Page 112 of Dark Little Game

Barrett Knox: First quarter exams are unacceptable, Weston. Hunter, yours are where they need to be.

There will be consequences, Weston. You know what that means.

I furrow my brow.

“Your father checks your fucking grades?”

Weston looks down at the phone, turning it off and then staring into the middle distance at nothing.

“He’s had access to our online term grades since freshman year. It’s just never been a problem until now.”

“And what does your dad mean by that?There will be consequences?”

Weston chews his lower lip, then just takes another sip of vodka. “It means he’s still pitting us against each other for who gets to take over his company when he’s done.”

My heart feels like a stone pit in my chest.

In this moment, I know too much.

I know what Hunter has told me about Weston’s past with his father, but Wes isn’t aware of that.

His father has been putting him through a lifetime of abuse, and even if the physical abuse ended, the mental abuse is still clearly there.

“You both should raise a fat fucking middle finger to him, and neither of you take over that goddamn company.”

“My dad has it written into our inheritances. We getnothing if we don’t take it over. And youknowhow badly I want it, Rayne. The moment I step in and take over, I can make the changes the company has needed for years. I can finally do something good with it. Take it from corporate greed and make it actuallymeansomething.”

My chest aches for him.

Weston really has always wanted that.

Since we were kids, he’s talked about how he will run the Knox Corporation differently. How he’ll put millions and millions of company funds into research, rather than just lining his own pockets.

“You can get your grades up. Promise,” I tell him.

He shakes his head. “Hunter’s always been better than me. He barely studies, and he still gets an A on every exam. His college in London wasn’t as cutthroat, and Dad didn’t compare us as directly. Now… now he’s just going to make it a sick game.”

Hunter walks in a moment later, wearing his cape.

He looks untouchable.

Stunningly handsome, cold, and like some sort of goddamn ethereal being rather than a human like the rest of us.

As he walks by, he glances down at me, looking me over, and it hurts how badly I want him.

I’ve been trying so hard to hold back. To stay away from him.

To treat him how I know he wants to be treated.

But every time I’m near him I want to fucking pounce. And since the night at the fair, it’s been growing inside me each night, like a balloon that’s threatening to pop.

I need him in bed tonight.

Like a habit I badly need to quit.

“We begin,” Noah says finally, walking over tothe edge of the room by the fireplace, looking out at all of us. “Say it with me, brothers.Nocte onychina nigra, cor meum adhuc igne coccineo ardet. Honestas ante omnia.”

As we repeat it in English, I look over at Hunter, then back at Weston, feeling like I’m being tugged between two worlds.