Page 46 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)
“He’s perpetually horny,” Jake added, and Cindy blushed, giving him a winsome look. It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened, and I suspected she was nurturing a little crush on Jake.
“Selene, you haven’t said a word today.” Logan gave me a concerned look. It was true, I hadn’t been very chatty, and I hadn’t been participating in their conversations because my spirits were so low.
“I just have a lot on my mind…” I needed to talk to someone, but Logan was possibly the last person to whom I could confess everything. I was ashamed of what I’d done with his brother. Though, if I could turn back time, I probably would have made the same mistakes all over again.
“Yeah, I think people have noticed…” he answered. He was right. It was all Neil’s fault. Neil and my insane life.
But I didn’t offer any explanations, and Logan dropped the subject, turning back to talk with his friends.
An hour later, we were headed back home.
During the ride, he finally admitted that he was interested in Alyssa.
Apparently they were dating and had already slept together several times.
But he, like his brother, insisted that there was no room for love in his life and that what he felt for Alyssa was merely a deep fondness.
“You know, there are essays, books, entire encyclopedias that tell us love is an energy, this force that you only experience once in your life, if you’re lucky. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen in love. Have you?” he asked as he drove. Being deeply skeptical of human emotions must run in his family.
“No, never…” I looked out the window and thought about Jared.
I was positive that I wasn’t in love with him.
If I was, I wouldn’t have such overwhelming feelings for someone else.
But at the same time, I wasn’t in love with Neil, either.
At least, not yet… We had an inescapable connection, marked by an undeniable physical attraction.
Still, I was afraid to look too deeply within, because I didn’t want to actually confront what I was starting to feel for him.
Though I did realize that thinking constantly about a person was one symptom of falling in love.
“Selene, are you listening?” Logan jolted me out of my rumination, and I glanced over at him only to see that we’d arrived home.
“Sorry, I wasn’t.” I retrieved my bag and opened the door while Logan continued to give me a probing look.
“You’re worried about something; that’s why you’re so distracted.” We exited the car and I followed him up the front steps. I wondered how he put up with me, especially these days when I was perpetually lost in my own thoughts. He had an incredible amount of patience.
“You’re right, I was just…” I ran into his back when he stopped abruptly on the first step.
“Logan?” I leaned around him to see what was blocking our way and saw a black box at his feet.
“Were you expecting a package from someone?” he asked, frowning down at it. I shook my head and Logan glanced around, but there was no one but us. He bent down to pick up the box and motioned for me to follow him into the house.
“Who’s it from? Maybe it’s for your mom or Matt,” I mused.
We entered the living room and sat down on the sofa, where we examined the box. It was definitely out of the ordinary: all black with no sender or recipient on it.
“We should ask Anna who left it,” he said thoughtfully.
“It’s her day off,” I reminded him.
“Should we open it?” He turned it over in his hands, maybe looking for some sort of marking, a name, anything that might help us figure out what it was. We regarded each other for a few moments, then Logan felt the box all over before placing it on the glass table in front of us and opening it up.
Whatever was inside left Logan completely petrified.
He went white and his mouth fell open.
“What is it, Logan?” I demanded.
“What the fuck is this? A prank?” he snapped.
I began to notice a vile smell in the air, similar to that of a decomposing corpse. I peered inside the box and understood immediately why Logan was so upset.
“Oh my God!” I clapped my hands over my lips and stood up rapidly, thrusting myself away from the package.
“This has to be some sort of sick joke.” Logan shut the box again, passing a hand over his face. Just at that moment, the front door swung open. We both turned to see Neil coming over the threshold, handsome as ever and completely in the dark about what was happening.
He observed us with a serious scowl, like he was trying to figure out the reason for our shocked appearance. Then he closed the door and came over to us with slow, decisive strides.
“Why the faces? What happened?” His forehead wrinkled at me over those lovely honey-colored eyes and I gulped.
“Neil…” Logan began. “I think you should look at this.” He pointed the box out to his brother, who came closer. His fresh, scrubbed smell washed over me as he bent to open up the package.
