Page 4 of Glorious Rivals

“Full of cravings.A little cranky.”Nash grinned.“Wholly incandescent.”He turned his head to shoot Grayson a knowing look.“I’m going to ask again, Gray: How far gone are you with this girl who’s not a threat?”

Grayson fixed his eyes back on the horizon.Let it all come.“Far enough.”

Nash let out a low whistle.“Jamie was right.This is gonna be fun.”

“Delighted to amuse,” Grayson said dryly.“But I didn’t call you here forfun.What do we know about the blackout last night?”

During phase one, the power had gone off—generator and backup generator both.

“Xander says the culprits appear to be squirrels,” Nash replied.“The collective noun of which he insists is alsosquirrel.”

“A squirrel of squirrels?”Grayson tone made it clear: His skepticism was not limited to Xander’s linguistic assertion.

“Island’s locked down tight,” Nash said.

“Either it’s not locked down as tight as you think or Lyra’s sponsor has another player in the game.”With characteristic efficiency, Grayson proceeded to tell Nash about the notes someone had left for Lyra in the burned forest, bearing her dead father’s names—hisaliases.“You’ll also want to have someone keep tabs on Odette Morales now that she’s exited the game.She knows something.”

“What kind of something?”

Grayson saw no reason to dissemble.“The kind that involves our grandmother not being nearly as dead as advertised.”

Nash responded to that bombshell with trademark calm, removing his worn cowboy hat and running his thumb slowly overits edge.He’d done the exact same thing the one and only time Grayson had ever taken a swing at him.

“You’re going to want to get in a sharing mood real quick, little brother.”

Grayson narrowed his eyes, but ultimately, he allowed Nash to get away with pulling rank.“As of fifteen years ago—several years after our grandmother’s supposed death—Alice Hawthorne was apparently alive and well.She came to the old man, revealed herself, and asked him for a favor.”Grayson paused, thinking about the grandfather he had known, the Tobias Hawthorne who’d come out on top of every challenge, every confrontation.The one who’d trained them to do the same.“Also fifteen years ago,” Grayson continued, “one of the last things that Lyra’s father said to her before putting a bullet in his own head was:A Hawthorne did this.”

“A.Hawthorne.Alice.”

“You’ll tell the others.”Grayson did not phrase that as a question.“There may be more than one game being played on this island.”

“Do we call it off?”Nash said, steady as ever.“This year’s Grandest Game?”

“No.”Grayson didn’t even hesitate.“Either there is no true threat and calling the game off would be premature, or thereisone—and we need to take this opportunity to identify it.”

The first step to neutralizing an opponent was to make them show their hand.

“So you’re playing,” Nash said.“Phase two.”

“I’m playing,” Grayson confirmed.Not to win—but for her.

Nash ran the back of his hand over the five o’clock shadow onhis jaw and smiled slightly.“What does she need the prize money for?”

Grayson’s brothers had all always been too perceptive for their own good.“She wants to save her family home.”Grayson thought about Lyra refusing his jacket and threatening to give him hers.“Suffice it to say, the lady will not accept a dime from me.”

Lyra needed to win the money.Grayson needed to do whatever he could to help her.

“She got a nickname for you yet?”Nash cocked a brow.

Grayson’s lips twitched.“I’m pretty sure it’sasshole.”

“I like her already.”Nash grinned and put his hat back on.“And speaking of family, I have something to tell you, and you’re not gonna like it.When we went to escort the eliminated players off the island, Gigi never showed.Little sis is MIA—and so is Xander’s boat.Seems Gigi took it and left a note.And apology Twinkies.”

Grayson frowned.“We’re on an island.Where did Gigi get Twinkies?”

“My understanding from Xan is that it was more of an IOU.”

Grayson kneaded his forehead.That soundedexactlylike his sister, and Grayson didn’t need Nash to tell him that Gigi had taken being eliminated from the Grandest Game hard.“I should have checked on her.”