Lady Killer (Dead Girls Club #2)

34. Luz

Chapter thirty-four

Luz

T he blade slammed down into the antique oak dining table at the Blackwell Estate, where I was spending more and more of my time.

“He kissed her, Lucian.” Everest seethed, unwilling to see reason.

My devoted serial killer had returned from California, initially elated at the lack of harm that had come to me. That was, until Nixon gave him the details on my “date” with Clayton.

“Ever, it’s fine, really,” I said, placing my hand on his arm.

He turned to face me, adoration written in those ice-blue eyes. The smile that he brought to my face was completely natural.

“He put his hands on you, Starbright. He put his lips on you.” Everest’s head snapped to face Lucian. “At the very least, let me remove those. For her collection.”

He really was remarkably thoughtful for someone with such poor impulse control.

Lucian massaged his brow. “No. No lips, no hands, no fingers. I don’t want to hear about you removing so much as a toenail from Clayton Royal . . . and take your dagger out of the table, now.”

Everest slumped in his seat with a scowl but yanked the blade out.

“So, we’re back to nothing,” Locke said.

“Royal could still be involved,” Alister argued. “He just didn’t make his move that night.”

“And we will continue to keep an eye on him, but we need to start considering other avenues,” Lucian said before cutting into a piece of steak and chewing contemplatively.

Easy for him to say. His life wasn’t on the line .

“Have we considered serving her up to the killer on a platter?” Locke chimed in casually.

Everest’s dagger flew across the table, nicking the other man’s ear before embedding itself in the wall.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” the professor roared, clasping his ear as blood seeped out from between his fingers. “It was a fucking joke!”

“You, of all people, don’t have the right to joke about Starbright.”

Alister suppressed a smile, while Lucian said nothing. Even Nixon smirked.

Locke, looking at me with murder in his eyes, snatched up a napkin as the blood rolled down his neck to stain the collar of his sharply pressed shirt. “You know, all it would take is one word from me and your girlfriend would be out of Hollow Oak.”

“And all it would take is one slip of my blade and you would be dickless for the rest of your life. What’s your point?”

For once, the insufferable man didn’t take the bait.

“You should think about it, boys. If she isn’t at Hollow Oak, the killer can’t get to her. I’m just thinking of her safety.”

Everest froze in place, head tilted as though he was considering it.

Absolutely not .

“You have no way of knowing the killer’s reach, and you’re underestimating Luz’s ability to protect herself,” Alister said.

“Right yes, with her poisons. How could I forget?” Locke tossed the bloody napkin on the table, still clutching his ear. “It’s a little cliché, don’t you think? Poison is a woman’s weapon.”

I cut off a bite of steak and chewed gingerly before deigning to respond.

“Only an insecure man would consider a method as clever and accessible as poisoning effeminate. Some of us prefer to work smarter, not harder.”

Locke’s smirk turned sour, Alister smiled outright, and Everest lifted my hand to his lips.

An image of Morticia and Gomez ran through my mind.

“And what will you do when the killer gets you alone? Ask him to—?”

“Locke, enough,” Lucian cut him off, earning himself a murderous look.

It was like herding cats with these boys. No wonder we hadn’t caught the killer yet.

“We need to try again,” I said .

My announcement was received with uncomfortable silence.

Lucian’s brows rose before his expression shuttered. Alister’s smile disappeared, and Everest fluttered his eyes with a blank expression of disbelief.

Nixon was the first to react. “She’s right.”

Everest’s other hand wrapped around his steak knife. I grabbed it.

“I don’t think we can assume Clayton is guilty or innocent," I said. "Aaron waited a whole semester before he made his move on me, so it’s entirely possible he’s operating under the same instructions.”

At Alister and Everest’s . . . encouragement, I had informed Lucian that, based on what I heard on Halloween night, someone was leading the sheep, and based on the available evidence, I believed that person to be a killer.

He was . . . not happy, but as Alister pointed out, the terms of the deal we brokered said nothing about me disclosing information to him.

An amendment he then sought to propose, which led to a counterproposal from me, and so on and so forth. Many hours later, we had a long contract drawn out, and the two killers who claimed me looked pained at how casually I negotiated my death with the head of the Blackwell family .

“A deal’s a deal,” he said at the end, reaching out to shake on it.

His large hand engulfed my own, and I had been taken back to our charged moment in the hall.

The man wanted me dead, and there was still something about his presence I felt straight down to my core.

In the present, I continued to explain my plan to lure the killer out once again.

To my surprise, none of them seemed enthused about what was obviously the best option, except for Locke who looked like he planned to hand me over to the killer himself.

“You’re not going back to your dorm,” Everest said.

“One night, and you can watch from a distance or whatever it is you used to do before.”

“No,” said Alister. “One of us must be in the room with you.”

“No.” I refused to back down. “We have to assume the killer knows I’ve been staying with you at this point and that he knows your reputation. If they even suspect that a Blackwell is lurking around, they won’t make their move.”

Alister's nostrils flared and his eye twitched. But he didn’t argue because I was right.

“Why can’t they wait in the building then?” Lucian challenged .

“Because even if there is one mastermind, we don’t know how many sheep there are. They could easily have more than one person watching my dorm.”

“And what about Locke’s point? What are you going to do when whoever gets their hands on you decides to kill you?”

“We need answers, right? From whomever they send.”

Lucian nodded.

“I’ve already got a taser to disable them. If you can get me some olanzapine, then I can easily knock them out once they’re down.”

“You can’t be serious,” Locke said, still holding his ear.

“Do you have a better plan? There’s no way to know who might come after me, or how skilled they might be. It’s the best way to level the playing field without bringing a gun into the mix, which seems like a bad idea in a crowded dorm. Plus, we want them alive.”

“How are you going to administer the drug to a violent man twice your size, little one?” asked Lucian.

I turned my attention back to my steak.

“It wouldn’t be my first time . . .”