting after The Massacre Ball. No idea how they’ll react.

Augustus and I finish getting dressed. When we reach downstairs ten minutes later, Maverick is already there and helping himself in the kitchen.

He turns around at the sound of us.

“Turkey sandwich?” He gestures at the plate.

The doorbell rings.

“Go eat.” Augustus nudges my ass. “I’ll get the door.”

I walk over to the island and grab a sandwich, taking a bite. It’s delicious, or maybe I’m just too hungry. I’ve scarfed down one by the time Augustus returns and stands next to me. Behind him trails Kaid, Wolf, and Capri.

The latter two take perch on the couch in the adjoining living room while the former leans against the wall with his arms crossed.

“I’m becoming tired of meeting like this,” Capri says coldly.

“Do you never stop complaining?” grunts Maverick around a mouth full of turkey.

Capri’s lips curl in disgust. “Do you ever mind your own business?”

“You’re under my roof, stabber.” Her cheeks flush. He smirks. “It makes you my business.”

Before she can respond, the sound of the front door opening and closing steals our attention. A fiery Scarlett rounds the corner.

“Still alive, I see?” Kaid says.

“Yep,” taunts Scarlett, brushing past him. “Still here to make your life hell.”

I don’t miss the way his hand twitches as though he’s itching to touch her. “I saved you.”

“No. Nessa saved me.”

“I helped.”

“Bet you’re regretting it now.”

“Very much,” he utters low.

“Is Daisy coming?” Capri asks.

“Yeah,” I answer. “She should be here soon.”

It’s not long before she arrives and it’s good to see she hasn’t lost her energetic spirit. Or her quirkiness, judging by the novel in her hands.

“How many books can a person possibly own?” grumbles Augustus in my ear.

I chuckle.

“Hi,” Daisy waves at everyone and settles between Wolf and Capri on the couch. “You guys are a breath of fresh air. The hospital was one boring vacation. There was no peace and privacy to finish one book. I deducted one star for that.”

“Christ!” Maverick utters under his breath. “So glad I didn’t fuck her.”

“We’re all here,” Kaid cuts in, and straightens from the wall. “Now explain why we let the police find Kenny’s body.”

“Do you want us to get arrested, Grayson?” mocks Wolf.

“Nobody’s going to prison,” Augustus calmly states. “All of you know Nessa and I were attacked at her place.”

“Only you’d catch the attention of one of the country’s most wanted serial killers.” Wolf snorts.

“She was my mother.”

The temperature drops as my confession reverberates around the space. Wolf’s amusement dying.

“Seriously?” asks a slack-jawed Capri. Raising a palm, she gasps. “Wait… you’re Tyra Bloom?”

I tense at the name, which brings nothing but terrible memories I would rather erase from my mind forever.

“No.” Augustus’s arms circle my waist and pull me flush against his chest. His voice is a dark and possessive rumble as he utters, “She’s Nessa. Don’t ever call her the other name.”

Resting my hand over his, I tilt my head and kiss his neck.

Staring back at the group, I speak, “I told the detective investigating Amber’s murder that it was my mother who killed not only her, but Kenny too, to terrorize me.

They’ll find her DNA on Kenny’s body to tie his death to her.

They already suspected she killed Amber. ”

Except for Augustus, nobody knows about Elizabeth’s involvement in the attack on me.

Augustus was enraged and wanted to go after her, but I calmed him down.

We’ve no proof to tie her to my mother. Let’s not forget she knows Augustus killed his uncle.

Until we find another leverage over her, no point in going after or confronting her.

It’s a battle for another day.

“That’s why they’ve called me to the station tomorrow,” reveals Capri.

“Yes. I received a call from Detective Arjun who said they were charging Debolina with the murders as well as her attempt to kill me. The case will shut soon.”

Visible relief crosses her face and she slumps back against the couch. It’s not easy living as a murderer, even if the other person deserves it.

“So… we’re safe?” she slowly asks.

“If all of us promise to take the truth to the grave, yes, we’re safe,” says Augustus.

“Don’t know about your world, Grayson,” Kaid growls. “But in my world, we don’t snitch.”

“ If you do, then I have the clip to take all of us down.”

“We won’t,” sharply says Capri before the tension between the men can escalate.

“We should celebrate,” a perky Daisy suggests. “Maybe do a toast. We won against Anonymous.”

“You’re nuts, you know that, right?” Scarlett says with a shake of her head.

I turn around and loop my arms around Augustus. Smirking, I murmur, “What do you say? Should we toa—”

Multiple chimes ring out from all of our phones.

That’s weird.

I frown at Augustus. Releasing me, he pulls out his phone from his pocket and swipes at the screen. Looking over my shoulder, I watch the others do the same. In a flash, the girls’ faces pale while the guys’ turn grim.

My stomach knots. I blink at Augustus. “What is it?”

“I didn’t kill her.”

Kenny’s terrified voice fills the air.

My heart stops beating.

“Then why did you hide that she was your friend, Ken? That’s what she called you, didn’t she?”

I yank Augustus’s wrist to stare at the screen, watching a grainy video of us playing. The one we thought would never see the light of day.

Then how?

“When I’m done with you, you’re going to wish you were never born.”

“Please… I didn’t hurt her. I swear.”

“Are you saying you didn’t invite her to school that morning?”

“To study in the library, not to kill her.”

The recording keeps going till Kenny shoves away from everyone and runs before cutting straight to the scene where all of us stand in a circle around him. I already know the train wreck coming.

Yet I can’t look away.

This… this cannot be happening.

“Rot. In. Hell.”

The video ends.

Or so we think.

Until a distorted and robotic voice says, “Did you think it was over? The games have just begun. XOXO, A.”