Page 88 of Queen of Spades

My nostrils flare as I count down the last few seconds in my head. When I get to zero, my entire body pivots, lunging toward the maze. I take the left, jogging down the corridor. The first curve is to the right, and there are no other options to choose.

Did I spend an hour this afternoon learning every trail from both entrances?

Yes.

Is that cheating?

Who the fuck cares?

My nose is convinced I’m supposed to take the next right instead of continuing straight. It’s not even a question; I follow her scent in full alpha-beast mode.

My head tilts as I jog down the corridor I’m now on. The rustling of the tree branches in the cool night air helps to mask some of her noise, but I know she’s somewhere to the left deeper into the maze. The next two choices are both lefts—one in the middle and one at the end, but the one at the end will take you to two dead ends.

“Motherfucking agents of death,” Annika squeaks from somewhere near the middle of the maze.

That seals it. She took the first left. I doubt she would have had time to make it to the dead end and circle back. I jog down the straight path. The far end of this corridor ends in a left or right choice, but both of them bring you to an aisle parallel to this one.

I take the right when I hit the end. It’s an edge corridor, meaning you can only go left after taking the corner. It’s a solid distance ahead, but I spot movement taking the first left, and my body kicks up my speed.

It might be unfair, considering my legs are much longer than hers.

But life isn’t fair.

I chuckle darkly. “You doing okay, princess?”

“This sounds like much more fun when you’re not faced with the reality of spider webs.” She huffs.

I barely catch sight of her arm as she takes the next right. That runs right into the middle of the maze, which is perfect.

I come around the corner while she blinks at the few solar lamps laid out sparsely around the area I was hoping I’d catch her in. There’s a blanket on the ground, and the shed is in the back right corner of the box that makes up the middle of the maze.

I slow my pace to try to sneak up on her, but she notices me and squeals. She takes off toward the opening on the left. Each side of the middle box has its own opening back to the maze corridors. She successfully makes it to the opening as I jog toward her. She pivots to the right, but I make a mad snatch for her hair.

Annika’s head snaps back, but luckily, I get close enough to her skull that I don’t think it’ll hurt too much. She moans as I tug, but instead of allowing me to pull her back into my chest, she spins around, landing her fist against my jaw.

“Hey,” I growl. “You said no closed-fist punches.”

“That only applies to you.”

Okay, so, that actually makes sense.

My hands move to her hips, and I toss her over my shoulder as she kicks and wails.

I smack her ass. “Behave, or I’ll fuck you on the AstroTurf, instead of the blanket.”

The pain in the ass fights even harder. It’s like she wants to fall from over six feet in the air.

We make it to the blanket.

I kneel down, sitting back on my heels and pulling her to rest over my lap. “Do you ever think about how life could have gone if you’d just trusted me?”

“Oh, fuck you,” she snaps, pushing with her feet and trying to army crawl off my lap. “If you had come in with me, Edmond might have lived.”

My head rears back. “You blame me for Eddie’s death.”

“Things could have been different.” She bends her knee at an awkward angle and kicks at my side.

I move an arm under her middle. My other hand falls to her hip, and I stand up. It puts her in an awkward position as her palms fall to the ground to keep her top half up. She’s in a modified wheelbarrow configuration, except her legs fall over my arms sideways.

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