The only thing in the world that could ease her anxiety in the face of all the gold, black lace, and joker masks surrounding her were the strong arms wrapped around her waist.
The warmth of his breath in her ear. “Are you having a good time?” Gage asked.
Through the eyes of her own mask, Veda drank in his gorgeous face and went to answer.
The words were caught in her throat, however, when a man wearing a skull head breezed past. She jolted. That skull mask, combined with the white porcelain mask behind her, the silver pelican beak to her left, and the expansive peacock headdress to her right, quite frankly, were freaking her the fuck out.
“Having a blast!” she answered, voice shrill.
Gage must’ve heard the shrillness because he tightened his grip around her waist and kissed her cheek.
And she couldn’t lie. It petered away. The fear, the anxiety…
The darkness.
But it came roaring back the instant she saw him.
Eugene Masterson. She knew she’d have to run into him eventually. She was attending this party especially for him after all. But when Eugene approached Gage from behind, clapped a hand on his shoulder, stole his attention and shook his hand in greeting, a few feelings roared through Veda.
One: blind, naked hatred.
Two: debilitating annoyance. Annoyance that she was actually engaged to a man who could shake Eugene Masterson’s hand with a straight face.
And three: utter determination. Determination to make him pay. To finish him off now so she could move onto her number three—who’d also made her stomach turn at the mere sight of his face at the party that night.
She gave Eugene a tight smile and pretended not to see the hand he offered to her in greeting, turning her head and waiting for him to move away from them completely.
Gage pulled her back into his arms. “He was trying to say hello, baby.”
She met his eyes, feigning shock. “Was he?”
“He tried to shake your hand. You left him hanging completely.”
“Did I? Darn, I hadn’t even noticed.”
Fuck Eugene and fuck his handshake. The only time she planned on touching that ape tonight was when she was expelling his nuts from his body. Thankfully, it appeared Eugene’s elusive girlfriend—who’d ruined Veda’s fun the first time around—was not on his arm that night, leaving Veda free to do just that.
She gasped at the sudden feel of Gage’s lips on hers. Whimpering at their softness, she kissed him back, moaning into each gentle peck he gave her until he buried his head in her neck with a moan, moving his kisses to the sensitive skin there while whispering how much he loved her.
One day, she couldn’t help but think, as her body responded instantly to his caress. One day she’d deserve those kisses on her neck. That hardness against her stomach. Those arms wrapped around her. Those full lips, moving to her ear and tickling the lobe as he whispered that his friends weren’t so bad.
One day, she’d deserve Gage Blackwater.
And tonight, she’d be one step closer.
Clutching Gage’s shoulder, she came to her toes. He bent down to give her his ear, which she brushed with her lips. “I have to use the bathroom.”
Gage pulled back and nodded softly, leaning down once more to catch the kiss she pushed to his lips.
“I love you.” He never let her leave him without saying those words. Not even when he knew she’d be coming right back.
She didn’t deserve it.
Not yet.
“I love you, too.” Their hands remained clasped until they’d moved too far apart to hold on to each other, and the moment he was out of her reach, the shadows swept in. The storm under her skin prickled to the point of it being unbearable, and her breath came up short.
She found Eugene and kept her eyes on him as she perused the crowd infused with golds, silvers, and purples. She tried to ignore the debilitating feeling of the masks closing in on her, knowing it was all in her head.
She didn’t take her eyes off Eugene until she disappeared into the back hallway that led to the bathrooms. After retrieving the duffle bag she’d tucked into a tight corner earlier that day, thankful that it was still there, she hurried into the ladies room.
It was empty.
She said a silent prayer of thanks that the God’s were on her side that night. Disappearing into the largest stall, she took a little under a minute to change her outfit completely.
As she exited the bathroom, she only gave her reflection a cursory glance in the mirror.
Her new mask was full faced. It didn’t even show the whites of her eyes. Black glitter covered the mask in damask detailing, and also encircled the lips like a sparkly lip liner. Though it was dark, borderline creepy, there was something about the mask that was innately feminine. Alluring. Difficult to look away from. Veda had known when she’d paid cash for this mask, weeks ago, that it was the one.
Through the black mesh eyeholes, her eyes ran her floor length, turtle-necked black gown, her black gloves, and black boots, making sure not an inch of her skin was visible.
Once she deemed her appearance acceptable, she raced into the hallway before anyone could see her and hurried back into the ballroom.
Her eyes immediately zoomed to Gage, of course. He was talking to Todd Lockwood, who’d chosen that night to come out of hiding.
She made a disgusted noise inside her new mask, taking silent note to encourage her boyfriend to make better friends.
Then, her eyes crawled across the expansive, dancing crowd, and landed right on Eugene. He was surrounded by his ‘dudebro’ friends, one of which Veda instantly recognized as one of the ten monster’s who were the reason she was there that night.
Her heartbeat picked up.
His time would come soon.
But tonight? It was all about Eugene.
She made her way through the crowd, eyes never leaving Eugene. In moments she was approaching him from behind. She didn’t hesitate a second, encircling her gloved hand around his waist and cupping his dick and balls. She gave them both a gentle, erotic caress.
