Page 174 of Intense

“I have one more favor for you or the twins. I need you to get me some evidence.”

I have one game planned where there will be no escape from the truth.

We end the call, and I pull up the contract, making a few tweaks, especially for my wife.

Because this is a different circumstance.

The girls that normally come here don’t enter themselves; they have no choice but to play the game.

We make them believe it’s a game of survival. When in fact, we never hurt them; we give them new lives, new identities, and no ghosts to haunt them any longer.

They have no idea who the Quinn brothers are.

But Stephanie is different.

Because she is here willingly. And she’s not being chased by any monsters. No. She’s the one haunting me.

And the game of survival isn’t an illusion for her.

This trial really is life or death.

Our enemies don’t survive in Decadence.

And she’s going to take part with me right there with her. No hiding who I am.

She’s unleashed the monster.

Chapter 58

STEPHANIE

Song- Madness, Ruelle

The room is cold, the kind that seeps through skin and straight into bone.

Clinical.

Too much like work.

But the worst part isn’t the temperature. It’s Finn.

He’s turned to ice.

I’m tempted to sneak a peek beneath my blindfold, but I don’t. I know him well enough to understand his rules aren’t suggestions. Breaking them would be failing before we’ve even started.

The door unlocks and I hear his footsteps. His aftershave cuts through the sterile air as he re-enters. Metal scrapes across the floor.

My breath hitches when his fingers graze my cheek. The blindfold slips away, and light floods in, sharp enough to sting my eyes.

When I focus on him, my heart stumbles.

His grey eyes are glazed, manic, just like the night his brother was rushed into the hospital.

He’s hurting.

And that makes no sense. What happened to the Finn who made love to me a few hours ago?

“Finn,” I whisper.