Page 79 of Road to Redemption

And then there was the part I didn’t voice: He’s got bigger things to worry about unfortunately.

Eventually, the employee gave up on us actually absorbing their instructions. With a groan, they swiveled their glossy gaze over the room. “Teams of two, sorted by the colors on your vest. Three shots to take someone down. There’s an emergency button on your blaster if you run into any trouble. Any other questions?”

“When do we get to shoot things?” Abi called out before Dom schooled her with a look. “No, sir, no questions. Thank you.”

“All your waivers are signed,” he barely glanced down at his clipboard before swinging the course gates open. “You’re good to go. You’ve got about thirty seconds to hide before the sensors turn on. Happy hunting!”

The inside of the game room was huge. Fog poured in from every corner, making the edges of the room hard to find. The hiding spots were a mish-mash of differently styled buildings and landscapes: a medieval castle here, a futuristic sky scraper there. But all of it was washed in the same saturated neon lighting.

The six of us charged the arena with our lasers in hand, peeling off to disparate corners to hide with our teammates. Seeing that my flashing green vest was a match to Caleb’s, I grabbed his arm and led him off to an outcropping of tall, foam boulders.

Dom had Abi riding on her back as she sprinted up the stairs of a tall tower, while Leo and Kiera sought out low cover by one of the main pathways. I held my blaster close to my chest, trying to keep an eye on the competition without revealing our hiding spot. And before I knew it, a pulse of red light flooded the room at the same moment that our lasers powered on: it was show time.

A shoot off against a military vet and a psycho like Dom didn’t seem like a fair game, but everyone in this room was competitive: even Kiera and the kids. We darted through smoke clouds, bounded over barricades, and slammed against walls as we chased each other in a fight for glory.

I’d taken two shots in my mission to knock out Leo, and Caleb seemed to be the target of Abi’s unrelenting barrage, but we still managed to outlast Leo and Dom. The only team still intact, I thought we might have a real shot at this round.

But while Caleb and I regrouped behind a wooden pallet, catching our breath, and Abi turned her attention to Kiera, it seemed like his mind was far from the game.

“What’s up, champ?” I raised my brow, peering around his edge of the pallet for hidden enemies.

But he just kept his eyes trained on me. “Do you think my mom would have liked this?”

“What?” I asked, startled by the deep whoosh of a successful hit in the distance.

“I just don’t really know that much about her,” Caleb frowned. “You never really talk about her.”

“I’m not sure that now is a great time, Caleb…”

“See, that’s exactly what I mean!” He wheeled around to face me. “Why not?”

“It’s not exactly a light topic. I don’t want to upset Abi,” I frowned. “Why is this bothering you all of a sudden anyway?”

“I know you’re not telling me everything.” His tone was not unkind, but that didn’t stop the words from hitting me like a brick to the chest.

“I… “ But I didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t wrong.

I let out a groan. “Just not now, okay?”

“Then when?” He crossed his arms over his chest, intent on getting his way.

“We will schedule something. I promise, okay?” I searched his eyes, hoping he’d see the sincerity in mine despite my anxiety.

“Okay fine. But I’m not letting you ghost me on this.”

“When have I ever ghosted you?”

The fact that he ignored my question heightened the dread in my heart, though I was sure he meant nothing by it.

I never meant to keep information about their mom from them. But how was one supposed to talk about their troubled, dead sister with her kids?

Before the heavy foreboding could finish clouding my mind, a blur of motion and light broke my rumination: Kiera and Abi, in a temporary alliance, had us completely surrounded. Caleb and I lifted our taggers, but it was too late — they finished us off with two clean hits before Abi wheeled around on Kiera and knocked her out of the game.

“What the hell? I thought we had a deal!” Kiera gasped, but Abi just laughed.

“You’re still new around here, huh? Lesson number one, never let your guard down around a loaded gun.”

My brows furrowed as I looked to Caleb, “Where the hell did she learn that?”