Game Over Boys, page 25
“What?” Maxx hisses, coming toward me. He’s dressed in a pair of dark green sweatpants with the word Oregon in yellow on the side of one leg (university gear, no doubt) along with a matching hoodie and some black sneakers, the epitome of the handsome collegiate athlete. “When was this?”
“That’s it. I’m done.” Parrish moves up to me, pulling me back into his arms. “I’m going back with you tonight, and I’m going to kill himself. Maxx managed to get ahold of one of his dads’ guns. Let’s just do this and be done.”
“We are not fucking charging in there with guns, Parrish!” Chasm yells back at him, like this is a conversation they might’ve had multiple times in the last week. “Whether you like him or not, Justin Prior is a genius. A very, very careful genius. He has people all over that property waiting to kill us all.” He gestures angrily at the three of them while he argues. “Oh, and Dakota, he’s got a plant in the FBI. Did you know that? An agent watching the house.”
“How …” I don’t even respond to that. Why would I? Seems sort of obvious at this point. I’m not sure where it all came from, but Justin Prior has a lot of money. He could bribe anyone he wanted, anyone that was bribable.
Then there are certain people who … My eyes meet Maxx’s. He’s not talking, just staring at me. The darkness seems to close in around us as I stare back at him, like it’s just the two of us out here, like we are the couple in all of this dealing with side characters.
That’s how he makes me feel, even now, like me and Maxim Wright, we’re fated.
His face softens slightly before he curses and turns away, putting a hand over his mouth. He stays that way for a minute before dropping his arm by his side.
“Chas is right: if we march into Justin’s house with guns, we’ll end up dead. He’s the type to kill Dakota in the last hour as a final fuck you.” Maxx’s voice is firm, like he’s more than done having this discussion. “And if she doesn’t go back after this, we’re all dead: the Banks, Tess, Kimber … most importantly, Maxine.”
I could kill him. Also, I appreciate him looking out for my sister. Again, I could kill him.
“I’m not sacrificing any of you for my freedom.” I heft my chin in the air, so annoyed with two of these boys that I have no problem throwing my superior moral air about. Heh. Superior moral air? Wow. Maybe Mr. Volli is right and I should totally scale back my writing? Mmm. Nah. “Frankly, it’s just not worth it.” Inhale, exhale. I am calm. “Now, again, we’re all alone out here, zero tech. Can you please tell me what’s going on? Chasm didn’t sleep with Lumen, and Maxx isn’t dating Maxine.” I don’t want to describe the looks that pass over the faces of the aforementioned men. They’re not pretty. Actually, they’re pitying, as if something about this situation is pitiful.
As if I am pitiful.
“Dakota, please don’t keep doing this,” Chasm begs, holding his hands together in prayer. He even shakes them at me in supplication. He says an entire sentence in Korean of which I understand nothing at all. “This isn’t the end for us unless you want it to be. Even Justin wants us together.” He offers a hoarse laugh, like this whole thing is just one, big joke.
I can only stand looking at him for so long. Luckily, Parrish is there, stepping up and taking me by the hand.
“I love Maxine. I didn’t mean to mess with you, Kota, but I didn’t have much choice. I’ll do anything to protect the girl I love.” Maxx won’t even look at me as he talks.
“Even fuck her sister?” I snap back at him, and he smiles grimly.
“Even that.”
I slip my hand from Parrish’s, half-jogging to the edge of the trees. When I come out of them, I’m in a field of wildflowers, purple and white blossoms teasing my bare legs as I head in the direction of the fire. Please don’t let there be ticks out here, I think before I remember that ticks are pretty rare around here. Also, I don’t really care about ticks at all. Ticks are nothing. My heart is broken, and it hurts so damn bad, it’s like having a broken bone, the two halves grinding together. I can feel the pain in my teeth, in my tongue, in my toes. There’s not a single part of my body that’s unaffected.
“Little Sister, jebal.” Chasm comes around front of me and kneels down, grasping onto my hands. I recognize that last word. Pretty sure it’s a desperate sort of please, like he’s begging me. “I’m sorry you have to hurt like this, just wait a little longer. The only way we can get through this is together.”
