Page 7 of The Players

Then she turned and runway walked back to the car. Both hench people got back in the Bentley and took off, tires shooting gravel in their wake.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

All three boys had gone silent. I wondered if they’d looked at their texts. I wondered what it might say and how it might affect their protection of me going forward.

No one spoke. The car ride back was silent.

It didn’t matter, I told myself. We would get back to the clubhouse and discuss everything. We’d hash it out and remember that together we were stronger than Easton Hill, henchmen or not. It didn’t matter what dirt he had on us. We could face it together.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts, I didn’t notice the fire until Mills threw the car into park.

We sat, staring. Silent.

Gob smacked.

Our warehouse, our home away from home, was on fire.

Chapter four

He’ddoneit.He’dreally done it.

No matter how much the guys insisted that Easton could not get to them, that they were prepared for whatever he threw at them, I could tell they were all shaken.

While we sat in Mills’ SUV watching the blaze eat up our little hideaway, the orange firelight dancing on our faces, no one spoke. Easton had rendered us. He’d threatened us with calamity and then delivered in a way we’d least expected it. There was also the sense that this was only his first act, a prelude to the horrors yet to come.

As I watched part of the building’s roof fall and more flames shoot out of the newly created hole, I wondered if this was all my fault. The guys had broken with Easton because of what he’d done to me. They hadn’t loved the way he’d treated them, sure, but they would not have left and would not have invoked Easton’s full wrath if they had not stood against him when it came to my torture. They’d only had one more year left with Easton at the Academy. After that, they’d all go their separate ways—Easton to some prestigious Ivy League school where he could torture someone else.

They would’ve been free. But now…

More of the building collapsed. The fire was raging, the fresh air fueling its growth until it was eating the whole building. Red tongues of flame poured out of shattered windows and blackened the concrete above.

“I left my favorite hoodie in there,” Hector said quietly.

“I left three hundred dollars’ worth of liquor in there,” Lowell growled.

“Should we call the police?” I asked, but all three of them shook their heads. I didn’t know who owned the building, but now I wondered if we’d been squatters all this time. It didn’t matter anyway. The sound of sirens was growing louder in the distance.

Mills put the car into drive and pulled away, slicing along silent streets in the industrial area before pulling into my shitty neighborhood. When he angled up to the curb, I glanced around the car. Three sullen faces glanced up at me.

“Everyone okay?” I asked.

They nodded. Mills said, “One of us will call you in the morning.”

Hmm. Mills made it sound like they were going somewhere to strategize… without me.

“Okay…” I said, drawing it out as if that might make this rejection better. When they didn’t invite me, I didn’t press further. “Talk to you in the morning.”

Mills offered a fake smile and turned his eyes back to the road. When I shut the door, he drove off without glancing back.

“Shit.” I watched him drive away. “Dammit.”

I sucked in a breath of cold night air. It was late, but since I’d turned eighteen, I didn’t have a curfew on weekends. Still, Gram might worry if she woke up and I wasn’t in bed.

But how could I sleep?

Carefully, I crept up the porch steps and slid my key in the door. The screen squeaked a bit, but I was able to curl in and shut both doors behind me with little noise.

Standing in the entryway, I glanced around. The kitchen was as it always was, a mix of tidy and disorganized. There were my grandmother’s ancient cookbooks on the hutch near the far wall. Her papers were strewn across the table again. I spotted a crossword she’d been scratching at. A bowl of nearly empty popcorn sat at the sink. She’d likely made it and watched an old romantic comedy before bed.

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