Page 24 of Siren's Game

"Asher, look here!"

"Kayla! Are you dating him?"

"Kayla, come on, give us a smile!"

Security is doing their best to push against the crowding people and clear a path so we can get to Asher’s car. But the crowd has become terrifyingly huge.

Then again, it must have been two or three hours since the first pictures came out, giving everyone more than enough time to gather here.

I do my best to keep my eyes down or fixated on the hem of Asher's shirt as I walk behind him, trying to not get blinded by all of the camera flashes. He walks quickly, yet occasionally glances over his shoulder to make sure I follow behind.

Suddenly, somebody grabs my hand and I let out a surprised sound, startled as I'm stopped in my tracks.

The security guy shoots me an apologizing glance before he tries to pull whoever's holding onto my sleeve off me and push him back into the crowd, but the person, who I'm assuming is a male fan because he's pushing a phone in my direction and not an expensive-looking camera, won't budge.

Until I feel a warm presence at my back and suddenly, Asher is towering over me, with fury in his eyes that makes the guy shrink into himself and finally let go.

"Let go of my girlfriend, asshole."

Asher

Whoops.

Honestly, I was just trying to make the guy let her go and it slipped over my lips before I knew it. Like a reflex. Now it’s too late to take back.

And Kayla ispissed.

Yes, I enjoy riling people up, but now I’m actually fearing for my life, because the way she’s glaring at me? I’ll probably have a knife in my neck within twenty-four hours.

As soon as the word 'girlfriend' leaves my mouth, the voices around us amplify until I can't even hear my own thoughts anymore, and Kayla glares at me with such an intensity, such hatred burning in her eyes that I'm afraid I’ll drop to the ground, dead. Even though we worked our way to ‘cordial’ throughout the dinner, all that progress is gone now.

Oh well. What’s done is done.

I sling my arm over her shoulder and pull her with me to the car, keeping her out of reach from more grabby hands. Her muscles are so tense under my arm, like she's about to explode.

Walking by the rest of the crowd, I wave at the people and grin. Now that this is happening, I might as well have fun with it. And if this is my last day on earth before she kills me, that’s just one more reason to enjoy myself.

I’m sure she’ll get there eventually.

I shield her from the crowd’s sight with my body as she climbs into the passenger seat, before I close her door and round the car to jump into the driver's seat.

Her eyes burn a hole into the side of my face once I sit and buckle myself in.

"What the fuck, Asher?” she hisses, keeping her face schooled as people can still look into the car from the front. But I can see her fingers tremble in exasperation, hear her heavy breaths as she tries to calm herself down and failing spectacularly. “Didn't we say onlythree goddamn minutesbefore we stepped outside that we would present this as co-workers making up?"

The aggravation in her voice sends makes my blood run cold and sends a shiver down my spine.

"I’m sorry, it just slipped out." I start the car and sigh when security has to pull a guy back who attempts to jump in front of the hood to capture one last shot of the two of us in the car. "But look at it like this: It's definitely bound to distract everyone from Luca and Millie."

"That might be the case, but I still didn't fucking sign up for this." She pinches the bridge of her nose and sinks further into her seat, a heavy sigh leaving her as she closes her eyes.

"Come on, we can have some fun with it."

"What about this is fun?" she hisses, anger making her voice cut through the air like a freshly sharpened knife. "I meant what I said before. I can let the whole interview thing be water under the bridge, but I have no, let me repeat that,nogoddamn urge to waste my energy on you."

I flinch. Ouch. I guess I had that coming, though.

"Well, don't do it for me, do it for Millie," I propose and oh boy, was that the wrong thing to say.

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