Page 64 of Burn Bright
“Oh? Oh, what?” I try to read over her head. “Did he send us to a porn shop or something?”
“Better. It’s an escape room.”
What the fuck.
“Eliot,” I groan out from my chest.
“Eliot?” She pushes her frizzing bangs out of her hostile eyes. “What’d he trick you on purpose?”
“Probably, yeah.”
Her gaze darkens. “I was joking.”
“He’s a master of chaos. Will enact elaborate plots to repair broken friendships in the family.” I grimace at the brownstone. “The amount of times he’s tried to stick me and Xander together isobnoxious and impressive.But it’s never worked.It willneverwork.” I see pretty quickly that Donnelly isn’t among the bodyguards on the concrete steps, so Xander can’t be here.
It’s not about the Hales.
This is about my immediate family. About my brothers and me. I comb a hand through my hair, my hat tucked in my back pocket. Agitation amasses. “No, you know what, I’d have preferred shopping for dildos and anal plugs over this.”
She slides me a wide-eyed look. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. Having to do an escape room with my brothers sounds nightmare-fueled.”
She tosses her phone in her black-studded messenger bag. Chains are strung across the zippered pockets. We’d taken a pit stop at her apartment where she left her backpack, thinking we were going to aclub.Now she’s telling me, “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Pretty sure I saw a sex shop two blocks away.”
I almost laugh but I can’t tell if she’s joking, not even as her stormy ocean blues meet mine. I can’t really tell whatshewants to do. I’d honestly go anywhere with Harriet. It’s her company I’m seeking above everything else, and I wonder if she’d rather bail now that plans have changed.
Meeting my brothers all at once isn’t a miniscule thing either. They’re a powerful force, and it’d be nerve-wracking for anyone to walk into a Cat 5 hurricane. Even a girl who has weapons for eyes.
Cars fly past us. City lights flicker in the misty night, but I’m only staring at her.
“Fisher,” I say in a calmer breath.
“Friend.” Her lips inch up in one of those pinched smiles.
“What are your thoughts on escape rooms?” I ask her.
She hugs her leather jacket to her frame as a gust of wind comes through. “Never been to one.” Her eyes linger on the door. “I’ve seen videos though, and they look like giant logic puzzles. Could be fun, I guess.”
“You choose,” I say. “Sex shop, escape room, or an actual club we find on Yelp.”
“And if I choose a sex shop?” she says like I’m nuts. But every time I give Harriet more of my trust, I’m stepping on a high wire. It’s an adrenaline rush. A euphoric hit.
“Then we go pick out some fun toys.” I plaster on a smile that she immediately scowls at.
Her brows almost touch together as she thinks harder. “You know what,no.I’m not going to be the reason you bail on your brothers. One hates me already. I don’t need all four to be on the Anti-Harriet train. You choose.”
I hadn’t thought about that, but she is right. My brothers might blame her if I dip out on them this time, and then they might not include her in any other invites. That sounds shittier than evading this whole trap.
“Escape room it is.”
15
BEN COBALT
We enter the dusty, dimly lit brownstone. The heavy doorthunksas I shut it behind us. Harriet sneezes into her elbow.
“Bless you,” I say.
