Page 143 of Dark Little Game
“I didn’t mean it, bro,” he pleads. “Swear. Colson, I’m sorry?—”
“I don’t fucking care what you said about me,” Rayne says, coming over and trying to pry me away, too. “Hunter, we’re on good terms with Daggers guys. We don’t need this.Idon’t need this.”
“Rayne’s smarter than you’ll ever be,” I tell the guy. “More deserving than you’ll ever be.”
“He knows I’m smart,” Rayne says in a dry tone. “Hehad sociology with me last year and Ihelpedhim when he skipped class for two weeks straight.”
I lift my eyebrows, still pinning my gaze on the guy. “Ungrateful, too?”
There’s a little blood on the side of his face, and one drop falls down into the snow, blooming dark red on the pristine white.
It’ll only be a bad bruise tomorrow.
I lost control.
I fucking lost control, like I haven’t since I was in London.
And soon reality catches up with me, in a way I fucking hate.
I don’t regret this.
But I don’t want this, either.
I never wanted any of it.
I stand up quickly.
It’s hard to find my footing in the snow, but I slip a little as I move to leave.
I don’t make eye contact with Rayne because if I do, it’s only going to make things worse.
I’ll be pulled back in.
And I can’t be.
This is who I’ll always be.
And this is exactly why you need to stay the hell away from me.
I break off across the snow and head for the side path.
Running away.
Fucking fleeing.
I know Rayne’s following me. He keeps saying my name, and I can hear his footsteps on the snow behind me.
My heart is lodged in my throat. I follow the path along the side of the house and make it to the front yard, then to the sidewalk of Red Row. The street is illuminated by thelanterns at the front of each house’s gate, and I try to run in the shadows, heading in the opposite direction of Onyx House.
But Rayne is a good runner.
It feels like he catches up to me in an instant, once I’m past the final lantern at the end of Red Row.
His hand comes down on the back of my arm and he stops me, swinging me around, right at the edge of a forested patch of land.
“Don’t do that shit. Not for me,” Rayne tells me, angrier than I’ve ever heard him.
“I do what I fucking want to do,” I spit back at him.
