Page 141 of Dark Little Game

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I’d make sure they knew their mistake.

I’d burn it before it had a chance to grow.

Then Rayne Colson walked straight intothe flames.

This gazebo feltlike a palace when I was in here with Rayne.

Now it feels like a jail cell.

I’ve been pacing the small, sheltered space for many minutes now, unseen by the group of guys smoking outside near the house.

I don’t want to leave.

But I also feel a tether pulling me toward Rayne, like a strong magnet beckoning me away.

Go to him.

Just fucking go to him, like you know you want to.

But those brown eyes have a pull on me now that’s way too fucking dangerous.

As I pace back toward the edge of the gazebo, I realize the Daggers guys outside aren’t talking about the party anymore.

They’re talking aboutRayne.

My ears perk up immediately, and I stand still.

“Think he was out there with that new guy,” one of them is saying.

Whatever this conversation is, it isn’t good.

“Think they’re fucking?”

“No. I don’t think Hunter Knox would touch Colson.”

Two of them snicker.

And suddenly, I find the first relief from the chaotic mess of my own thoughts.

Because one feeling shines out over all of the others, in a snap.

Clear, focused rage.

“Rayne only got into Crimson because Weston made it happen, right? There’s no way a guy like that gets accepted otherwise.”

“Scholarship case, all the way,” another guy says. “Theywanted to make the poor littlepoorguy feel like he has a chance in life.”

It’s all I need to finally snap.

I come down out of the gazebo, my shoes crunching in the snow on the lawn. I don’t need to hear another word. I don’t know who these guys are, and I don’t fucking care, either.

Finally, I have a goddamn purpose tonight.

And I’m about to claim that purpose, right here and now.

My hand is already feeling for the knife in my pocket when the guys turn and see me as I’m walking over.

I haven’t felt this clear in a long time.

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