Page 106 of The Grandest Game

“Put her down, Knox,” Brady said.

“You weren’t entirely lying.” Knox didn’t put Gigi down. “I would have known. So whodoeshave cancer?”

“Severin,” Brady said after a long moment, “had cancer.”

Knox stared at Brady, hard.“Had?”

“Pancreatic. It was quick. And, like I said, he sends his regards.”

He’s dead? Their mentor…Gigi tried to make sense of that, too, but the next thing she knew, Grayson was stepping right up to Knox and repeating Brady’s suggestion—except coming from Grayson, it wasn’t a suggestion.

“Put her down.”

This time, a stone-faced Knox complied.

“You’re injured, Gigi.” Grayson’s tone made it clear: That was unacceptable.

“Who among us is not occasionally concussed?” Gigi replied, the response—and her smile—automatic, no matter the thoughts dogging her brain.

Brady lied. Severin’s dead. Knox is not okay.

“Our team is out of the game.” Knox turned toward Avery Grambs. “Go ahead. Say it. We’ve been eliminated.”

Avery ignored Knox in favor of coming to stand next to Grayson. She took Gigi’s hand. “Are you okay?”

Gigi couldn’t help feeling like Avery was asking about more than her head.

I’m not. I’m really, really not.Gigi couldn’t beat back that thought, no matter how hard she smiled.

Avery had tried to give her a ticket to this game, but Gigi had won her own way. She’d wanted to prove something. She’d wanted to be smart and capable andstrong.

Gigi looked past Avery and Grayson, past Brady and Knox, to Savannah. The sight of her twin’s hair—jagged and shorn—took Gigi’s breath away.

Savannah didn’t look like Savannah anymore.

Avery squeezed Gigi’s hand, then took a step back, Xander, Nash, and Jameson falling in around her. Grayson stayed right where he was, an arm wrapping protectively around Gigi’s shoulders.

“Diamonds and Hearts,” Avery said. “You’re on to the next phase of the game. Clubs… there’s always next year.”

“Once a player, always a player,” Jameson said, addressing those words directly to Gigi.

She couldn’t bring herself to look at Brady or Knox. Instead, Gigi looked out at the horizon.I should tell Avery and the others about the bug. I should tell them that Code Name Mimosas is here.

I’m going to tell them.

Right now.

There was no reasonnotto tell them anymore. But what came out of Gigi’s mouth was: “Do we have to leave the island immediately?”

Gigi couldn’t keep her thoughts from drifting to the thorny brush where she’d found that bag.

“You can take some time to say your good-byes,” Avery told her. “Get some rest, if you need it. The boat for the mainland leaves at noon.”

“I’ll fix you up, kid,” Nash told Gigi, an offer and an order both, as he displaced Grayson at her side, the way only Grayson’s older brother could.

Gigi brought her hand to the throbbing knot on her forehead. There was only a little blood.

“What about the rest of us?” That was Savannah, her voice piercing the morning air, and Gigi couldn’t help thinking that every other time she’d ever ended up probably concussed, her twin had been the one checking her over, fixing her up.