Eugene jolted in shock at the unexpected touch.
The roar of his friends was instant.
Veda pulled away just as Eugene’s green eyes flew over his shoulder and locked onto the black mesh eyes of her mask.
Veda began backing away, tilting her mask to the side flirtatiously and bringing her gloved hand into the air, wagging her pointer finger, inviting him to follow.
Moment of truth.
She’d find out, right now, if that black mask was as sexy and alluring as she’d thought when she purchased it.
Eugene’s eyes ran her body from behind his Phantom of the Opera mask.
A smirk picked up his lips.
Bingo.
Veda knew she had him, but just in case, she turned her back and peeked at him from over her shoulder, giving him a view of her ass in that form-fitting black dress.
The one green eye visible through his mask fell to the swell of her ass and remained.
Without letting another second pass, Eugene turned his body toward his idiot friends, his eyes never leaving her ass as he held out his drink. Ever the dedicated wingmen, one of his friends took the drink from Eugene’s hand without delay, freeing him up to follow after the dark, womanly mask that had just felt him up.
Claps of congratulations from his crew landed on Eugene’s shoulders as he moved toward Veda, and his smirk blossomed into a full smile.
Veda saw that smile just before she disappeared into the crowd. She danced through the hundreds of masks and costumes in the room while shooting looks over her shoulder and twirling on her heel, staying just far enough out of Eugene’s reach to keep him chasing her. Just far enough out of his sight to force him to crane his neck around the partygoers, running people over in his desperation to keep track of her.
Veda almost laughed at how easy men were. One touch of his disgusting gonads, which, soon enough, would be gone
for good, and this idiot was putty in her hands.
Her laugh actually escaped when he followed her all the way to a staircase in the far corner of the room. She hurried to the top of the stairs and swiveled around, finding Eugene lingering at the bottom, holding the railing under his hand as he leered up at her.
Veda made sure the evil cackle threatening her throat came out as an inviting giggle—which was actually extremely difficult due to the sheer extent of her hatred.
But a giggle it was, and she made sure it was loud enough to carry down the stairs before she disappeared around the corner and into the hallway of the second level. That level had been closed off with a velvet rope. They hadn’t even turned the lights on, so the hallway was dark as night.
When Eugene made it to the top of the stairs, looking both ways for her, he seemed to hesitate for only a moment in the face of that creepy dark hallway.
He exhaled when he caught sight of her at the end of that hall, and even as he hesitated, his face was full of suggestion and glee. “Is that you, Heather?”
Veda didn’t know who the fuck Heather was, but as she wagged her finger and invited him closer, she was sure Heather was some woman she was about to rescue from a lifetime of brutalization and misery.
With that single inviting wag of her finger, whatever sliver of fear that may have remained seemed to leave Eugene completely, and he was making his way toward her once more.
Keeping her eyes on him, Veda opened the door next to her. A door that led into an even darker room at the end of the hall. She disappeared inside the empty room, knowing the fear wouldn’t be enough to stop him from following her in there too.
Tonight, Eugene Masterson would learn what fear really was.
Inside the gloomy room, illuminated only by the moonlight spilling into the domed, stained glass window in the corner, her chest heaved. The tender smiles from the Michelangelo renderings painted on the walls, barely visible in the shadows, hit her from every angle, making her heartbeat pick up. The heat of her breathing made her mask grow muggy.
Managing to keep a steady hand, Veda retrieved the syringe of sodium thiopental from the breast pocket of her dress. She readied her thumb on the lever as Eugene’s stomps moved closer, waiting patiently next to the pitch-black doorway.
His footsteps grew heavier every second, and Veda took a moment to drink in the medical kit waiting for her in the corner of the room. Her silver scalpel gleamed from beneath the flaps, ready to be utilized—and not just tonight.
But eight more nights after that.
The moment Eugene’s shadow loomed from the doorway, the shadows inside Veda began to fade away.
When he stepped into that doorway and caught the needle of her syringe straight through the neck, the shadows washed away completely.
Tonight, she knew better than to start this ape off with only 75 mg.
Tonight, she laid her thumb down on that lever like the damn thing was jammed, emptying 150mg into Eugene’s veins without hesitation or delay.
Almost instantly, he lost control of his knees. They buckled under him, causing him to sink to the floor just as Veda removed the needle.
His eyes met hers over his shoulder, wide with fear.
Veda drank in that fear like water, smiling softly when he passed out seconds later.
Tonight, Kong would learn what fear really was.
And if she had anything to do with it, that fear would haunt him for the rest of his miserable life.
22
The next morning, when Gage took a deep breath and breathed in the scent of peanut butter, eggs, bacon, and her, his eyes shot up. His heart skipped. The plate he’d been gingerly setting down on his dining room table clanked the rest of the way, so loudly he distantly worried it might’ve broken, but found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her to check.
Veda leaned against the domed entryway of the dining room in nothing but his white terry cloth robe, slim leg peeking out of the front flap, hair still wet from her shower.
