Page 60 of War Games

She shrugs her shoulders. “I suppose.”

I offer her a tight smile, feeling so far out of my league that I don’t know where to go from here, but I suppose, being the adult in the room, I have no choice but to try and wing it.

I swallow over the lump in my throat and immediately regret it. The burn in my raspy throat is already proving to be a bigger pain in my ass than Reaper. Then, reminding myself that I’m not a wuss and that this beautiful, selfless child did somethingso incredibly brave, I step into the room and walk right into her, throwing my arms around her petite body.

She stiffens in my hold, and her awkwardness suggests that she’s never been hugged for even a second in her short life. “Thank you,” I tell her, holding her tighter and refusing to let go. “You saved my life, Shadow. You were so incredibly brave, and while it was reckless and dangerous to risk your own life for mine, I will always be grateful.”

“I . . . uhhh. I was just doing what anyone else would have done in my situation,” she says, slowly beginning to relax as she lifts her arms and awkwardly wraps them around me.

“No, Shadow. Nobody would have done what you did in there,” I tell her. “They would have stood back in fear and listened until my screaming stopped. You ran in and risked your own life just for the chance of saving mine. There’s no way I could ever thank you enough.”

Shadow holds me just a little bit tighter, and when she buries her face into my shoulder, I realize just how deprived this child has been of affection. “Nobody has ever cooked me dinner before,” she says, her words muffled by my shoulder. “You and Reaper . . . You’re both nice to me for no reason other than because you want to be, and I . . . I’ve never had anybody care about me like that.”

My hand shifts from her back to her hair, and I hold her there for just a moment longer, not daring to move until she’s the one to pull away. And when she does, it doesn’t go unnoticed just how close she remains to me. “Look,” I start, placing my hand on her shoulder and holding her blue stare as I realize that Reaper’s hovering in the open doorway behind me. “I can’t pretend to know how the next two weeks are going to play out. I can’t promise that someone isn’t going to get the drop on me or that I’m going to be here right until the very end, but what I can guarantee is that I’m not going to walk away until someonephysically takes me out. I need you to survive, Shadow, even if it means ending both mine and Reaper’s lives. I can’t fathom the idea of one of these assholes hurting you, of someone like Gasoline doing to you what she did to me, and while I have so many questions about how you came to be here in the first place, just know that all I want is to protect you.”

Shadows nods and lets her gaze fall toward Reaper behind me. “But I don’t want to kill you . . . either of you.”

“I’m sorry,” Reaper says, stepping into the bedroom that somehow seems so much smaller with him inside of it. “But that’s the nature of the game. The three of us can have each other’s backs and eliminate the other contenders. We can face this as a team if we must, but there will come a time when you will have to take our lives. There’s no other way out of this.”

“And if I don’t?”

I offer her a sad smile. “Then Reaper and I are going to have no other choice but to pull some of that fucked up Romeo and Juliet bullshit and take ourselves out. You not walking out of this alive is not an option.”

“Why can’t we all walk out of here alive? How would they ever know?”

“They’ll know,” Reaper says, his gaze shifting to mine, a question I can’t quite decipher lingering within his lethal gaze. “And when they figure out that they’ve been played, the bounty on our heads would be astronomical. We wouldn’t be able to shake it.”

Shadow lets out a heavy sigh before nodding her head again. “Okay, so that’s the game plan,” she says. “We take out the final five contenders, and when the time comes . . .”

Reaper steps into my side, his fingers brushing against mine. “We lay our lives down and allow you the chance at having a real childhood, only ten million dollars richer.”

22

REAPER

I’m not going to lie, these past few days, the heaviness weighing on me has become almost insufferable. I’ve never spent days at a time with people, especially people I care about, and with every passing minute, it becomes abundantly clear that I can’t stomach the idea of losing them.

Siren is . . . I don’t even understand what she is to me, but when she’s in my bed, wrapped in my arms, my heart races so fast that I fear it could explode. It’s more than just a fierce type of lust. I’ve lusted over women more than I care to admit, and it never lasts long, and it sure as fuck doesn’t get stronger after I’ve already had what I wanted from her.

This is more, and it’s scaring the fuck out of me because I know that when the time comes to end her life, I’m not going to have the strength to do it. Nor is Shadow, for that matter. The two of them have become closer over these past few days. They’re inseparable, and I can’t help but feel that Siren has taken on a motherly role with her.

The two of them went shopping on my dime to replenish the things Siren lost during the fire, and it was almost comical to watch them both fawn over all the bullshit they bought. They’re like two peas in a pod, and they don’t even realize it. They bought a bunch of clothes and makeup, and while Siren wasn’t able to find her usual style of clothing in the limited stores on offer in Blue Springs, it’ll do. But what really thawed my cold heart was watching the two of them loot all the weapons of the contenders who didn’t make it. It was like two kids on Halloween returning home with all their candy.

True to her word, Shadow has stayed with us. She stays with Siren during the day, and after helping Siren with dinner, she ventures out in the early evening to do whatever the fuck she feels needs to be done. But she’s always back by ten or eleven and takes her ass to bed. We truly are some kind of dysfunctional family, and I’m finding that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Just like Siren and Shadow, none of us have ever experienced what family life is like, and I find myself clinging to it. But truth be told, I’m terrified of losing it.

Siren is still shaken after the fire, but she hasn’t let it bring her down. If anything, it lit a spark under her ass to get back out there and show these fuckers that she can’t be messed with. After the fire, we were hoping that War Games would announce her death, which would have given Siren one hell of an edge in these games, but when her name didn’t appear in the update, we came to the realization that the higher powers of War Games are more connected than we really knew.

She spent the last few days tracking the remaining five contenders, but the majority of her attention has been focused on Gasoline. After watching the psychotic redhead closely, it became abundantly clear that she’s somehow created an alliance with the brothers. It’s not ideal, and it makes them an even bigger threat, but in reality, when three morons get together toplan shit, it doesn’t necessarily mean what they come up with is going to be particularly effective. Either way, we need to keep vigilant, and now that the three of us are living under one roof, it makes us a bigger target—one I hope the others are too intimidated by to even attempt to take us down.

Today’s focus—The Executioner.

The guy is an ex-cop, and he moves like one too. I’m surprised he hasn’t been targeted at this point in the competition yet. He seems to be . . . lacking. Everything about him is obvious, and even as he makes his way toward the massive lake, he seems to walk with his chest puffed out and a stick up his ass. The fucker has no idea how to be discreet or blend in and become invisible.

I’ve been tracking him for the better part of the morning, getting a feel for who he is and what his day looks like, and to be painfully honest, the guy is fucking boring. There’s not a remarkable thing about him. Just another ex-cop who wanted to experience the thrill of being the bad guy.

From the research I did, his kills are all executioner style, and as for his victims, there’s not a damn connection between them. He has a god complex and targets men and women who he believes need to be taught a lesson, but today, his bullshit is coming to an end. I don’t particularly like making kills in broad daylight, but Blue Springs has been particularly quiet today.

Perhaps it’s the statement the FBI put out last night, warning the residents about the killers on the loose. Everybody is staying in, keeping themselves safe, but truth be told, they’re the safest ones here. None of us care to make a problem with the residents, that’s not our purpose, and honestly, making sure they’re locked in their homes is nothing but a benefit for the rest of us.

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