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He sucked on his teeth before sighing. I could see it in his eyes, he was doing the numbers like I had.
Smart man.
It was a hell of a lot of money, but this was easier to negotiate. The hard part was putting a price on whatwethought we deserved, but they did all the hard work for us.
All we had to do was cash it in.
“One stream,” he said. “And you only get future ad spend if you help with the next games.”
It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was more than enough. Hope swirled in my chest.This was it. With this, Vic could finally go back to school! She could get out of debt!
I didn’t care about what it meant that I had to join the games again. I would do it for her. I’d done it once already, so what was one more time if she could live the life my father had stolen from her?
I tried not to show the excitement on my face when I looked at her, but when I did, my heart dropped.
Where I’d expected to see acceptance in her eyes, I only saw outrage.
Vic
Are you really okay with signing your life away?
“I’m not entering again,” I said, forcing the words out of my mouth.
What kind of fucked up deal was this?
We won our games fair and square.Theywere the ones that botched our ranks.
And for what? To save face after one of their own literally admitted to attempted murder after interfering with our match?
Which was still a crime outside the game.It was almost comical with how well my plan worked out.
But then this fucker had to come in and try to take it all from me.
Back in the games, I could taste my victory. It’d been so close.
It was a sweet, comforting feeling that I had never thought I’d be able to feel… but Idid.
I wasn’t going to give it up now.
Fuck them and fuck this.
“Wecannegotiate,” he said, a feral smile spreading across his face.
In that moment, it felt like we were prey in front of an apex predator. The contrast between now and how it felt in the games was stifling.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how all the winners before us felt. How they’d look back at their games, remembering how muchcontrolthey had, only for the world to remind them that on the outside, they were stillpainfullyordinary. Controlled by The Company like cockroaches that could be dealt with at any moment.
“Whichever has more viewers, and our lives cannot be at risk,” I added after a moment. “Don’t think you can pull a fast one on us.”
Wilde’s sinister smile spread wider. It was chilling.
“I remember the year your mother entered,” he said. “Have you watched her games?”
“This isn’t the time to reminisce,” Kohl spat. Their hand squeezed mine, the reassuring gesture was the only thing keeping me in my seat.
I was still so hyped up on adrenaline that it took everything I had to keep myself calm. Even the threat of armed guards staring at us through the conference room’s windows wasn’t enough to stop me, not really.
But I wouldn’t do that to Kohl.