“Fuck!” Neil shouted, backing away with a grimace of horror on his face.
“What do you think? It’s a shitty prank, right?” Logan asked him, but the dark look on Neil’s face made it clear that he thought it was anything but.
A dead raven, putrid and stinking with live worms all over it, feeding on its innards was no run-of-the-mill joke. It couldn’t be anything but a threat, macabre and disgusting as it was.
“Who would send something like that?” I hugged myself and rubbed my arms; it was as though I could feel those worms crawling on my skin.
“Someone whose nose I’m about to break.” Neil continued to stare at the contents of the box, his face now controlled and impassive.
“Look, there’s something in the corner there.” Logan pointed to a section of the box’s interior where there appeared to be a loose piece of paper.
“It looks like a note or something,” I said skeptically, then I glanced at Logan.
Who was going to have courage to put their hand in there and retrieve it?
But I shouldn’t have wondered, because Neil immediately went over to the box and fished it out, holding it in his thumb and index finger.
He shook it to remove the worms that clung to it before reading:
“Let the game begin.”
“Let the game begin,” Logan repeated. I shuddered, and an eerie silence fell over the living room. The ticking of the clock was the only sound that accompanied us.
Neil stayed there, unmoving, with his eyes glued to that piece of paper for what felt like forever while he wore an ominous scowl.
“The note was typed and printed out.” He crumpled it angrily in one hand. I could sense the anger moving through his body, but it was calm that we would need to face this situation. We needed to keep our heads clear and avoid falling into panic.
“No handwriting to identify whoever did this…” I didn’t realize I had spoken aloud until his gold eyes landed on me.
It felt like it had been years since I’d last looked into them.
I had been avoiding him ever since I’d witnessed that perverse scene in the pool house, but despite that, his gaze still burned into me like an uncontrolled flame.
Neil glanced down at the now-wrinkled note. Logan approached him with a frown, but I stayed right where I was.
“Player 2511…” Logan read. “What does that even mean? Who is it?”
“I have no idea,” Neil whispered, tossing the note onto the table next to the box.
He began to pace restlessly around the living room, obviously anxious.
I couldn’t blame him, this was an alarming and inexplicable situation.
I wanted to offer him consolation. I wanted to go to him and promise him that everything was going to be okay, but my sense of self-respect combined with the lingering shock from seeing that dead raven made me resist. Still, seeing him so torn up hurt me.
I felt what he felt, as though we were connected by an invisible thread.
“We need to get rid of this shit.” He stopped pacing and pointed at the box before grabbing the note and shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans.
The idea of notifying the police briefly popped into my head, but what we would we have said?
That we’d gotten an anonymous package containing a raven corpse?
They would almost certainly assume it was some sort of prank between kids.
Plus, Neil was already on the cops’ radar, and this could have made his situation worse.
“I have an idea,” Logan said, looking at us. “Come to my room with me.”
He went up the stairs, leaving Neil and me temporarily alone in the living room.
I turned to look at him: he was so beautiful in that moment, shadowed and vulnerable.
I was just as powerfully attracted to him as I’d been on the day we’d met, but the disillusionment I now felt was so intense that I no longer had any desire to speak to him.
After a moment, I shook myself and went up the stairs after Logan. Shortly thereafter, I heard Neil’s footsteps coming up behind me. Knowing that he was back there made me anxious. I felt like his eyes were boring into my back like a pair of flaming swords, piercing and burning my flesh.
I couldn’t get it out of my head, the image of him with Jennifer and Alexia.
Shit… I had to stop thinking about it. I didn’t get to have an opinion on the matter. After all, I meant nothing to him. I wasn’t a real part of his life.
I sighed as I walked into Logan’s room and cleared my throat, trying to regain some control over myself. Neil propped himself up against his brother’s desk and folded his arms over his chest expectantly.
“So, we need to figure out what the raven means and why this person chose it.” Logan had put his glasses on and was sitting on his bed with his open MacBook in his lap.
“Does it look like I’ve got time to waste?” Neil commented in a derisive tone that did nothing to deter his brother.