Page 19 of Death Game: Supernatural Battle

“He was a—” She clapped her hands over her mouth.

Hope stirred in my chest.

Not shifting, I waited for her to process that Theodore was a vampire, watching as her eyes darted and she gasped at intervals.

Eventually, she turned to me.

“He must have had reason to attack you.”

I directed my thoughts to Bluff City Bank. “My money and power.”

Ingeniumwas involved. I wracked my brain, then thought of Twister. “A game.”

She shook her head, backing away. “That’s not possible. I met him at my last job. Before you started at Live Right.” Her chest rose and fell. “You’re wrong.”

My chest tightened as she crumbled. “I wouldn’t ever make this up.”

Tommy whirled, anger twisting her face. “You’re wrong! Where is he? What the fuck did that psychotic fucker do to him?”

She rushed me, and I didn’t glance away though my insides shrivelled to dust.

The word was bitter on my tongue. Because Theodore shouldn’t carry this much power in death. Not when he was a twisted, cruel piece of shit. He didn’t just drug my friend and use her body to get information on me; he made her fall in love.

He didn’t intend her to leave the underground chamber. He broke her for fun.

To get to me.

Later, to get back at me.

I forced the lump in my throat down, thinking of my grandmother in her coffin.

“Dead,” I said in a low voice.

She reeled back as if slapped. Pain suffused her anguished expression and her usually warm gaze that filled most of my best memories.

Taking a shuddering inhale, thoughts on the toast I managed to make myself this morning, I broke what was left of my best friend. “I did it.”

The sound coming from her chest was awful. Air wouldn’t fill her lungs. Or it couldn’t get out.

She backed away again, stumbling over the leg of the chaise.

Lost.

Betrayed.

Fixing my mind on the day I kicked Harriet Gregorian and my other rich friends out of my life for good, I said, “To save you.”

Standing, I moved closer.

She stilled, anger coating her grief. “To save me? Are you fucking serious? You mean to save yourself! Or that animal you keep running to over and over again. Theod—” She blanched, clutching at her chest. “Theodorelovedme. Iloved him. We had a future together.”

Tommy crossed the gap, and I made no effort to move. My head rocketed to the right as her palm met my cheek.

“What did you do to him?” she screamed in my face. “Where is he?”

I clutched my ears, tears of pain pricking the corners of my eyes.

“He’s not gone,” she said, gasping for air. “You’re hiding him. You and that asshole. This is a game. Part of the game. He found out. And t-tried to get you free and…”

---