Page 83 of Play The Game

“I will never stand in the same room as that man again without stabbing him. I’m not going on tour with him. Firm pass. Avery is never allowed in his presence again. Nonnegotiable.”

Blaise mumbles in his sleep and rolls, groaning. Ash throws a pillow at his head as he steps up to me. “What did he say to you? I’ll go and deal with him now.”

I shake my head. “Blaise can decide what to do with the sleazy pervert. Just leave it. Why are you in a shit mood?”

He grabs my wrist and tugs me until I’m in his arms and pressed against the hard lines of him. I tell my treacherous knees that they shouldn’t be quivering now I’ve spent this much time around the asshole, but he’s too fucking hot to be real sometimes and the possessive way he just moves me where he wants me does something to my insides.

Also my panties disintegrate and I swear I’m running out of them worse than last year now that I’m the sole focus of my guys.

“You’re sleeping in my bed. Not tonight now that idiot is home and wasted, but if all that’s holding you back is gossip and bullshit then I’m done waiting. I’ll deal with any little fuck who sees you in the boys’ dorms and starts talking shit personally, Mounty. I’ll gut the whole fucking lot of them if that’s what it takes.”

If that doesn’t have a girl sleeping peacefully, I don’t know what would.

Three large boxes arrive at our door the next morning labeled, ‘not heads’ in Illi’s scrawling handwriting.

Avery spots them first, calling out to me as she gets back from ballet, and when I read Illi’s little message, I snort and text him to tell him he’s an idiot.

I don’t bother opening them; I already know exactly what they are. Blaise groans like he’s being murdered and Avery snarks at him, though she’s a little more gentle about it than she normally is. I make him coffee and nudge him toward the bathroom to get him moving. He’s already missed a week of classes and I don’t need him falling behind just because his father is a fucking asshole.

After classes, I drag everyone back to the room. I hand the boxes for the guys over and they open them to find Illi has decked them out for murder. Ghost guns, knives, holsters, and a promise to teach them all how to use them effectively over the summer break.

Blaise’s eyes are still bloodshot and bleary as he mumbles, “Fuck. We are a gang now, right? This definitely means we’re a gang.”

I consider stabbing him just a little. He cackles at me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking, the asshole.

Harley pulls a holster out of his box and adjusts it until it sits nicely on him, then he rolls his shoulders back like he’s testing the feel of it. “These are good. Comfortable and lightweight. We should be able to wear them under a jacket without the sheep noticing.”

I smile at him and knock his shoulder with mine, teasing him, “Are you good enough with a gun to be carrying all the time? Maybe you should wait for your lessons.”

“Get me a rifle and a scope and I can hit a beer bottle lid a half mile away with wind resistance.” Harley shrugs, and I gape at him.

That’s pretty fucking good.

“Maybe we should be getting you to take the Jackal out from a distance. I feel like now we’re building a fucking tactical team when I was supposed to be coming to school to get away from that life,” I mumble, and Avery tilts her head at me.

“We don’t live in a safe world, Lips. We don’t live in the normal, blue collar world on the television. We’ll always be chased by demons because we have power.”

I nod and huff out a breath while I reevaluate my entire exit plan.

Finally, after stewing on it for five minutes, I get up to make another cup of coffee. “Do we have any ice cream left? I need the calories to plan this shit out.”

TWENTY-FIVE

With Ash’s demand for me to stay with him still ringing in my head I decide to just get the fuck over the whispers and the risks of the school board finding out. He wants me there and I want to be there with him, and that’s all that matters so I’m going to sleep in his bed.

I wait until Saturday when they’re all busy; Ash is out for a run and the other two are at the gym for their usual afternoon of boxing. Blaise has a lot of rage to burn through these days thanks to his dickhead father and Harley is bearing the brunt of it in the ring. Good thing he’s stacked and can take it.

I tell Avery my plans and she smirks as she hands over the key. When I blush, she snarks at me, “I’ll text them to be gentle with your sweet virgin body.”

I think about killing her.

Okay, lie, but I do think about messing with her scarves until she has to press and refold the whole damn box tower, but the psycho would probably enjoy it.

I don’t bother packing a bag because Avery has a drawer full of clothes over there and I’ll steal a toothbrush from one of them if I have to. It’s just me, my knife, and my newly cut key.

The boys’ dorm is thankfully quiet.

I hold my breath until I’m safely inside with the door locked behind me. The room is different from last year and I toe my shoes off to walk around. Blaise’s bed has been shoved in the corner to make room for a mountain of music equipment, speakers, and guitars in black cases. His bed is covered in lyric books and guitar picks, his acoustic guitar slung over his pillows like he set it aside seconds before leaving. His last album hasn’t even been released yet so it makes no sense to me that he’d be working on new songs. Maybe it’s all just stress relief.