“Friends forever.” That’s my response because, apparently, I’m in a mood. “I have an idea.” I’m still wiping tears from my face when I take my hands from his, slipping around him and hurrying into the ring of light cast by the bonfire.
Right away, I feel eyes on me. Some people point their phones in my direction, and I wonder if they’ve got service, if they’re filming me for Justin, or … if they’re maybe just drunk and recording everything?
Philippa Deveraux—you know, the brunette whose name I can never remember—is vomiting into a bush. Gavin is flirting with some guy who looks way too old to be a Whitehall student, and Antonio is shamelessly hitting on girls.
“What’s the plan?” Chasm asks, lifting up the edge of his lip in an almost growl as he steps out beside me. Parrish appears on my other side, and even if one of them is possibly-maybe-he-can’t-be-a-cheater-please-no, I don’t care. I feel stronger, better.
“What does Veronica usually drink?” I whisper, hoping the boys are familiar with her partying habits. They seemed to be before, like they knew everything about their Whitehall classmates, every dirty little secret.
“Whatever makes her feel grown-up and wealthy.” It’s Maxx who answers me, coming out of the waist-high grass—well, waist-high to me, only thigh-high to him—to stand beside Chasm. “Whiskey, especially if it’s Scotch. Or Vodka, especially if it’s Ukrainian. Why?”
I inhale deeply, slapping my clutch into Chasm’s hands. He seems surprised.
“Only Chasm and I are meant to handle Veronica. You guys should stay away from us while we’re doing this.” I look over at Parrish, and he meets my gaze with worried eyes and a tight, angry Prince Sloth frown. He wants to scold me, tell me to believe in his idiot friends. He wants to kiss me. Probably, he’s remembering that we’re both on birth control now, so we could … Ahem. “I’m going to antagonize her, then dump her drink. Chasm is going to tell her not to make a big thing of it, and offer out his untouched drink which, obviously, will already be spiked with the sleeping pills.”
“Or Chasm and I could hold her down while Parrish shoves the pills down her throat. Don’t make this unnecessarily complicated,” Maxx gripes, and I turn a glare on him. He’s not looking at me though. Instead, he’s staring across the bonfire in Veronica’s direction. She has a drink in hand, an equally hideous dress to the one she had on the other night, and she’s snickering and snorting with an assorted array of designer-clad girlfriends. “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t bother executing this whole stupid plan. I’d just execute her and be done with it.”
I whip a horrified glare in his direction; he’s fucking serious.
“Maxim Wright!” I hiss-whisper, eyes going wide. “Don’t talk like that.”
He returns my stare with a mulish one of his own.
“Your safety—and especially Maxie’s safety—is too important to risk for the sake of Veronica Fisher. She tried to shove you off a three-story building, remember? She cut off your clothes and livestreamed it. She’s not worthy of the air she breathes.”
I stare at him, and he stares at me, and I start to get so hot under my barely-there dress that I wish I were wearing nothing at all. And lying next to Maxx on the forest floor. I slap both hands over my cheeks.
“Stop it, Dakota,” I whisper, and all three boys exchange looks before Chasm grins big.
“I knew you were still in there somewhere,” he teases, but hearing him say that just makes me feel … sad. I want to go back to the night we found Parrish, when the three of us were sleeping in his room and talking so late into the night that it became early morning.
I want to go back to gaming, just the four of us. I want that threesome after prom. I want … even more than that.
One step at a time. Justin might have an array of valuable hostages in his palace, but he can’t keep inviting people over for dinner night after night. One time, one day soon, he won’t be holding anyone hostage, and I’ll have a brief moment where I can tell someone—probably Agent Takahashi—the truth, and it’ll be over in a different way.
But, if I were really that confident in Justin going down without dragging other people along with him, I’d have gone this route from the start. Really, murder was a better option.
“C’est la vie.” I wave my hand in the air, and Chasm snorts again.
“No wonder I liked you from the start—you’re as weird as they get.” I can’t acknowledge what he’s just said, or I’ll have a total breakdown. But if I just let it linger inside of me? It feels pretty good. “Alright, fine. Let’s execute this plan.”
