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Five
BROOKE
My question shattered the merriment, throwing a blanket of instant silence over the entire villa. It was almost like I’d broken something.
“You suggested this gamejustto ask that question, didn’t you?” Devon insinuated.
My smile couldn’t be hidden. “Sure fucking did.”
“That’s devious,” said Reese.
“Uh huh.”
“Borderline deceitful!” Hayden cried.
“Yes, fine, I’m a total asshole,” I admitted. “A complete scam artist. Now are you gonna answer the question or what?”
The silence was more stunned than sullen this time. I had them.
“C’mon,” I urged. “Put yourself in my shoes. Wouldn’t you bedyingto know?”
There were grunts. Groans. Begrudgingly, all three of them eventually nodded.
“Good, then—”
“We were in first place and Melissa wouldn’t get out of the taxi,” said Hayden abruptly. “That’s why you and Double Trouble passed us, and we finished third by default.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I knowthatpart.”
“We had a disagreement,” Reese offered. “One where she refused to leave until it was resolved.”
I shook my head slowly. “A million dollars,” I swore. “What kind of disagreement could possibly cost a million dollars!”
“An epic one,” Devin added. “You saw the footage. The screaming. The shouting…”
“I saw the same footage the rest of the world saw,” I told him. “The outside view. But there were camerasinside, just as with every vehicle all throughout the Race. We never got that footage. We never heard what the four of you were actually fighting about.”
They shifted uncomfortably, each of them performing their own little tells. Reese was staring at the floor. Hayden was rolling his empty beer bottle nervously between his fingers.
“You really wanna know?” asked Devin.
I nodded again. “Truth.”
His friends shot him a pair of sideways glances — something of a final warning, maybe. He shrugged it off and turned to face me.
“It was a relationship spat,” Devin said flatly. “The crying, the screaming, the refusal to step foot out of the taxi… it was all just a stupid, dumbass girlfriend-boyfriend fight.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “That’s crazy.”
“Yeah.”
My mouth twisted into a smirk. “So which one of you fools is responsible for getting into a fight with his girlfriend just fifty yards away from a million dollars?”
More silence, more awkwardness settled over the three of them. And then:
“All of us.”
When Reese first said the words, they didn’t register. They had to sink in before I could actually process what he was saying.
