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“I talk a lot ... sometimes.”
That earned me snorts.
“Her plan is a good one,” Kane commented. “They know Date will watch out for her, and since he’s the team leader, he has to get the flag to the keep. The only way one of us can bring it is if he gets knocked out of the round. That’s what they want. They think he’ll trip up because of her.”
I chuckled. “Dante will look out for all of us, not just me.”
“Yeah,” Alec agreed with a grin. “Date will be our knight in shining fucking armour.”
Dante ignored Alec as his eyes scanned over me. “You’re all set, right?” he asked. “Your marker is loaded and ready to go?”
“I’m ready!” I announced. “I’ve never done anythin’ like this before. I’m so excited that I could puke!”
Alec took a giant step away from me, making JJ laugh. Dante smiled as he reached over and adjusted my mask. We all had our full-length face masks raised so we could see one another.
“Are ye sure they didn’t have a smaller one of these?” he quizzed. “This one is a little big.”
“Oh,” I gasped. “I haven’t tightened the strap. That’s why it’s wobbly. Do it for me, please.”
Dante put his paintball marker down and stepped towards me. He was so close that I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. The sun shone onto his face, and how crisp and blue his eyes were startled me for a moment.
“Ye know, your eyes are really pretty.”
Dante’s lips twitched as he shortened the mask’s strap behind my head, tightening it.
“If ye think mine are pretty”—he leaned down—“ye should see your forest greens starin’ up at me.”
Ruffled, I said, “Did ye attend lessons on how to fluster women as ye grew up? If ye say ye did, I’ll believe ye.”
Dante grinned and wordlessly straightened. He picked up his marker, then turned and openly discussed our best course of action as a team to beat the others. I could hear his words, but I wasn’t listening to him. My heart was pounding so hard that I could almost hear it.
He’s your friend, Ina. Your friend.
The reminder did nothing other than put a grey cloud over my happy mood. I shook it off and focused on the game. I wasn’t joking when I said I was so excited that I could vomit. I had never, not in my whole life, participated in an event or game with other people. Even in my earliest memories, I didn’t play much with other children, and that was simply because Daddy wouldn’t allow it. He wasn’t in my life anymore, so for the first time, I was going to have fun with a group of people who had become my friends.
“Let’s go, playboy!” Keela hollered from the spectators’ point. “We’re rootin’ for ye, Daddy!”
Alec turned and looked up at his wife holding her infant son to her chest. The sunlight shone upon them, and their stunning red hair seemed to be set aflame.
“I’ve got this, kitten.”
Keela smiled, then took Enzo’s little hand and waved it. Alec, who was a mountain of a man, waved back happily, and goodness, it made my ovaries clench. That surprised me. I had never imagined myself with a family, but seeing how happy the Slaters were with their partners and children made me a little envious. When I looked away, I realised Dante was watching me intently. I ducked my head, somehow worried that he could read my mind and know what I was thinking.
“Your little ginger baby is cute, Kay,” Harley shouted. “Keep talkin’ to your lad. It’ll distract him while I shoot his dick off.”
“You leave my fine red-headed son of out this, Collins. He’ll whoop your firstborn’s ass.”
“Yeah,” Keela agreed with a fist pump. “Enzo and me future kids will destroy your future kids.”
“Obviously,” Harley said. “You’re plannin’ to birth hundreds of them. I just want two, not a fuckin’ horde.”
Alec laughed, and Keela stuck her finger up at him.
“Focus,” Kane said, gaining our attention. “Take this seriously or switch teams.”
I straightened and resisted the urge to salute him.
“Kane’s right,” Dante agreed. “We need to focus because whoever wins gets braggin’ rights.”
Apparently, bragging rights were important. I didn’t really care about that. I was just happy to be included.
“This route is the easiest to the keep.” Kane pointed at the printed copy of the course map we were given when we geared up. “Wide walls with bigger stacks of barrels and hay bales to protect us. The only problem is, the other side of the keep has the same layout.”
“We need a ghost like they have in films,” I suggested. “The others will probably have the same idea as us, so if one person breaks off and takes a different route, they can pick them off one by one.”
