Chapter 45
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
Larry's voice echoed again, this time harder, rougher, already coiling itself into something ready to transform into the beast he truly was.
Celeste knew she couldn't just stand there like some mannequin and let this man descend on her.
If she wanted to leave here untouched, she had to move fast. She needed a convincing, yet performative lie. And that was exactly what she reached for.
Larry studied her every movement, her posture, her body language. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Celeste had studied this man long enough to know his damn tricks, and she knew how to keep her act water-tight.
Larry's gaze didn't shift once, his eyes sharp, trying to pierce into her soul, trying to intimidate her into trembling. But Celeste had grown past that stage.
The room itself seemed to hold its breath, thick with the tension of a sociopath and a psychopath sizing each other up, villain against villain.