But it wasn’t the wet skin, the chocolate thigh or her very essence—which was always enough to make him hard on sight—that froze him in the midst of setting the table, the bacon sizzling on the stove behind him dangerously close to burning.
No, it was that smile. The one that made her eyes shrink and showed both rows of her teeth. Couple that with the engagement ring that gleamed up from the finger she had trapped between them, and Gage was simply a goner.
He knew he’d work overtime for the rest of his life, to keep that smile on her face.
A pink nail still trapped between her teeth, she inched toward the plate he’d just sat down and took the seat in front of it.
“My breakfast-food-Picasso,” she whispered, her voice still hoarse from sleepiness as she drank in the three pieces of whole wheat toast before her. “I don’t even want to eat it.” She laughed, looking up at him.
He’d spread peanut butter into circles on each piece of toast to make the bear’s face, used banana slices for the bear’s ears and nose, and finished it off with blueberries which served as the snout and the eyes.
“You are so adorable I can’t even stand it…” She accepted the soft kiss he placed on her lips, and he felt her eyes burning into his bare back as he made his way back to the stove. “Not even our puppy killing, death metal obsessed son will be able to resist your breakfast creations.”
Gage chuckled, making it to the crackling bacon just in time to keep it from burning. “I guess I’ll have to figure out how to make Cannibal Corpse and Carcass logos out of eggs and bacon for him.”
“Just slather some strawberry sauce all over a plate until it looks like a murder scene. Or just mold the food into the shape of a weapon. Any weapon will do, but I have a feeling he’ll be partial to something sharp.”
Smirking, Gage looked over his shoulder, noticing she was only eating the corners of the toast, avoiding the bear’s face. “Go ahead and dig in, baby. You’ll have the rest of your life to enjoy my breakfast-food-Picasso gifts, alright?”
She grinned across the kitchen at him and took his word, no longer shy about biting into the bear’s face as deep as she could.
“There you go,” he whispered, his eyes shooting up in surprise when a knock on the door rang in from the foyer.
Veda looked towards the door and went to stand.
But Gage clicked off the oven and raced toward her, placing his hands on her shoulders to stop her from standing any further. “Eat. I’ve got it.”
He hurried across the house, skipped all three of the foyer steps that led to the door and threw it open, squinting against the morning sun that blasted in from the clear blue sky.
The Shadow Rock Police Detective on the other side of the door, eyes shaded from behind her aviator sunglasses, lifted a gold police badge. It caught the glare of the sun, making Gage squint harder.
“Gage Blackwater?” she asked, her long brown hair blowing in the breeze.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“I’m Detective Gellar from the Shadow Rock Police Department. Hate to bother you so early in the morning, but I was hoping to ask you a few questions.”
“Of course…” Gage looked into the dining room and took in Veda, too busy demolishing her teddy bear toast to realize what was happening. He squinted back to the detective. “Is everything all right?”
“I wouldn’t say so. Eugene Masterson was attacked.”
Gage’s face fell. “Jesus, again?”
“We’re questioning everyone who was at the Masquerade Ball last night, where the attack occurred.”
Gage shifted feet and leaned on the door. “Half the island was at that ball last night. It’s the biggest party of the year. You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you.”
“Don’t remind me.” Detective Gellar smiled softly, her slim face showing the lines on either side of her mouth. She motioned to him with the pen and pad in her hand. “You were at the ball, correct?”
“I was. Me and my
fiancée.”
“Your fiancée’s name?”
“Veda Vandyke…” He shook his head rapidly. “But she was with me all night. She never left my side…” The moment that sentence left his mouth, Gage’s words slowed to a stop, recalling when Veda had left him to go to the bathroom the night before.
As soon as that moment of pause hit him, he shook his head at himself.
Detective Gellar removed her sunglasses, squinting softly at him. “She never left your side?”
Gage swallowed thickly. He shot another look at Veda in the dining room. He saw that she’d returned to eating only the edges of her toast, avoiding the bear’s face. He assumed she was trying to prolong that particular bear’s life because she’d already demolished the other two.
His heart swelled, and he moved his eyes back to the detective. “No…” He felt the sharp lump moving down his throat. “She never… she never left my side.” His eyes went back to the dining room. “Not for a moment…” His voice trailed away.
As his heartbeat picked up, he distantly heard the detective apologize for bothering him, and he let his eyes live on Veda for another moment before he looked back to the door.
“It’s no problem, officer. If there’s anything I can do…” Gage looked back to the door and saw that Detective Gellar was already moving away. “Please don’t hesitate…”
“We appreciate that, Mr. Blackwater.” Detective Gellar descended the steps that led to his door with a wave, making her way back to her cruiser sideways. “Enjoy the rest of your morning.”
“Thank you.”
Gage eased the door shut. As it clicked closed, he took a beat, staring at his hand on the handle.
Then, body still facing the door, his chest heaving softly, he shot another look to the dining room from the corner of his eye, just as Veda stood from her chair with her cell phone on her ear.
Her eyes flew across the house and met his too, wide as saucers.
Gage squinted at her.
His hand tightened on the handle.
And, for a moment, he was frozen.
Tingle (Revenge Book 2) Page 21