Page 5 of Play Dirty

Asher — the one with the long, dangling legs — snorted. “Did you see where they’re putting you?”

“Upstairs,” I said.

“Yeah. Way up.”

Another round of stifled laughter escaped four pairs of lips.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he shrugged. He went back to eating his food. “Just… hope you like stairs.”

There was a beat of silence, followed by four pairs of eyes shifting somewhere over my shoulder.

“And cold.”

Ares. I didn’t have to turn around to know it was him. I turned to face him anyway.

“What cold?” I asked him bluntly.

He was leaning casually in the doorway I’d just come through, effectively blocking my retreat. It was a head game, really. But I wasn’t playing.

“Top floor,” he said offhandedly. “The heat’s garbage.”

Something in the room shifted again, just barely enough to be noticeable. I filed it away, without saying anything.

“Yeah,” Zack called from the fridge. “Layer up.”

I stood there for a moment, trying to keep my death-grip on the suitcase handle from turning my knuckles white.

“Something wrong with the radiator?” I asked.

“House is old,” Ares shrugged. “Things don’t always work like they should.”

A tense silence stretched out, broken only by Zack slamming the fridge closed. He was already eating something, though I couldn’t tell what.

“There’s a basement too,” Dorian snickered. “If you’d rather—”

“Don’t,” Ares cut in immediately.

I glanced between them. “Don’t… what?”

“Just don’t,” he said.

Strangely, there was something even more ominous in his tone, now.

“Well,” Asher said, clapping his hands together, “this has been real. I’m heading up to my room before I pass out.”

“Coward,” muttered Zack.

“Survivor,” he shot back, already moving out of the kitchen.

The others followed his lead, in small ways. The energy changed again. They shifted back to whatever they’d been doing, completely ignoring me.

No more attention. No words of welcome.

Definitely no offer to help me carry my bag up a hundred stairs.

I turned to leave, and Ares eventually shifted his great bulk to one side. It was just enough to slip past. He watched me the whole way.