“I’m going out the emergency exit,” I say. “Gloria?”
She swallows hard, her face pale in the light from the screen. “What if you get locked out?”
I don’t know if Mr. Delacroix locked the doors behind us, but I know they’re glass. I’ll find a way back in.
“I’ll come around and get you out,” I say. “Will you be okay here?”
“She’ll be fine,” Duke says. “She just wants to know if what we have on her is as nasty as Preston nutting in your ass and sticking it back in your pussy. Truffle butter, baby!”
Gloria nods mutely, her eyes wide as she stares at the screen behind me. I don’t know if that’s her, since I didn’t look too closely. I won’t, either, because if it is her, I’ll let her keep whatever dignity remains. It’s what poor girls do.
“Remember what I said to you before?” I ask Duke. “About you fucking with girls and hurting them? That means Gloria, too.EspeciallyGloria.”
He nods, staring at the screen with a glazed expression. I’m not into snuff films or whatever sick shit Baron put on there, so I avoid looking and hurry to the exit door. I slam my shoulder against the bar, half expecting it to be blocked from the outside, but it swings open into the cold night.
I glance back once and see Gloria taking the blunt from Duke with shaking fingers. No matter how much I like figuring people out, I don’t know if I’ll ever know what’s going on with either of them.
I let the door swing closed behind me, then jog around toward the doors we came in. The wind whistles through the empty branches of the trees in the parking lot, and I pull my hoodie close around me and glance over my shoulder, my heart lurching in my chest. I’m sure I’ll see Baron coming after me.
But the lot is empty when I sweep my eyes over it.
I reach the food court doors and stop, taking a few breaths before trying the door.
Locked. I curse, then look around, grab a rock, and smash the glass. It falls in sparkling, tinkling fragments around me. I kick out the rest of it and duck under the center bar in the door, then race across the food court again, my heart pounding. If Baron doesn’t know I got out, I can sneak up behind him, but I can’t count on that. Duke might have texted him.
I tiptoe down the wide corridor, the hair standing up on the back of my neck at the thought of being so exposed. If Baron steps out, I’m the only target in the hall.
I duck around the corner to the small hallway, flattening myself against the wall and catching my breath for a second. I’m about to go on when I hear a low whistle. I turn back toward the main hall, my heart hammering.
Did they find Royal?
“Gideon?” I whisper as loud as I can. It echoes down the empty corridor. Somewhere, I hear a distant rattling sound, almost like a rain stick. I tense, listening to the sound go on for a full thirty seconds, my skin crawling from head to toe.
What the fuck was that?
Another low whistle sounds, and I whip back around. In the flickering lightning coming from the exit between the movie theater and restaurant, the silhouette of a man stands motionless.
“Royal?” I ask, fumbling to get my phone out.
Another whistle sounds, this one from behind me. I whip around, and when I turn back, the figure in the hallway is gone. The hair on the back of my neck prickles as I creep down the hall. Another whistle comes, this one from the left, in the movie theater. The darkness within is dense and oppressive, like it’s waiting for me.
I take a breath and try to calm my racing heart and spiraling thoughts. The darkness won’t hurt me, but whoever’s hiding in it might. They keep leading me that way, which means they’re trying to keep me from going right. I thumb my flashlight back on and turn to the right, where the restaurant sits dark and silent. I sweep my light to the door and almost scream.
Duke is standing there, his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie.
“Duke,” I say. “What the fuck?”
He shoots me a sloppy grin. “Just having a little fun with you.”
“You’re the one whistling?”
“I’m a man of many talents.”
“What are you doing here? Where’s Lo?”
“She’s not with you?” he asks. “She went out the side door to go find you.”
“How’d you get out?”