Page 33 of Rat Race

“Aubrey,” she replied tersely, looking down at the rising liquid. It matched the progress of the pillars, churning at the closed door. Steam began to rise from its surface, warning of the temperature below.

In just a few moments, the blood will be boiling.

The heat of it had beads of sweat running down my face. The air was sticky, hard to breathe.And that fucking smell…

“Okay, well, now there, darlin’. Aren’t strangers anymore, are we? First name basis and everythin’.”

Most importantly, we need to get out of this fuckin’ disgusting death trap.

Her eyes narrowed on me, recognition spreading across her features. She dabbed a bit of sweat off her neck before pointing a finger at me.

“Hey, wait a minute, aren’t you from the Legacy family that, like, owns cattle or something? Like on a real-life farm? Weston, right?”

Like on a real-life farm.I wanted to laugh at how outrageous the conversation was turning.

My gaze shot around the room as steam threatened to obscure my vision.Yes, this is exactly what I want to talk about right now.

“Something like that, darlin’,” I said and forced another smile even though she couldn’t see it. “But I think we have more impo?—”

Aubrey’s foot slipped on the slick surface of the pillar just enough for her foot to dip into the liquid, making her yelp as she fell backwards on her platform.

She unsuccessfully tried to fling the blood off her shoe before shooting me a look, anger and shock filling her eyes.

“Crab boil,” I answered to her look of furious confusion. “Start ‘em cold and then raise the temperature slow so they don’t notice until it’s too late, otherwise they’ll use each other to climb out.”

“With fucking blood? Twisted fucked-up Architects,” she mumbled under her breath. “So how do we get out?” Her gaze shot to the door. The platforms had come to a grinding halt, still too far away for either of us to easily reach the doors alone, the gap open and waiting for us.

“If you can trust me to come to you, I could lift you up… but you’ll need to pull me up after, yeah?”

She appeared to consider it for a few moments, tossing her ruined mask aside into the blood, where it rapidly sank to the bottom, the pink lights blinking out.

Goddamn.The breath was forced from my lungs when I caught sight of her face.

She was just as beautiful as I thought she’d be behind the mask. Blue eyes, full lips, a heart-shaped face. Her personality nowhere near matched her looks.

Aubrey looked like a pretty cheerleader who should have been on the sidelines at a football game, not in a fucked-up murder maze getting her hands dirty.

No wonder she got close enough to the Architect to almost kill him.

But she was just so…fucking perfect.The little voice in the back of my head kept telling me she would be a perfect candidate to take back home.

Another told me that bringing her home would be a mistake cause then I’d have toshareher. That dark part of me didn’t want to share her. It wanted her all to myself.

“Alright.”

My heart skipped a beat in my chest at her agreement.

“Alright,” I whispered back and gave her a nod.

I needed to get my head back in the game, so I had to force myself to stop looking at her.

I backed up as far as I could on the platform before taking it at a run, jumping to reach her pillar with a skid that nearly sent me right over the edge. Her manicured hand on my forearm wouldn’t have been enough to hold me back if I were to take a disastrous fall, but the thought of her trying to save me felt nice.

A buzz rang out, and then our pillar jerked forward. The one closest to us jerked to the left, moving further and further away from us.

Shit.

“Now they’re just fuckin’ with us,” I whispered under my breath.

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