Parrish pulls out a plastic bag from inside the pocket of his jeans. Paired with the gray crewneck sweater, his usual Baphomet necklace, and his air of inherent superiority, his bumptious royal persona is holding strong tonight.
“Getting access to Tess’ sleeping pills was a pain in the ass. Instead, we’ve got Benzos, stolen from my dad’s office.” Parrish chuckles, and he and Chasm share this maniacally deviant look that makes feminine parts of me purr … and also consider running very, very far away. “Anyway”—Parrish waves his hand lackadaisically—“Chas has double and triple checked the math; this should put her to sleep without killing her.”
There’s such a small amount in that baggy, it seems insignificant. But what if we did overdo it? What if something happened to Veronica? There’s no love lost between me and that girl, but I definitely don’t want to be responsible for her death.
“I’ve mapped the cameras,” X explains quietly. Even if Justin could see us through some of the other phones, there’s nobody around to hear us. “You and Chas are going to pull into the leftmost garage door at Laverne’s place, closest to the house; we’ll leave the party early so it doesn’t seem like we’re leaving with you. Be careful in the garage: there’s a hidden camera as well as a wired one.”
Oh, wow. They really have planned this whole thing out, haven’t they? I’m ridiculously pleased by that. Somehow, it feels like another clue. Both X and Chasm are faking it. They have to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I truly believe I know them that well.
If it turns out I’m wrong, then I never belonged with them in the first place.
Deep exhale.
“You guys know about the wired cameras?” I’m looking at Maxx, wondering if I’m the only one who didn’t think of that sooner.
“We do now.” That’s all Maxx says before diving back into the specifics of our mission. “Follow Chas’ lead, and don’t talk about anything you wouldn’t want Justin to know.”
“How long will she be out for once she takes that?” I ask, smoothing my hands down the front of my dress. It didn’t escape my notice that all three boys were very pleased with my outfit. Even if I don’t like to dress up personally, Delphine’s hair and makeup skills are worthy of the silver screen.
“That’s an interesting outfit choice,” Parrish remarks when he notices me fidgeting with the dress. “Haute couture for burying corpses?”
“We’re not actually burying a corpse,” I mutter, but I don’t even know why I’m defending the damn dress. “I didn’t pick this out; I didn’t choose to wear it. I was intending on coming here in sweatpants and a hoodie.”
“And a sparkly pink beanie that says Daddy’s Princess,” Chasm adds, snorting. “You guys should’ve seen her in it; it was irony at its finest.”
“Yeah, well, Justin doesn’t exactly let me wear VTuber gear or anime tees.” I gesture at my chest which only seems to draw their collective attention to my breasts.
Even—especially—Maxx’s.
He catches himself after a second, and his eyes look up at mine in surprise.
“Fuck, I’m a bastard, aren’t I? I’m dating the older sister but can’t forget what the younger sister looks like in bed.”
My mouth drops open.
“Did he really just say that?” Chasm asks, looking to Parrish with narrowed eyes.
“He really just did because he’s a fucking asshole.” Parrish turns to me, and his gaze gets caught on my body all over again. Our eyes meet, and he smiles, nice and slow and terrible. “Why does it feel like it’s been forever since we had sex?” He cocks his head to the side, necklace swaying, and then points at me. “Oh, did you forget we were both on birth control now?”
“I’m going to stab you with a very pointy stick,” I growl at him. My life is horrible. I want to be angry and sad and frustrated. How dare he try to cheer me up? Parrish’s dirty smile gets even wider.
“We have to take our moments where we can, never know when Justin or Caroline might kill us and that’ll be the end.” He snaps his fingers at me. “Come here, Gamer Girl.”
“After you snapped at me?” I ignore him. We’re kidnapping somebody tonight, and even if we know that we’re not going to hurt her, Veronica doesn’t know that. She might be terrified, might truly fear for her life in a way that few people ever understand. “No, thank you.”
“If these guys are both cheaters, it’s just you and me now, right?” Parrish comes over to stand closer to me, and his face is deadly serious. “If that’s the case, if they’re telling the truth like they claim to be, it’s just us, Dakota.”
