Page 30 of Rat Race

“You killed her,” I muttered, my voice empty.

“She was trying to kill me! Us!” he corrected, his voice rising. “If I hadn’t moved us out of the way?—”

“Youkilledher,” I muttered again. I spotted the spike he had been holding onto on the ground. My mind had never been clearer. My goal never this concrete.

The screaming in my head quieted for a moment and was replaced with a whisper.

You know what you need to do.

Quicker than he could stop me, I leaned down and picked it up only to point it right at him.

“Sorry, was that your friend or something? You didn’t say anything?—”

“A friend?” I asked with a crazed laugh. “You thinkshewas myfriend?” My voice kept rising with each word. “We were notfucking friends!”

I inched closer and closer, backing him into a wall before he held his hands up, real fear crossing his face.

“Okay, okay, I did?—”

“She wasmine,” I said in a low growl, placing the spike right over his heart. “She was mine, you dipshit, and you took everything I wanted from me.”

He swallowed thickly. “Look, I didn’t know. I can still get us out of here?—”

I threw my head back, my laugh echoing through the halls.

“You think I fucking care about getting out of here?” I asked. “You think I followed you because I wanted to get out of here? I wantedherend of story. And you took that from me. How would you ever be able to repay me?”

This time he didn’t even try to open his mouth and talk his way out of this one.

“A life for a life,” I whispered and pushed the sharp metal into his chest. It would take some work to push the spike into the wall of his chest cavity, but I was nothing if not an optimist.

Fury blinded me, but it wasn’t enough for me to ignore the sudden noise of hundreds of tiny feet hitting the stone.

What the?—

We both turned down the hallway to see hundreds of rats coming toward us. There was something rumbling in the background.

Another trap?

I expected another set of bulls to come running down the hallway, but instead, I saw the Weston prodigy, their large tattooed arms and cowboy hat calling attention to them right away. Their red mask was like a beacon as they ran full speed in our direction. They were the type to enter the Games and fuckingdominate. Clear a path and force themselves out as first without even breaking a sweat.

Their arms alone told a story of just how hard they worked to get their body into shape for this game. They were corded, muscular, littered with tattoos, mouthwater?—

NOT the fucking time to be simping over some psycho Ranch rando, Aubrey.

I brought up a hand to slap myself on the face, forcing myself to get my head in the game.

If they're running, I should run too, right?

But the need to kill the Architect fucker was too strong. I turned back to him, ready to push the spike further into his chest, but then a warm, calloused hand grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hallway.

The fucking cowboy.They were even more massive as they moved in front of me. Even through my anger, my eyes narrowed in on their muscular back. I imagined how good it would feel to run my hands down it.

And my fans would go crazy for it.Watching someone as big as them dominate me?

I never had a co-star on the channel before, but they were making me reconsider things.

“Are you an idiot? He has a fucking bounty on him!” I yelled at them and attempted to jerk my hand away, but they were too strong.

---