Page 108 of Glorious Rivals

“I suppose that answers that,” Rohan said.They weren’t the first.

“Lyra beat us this time,” Savannah replied, and the wordusrang in Rohan’s mind.“But I am going to beat you both to the end.”

That was a promise, a familiar one, and Rohan thought about the way that Savannah had declared that he did not have her permission to end things.He’d pushed, and he’d pushed, cutting at the rope,willing herto walk away.

And still, she hadn’t.She hadn’t betrayed him.She hadn’t eventriedto.

You do notgetto decide whether or not I betray you.All you get to decide is whether you are really thatscared.Of her.She’d accused him of being scared ofher.

Fear was weakness, as bad as affection, not nearly as dangerous as trust.

Being here, with Savannah Grayson beneath the dock, in dark and freezing water, their bodies wet and far too close together was a threat on many fronts.

Rohan looked past her, searching their surroundings until he found what he was looking for: the next clue.No charm this time, he registered,just words.They were written in glowing script on the underside of the dock.

Respect the grayest pile

For the departed creature’s sake

That hovered there a while

“When I win,” Savannah declared forcefully, treading water beside him, her gaze locked on those same words, “I’ll give you the money you need.”

He would have rather she come at him with a knife.“Now why would you do a thing like that?”he challenged.

They were in freezing water—in a storm.Neither one of them had any business lingering there.

“Because,” Savannah said, “a key part of my strategy for winning this—on my terms,myway and no one else’s—is by wanting itmore.”

Once upon a time, Savannah Grayson had told him that she didn’t want things, that she set goals and achieved them, end of story.Fair warning, love, Rohan had told her,I want it more.

In the hollow beneath the dock, having said her piece, Savannah put her hands on his shoulders.Rohan’s body tensed, preparing for her to push him under, but instead, Savannah Grayson raked her nails all the way down his back and brought her lips to his.

He kissed her back.Damn me.Damn him all the way to hell, he kissed her back.

“And the second I give that money to you,” she said, her lips brushing his with every word, “thenwe’re done.”She pulled back.“I decide.Not you.”

Her body rotated in the water, and she pushed off the bottom of the dock with her legs.

Have it your way, love.Rohan’s gaze went back to the next clue.And then, he was off.

Chapter 78

GIGI

Where is the remote?”Slate demanded.“The one that opens the door.”As far as Gigi could tell, Slate’s grip on their captor’s throat hadn’t wavered once since he’d slammed the British woman to the wall.“I want it.Now.”

“You wouldn’t be the first man to strangle me when all I wanted to do was talk.”This woman—Zella, she’d said her name wasZella—had poise to rival a queen.

“You aren’t the one calling the shots right now,” Slate informed her, and then he glanced back over his shoulder at Gigi and Eve.“Get me what’s left of the duct tape.”

“There is no need for that,” Zella declared.“Answer my questions, and you have my word that you will all be free to go.”

Gigi raised her hand.“Skeptical.Me.Very.Again.What about the Grandest Game?Noninterference?Eve being an emotional bull in a china shop of your making?”

“Unless I am mistaken,” Zella said, in the tone of someone whoknew quite well that they were not, “the Grandest Game will soon be coming to its end.I have put in motion all I can on that front, and now it seems there are bigger games to play.Tell me what the Watcher said.”

Slate stared her down for three full seconds—and then he dropped his hand and backed away.There was something unrecognizable in those dark eyes of his, and Gigi thought about his knife, about the number of horrible things he claimed to have done.Fourteen.