Five Ways to Fall (Ten Tiny Breaths, #4)(33)

“But . . . how?” I ask again.

“Remember when we came by your house to borrow some tools from Jack?”

I nod. It was the weekend Nicki and Lina moved down. They needed a hammer and a drill. I was busy studying for my final exam that following Monday, so I couldn’t help.

“Mason offered to come by and help us.”

“Does Mason even know how to use a drill?”

“Yes, Mason knows how to use a drill,” Mason responds in an annoyed tone at the same time that Lina admits, “No.”

His eyes flash to her as she shrugs. “You really don’t, babe.” As if to temper the blow to his ego, she leans in and kisses his cheek, leaving me gaping like a wide-mouthed bass. Nicki’s too busy muffling her snorting laughter with her hand to say anything.

“Anyway . . . he spent the day trying to help us out”—Mason rolls his eyes at that—“and then I took him out to dinner as a thank you. After that, we started chatting over Facebook, and . . .”

“Fucking Facebook. The enabler of mutiny,” I growl under my breath.

“. . . he asked me out to the movies and dinner,” Lina ends. “We didn’t tell you right away because we wanted to make sure it’d be worth dealing with your inevitable fit, first.”

“And?” I eye the two of them, the resignation clear in my voice because I already know the answer to that, given we’re standing here right now.

“And you can go out there and shoot your best friend and stepbrother to your heart’s content. After that, not a word. Got it?” Lina scolds.

Technically, I can’t because they’ll be on my team, but . . . I lift my gun in the air. “Fine. Can we go? Or are there any other surprises for me today?”

A set of strong arms ropes around my body, pinning mine to my chest as I’m lifted off the ground, a clean, sporty smell filling my nostrils. “So this is what you ditched me for?”





Chapter 12




BEN





“Good morning, sunshine!” I plaster on a wide smile as I drop Reese back down to the ground and watch her whip around, a mixture of surprise and irritation on her face.

“What are you doing here?”

I gesture down to my worn jeans and a crappy gray shirt. “Giving you a chance to get even with me for laughing at you.”

Those caramel eyes flash, as if afraid that I’ll elaborate. I step back a bit as she marches toward me, wondering if I should stop grinning like an idiot and protect myself against an imminent throat punch. “I mean, how did you know I’d be here?”

I jut my chin in Mason’s direction. “After you bailed on me over text last night—really lame, by the way—I called Mason to kick your ass. He was over at your friend’s place and told me what was going on. So . . .” I shrug and then offer her a smug smile. “Here I am. I figure we can head back to the office together after.” Not waiting for her response—because I’ll throw her over my shoulder and carry her stubborn little body to my car if I have to—I call out to Mason, “Is this the one you were givin’ it to last night? If so,” I nod once, “nicely done.”

Mason’s face bursts with color as he tries to keep the small, proud smile from stretching out across his lips. Good for him. The guy needs to get laid on a regular basis. And the girl—I recognize her as the non-Korean Korean friend of Reese’s—is girl-next-door cute. “Hey! Long time no see!”

“You actually remember me?” The girl’s tone is flat and thick with doubt.

“I don’t forget a pretty face, darlin’.”

“Cheesy” Reese mutters, skewering me with a strange look. “That’s Lina and this is Nicki, since I’m sure you don’t remember the names that go along with those unforgettable faces.”

I open my mouth but falter as it clicks. So . . . that’s what jealousy looks like on Reese. “Didn’t you give me fake names?”

Reese’s face twists up as the girl to her right, the one who looks like she could give me a good run for my money in an arm wrestle, bursts out in laughter. “That’s right. We were Charlie’s Angels that night.”

Reese, on the other hand, isn’t smiling. “Traitors. The lot of you!” She yanks her mask on, spins around, and marches toward the field entrance like she’s on a mission.

And I watch her cute camouflaged ass the entire time, knowing that at least one of those paint bullets has my name on it.



“I haven’t done this since I was, like, fifteen,” I say as the five of us pick our path through the wooded terrain, my eyes peeled for our opponents. There are several teams playing at once today and we—the purple team, as picked by Reese—are hunting anyone with a thick red band on their arm.

How fitting.

We’ve shot four already, with no casualties on our side as of yet. “This place is great,” Nicki purrs in a soft voice. “They could do a whole Hunger Games theme.”

She’s right, they could. It’s like an arena out here—the forest is thick enough, and the ground cover high enough, to create the perfect hunting ground. They even have small outpost buildings scattered throughout. I wish I had known about this place sooner. I’ll have to bring Nate and the guys here for a game. Maybe even Kacey.