Chapter 173

#40

​Eli slides off the mattress, yanking the gun from between my thighs and tucking it securely back into his waistband before I can even drag my breathing back to a normal rhythm.

He lifts me off him and places me on the bed, then dashes across the room and slips into the narrow space between the heavy oak wardrobe and the bedroom door just as the handle begins to turn.

I barely have enough time to kick my discarded panties under the edge of the bed before the door swings wide open and my mother steps in.

​“Lucy, sweetheart, everything alright in here?”

​“Of course, Mom,” I say, forcing my voice into a slightly high, airy register as I sit up on the edge of the mattress, flattening my skirt over my knees. “I’m just, uh, resting. It was a long day at school.”

​Mom’s b