Page 66 of Wicked Games

“Stop complaining and figure it out!” Brooke said, hurrying forward. “I can see a way across to my platform, so I’ll go first. One at a time is probably safest anyway.”

I had a feeling Brooke’s newfound bravery stemmed from her guilt over the Tag game, because I’d noticed she was still having trouble meeting my eyes, even though I didn’t begrudge her for not helping me.

As she stepped onto a beam somewhere in the middle, the rest of us hung back, warily watching. She made it across to her target in one minute and thirty-eight seconds, jammed her puzzle piece in the bullseye, and turned to us with a thumbs-up. “See? Easy!” she called out. “But you need to hurry!”

She was right. We were already down to eight minutes, and there were still nine of us on the wrong side. Going one at a time simply wasn’t an option, even if it was safer.

Maverick briskly clapped his hands to snap everyone’s attention to him. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “It’s going to be easier to see the correct paths from here on the edge, rather than when we’re out on the water. So Zach, April, and I will hang back and direct Kiara, Rhys, and Carey over to their platforms. Then we’ll do Courteney, Hudson, and Jasmine.Once they’re across, we’ll come over ourselves. April, Zach… that okay with you?”

Both of them nodded. “It’s a good idea,” April said. “Three at a time on the water isn’t too crowded, and it means we’ll all get across with time to spare.”

“Hopefully,” Zach added.

Maverick cast his intense gaze across the rest of the group. “Everyone understand what’s happening?”

We all nodded and hurried to the edge. Maverick directed me to begin from the farthest beam on the left and go forward until I reached a T-junction. With a deep breath, I took a tentative step, feeling the unstable wooden surface sway beneath my weight. One wrong move could send me plunging into the water below, so I had to concentrate on keeping my balance while simultaneously listening for Maverick’s shouted instructions.

“Right, then immediately left!” he called out. “Good! Now right again, and follow that one until I say stop!”

Under his direction, I made it over to my target in a mere forty-three seconds. Kiara made it to her platform under Zach’s direction just a few seconds after me. Rhys was still somewhere in the middle, nervously looking down at the water before each faltering step.

“Stop looking at the water!” April said. “Just concentrate on the beams, okay? Now go left!”

“No, go right!” Hudson shouted at the same time.

Rhys took one step forward and then doubled back, foot hovering between the two different beams in question. “What did you say?” he asked, turning his head over his shoulder.

“Left!” April shouted. “Hurry!”

At the same time, Hudson called out again. “It’s the right one, dumbass!”

The conflicting instructions made Rhys hesitate again. It was all the time needed for disaster to strike. With his foot hoveringbetween the two different beams, his whole body began to teeter. He slipped a second later, and with a heart-wrenching splash, he disappeared beneath the water.

My jaw dropped as a shockwave of horror smashed through me. “No!”

Panic erupted in the rest of the group, their screams mingling with the crackling of electricity in the water. The sense of calm and order that Maverick had forged moments ago devolved into chaos in the blink of an eye, with furious accusations flying like sparks.

“You sabotaged him, you psycho freak!” April screamed, hands balling into fists at her side.

“No, you were wrong! He was supposed to go left!” Hudson shot back.

“That’s what she fuckingsaid!” Kiara yelled over the water. “You were the one telling him to go right!”

Amidst the turmoil, Maverick’s voice rang out again. “Listen!” he said. “We can argue later. Right now, we need to rally and focus on getting through this. We either work together or die together!”

The shouting instantly died down as his words sank in. We’d already wasted so much time screaming and panicking over Rhys’s demise that we were only six minutes away from failing the game and drowning together as the room eventually flooded.

“Carey, deal with the text thing!” Maverick shouted across the water. “Courteney, I’ll direct you. Zach, do Hudson. April, do Jasmine. Focus and try to stay calm. We can do this, guys.”

With a shaky hand, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. As expected, there was a message on the screen with a series of prompts below it.Weight change detected. Eliminate a player?

I tapped on Rhys’s profile picture with a heavy heart. As much as I’d disliked the guy at first—he was besties with Hudson, for God’s sake—I’d developed the tiniest soft spot forhim after he helped me during the Tag game. He didn’t have to do it, but he did anyway.

Jasmine made it to her platform in a mere thirty-seven seconds under April’s direction. Courteney arrived at her target ten seconds later, and Hudson followed twenty seconds later.

“Okay, final three!” Maverick shouted. “We’ve still got four and a half minutes left, so we’ll go one at a time to be safe. April, you go first.”

April stepped out onto the closest beam. Maverick and Zach directed her over, and she made it onto her platform in forty-seven seconds. Zach went next under Maverick’s direction, and he stepped onto his platform with two minutes left on the clock.

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