Page 110 of Play The Game

Fuck this.

I join Harley on the couch to hide from their snarking and he folds me into his chest easily. Blaise is distracted, tapping away on his phone to his mom, and I chew my lip as I watch him.

“We’ll be on suicide watch by the end of the week,” Harley whispers.

I wince, but I think he’s right. “He can sleep here tonight. I’ll see if I can talk him into keeping his expectations low.”

“Good fucking luck.”

After dinner has finished, and Harley and Ash have gone back to their room, I cuddle into Blaise’s chest and sigh. He rubs his cheek against my hair and whispers, “I promise I’ll be okay, Star. I’m not going to let her drag me under again.”

I wish I could believe him.

THIRTY-SIX

My phone pings after midnight and I have to wriggle out from under Blaise to reach it, my rock god boyfriend wrapped around me like a second skin. He doesn’t falter in his faint snores and Avery’s headphones are in her ears blaring still so neither of them have woken at the sound.

The dining hall. Now. Don’t bring your little friends unless you want me to slit their throats while you watch.

I stare down at the Jackal’s text and a cold wave of dread takes over me for a second. Then I get angry.

Really fucking angry.

I slip out of the bed and into one of Harley’s hoodies and some yoga pants, because I’ll be damned if I let that psychopath see me in booty shorts ever a-fucking-gain. My knife gets slipped into my pocket and, after a moment of hesitation, I slip my gun into the waistband of my pants.

Then I stand over Avery for three minutes, my heart in my throat, debating telling her but, fuck, she might follow me down there or call for backup and that’s a bad situation looking to turn nuclear.

When I’m out of the room, door locked firmly behind me, I text Illi.

The Jackal is here. I’m going to meet him. If you don’t hear from me in thirty minutes, call Diarmuid for backup. Tell the boys I love them and Avery she’s the best fucking thing that ever happened to me.

It’s sappy as fuck, and Illi will give me so much shit for it, but I need them to know how much they mean to me if I’m… dead. Fuck, I hope I’ll be dead and not taken.

But I’m done bowing down to this man’s whims.

I walk slowly, calmly, down the silent halls of Hannaford as if I’m not heading into the very hell I enrolled here to escape. Luca is waiting outside the dining hall doors with three other flunkies. I dip my head and for once Luca doesn’t grin and flirt.

“He’s not very happy with you, princess.”

No shit. “He doesn’t have to be happy with me. He’s forgotten he’s an equal to me in our world.” I’m proud of how strong my voice sounds.

Luca just looks at me for a second longer, his eyes searching mine, and then nods.

I give him a nod back like I’m not concerned in the least, and he opens the door for me. I keep my eye on Luca and not the man dressed in a sharp suit, strikingly arrogant and utterly soulless. He ushers me in with a firm hand at the small of my back I try not to flinch away from, and helps me to my seat across from the outwardly calm Jackal.

He’s sitting in Harley’s seat.

He knows everything that happens in this school.

I meet his gaze and, fuck it if he doesn’t look menacing in his suit. I suppress the shiver that tries to take over my body. He looks calm, with his hands on his knees below the table, but that only intensifies the dread clawing at me.

“Good evening, little Starbright. I hope I didn’t wake you?”

I raise my brows at him. “Don’t you know? I assumed you’d have found a way to get a camera in my room by now.”

He smirks at me and tips his head. “But of course. I have to say, I’m not a fan of watching those boys defile you.”

I fucking refuse to blush or think about him watching us, watching me during my most intimate moments. He could be bluffing. He’s probably not, but I hold onto that hope for now. “What would you like, Jackal? What are you really here for? Because I’m not going to leave with you. I’m content here and who shares my bed every night is no concern of yours.”