Whatever It Takes (Bad Reputation Duet #1)(54)

I just glare back.

He adds, “ICYM, I’m a sarcastic prick. Move your ass that way.” He points in the direction of the first maze.

The Exorcist themed one.

Park security lets us discreetly skip to the front of the line. The perks of being around super famous people, I guess. It happens all without alerting the massive crowds that we’ve cut. Loren says it’s for our safety. Waiting for hours in the roped off sections with park-goers is a sure way to cause stampedes and hysteria. They’ll want autographs. Selfies.

We need to blend.

I’m not used to the constant scrutiny as much as them, but I can understand not wanting to be approached.

Ahead of Loren, I enter The Exorcist maze that’s decorated like a little house. Pitch black. I can barely see in front of my face. Demonic cackling echoes around us, and the rest of our group walks in a single-file line.

“OhGodOhGod,” Lily mutters.

I glance back to see her wide-eyed expression, and she’s grabbing onto the back of Loren’s shirt, so much that the collar is tight around Lo’s neck.

Willow and I never went to one of these fright night things together. She’s not into the scary shit as much as me, but I can imagine her here. I’d have my arms around her. She’d be pressed up to my side—

Shit, stop thinking.

Quickly, I look back ahead.

We enter the bedroom area, and a mechanical version of Regan MacNeil sits on the bed. Her head spins three-sixty degrees. It looks like whoever built the robot did a pretty damn good job.

“Cool,” I say, impressed by the production quality. Even speakers are set up that narrate the exorcism from the movie.

“Lil,” Loren says behind me. “Look up. It’s not that bad.”

I scan the area, trying to ignore them and focus on the rooms. There’s so much detail, like how potted plants are overturned and furniture floats mid-air, as though a possessed being rattles the whole room.

Very cool.

“I’ll have nightmares forever!” Lily shrieks.

From even further behind me, I hear Rose scream shortly in fright and then reprimand the actor, “You did that on purpose!”

I almost laugh. There’s something about being with these people that make shitty days seem…I don’t know. I shouldn’t like their company.

I shouldn’t want it.

Or ask for it. Or God forbid, need it. Because they’ve already done way too much for me, and they’re not mine. They’re Willow’s.

I don’t look behind me again, but I think I must be walking through the maze faster because Lily and Loren’s voice drifts off. I enter one of the last rooms where fake puke flies onto the wall. I stand there for a couple long moments and literally the robot turns to me and grins. Wait…not a robot. This one is definitely an actress. She starts crawling on the bed towards me like she means to scare me.

I smile.

I don’t know why.

Maybe because she thinks this is frightening. I’ve been afraid before—really scared—but not from green-puking demons. This is nothing.

She stops and tries to make another “freaky grin face” but I’m over it. I keep walking. Right on out of the maze. Cold air hits me just as I hear a shrill scream inside the maze.

I’m betting that’s Lily. My lips lift into a bigger smile, just taking in the moment. I’m doing something on a random night, and it’s not even bad. It’s kind of fun.

One of the bodyguards nears me and stations next to my side. Like I’m important or something, but I realize in less than a second that he’s blocking my body from onlookers. Girls laugh loudly around the maze’s exit and steal glances at me.

Maybe they want my autograph or for me to divulge details about the core six—the latter is most likely.

I shouldn’t ask the bodyguard, but I do. “Hey, how do you know I don’t want to be approached by people?”

The bodyguards don’t block Lily all the time. Definitely not Ryke or Lo.

“Loren informed us that you don’t want the attention,” he says. “Has that changed, sir?”

I shake my head. No. It hasn’t.

I’m smiling more now, and then I spot Lo. He exits the building, carrying Lily piggyback-style. She’s burying her face in the crook of his neck like she can’t even take a peek without pissing her pants.

My brows knot. “It wasn’t even that scary.”

Loren holds her thighs. “She’s scared of her own shadow when I shut off the lights at night.”

“That was one time!” Lily protests without lifting her head up.

Loren and I both laugh, and then he says to Lily, “We’re out of the maze now. You want down, love?”

Slowly, she lifts her head up enough to rest her chin on his shoulder and then glances around the park. People are laughing or power-walking away from the maze’s exit. No one is bloody or dying on the ground.

“Can I stay here for one more maze?” Lily asks. “Then I’ll drop down.”

Loren nods, and Rose suddenly exits with Connor, both undeterred by the horror element. Connor honestly looks like he just stepped out of his weekly phone conferences with oversea investors. Same casual I own the world confidence radiates off him…and his wife.

The golden crowns make this twice as noticeable.