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“I hate you, too.” Every time I say the words, or he does, I no longer know the true meaning. I no longer know what the words mean when either of us speaks them, just that they mean a lot.
The car door opens. I step out, taking Langston’s hand as he guides me down a sidewalk and inside the club.
We enter the building with blacked-out windows and no sign. There is nothing to indicate what takes place inside.
“Hello, welcome to X. Can I have your name and invite, please?” a gentleman in a tux asks with an iPad in his hands.
“Mr. Langston Pearce and Mrs. Liesel Pearce. Phoenix Brown is who invited us,” I say.
Langston practically growls when I spit out his name as my last, making my insides tingle with what it does to him when I claim him as my husband.
“Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Pearce. The games start in thirty minutes. I’ll show you to the bar where you can have a drink while you wait.”
He leads us down the hallway and stops at an open door. “Enjoy yourselves.”
We walk hand in hand into the room. It’s a spacious room, filled with guests in their most formal attire, all sipping various drinks as a woman sings at a piano in the center of the room. The bar is on the far side. All eyes turn to us as we enter. I suspect everyone does this with each new guest, trying to judge the new competition.
I roll my shoulders back, standing taller. Langston stares them all down. We make it clear we are here to win—anything less will not happen.
Together we walk over to a small circular booth in the corner of the room with a good view.
A waitress immediately comes over. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Two of your finest scotches,” Langston answers.
I don’t know if my stomach can handle a drop of alcohol, but I don’t argue. I don’t want to appear weak, and I don’t want Langston to think something stupid like I’m pregnant or something.
“So what do you think this game is going to involve?” I ask.
“Fucking, pain, torture—the usual.”
I nod.
“We are going to get her back. And if we lose, we’ll try again and again until we win, or we’ll find another way. I’m pretty proficient with a gun, you know.”
His comment is meant to make me smile, but I find I can’t.
The waitress returns with our drinks, and without thinking, I take a long sip, regretting it immediately as it burns all the way down to my anxious gut.
Langston stares at me curiously but doesn’t say anything.
I set my drink down carefully and hold it in my hands while I peruse the faces in the room, trying to determine our biggest competition.
“No one is competition. No one is fighting to get their child back. We’ll win,” Langston says.
His words are meant to be encouraging, to douse some of my anxiety, but nothing but seeing Rose, Atlas, and Declan safely in Langston’s arms will put out my fear.
We sit quietly until the man with the iPad re-enters the room. “The game is about to begin if you will all follow me.”
People toss back the rest of their drinks before standing to follow him out. When I stand, I find my legs trembling. Langston notices, takes my arm, and leads me out. With his hand touching me, I’m calm enough to walk.
We are led into a smaller room containing four round tables, each with five seats. It’s then that I realize there are twenty of us here, and I’m the only woman.
Chills race up and down my spine. Something isn’t right. There is something that Phoenix didn’t tell us, but I’m clueless. It feels like we’ve just walked into a trap.
Langston notices and stands a little in front of me, letting anyone in the room know they will have to go through him before they get to me. He’d take a bullet for me, not that I’d let him.
The host walks to the front of the room and begins explaining the rules.
