Page 115 of Dark Little Game

“Something isn’t right,” I say.

“What does the paper say, Royal?” Roman demands again.

“Both of the brothers, by the end of the week,” I read, my chest tightening. I reach for the other, breaking it open and reading. “Playtime is over, Knox.”

I look all around, fear ripping through me, cold as ice.

It’s like I expect another dart to suddenly shoot through the window.

Or a rain of bullets to fly in.

But nothing happens.

The room is silent, other than Roman walking over the hardwood floor to grab the papers from me.

“Who else has had access to this box?” Roman asks Noah.

“No one. It’s been in my room all week.”

“I’m calling my cousin. Tired of feeling like our home has a target on it,” Roman says, already pulling out his phone.

“Relax,” Hunter says. “The notes are clear. Weston and I are the targets now. Everyone else should be safe.”

No.

The room erupts into slight chaos, with guys pulling out their phones, checking all around the room, and a few people going out into the front yard and back yard to assess any threats.

There’s nothing we can find.

Just like the last dozen times we checked the inside and outside of the house and found nothing out of place.

I feel stupid as I head to the only two rooms in the house that have extra doors to the outside.

The side door that’s in a hall near the kitchen pantry is locked and deadbolted, as always. No one ever uses that door, and I often forget it exists.

The reading room also has a door that goes to the exterior, into the little garden between our house and the edge of the Luros Sorority yard.

That door isalsorarely used, and it not only has a deadbolt, but a heavy chair that is placed in front of it at all times.

The chair is still in that spot.

There’s no evidence it’s been moved or touched at all, and even the small amount of dust on the floor shows that the feet haven’t been moved anytime recently.

I run my hands through my hair, leaning back on one of the tall bookshelves in the reading room.

I pace around for a moment, heading over toward the open arch.

This room has given me a little surge of guilt every time I’ve walked past it in recent weeks.

It’s where Hunter dropped to his knees and blew me, and where we very nearly got caught.

Right now, that world feels a million miles away.

I feel like I’m surrounded by danger, everywhere I look.

I just want to stop time.

To make everyone else in the world go away other than the one person I want to be around, right now.