Page 140 of Play Dirty

Not after last night.

Not after the kitchen.

Not after this.

Containment? Gone. Completely.

Grayson’s phone buzzed on the table behind him. Once. Twice. Then again.

No one moved at first. We were all still too close. Too aware. Too caught in whatever this had become.

The phone buzzed again. Grayson exhaled and glanced down, like he already knew who it was going be.

I saw the change immediately.

Not dramatic.

Just enough.

“… It’s Mercer.”

~ 42 ~

HAVEN

Grayson answered the phone on speaker. We huddled around it, dripping water, still shedding our snow clothes.

“Yeah?”

Mercer didn’t bother with a hello.

“You idiots snowed in?”

Ares finished pulling his boots off and crossed his arms.

“Looks like it.”

“Good,” Mercer grunted.

Sebastian blinked.

“Good?”

“Yeah, good,” Mercer snapped. “Means you’ve got no excuses.”

I dragged my hand through my still-damp hair.

“We literally can’t leave the house.”

“I didn’t say leave,” he shot back. “I said work.”

Grayson sighed quietly. He mouthed the words ‘here we go.’

“I want workouts,” Mercer continued. “Two a day. Three if you’re not dead by the end of the second one.”

Sebastian leaned in closer to the phone.

“You want us doing drills in a blizzard?”