Psycho Killer Read Online Free PDF

is, did you miss
me
?” Chuck said. “Come on, babe, spill. What are you doing back here? What happened? Do you have a boyfriend?”
    “Oh, come on, Chuck,” Serena said, squeezing his hand with cold, bony fingers. “You know I came back because I want you so badly. I’ve always wanted you.”
    Chuck took a step back and cleared his throat, his face flushed. She’d caught him off guard, a rare feat. Serena was like the apple in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
—shiny on the outside but poisonous to the touch.
    “Well, I’m all booked up for this month, but I can put you on the waiting list,” Chuck said huffily, trying to regain his composure.
    But Serena was barely listening to him anymore. Her dark blue eyes scanned the room, looking for the two people she wanted to see most, Blair and Nate.
    Finally she found them. Nate was standing by the doorway to the hall, and Blair was just behind him, her head bowed, fiddling with the buttons on her black cardigan. Nate was looking directly at Serena, and when her gaze met his, he bit his bottom lip the way he always did when he was embarrassed. And then he smiled.
    That smile. Those eyes. That face. She was so glad he wasn’t dead yet.
    “Come here,” Serena mouthed at him, waving her hand. Her heart sped up as Nate began walking toward her. He looked better than she remembered,
much
better. Oh, how could she even think of exploding those gorgeous emerald green eyes?
    Nate’s heart was beating even faster than hers.
    “Hey, you,” Serena breathed when Nate hugged her. He smelled just like he always smelled. Like the cleanest, most delicious boy alive. Tears came to Serena’s eyes and she pressed her face into his chest. Now she was really home.
    Nate’s cheeks turned pink.
Calm down
, he told himself. But hecouldn’t calm down. He felt like picking her up and twirling her around and kissing her face over and over.
I love you!
he wanted to shout, but he didn’t. He couldn’t.
    Nate was the only son of a navy captain and a French society hostess. His father was a master sailor and marksman, but a little lacking in the hugs department. His mother was the complete opposite, always fawning over Nate, and prone to emotional fits during which she would lock herself in her bedroom with a bottle of pills and threaten to hang herself until someone bought her a new boat or a new house or a new fur coat. Poor Nate was always on the verge of saying how he really felt, but he didn’t want to make a scene or say something he might regret later. Instead, he kept quiet and let other people steer the boat, while he lay back and enjoyed the steady rocking of the waves. Most people would have ended up with a touch of mental illness after all that repression—raving psychotic episodes, sleepwalking, a bit of burning Mom and Dad in their bed. But not our Natie. He was solidly sane.
    At least for now.
    “So, what have you been up to?” Nate asked Serena, trying to breathe normally. “We missed you.”
    Notice that he wasn’t even brave enough to say, “
I
missed you”?
    “What have I been up to?” Serena repeated. She giggled. “If you only knew, Nate. I’ve been so, so
evil
!”
    Nate clenched his fists involuntarily. Man, oh man, had he missed her.
    Ignored as usual, Chuck slunk away from Serena and Nate and crossed the room to Blair, who was once again standing with Kati and Isabel.
    “A thousand bucks says she got kicked out,” Chuck told them. “And doesn’t she look fucked? I heard she had a one-girl prostitution ring up there. The Merry Madam of Hanover Academy,” he added with a snigger. “She does it with you, then bludgeons you to death with a hairdryer, and then eats you with chopsticks while you’re still warm, like some kind of voodoo sushi.”
    Getting a little carried away with his own childhood fantasies, is he?
    “I think she looks kind of spaced out, too,” Kati said. “Maybe she’s on heroin.”
    “Or some prescription drug,” Isabel said.