Page 121 of Let the Game Begin

Neil had been clear with me.

I could not hope for a future with us. In fact, there was nous. He was never going to be mine, and yet something inside me still told me that there was hope, even if it was small and fragile.

It might have been because Neil looked at me like he’d never seen a woman before, or maybe because he kissed me like I was the only person in the entire world that he wanted. Either way, I was convinced that there was something holding him back from really feeling human emotions toward me.

He was afraid to show his true self. He was afraid to talk to me and make himself known.

But why? What did he really fear?

I wanted him to bare his soul to me, not just his body. I wanted to know what his hopes were, his dreams and his fears. I wanted to know the kind of music he listened to and what he did in his free time and everything that had happened in his past. I yearned to know who Scarlett was and what those papers in the locked room meant, but he was too locked inside himself.

Plus, we still needed to figure out the identity of this lunatic who was forcing us into a macabre game full of riddles to decipher. Logan had held on to the threatening note but declined my suggestion that we go to the police, which continued to be the only option that made sense to me.

In any event, I could no longer trust anyone. There wasn’t a single day that I left the house without first peering around cautiously. I felt like I was being watched and frequently glanced over my shoulder only to see no one behind me. Sometimes, I figured it was just a manifestation of my fear that my brain was projecting into reality. Other times, I was certain that there really was someone trying to follow or keep tabs on me.

“Selene.” I jerked when Alyssa put her arm around my shoulders. “Your coffee has been here for ten minutes.” We were at our usual spot where all the students went after classes, and she was gesturing at my mug of coffee.

“Yeah, I was just…thinking.” I paused and thought about a plausible excuse to give her. “I was thinking about my mom. I need to call her later.” I gave her a smile and took hold of my coffee to drink it.

“Did you hear what went down at The Royal last night?” Adam leanedin toward us as if imparting a dire secret. He even glanced around first to make sure no one was listening in.

“No. What happened?” Logan asked, sounding bored.

“Apparently a dude got sexually assaulted, and they found him on the ground with his pants around his ankles,” Adam answered in a lowered voice while Logan looked thoughtfully at him.

“Seriously?” Jake interjected, horrified.

“Yeah. There was a party going on, and it seems that the Krew crashed it just to stir shit up. The guy in question was a friend of Carter Nelson,” he added, and Logan sat back in his chair, his eyes fixed on a vague point somewhere on the table.

“Are you sure the dude was sexually assaulted?” Cory asked.

“He was beaten up, too. His nose was broken.” Adam touched his own nose, ignoring Cory’s question.

“The Krew are monsters,” Kyle noted, turning his blue eyes on me. He was well aware of Jennifer’s assault on me. Ever since then, he had vocally despised the Krew.

“We need to just ignore them. We’re different from they are,” I murmured, stirring my coffee with a spoon and recalling how passive I had been while Jennifer was hitting me.

“Someone’s going to have to stop them sooner or later. It’s ridiculous that they can just act like that without anyone doing anything,” Alyssa put in, shaking her head.

“There’s never any proof of what they do. And the people who witness their freak-outs are too afraid to do anything,” Adam explained, thoughtfully biting the inside of his cheek. Then, he shifted his gaze to Logan, who had remained silent the whole time.

“You don’t know anything about what happened last night at The Royal, do you?” he asked Logan suspiciously. Logan frowned and gave him a serious look.

“Why would I? Of course not,” he answered immediately, clearly bothered by Adam’s question. Truthfully, I didn’t get where Adam was going with this either.

“Well, Neil is part of the Krew and…”

“And I’m supposed to know all the stupid shit he does with them?” he snapped furiously. “Well, I don’t. My brother doesn’t tell me anything,” he said defensively, and I instinctively rested my hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

I understood where he was coming from. It couldn’t have been easy always having people’s eyes on you, always feeling singled out just because of the choices your brother made.

“You should help him get out of that gang,” Kyle put in, pulling his long hair into a messy bun at the base of his neck.

“I’ve tried. It’s not easy,” Logan answered, his shoulder slumping in resignation.

Just then, my eyes were pulled to the entrance of the bar as though compelled by some dark, magnetic force. There, five intimidating personages had appeared. Neil loomed over the others with his great height and caught everyone’s eye.

“Speak of the devil,” Kyle commentated, looking directly at the newcomers. The gossip session ended, and Adam settled back in his chair, sipping his coffee. Logan stared hard at his brother, who was leading his friends to their usual table next to the restaurant’s big window, apparently not noticing us.