Page 63 of Rat Race

"Don't worry,Peaches," she sneered back at Aubrey. "I'll take good care of your little cowboy."

Aubrey’s furious glare shoulda peeled paint. I could practically see the bloodthirsty thoughts swirling around her head.

I hope she loves what I’m gonna do. It’s a present for both God and my bloodied angel.

Ella didn’t stay long after the grate closed, shoving us along the corridor quickly.

It wouldn't be long until Aubrey caught up with us.

Ella looked at her watch, a filthy smirk crossing her features as she stopped, shoving her hand into a hole in the wall and pulling hard on a lever I hadn’t noticed hidden inside.

The floor rumbled, the stone walls around us beginning to rise and lower, the once long hall in front of us shortening into a dead end as the wall to our left opened wide. Dust and debris showered down on us, the ground unsteady at our feet as the maze rotated.

The fucking bitch was resetting the game.

Aubrey

I’ll see you on the outside.

Ifucking knew that bitch was up to something!

Should’ve trusted my gut and killed her as soon as I’d seen that stupid water bottle touch her lips. Thirsty? As if. I’d watched enough K-dramas in my day to know an indirect kiss when I saw one.

Fucking. Bullshit.

I’d tried to warn Cam, tried to tell them that she was a no-good snake, but damn, they just did not want to believe that Ella was someone trying to actively harm them. The annoying bitch played off the ditzy bimbo shtick even better than I did.

And now this.

I heard it before I saw it. The freeze in the surrounding air. The intake of breath from Cam. Fuck, I could even taste their rage.

My eyes were still glued to the silvery blade pressed against Cam’s back as they stood locked in place beside their should-be friend. This entire time, she had been sneakily waiting for her chance to take us down.

And now she has it.

Maybe she had enough of us almost dying and wanted to end things herself. People do crazy things for money.

I didn’t know what she wanted the prize money for, or why she entered the Games. But she was the weakest type of Runner.

Yet the most conniving.

I should’ve killed her when I had the chance,I thought savagely, taking a chance at another small step forward—anything that would get me closer to them. In range toactuallyhelp.

Not that I was sure how I was going to do that, exactly. But I needed to think ofsomething.I had never before felt panic the way I did when Cam was threatened.

I’ve always been the person that got things done. Everything wasalwaysunder my control. I was able to do anything.Beanything. And I never even had to think about it.

But her taking Cam away washed every ounce of confidence I had from me.

The urge to act was so strong it overpowered me in a way I never expected.

My feet froze in place as Ella reached into the wall, panic killing my voice in my throat.

A trap?! What kind of coward uses a trap to kill somebody instead of doing it themselves?

There was a low, grumbling rumble, the floor under my feet quaking and making the water from the shallow pool lap against the stony edge. Shaking hard enough that I lost my balance, stumbling forward and having to catch myself on my hands, scraping them on the rough ground.

The world slowed down around me as my panic became horror. She wasn't trying to kill Cam with a trap at all.

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