Page 45 of Kings & Chaos

Fucking fucker.

“Damn,” Claire said. “He calls you Jezebel?”

“Yeah, I said, getting to my feet. “Welcome to my nightmare.”

“Why does it sound hot when he says it?” Quinn asked, her voice wistful.

Any other time, I might have copped to the fact that I kind of agreed. I didn’t know when the nickname had stopped feeling humiliating and started making my panties wet, but I’d started to believe Neo could call me any damn thing and I’d be fine with it as long as he did it while he was fucking me senseless.

Of course, that was before the Kings had assigned me to the second game.

Now they could all go fuck themselves.

I ignored the little voice inside my head that called me a liar. The one that said I’d be in their beds without thinking twice the next time the opportunity arose.

That voice sucked, even if it was probably right.

“See you Monday,” I said.

Claire stood to give me a hug. “If you need to escape, you’re always welcome at our place. You could stay tomorrow and we could do Chinese again?”

“Thanks, but I can’t tomorrow.” Neo had another fight, and the Kings had already made it clear that my attendance wasn’t optional. “Rain check?”

“Always,” Claire said.

“Try not to kill them,” Quinn said, kissing me on the cheek. “They’re nice to look at.”

“See you Monday,” Erin said as I left to join the Kings.

We had to walk single file on the narrow path back to the car, so I spent the time rehearsing all the things I’d say when we got to the car.

I didn’t even bother trying to help them load everything into the back of the Hummer. I just got into the back seat and waited, words spinning in my mind. A few seconds later Rock slid in next to me while Oscar took shotgun.

“I’m not doing it,” I blurted when Neo closed the door on the driver’s side.

Okay, not exactly eloquent, and not at all what I’d rehearsed, but it did the job.

“You are,” Neo said. “According to the rules.”

“Fuck your stupid rules,” I said. “And fuck you.”

“No thanks.” He sounded bored as he started up the car.

Gravel crunched under the tires as he navigated out of the area where everyone parked for the quarry parties.

I knew the apathy in his voice was a lie. I’d gotten proof — more than once — that he wanted me as much as I wanted him, but it still pissed me off.

I looked at his face in the rearview mirror, his cheekbones harsh in the glow of the streetlights along the main road.

“You can’t make me.” I hated that I sounded like a kid, but it just came out.

“No,” he said, meeting my eyes in the mirror. “But I’ll be the observer this time, and if you don’t do it, I’ll tell everyone.”

Disbelief crowded everything else out of my mind. Technically, every house was supposed to assign someone to be an observer to the game. It was dumb — they could always lie — and Claire said most of the time, the houses didn’t even bother.

But Neo was going to pull the observer card just to fuck with me.

I looked at the back of Oscar’s head and immediately knew why Neo had decided to play by every rule this time around. He was worried Oscar would let me off easy, that Oscar would do the dirty work and allow me to claim part of the credit to save face.

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