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“My ass?” she murmurs.

“We eat first,” Caleb announces.

“We just ate,” Sienna and I say synonymously which makes me smile. She looks at me then quickly looks away.

Dinner is quiet. Tension crawls up the walls like ivy. Caleb plates the steaks and hands hers to her without a word. She eats like she hasn’t in days, chewing slowly, eyes darting between us.

My fork scrapes the plate.

“I think this is your dumbest idea yet,” I say to her. “You don’t know the woods. And we’re fucking athletes, Sie.”

She smiles without humor. “You think I won’t win?”

Caleb chuckles. “Absolutely, and I’m excited to see what happens when you lose.”

I reach across the table and brush her wrist. “Run as fast as you want, but we’re both going to fuck you tonight.”

She flinches but doesn’t pull away.

The food disappears. Plates stacked. Caleb stretches like a predator getting ready to pounce.

I step outside onto the porch, let the night air hit me. The trees are thick, the forest dense. No moonlight. She’s screwed.

She appears at the doorway, arms tight around her ribs.

I look at her once more. “You ready?”

She nods.

I point to the tree line. “You get a sixty-second head start. After that, we come.”

She takes a breath.

And runs.

The trees blur around me, branches slicing at my skin as I tear through the woods. Moonlight cuts jagged paths between the leaves, and all I can hear is her breath, ragged and desperate,somewhere ahead of me. She’s fast. Faster than I gave her credit for. But she’s not trained. We don’t know these woods. Maybe Caleb does but I doubt it.

Still, she’s smart enough to keep moving.

I duck low under a fallen log, landing hard on my palms, and grin when I spot her through the trees. Just a flash of her hair, a flicker of her sweatshirt. Then gone. Again.

She’s trying to zigzag now, keep us guessing. Trying to get one over on us. I’m not mad. I’m impressed. This girl. She’s fire. Even after everything. She’s got fight in her bones, and tonight, I want to watch it burn.

But then I see it. Her hand. A glint of silver clutched tight.

A fork.

A damn fork.

The laugh comes before I can stop it, caught somewhere between disbelief and amusement. Did she seriously raid the kitchen for a weapon? Maybe she thought she’d get a knife but panicked. Or maybe she just didn’t care. I slow down, chest heaving, smile widening.

This is going to be fun.

I adjust the black hoodie clinging to my sweat-damp skin and keep moving, quieter now. Less brute, more predator. I don’t want to scare her off just yet. She’s headed toward the lake. I know it before I even see the shimmer of water beyond the trees. She thinks she can outrun us. Outmaneuver us. She hasn’t figured it out yet.

We like it when they run.

I step into the clearing just in time to see her break through the trees ahead. Her feet hit the rocks by the lake, skidding slightly. The water’s still, mirror-smooth, moonlight glazing the surface like glass. She hesitates. I see it in the way her spine stiffens.