Trick Me Twice - Becca Steele Page 0,89

call you Dyl, right?” My breaths were becoming shallower, and a wave of dizziness overtook me. Taking a deep breath, I counted to five in my head. I had to keep it together, to not allow my mask to slip.

“Dyl. I like that.” He shuffled a bit closer to me on the bed and reached out, clasping my clammy palm in his cold hand. “I’m sorry I had to sedate you.” His thumb stroked across my skin, and I barely suppressed my shudder of revulsion. “I don’t want you to be afraid, Raine. I’ll never hurt you. Not unless you give me reason to.”

“I believe you, Dyl,” I managed. “What was this big gesture all about?” I waved my hand around to encompass the room.

“Everything I’ve been working towards is for you and me.” He shuffled back on the bed until he was resting on the headboard. “You’ve always been so sweet, so kind to me.” His grip on my hand tightened. “We’re perfect for each other. I just needed you to see it. I suppose things changed at Fright Night. You looked so beautiful, almost irresistible. From the moment I saw you there, like some kind of goddess, everything changed for me. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

Nausea churned in my stomach. “You were there?” I hadn’t remembered seeing him.

He nodded. “I was in the haunted house. Did you like my clown makeup? That took me hours.”

“C-clown?” This time, there was no suppressing the shudder that ran through me. The one thing I hated, above anything else, was clowns.

Laughing, he patted my hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t dress like that again. Not now I know you don’t like it.” He sighed, the smile slipping from his face. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, to ask you out at school on Monday, but then everything changed. Carter”—he spat the word—“Carter ruined it. I saw the picture, you see. The one from Fright Night of you and him holding hands. Yes, you had a mask on, but I’d seen you earlier, and I knew it was you.” Another heavy sigh escaped him. “I almost thought Carter had managed to ruin things for himself, when the rumours started spreading about you with the football team, but it soon became clear to me that the two of you held some kind of infatuation with each other. That’s when I knew I had to take precautions, to show you how valuable I could be.”

“And…” I licked my dry lips, already knowing the answer to my question before I’d even asked it. “What did you do?”

“Nothing much. Just lifted the keys from my uncle, found the combination that Mrs. Whittall keeps locked in her desk drawer, and took the money from the cash box. There was no harm done—I replaced it afterwards, didn’t I?” A pleased expression stole across his face. “That was the first time you really confided in me, and it solidified my belief that we were perfect for each other.”

“But you—I. I paid you the money back.”

“It’s all here. I haven’t touched a penny of it.” He shifted on the bed, angling himself to face me. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”

How was he even justifying his behaviour? My head was spinning.

“The money thing worked for a while, then at the party, I saw Carter kiss you. It was only a game, yet it was clear that there were still residual feelings. I couldn’t understand it. This was Carter Blackthorne. He belongs with silly, airhead girls, not with someone as special as you, Raine.” His grip on my hand tightened to the point of pain, and I hissed through my teeth. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because he continued talking. “I tried to get you alone at the party. I wanted to kiss you, so you could feel our connection. So you could replace his memory with mine. But you slipped away.”

There was no disguising my shocked gasp. “That was you in the mask? Up on the walkway?”

“Yes. All I wanted was to kiss you, and I knew that if I wore the mask I’d have more of a chance of getting close to you, knowing the way you reacted to Carter’s mask.” A disapproving note entered his voice as he continued. “You disappeared with Carter, again. So I did what I could. I managed to sneak a couple of photos, and I posted them to the gossip account, in the hope that it would make you