Filed to story: The Mindf*ck Series Read Online Free
She claps her lips shut, then looks to Lana. Something silent passes between them, and Hadley walks away, glaring at Leonard on her way by.
Leonard helps me inside, and Lana tries to help him. I force most of my weight onto Leonard.
“If he gets sick or starts talking funny, come find me immediately,” Leonard tells Lana as they put me to bed like a fucking baby.
“I will,” she says softly, her eyes distant as she runs her hand over my cheek.
“I’ll stay up until sunrise, then I’ll get some sleep. You stay in here with him, and yell if you need help.” He points at the windows in the room. “Two entry points from outside. Pay attention to them in case they get too bold. Don’t be afraid to use Logan’s gun.”
He puts my gun down on the nightstand, and Lana studies it.
She nods absently, her hand still on me, as though she needs reassurance I haven’t disappeared.
“Keep me updated if any new information comes to light,” I tell Leonard before he walks out.
Lana curls up against me, putting her arm around my waist. Leonard’s eyes drop to her as she slides her leg around me too. I have no idea why he finds her so fascinating tonight.
“I will. Tomorrow, anyway. Not tonight. Your head needs some rest.”
As soon as he shuts the door, Lana exhales heavily, and I pounce.
“I’m sorry you had to get entangled in all this again. I want you to go somewhere safe,” I tell her, kissing the top of her head as she snuggles in even closer.
“No,” she states simply. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to. If you-“
“Either I stay here with you, or I find somewhere else to stay in town. Your choice,” she says firmly, a hint of anger in her tone.
“Lana, I just want to keep-“
“There’s no such thing as safe, Logan,” she says on a soft breath. “No such thing.”
I’m too out of it to continue arguing, and my eyes shut without my permission. I’ll argue tomorrow.
Chapter 7
My life is a struggle.
-Voltaire
LANA Leonard’s eyes are on me, just as they have been since last night. He watches me make two cups of coffee, and he watches me fix the cups with cream.
“You want a cup?” I ask the watcher.
“I’ve already made some, but thanks for the offer.”
At first I thought he was suspicious, then he left me alone in the room with Logan and also left me with a gun. Then I thought he was a perv, but he turned away abruptly when he walked in the room this morning to check on Logan and saw me in my panties.
So I don’t know why he’s watching.
Unless I’m just that fucking interesting.
“So you and Logan are pretty serious, yeah?” he asks, lifting the cup of coffee he’s drinking. I’m not sure why he’s not crashing. The sun has just peeked out, and he’s been up all night.
“I think so. At least, I’m serious.”
“You don’t think he is?”
I need to learn when to shut up.
“I think he is,” I say with a tight smile as I turn to face Mr. Watch Me.
He runs a finger over his lips in a pensive manner. “Any family in the DC area?”
I shake my head and return to my task, stirring both coffees.
“Any family at all?”
I shake my head again.
“This is making you uncomfortable, isn’t it?”
“No. As an extremely private person, I love talking to a stranger about my past first thing in the morning after my boyfriend was attacked in a town full of weak and evil people,” I state dryly, holding his gaze.
His eyes widen marginally. “Sorry. Just making conversation. None of us have great conversational skills. Occupational hazard.”
I shrug it off. “Logan was the same when we first met.”
“He stopped pressing for your past? As I said, it’s an occupational hazard.”
Have I mentioned I hate nosy people?
“I told him the important parts. Not everyone enjoys talking about the past,” I say with another shrug. “I’ve told him more than anyone in years. But he doesn’t push for more than I give. It’s one of the things I love about him.”
We stare each other for several uncomfortable minutes. I’m not sure what he’s trying to see.
“Hey.” Logan’s voice has us both jerking our heads to the bedroom doorway where he’s shirtless and moving toward me. His eyes flick to Leonard. “Anything happen while we were out?”
Leonard shakes his head. “All was ghost-town quiet. The sheriff is standing by his promise that Hollis was a bad seed who acted alone, and that he has no idea what set him off. Johnson says he’s already vetted the rest of the guys, ensuring us none of them are hostile toward our team.” Leonard rolls his eyes.
“Amazing. He managed to vet over twenty other deputies since last night, not to mention an extra five police officers,” Logan says with no emotion, but a definite suspicious lilt.
“This is the most fucked up shit I’ve been involved in,” Leonard says, his jaw ticking.
“Leave Donny with Lisa today. You ride with me. I’m going to go find Carl Burrows today and get some answers about Robert Evans.”
The glass in my hand almost slips, and I curse as coffee sloshes over, scalding my fingers.
Logan grabs some paper towels, and he brings my wounded hand to his face, inspecting it. I feel Leonard’s eyes on us, but I ignore it. I don’t know or care what his defect is.
Discreetly, I fire off a quick text to Jake-one-handed and without looking at my phone.
My heart almost thudded out of my chest as I raced through the town last night, running faster than I ever have. When I saw Hollis training Logan’s own gun on him, something inside me snapped. The killer came out and reveled in spilling his blood even more than I enjoyed killing Lawrence and Tyler.
If Logan hadn’t been hurt, I would have dragged the kill out for days.
“Haunted House is tonight in town,” Leonard says randomly as Logan kisses my fingers where the coffee burn has already ebbed.
“And?” Logan asks, looking over.
“And Kyle Davenport will be there. Says he ‘ain’t missing the only good thing in this fucking town because of some cowardly piece of shit killer.’ His words.”
Leonard shrugs, his eyes now not on me for a change.
I knew Kyle wouldn’t miss the Haunted House. He always takes a girl in there-whether she wants to be there or not-and fucks her in a corner to the sound of screams that get him off.
He’s sick like that. It’s one of the things that should have given him away long ago, but I didn’t see it until it was too late and I was a victim. People just walk by him while he’s hurting someone, thinking it’s all part of the ‘adult’ show of the Haunted House. It’s the ‘Sin House’ after all. It’s set up to show all the sins in the dark, demented world just outside the lines of Delaney Grove.
They condition kids to be afraid of leaving early on. The adult house is for sixteen and older, terrifying the impressionable minds from early on isn’t enough. They need to get the rebellious teens submitting to the terror tenfold, upping the Haunted House to be over-the-top. Rape scenes are even played out. Sometimes they were real.
Lindy was raped in the Haunted House.
Speaking of Lindy, Antonio is already bankrupt, which was faster than promised. She’ll be happy to know he’s currently losing all his possessions. His car was taken away just yesterday. I got to watch it live on my phone.
The man who called his wife a whore, even though he knew all Kyle was saying was a lie, is finally getting his piece of justice pie. He just wanted to continue to be a ‘highly respected’ patron of this town, and he cast his wife aside to suffer alone.
Now it’s just a waiting game of making his life miserable enough to kill himself.