Page 15 of Ready Or Not

“No knives.” The man chuckles, and then his voice becomes demanding. “Rachel, come.”

My gaze snaps to his, and that feeling rushes back into my stomach. “How do you know my name?”

“I think you’ll find there’s a lot of things I know.” He winks at me. I feel like I’m looking at an animatronic. Something is off. I just can’t tell what.

I swallow. “Let me go.”

The man just laughs, moving to the couch and dropping down on it. “Sit.”

I walk stiffly to the entryway but don’t sit.

The mood instantly shifts, and the man’s eyes go dark. He stills.

The danger is instantly tangible in the room.

I didn’t obey.

The man blinks slowly.

It’s clear that if I don’t sit, I’ll piss him off more, and that’s not what I need. So I force myself to walk stiffly to the couch.

The man’s eyes track me. Sitting is the hardest thing I’ve had to do, but I force my knees to bend.

As soon as my ass hits the cushion, all the tension immediately melts away, and the man smiles again. “Good girl. I want to make sure you’re alright before we leave.”

I just stare at him. No way he locked me up here just to let me leave.

“Scared?” He watches me.

I shake my head. All kinds of emotions course through me, and I can’t put a name on one. It feels like they’re all happening at the same time.

“How long have you known Riley?”

I blink. Who the hell is Riley?

The man shakes his head. “The woman you fucked in the corn maze.”

I suck in a breath through my teeth, a wave of emotions crashing over me at once. This must be the man in the mask who watched us. Who pointed a gun at me. My breathing picks up, and my chest gets tight. What was his name? I search my brain.Manson.

“Rachel. I asked you a question.” The man, Manson, cocks an eyebrow. It’s both menacing and friendly, and I can’t sort out how he means it.

First of all, I didn’t fuck her. She fucked me. But what I say is, “I don’t know her.” I want to get sick again. Not from the pillsbut from the emotions trapped inside my body. Emotions I don’t know how to put a label on.

Suddenly, all expression is wiped from Manson’s face. He just stares at me, and all of my focus is on his face. His blank face.

Manson blinks twice, then reaches to the back of his pants and pulls out a gun.

The gun.

He doesn’t point it at me, just puts it on his knee. And his expression doesn’t change. “I’m sure you don’t want to be stuck here longer than you have to.”

What the hell does that mean?

Manson continues staring at me. “So, tell me about your relationship with Riley.”

“I have none!” Heat flares across my skin. “The first time I met her was in the maze!” I’m not a liar. In fact, it goes against my very nature. I pride myself on my absolute honesty.

Manson blinks slowly. The lack of emotions on his face is both comforting and disconcerting. It’s impossible to guess what he’s feeling.

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