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Dread makes my heart heavy, because I know that if it was me picking from another team, even for the combat round, I’d go for the one that looks the weakest—the only blond-haired blue-eyed woman in a team of huge guys. The thought of Harlow going head-to-head with another man, even having seen how she holds her own, makes bile rise in my throat. Watching it in controlled training sessions was hard enough; I don’t know if I can physically watch her go up against a stranger determined to win, no matter the cost.
I stand, shoving my chair in the process. “This is your fault! Your fucking stubborn need to have power over everyone. Well, now it’s coming back on you. If we lose, I hope you know it’s down toyourchoices. And if she gets hurt, Iwillcome for you.”
“You can’t—”
“I can. Count yourself warned.” He sits there, trying to gauge if I’m serious or not, but he must know I am when it comes to her—deadlyserious. “Is that all?”
“Yes. Be re—”
I roll my eyes and leave. I’m sick of listening to him, sitting here in that claustrophobic fucking cell in his company, so his words get spoken to empty air.
I’m suddenly not in the mood to meet the others at the bar, and that pisses me off even more. I was looking forward to one tiny slice of normalcy—acting like a normal twenty-something-year-old with my new girlfriend... and her other boyfriends, who are actually cool to hang with. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so.
Instead, I head over to the apartment. I can’t stand to be in the compound a second longer than I need to now I have an escape. They’ve got that sick tech setup Ezra installed, so I can get in even if no one else is there. So, instead of enjoying my evening with the others, I stew at their apartment over how the fuck I’m supposed to tell them this situation gets worse, as if we even thought that was possible.
They stumble into the apartment a couple of hours later, Sawyer grumbling as Ezra smirks at him and Harlow grins. I’m momentarily distracted from my pity party by the sight of my girl, hair in big waves around her perfect face, which is somehow accentuated with whatever makeup she’s put on. She’s in a simple black crop top and some blue jeans, but whatever she wears, she looks ridiculously good in, so it may as well be a ball gown. She takes my breath away all the same.
“Can we lose the pout now? We’re safely home, where no one can lay eyes on the virtuous maiden,” Ezra jokes.
Harlow scoffs good-naturedly. “I think myvirtuewent out the window a while ago.” When she notices me looking over the back of the sofa at her, she smiles, and her face lights up in a way that tightens my chest. “Hey!”
“What happened?” I ask, confused as to the conversation I’ve landed in the middle of.
She rolls her eyes. “Ignore them. Sawyer doesn’t like other guys looking at me.”
“Whereas I,” Ezra continues, wrapping an arm around her waist from behind and pulling her back against his chest, “am happy for them to look, as long as they know they have no chance because you’re mine.”
“You mean so long as you stake your claim by putting on a show,” Sawyer grumbles from the other side of the counter. Ezra goes to retort something that will no doubt wind Sawyer up for his own entertainment, but Harlow spins.
“Okay, enough, you two. Jeez.”
“How come you didn’t come out?” Ezra asks, forgetting his mission to poke the bear pretty quickly.
“Meeting with my father. I wasn’t in the mood after.” Harlow turns back to me with her brow pinched, concern in her eyes.
“What did he say?”
I let out a sigh, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. They all come over and sit on the sofa, waiting for me to speak.
“The rules have changed. For each round, the leader of one of the other teams will pick your participants for you.”
“What?!” Harlow exclaims. “But what if they don’t pick people proficient for the right rounds?”
“That’s what you’re worried about?” Sawyer clearly reached the same conclusion I did much quicker than Harlow.
“Well, yeah. How can they do that so late? It’s practically cheating!”
“Baby,” I say gently, and her eyes come back to me. “They’re likely to pick you for a round.. . oreveryround.” She frowns in confusion. I’m not even sure they can pick the same entrant for every round, but it’s worth warning her about, just in case.
“They will,” Ezra agrees. “In a team of men, who wouldn’t pick the only woman as the weakest link?”
“I’m so fucking sorry,” I say. I’ll say it every day for the rest of my life, I think. “The only silver lining of this whole thing was that I could’ve kept you out of the final rounds, but I can’t do that now. I understand if—”
“Actually, I don’t think you do understand,” Harlow interrupts. “Any of you. I’m training for these Games just like the rest of you are. I’m gonna assume it’s not your lack of faith in my abilities causing you to say this, because that would be really fucking insulting.”
We all make noises of disagreement, but she stands and comes over to me. I lean back to keep my eyes on her, and she climbs into my lap. “Instead,” she continues, “I’ll believe it’s just because you’re worried about me, but that’s kind of irrelevant. You think because you’re men I wouldn’t worry about you too? We’re all as prepared as we can be. We can do this.”
“You shouldn’t have to do this,” I mutter, annoyed at myself, at my father, at The Games—everything.