I’m tongue-tied by both the pain and the perfection of what he’s said, but when he reaches for my hand again, I let him take it.
“Where are you going?” X snaps as we walk past. Chasm is so crestfallen that I want to run back and launch myself into his arms.
“To have a minute to ourselves,” Parrish says, and then he throws an imperious look over his shoulder. Firelight catches the beautiful planes of his face. “The way we used to, and the way we’re going to forever after when all this shit is over.”
He pulls on my arm, and then we’re running back through the wildflower field in the direction of the lake. Parrish directs me over to a cabin and lets us in. Personally, I’m a bit creeped out that it’s unlocked and instantly wary. See? My life can’t even be fun anymore; I suspect everyone and everything all the time.
“What if he’s watching us in here?” I whisper, but Parrish just shrugs.
“So what?” he asks, moving over to a table and lighting a candle. No, not just one candle, dozens of them. Pretty black ones. I get the idea that maybe this moment isn’t quite as organic as I thought it was, and I’m okay with that. Parrish planned to bring me in here? Romantic? Or does that make him a perv? Both, probably. “Let that fucked-up pervert watch.” His lip is curled when he turns back around to look at me, hands on his hips. “We’re not doing anything against his orders.”
“He hasn’t explicitly said I can’t be with you, but he sort of implied it. Many times over. How much of a risk do we want to take?”
“I’d risk everything to be with you,” he tells me, and my heart melts. It’s more than just a line. This is the guy who broke his heart open to me more than once, spilled the rawest words I’ve ever heard from another human being. I’m already choked up. “Dakota, no matter what happens, you know how this ends?” He gestures between the two of us. “Me and you. If Justin …” Here he trails off and exhales. Something profound is coming, I’m sure of it. “If he ever hurt you, I’d kill him even if it meant losing my own life. If I die, then I’ll take this perfect love for you into the next life. In the next hundred lives. In infinite cycles of rebirth.”
“You will say literally anything to get laid, won’t you?” I whisper back because I’m not admitting how much I loved that cheesy line. Parrish knows I like it whether I admit it or not. The slow simmer of his smile confirms the truth of that.
He stalks toward me, limned in the candles’ light from behind, bathed in shadows from the front.
Parrish’s warm hands press gently against either side of my neck before he slides them back and under my hair, tangling his fingers together. He leans down, putting his forehead to mine.
“I didn’t bring you here to have sex.” The words are whispered in such a way that it seems like, perhaps, he means just the opposite of that.
“You didn’t?” I ask skeptically, reaching up and curling my fingers around his forearms. I give them a yank, but if he doesn’t intend on going anywhere, I’m not getting him to move without asking. “Why not?”
“Well.” Parrish chuckles, the sound low and hot. “I wouldn’t be against it.” A pause, a shift of those beautiful eyes to the side in the dark. “I mean, I was hoping for it, but I don’t want to pressure you.” He looks back at me, and his lips purse into a tight, thin line. I know then that we’re going to talk about it first.
Talk about … them first.
“Do we have to?” I don’t mean it the way it sounds, and one of Parrish’s brows goes up. “Pear-Pear.” I adjust my hands so that I’m gripping the front of his shirt. “Not the sex, I mean Chasm and Maxx. I don’t want to talk about them.”
Parrish releases me and moves over to one of the beds—there are two twins on either side of the doorway—and takes a seat. He tugs me down beside him and turns, looking me in the eyes with an impossibly honest expression on his face.
“Who else are you going to talk to about this then?” he probes, and I can tell by the tone of his voice that it’s a serious question. “Maxine?” A pause. “Saffron.” More like a period at the end of her name. He holds a grudge against her for kidnapping me, proof of his undying loyalty toward my bio mom. “Tess? Do you want to talk to Tess?”
I rear back from him like I’ve been slapped.
“Tess and I are making progress, but I’m not going to tell her that Chas and X cheated on me; she’d never forgive them.”
“Should she?” Parrish asks, pulling me closer so that he can see my face in the flickering candlelight. “If they’re telling the truth”—an annoyed pause on his part—“then should she?”
