Page 166 of Wicked Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 2)

I grab both of their hands and we dance together, not needing guys to enjoy ourselves.

As we move, my body begins burning up to the point that I have to stop moving and fan my face.

“You okay?” Emmie shouts.

“Yeah. I’m just going to get some air. I’ll be back.”

“You want us to come?” I glance at Calli with her head thrown back and her eyes closed.

“No, you stay with her,” I say with a laugh.

As I push through the crowd, my need for some cool air begins to get the better of me.

My head spins, my legs start taking on a life of their own, and I find myself leaning against the wall.

Holy shit. What was in that drink?

Realization makes my eyes widen.

No. Surely no one would have…

I stumble through a door, hungrily sucking in some cool evening air as I rummage in my purse for my cell.

My vision swims as I stare at the screen. I think I find Seb’s contact and hit call, but right as I put my cell to my ear, a figure appears around the corner of the building.

I don’t know how I know. But I do instantly.

“Better run while you can, Estella Doukas.”

Fear rips through me, and I do something I would never do if I were sober and not suffering from the effects of whatever that fucking drink had been spiked with.

I run.

“Stella? Stella?” A voice rings through the darkness as my feet lead me into the trees that surround the abandoned building. “Stella? Where are you, baby?”

Seb.

It’s just Seb.

“I-I’m in the trees. He’s here. He’s here, Seb.” I think I whisper it, but I’m quickly losing my grip on reality.

Footsteps get louder behind me, a twig snaps, and I scream like a little bitch.

“We’re coming, baby. We’re coming.”

I collide with a tree and stumble back, falling on my ass, and when I look up, I find a dark figure looming over me and a gun pointed right at my head.

“You won’t win this,” I warn him, wishing like hell I had a fucking gun of my own strapped to me right now.

Think, Stella. Fucking think.

But my brain is mush.

“They’re coming. And they’re going to kill you, you motherfucker.”

A gunshot rings out, making me flinch, and for a second I wait for the pain to come, but it never does. And when I look up, he’s gone.

I blink a few times as my guys—I assume—run deeper into the trees.

Echoed shouts filter down to me as I fight with my unwilling body to get to my feet.

Two more gunshots pierce the air, and my body jolts at the sound.

“NO,” I hear someone scream. A voice I recognize.

The fear within it is the push I need, and my legs start moving. My lungs burn, my head spins, but I don’t stop until I stumble through the trees and discover the outcome of those gunshots.

“No,” I cry, seeing two bodies on the floor and recognizing instantly that neither are that of my stalker… but two of the most important people in my life.