Page 79 of Wanna Play A Game?

I jump at my mom’s harsh voice. Shit. I didn’t realize she’d come to sit next to me on the couch. I can smell the alcohol on her now.

“Sawyer, pay attention. I said say hi to Jerald.”

I don’t even glance at the man on the couch. I know without looking that he’s ugly and hungry, just like all of the men mom brings into the home. All of the men she makes me play games with.

“Hey,” I say.

Mom rubs my back and continues talking to her John. I direct my gaze back to the carpet. Did I make that stain? Probably. Mom would say I did. What could it be, though? I try to eat every meal away from here. I dread being caught here.

Today, I was weak. I found Raisin Bran dead on the side of the road, and I came home for the third night in a row. I wanted to see if Mom knew what happened to him. To see if she killed him because I snuck him in again.

“Sawyer,” Mom snaps again.

I jump. Maybe the stain is chocolate milk. It looks kind of like it. But there’s texture to it.

“Mr. Jerald has come to play the game with you.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. I know Jerry. Dread rolls through me. Applesauce? Maybe it’s applesauce.

I jump as a heavy hand drops on my shoulder. Instantly, my arm itches. Mom said we have bugs, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been biting me when I sleep here at night.

“Sawyer, Jerry said your technique sucks. I’m going to teach you how to do it right.”

I scratch the bugs out of my arm. No, if it was applesauce, Raisin Bran would have tried to eat it. He was obsessed with food. Once I hear Jerry’s belt unfasten, I completely zone out. Probably just old cigarette ash.

I wonder if Miss Jenny has anti-itch cream?

Maybe she could tell me what the stain is.

Chapter 36

Ryder

Itrack the truck pretty quickly. It’s in one of Sawyer’s old haunts. I park my own truck next to it and feel the familiar thrill I do when I hunt people. Single-minded focus burns through me, and I feel alive.

“Think he took off on foot?” Miles asks. It’s the first thing he’s said to me since leaving home. He’s pissed, but he’s going to have to deal with it. I’m protecting our family.

I take in every detail surrounding us. It’s fully dark now. Sawyer left the truck on the edge of town, facing into the countryside.

I’m honestly shocked he brought her here. And a little mad. Sawyer always comes here when he’s on the edge of losing it. He never tells me what he does, but he comes back a little less broken and almost always with a dirty animal of some sort that I make him keep outside.

I shrug. “I’ll go ask the trailer if they saw anything.” Sure enough, after speaking to the neighbors, they saw my friends, who ran out of gas, walk into the countryside about an hour ago.

Oh, he can’t hide from me now. I pull the hand sanitizer out of my pocket and squirt some in my hand.

“Sawyer turned his phone off,” Miles mutters.

I glance at him. He’s pissed.

I ask, “What, you afraid he’ll actually get away from you?”

“He broke the rules,” Miles grits. “He’s supposed to leave it on.”

I arch an eyebrow. “He’s also supposed to kill his marks, not fuck them and keep them for pets.”

Miles pulls his heatseeker out of his pocket and scans the area. He’s quiet. “Let’s keep moving.”

It’ll only be a matter of time. Our world is crumbling around us, but I’ll put it back together again. We’ll get rid of the girl and then get rid of this court case. We have to.