Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Police cars are blocking people from driving up and down the road, but they can’t stop students from approaching the area through the forest, so I sneak off the road and into the woods, with Orion tailing right behind me.
Near the clearing, a bunch of vans and equipment are setting up. People walk about with cameras, taking measurements and collecting evidence, while the body Sunny left in the chair remains clearly visible in the light of day.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as I peek beyond the trees. Orion approaches from behind.
“Shhh,” I hiss as his foot snaps a twig. “Stop making so much noise. They’re gonna spot us.”
“You really think they care about a bunch of snooping students while they have a body on their hands?”
I peer through the foliage and push some branches aside to get a better view, but another student accidentally trips on a rock, and the cops glare in our direction.
Shit.
Atreus
In the middle of an ongoing investigation, several of my men stop to stare at the woods beyond, and I follow their gaze, only to be thoroughly disappointed.
Of course, those devils at the Spine Ridge University would find a way to meddle in affairs they have no stake in just to see who got hurt. Bunch of vultures.
“Get out, show’s over,” one of my men yells.
I take a drag of my cigarette and watch about ten students stroll out of the woods with their hands up like they got caught stealing. Two of them seem awfully familiar to me, and I narrow my eyes to try to decipher whose spawn I’m looking at.
Blond, curly hair, chiseled face, Adonis-looking sculpture of a man with the brains of a pigeon that just flew into a car. And then we’ve got Mr. I’m-Not-Scared hiding his poor judgment behind his messy brown hair while pretending not to give a fuck about getting caught.
Amateurs.
“Anybody else?” I bark.
More students appear from behind trees, and I flick my fingers at my men to throw a blanket over the body before they get a closer look. Don’t need to traumatize more people with a butchered corpse than necessary, especially when they’re still young and … malleable.
“We just wanted to see what happened,” one of them mutters.
More students approach from the streets, blocked only by our perimeter tape and two officers guarding the line. I don’t want any of them sniffing around here, but news travels fast on that campus, and I want to nip any rumors in the bud.
“A murder,” I reply.
Some of them suck in a breath.
“And if you’re smart, you’ll go back to your apartments and stay there, because the killer could be one of your own.”
They all look at each other like I’m pointing fingers, but I know damn well the perp is on these grounds. I just have to smoke them out of their den.
It’s a shame the body had to be found by a student who was just going on her daily walk through the rough terrain for sport. The poor girl looked shaken and completely out of it by the time we found her after she’d called us.
Suddenly, the dean of Spine Ridge, Felix Rivera, barges through the crowd and shoves aside one of my men to gain access to the crime scene.
“What are you doing, Rivera?”
“I want to know what the hell is going on here,” he growls, but when his eyes find the bloodied blanket in the middle of the open grass, he swallows. “A body?”
“Now you see what your lack of rules have brought about,” I say.
He shakes his head. “This is outside Spine Ridge U grounds. This has nothing to do with—”
“It has everything to do with your school.” I pull up a piece of paper showing the still I took of the camera hanging in the hallway of my building where our mysterious friend broke in to snoop through my files. “See this pin?” I point at an emblem on the bag. “Spine. Ridge. University.”
He snatches the paper from my hand to take an up-close look, and his face darkens in a way I’ve never seen before. Like he’s finally willing to face reality … and prepare an assault on justice itself just to protect his students.
“What the fuck does this have to do with that body?” he growls.
“Our little killer here stole some evidence from my office that pertained to other murders around town.” I snatch the paper back. “There is an actual serial killer on the loose, Rivera. They are leaving bodies, clues, and obvious signatures. They want to be found. And they are on these grounds, laughing at our incompetence when we find their heinous crimes like it’s some kind of trophy to keep in their warped mind.” I lean in to whisper into his ear. “They’re probably here right now, looking right at us, wondering when we’ll figure out the truth … and catch them in the act.”