Page 49 of The Most Dangerous Games

“Pity about him,” Tipton starts—

Jack’s eyes lock. “Don’t.”

Tipton lifts a hand like he’s surrendering. “I’m saying it’s tragic.” He shrugs. “But the rule is simple: You stop, you die. He stopped.”

The air changes. Alek’s jaw tightens. Hannah’s eyes go cold. Rupert’s face changes. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just . . . a line being crossed.

Jack starts to get out of his own chair. Elena puts a hand on his arm before he does. “No lo hagas.”

Jack knows enough Spanish from growing up in Texas to know she’s saying this to him:

Don’t do it.

But Jack isn’t entirely ready to drop this.

Not yet.

“Heard you left Luca the way you left me,” Jack says.

“Some of you may still be under the misguided notion that this is a team sport,” Tipton says. “I’m not.”

“My team saved my life,” Alek Andrich says.

She catches Reg Drummond’s eye, smiles at him, offers a discreet wave. Maybe because she and Reg have also been through something life-changing together. Jack used to feel that way with the Rangers. He understands the look that has just passed between Reg and Alek.

“They saved my life, too,” Hannah Wagner says, “not that I’d expect you to care about that. Or me. Or anybody except yourself.”

“Bully for them,” Tipton says.

Jack: “You didn’t answer my question. What happened with Luca, Tipton?”

“Nothing.”

That’s when Rupert Chadwick stands and walks over to him.

“Excuse me,” Rupert says.

Tipton turns—

—and Rupert drives his fist straight into Tipton’s nose.

Not wild. Not flailing. One clean shot full of a football academy kid’s timing and balance. Surprising everyone for the second time tonight.

Rupert grabs his fist. That hurt.

Tipton staggers back, hand flying up, blood trickling down his nose. A clean, surprisingly hard hit.

“You little . . .” Ant lunges at the kid, who retreats. “That’s right. Run away!”

Now Jack moves. Fast. He gets between them before Tipton can take a step.

“No lo hagas,” Jack says, low, close to Ant’s bleeding face. Then, in English: “Not him. Not tonight.”

Tipton stares past Jack at Rupert, eyes bright with shock and something else—anger, sure, but also calculation, like he’s already deciding how to use this.

He takes a step back instead.

Smiles through the blood.