Page 136 of Play Dirty

It was a slow smile.

A dangerous one.

“Good,” she said.

And just like that—

Everything changed.

~ 41 ~

HAVEN

The storm didn’t ease — it just… settled in.

By mid-morning, the world outside had disappeared beneath it. The driveway was gone. The cars were buried halfway up their windows, including Mercer’s mechanical middle-finger to the 1980’s, which looked like it had personally fought its way out of the Reagan administration.

Snow piled high up against the house, pressing against the windows like it decided we were never leaving.

And if I had my way? We just might not.

By all accounts, we should’ve stayed inside.

We didn’t.

“This is a terrible idea,” I said, already halfway down the porch steps.

“You came out here first,” Sebastian called after me.

“That doesn’t make it a good idea.”

Ares dropped into the snow beside me, boots sinking deep.

“Move.”

“Excuse me—”

He scooped snow with both hands and launched it straight at me. It hit me square in the chest.

Cold exploded through my shirt, where it had found its way down the front of my jacket. I gasped, looking down at myself, then back up at him.

“Oh,” I said.

That was all the warning he got.

I bent, grabbed a handful of snow, and fired it right back at his face.

Direct hit.

Sebastian lost it behind me.

“Oh, this is happening,” he said, already moving.

“No— don’t—” I started.

Too late.

He joined in immediately, grabbing snow and throwing it. Not at Ares—