Page 62 of Vengeful

"She has to be here somewhere," Parker said.

I sagged with relief and lowered the knife.

"She can't be— There you are." Hunter grinned as Slade and I stepped out of the bushes. "These are some wild trials. Much more fun than ours."

"Fun?" I echoed. I shook my head at him. "You're out of your mind."

He laughed. "I think we've established that already. We're only about a kilometre from the beach. If it wasn't for the rain, we'd smell the salt air." He sniffed as though he could anyway.

His words should have been a relief, but they filled me with dread instead. If I set up this shit show, I'd leave the worst until last. What could be worse than exploding trees and having to slog around in a cold, muddy dam?

Okay, plenty of things. At this point, I'd prefer it rain crocodiles to whatever was to come. The only thing I was sure of was that it was going to suck.

CHAPTER 22

LILA

"This is too quiet," I said. "I keep expecting a hundred armed mercenaries to jump out of the trees and kill us."

"That would be overkill, even for Caleb or Reuben," Hunter said. "Seventy-five, maybe, but not a hundred."

I snorted softly. As if the number mattered. Seventy-five or a hundred, we'd be equally dead. "What about Joshua? He might supply the extra twenty-five, just to round it up."

"And risk pissing off Frankie Young?" Slade glanced back over his shoulder. "From what I saw, I'd be surprised if he hadn't tried to talk his older brothers out of the additional challenges."

Parker made a noise in the back of his throat like a game show when a contestant gave the wrong answer. "He failed. Hunter and I have spent the last two days dismantling… I don't know how many explosive devices and trip wires."

"Twenty-three explosive devices and thirteen tripwires," Hunter supplied. "We probably missed several. Obviously we missed one of them. I was surprised it didn't go off when the lightning hit that tree."

"No lightning conductors in the trees then?" I asked.

"I'm sure if they thought of it, there would have been," he said. "But no, none of those. Excuse me if I don't suggest it tothem for next time. Poor innocent trees shouldn't be the victims of the Academy."

"People are okay then?" I asked curtly.

"That depends on the people," Hunter said unapologetically. "You know I’m at the point where if Caleb inspected a tree and blew himself up, I wouldn't be too sad. I mean, a little bit, but not too much."

"No offence, but right now, he can go to hell," Slade said.

"I take no offence whatsoever to that sentiment," Hunter said. "I both understand and agree with it. When this is over, I'm going to go back and have words with him again. I don't appreciate him fucking with us."

"Me either," Parker agreed. "Reuben doing it is bad enough. Caleb is starting to become Reuben two-point-oh. If Joshua is joining in on that, I'm going to be really pissed off."

"It's going to make forming peace between our families more difficult," I said.

I'd considered having Reuben assassinated, but now I pencilled Caleb in as well. Potentially Joshua too. So far, Lucas kept his nose out of everything, and Zeke was more or less harmless. The situation would be much easier if the twins were the head of their family.

Unfortunately, having three Brantley brothers assassinated would put a target on my back that I didn't need. The one I already had was big enough. I didn't need Daisy Lasalle, her boyfriends and connections coming after me. She was one of the more reasonable people I knew. Tough as fuck, but smart and savvy as well. Not to mention increasingly influential.

"How much further?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Where are our fucking keys?" Zachary's voice growled from behind us.

We all stopped to turn around. Chloe and Zachary were trotting towards us, their hands still cuffed behind their backs.

The twins burst out laughing.

"Sucks to be you," Parker told them, a huge grin on his face.

---