Page 26 of Darkest Game

“Death will be better than being raped.”

Elaine is insane. There’s no other way to describe her.

I trip on my dress as I run for the restroom door. She grabs my hair and yanks my head back, baring my throat. That’s when she presses the knife right to my neck.

The door kicks open and Liam barges inside.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarls, shoving Elaine away from me. I sag right into his arms.

Elaine tries slicing the knife at me but Liam grabs her hand and makes her drop it.

“I repeat: what the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m doing the girl a favor,” Elaine says, wiping the sweat off her brow.

Liam pulls me into his arms, holding me close, and I cling right back to him. Never would I have thought I’d seek comfort with a man like Liam.

“By trying to kill her?”

“By making her ugly. I was going to cut her face if she just held still. Then Jack wouldn’t have wanted her.”

“Are you fucking crazy? Jack would still fuck her just because he can. Even if her face was mutilated. You can’t control your husband. But don’t try to kill my wife.”

Elaine scoffs. “She’s not your wife. She’s Jack’s. He only had you marry her because legally he couldn’t marry her himself. You act all protective over her but she is not yours.”

“And Jack’s not yours either since you can’t keep him in your marriage bed.”

“Just let me hurt the girl.” She tries to go for the knife but Liam kicks it across the room. I don’t let go of his jacket because once I do, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay upright.

“No. Now we’re going back out to the party and you’re going to tell Jack what you just tried to do. If you try to blame this shit on me, I will mutilate your face, Elaine. And I will cut out your tongue so you can’t tell Jack I was the one.”

Her face goes pale. “I could still write.”

“Then I’ll cut off your hands. Tell Jack that you tried to kill Irina. If he thinks I did, he’ll try to kill me and I don’t have any plans to die tonight.”

“You’re an idiot,” she hisses. “If I could just make the girl ugly, then you can have her for yourself. You clearly want her if you’re protecting her like you are.”

“It’s not about protecting her. It’s about not wanting to see an innocent woman get mutilated because of a sick fucker’s game. Now leave.”

Elaine huffs, clearly not wanting to go, but she does anyway. The moment she’s gone, Liam holds me at arm’s length, studying my face.

“Are you hurt?”

I nod at my arm. The wound is still bleeding.

He winces. “It doesn’t look deep. But we should still clean it and cover it. There should be a first aid kit around here. Wait here.” He leaves the restroom and it takes everything inside of me not to beg him to stay. The last thing I want is to be alone right now, waiting for Elaine to come back to finish what she didn’t get to do.

But Liam is only gone for a few minutes before he comes back with a first aid kit. “I asked one of the servers. Here.” He takes out an alcohol wipe. “This is going to sting.”

It does burn as he daps it on my arm before taking a wet wipe and cleaning up the blood. Then he covers the cut with a large bandage.

“That should make it stop bleeding.” His fingers linger on my arm before he drops his hand.

“Why did you help me?”

“Well, you are my wife now.”

I shake my head. “You heard what Elaine said. I’m Jack’s despite us being married. And you said you don’t care about me. So why are you helping me?”