Page 220 of The Villain We Tempt

“You’re going to have to spray me, baby,” he hisses. “And even when you do, I’m not walking away, not when you’re hurting like this. I’m incapable of walking away from that. So go the fuck ahead and spray me!”

He’s right. He won’t leave even if I spray him in the eyes.

So I change course.

The second I flip the spray can around and hold the nozzle up tomy own eyes, Lochlan goes still as a statue.

“Galina…”

“Let’s try this again,” I choke. “One.”

“Jesus Christ, drop the fucking?—”

“Two.”

Our eyes lock.

“I will pull this trigger,” I choke as a tear slides down my face.

Lochlan’s eyes lock with mine, and I swear something shatters in them as he starts backing away.

“Ididn’t knowthe tracker was still there,” he growls. “I haven’t used the software in?—”

“Two and a fucking half.”

He steps back again, then again. Finally, he reaches behind him and opens the door to my room.

We stand there looking at each other for a long few seconds, my pulse thudding as I hold the pepper spray to my face.

Lochlan nods slowly, taking a quiet breath before he looks straight at me.

Then he steps out and closes the door behind him.

36

GALINA

Bad ideas are…well…badenough. But start addingmorequestionable ideas to the first one, and that's usually when things turn disastrous.

Shoplifting something small like a lipstick…then punching the security guard who tries to stop you at the front door. Stalking a crush on social media while drunk…and liking all their posts. One bad idea quickly becomes acascadeof them.

An alcohol-fueled sweep of my eyes over my friends and our surroundings tells me tonight has very quickly devolved intoexactlythat kind of cascade.

It started with Lucia realizing that one of her favorite bands, thisinsanelyloud group called “Explosions”, was going to be playing their blend of dance rock and heavy thrash metal tonight in Standish, which isn’t far from Hawthorne Hollow.

This was bad idea number one.

Bad idea number two was that the show was at The Garage, averysketchy biker dive which has a reputation for not carding people.

That actually might have been bad idea numbers twoandthree.

This is where our series of bad ideas became a cascade. It’s notjustthat Lucia, Yelena, and I are now at this grimy, sticky-floored joint, God-knows how many drinks deep. Notjustthat I didn’t really consider the vibe at this place, so while Lucia showed up looking like a cool rocker chick, I decided to dress like some asshole out of a J. Crew catalog, complete with asweaterover my shoulders.

Shoot me.

It’s also notjustthat the three of us are basically the only girls here, and we’re being stared at by the crowd of drunk dudes like dessert at a buffet table.

The real kicker, as any murder trial lawyer will tell you, ismotivation.