These Deadly Games(37)

“Shit,” said Dylan, blowing air between his lips.

“Did they have the wrong address or something?” said Akira.

Nope. Not what happened.

What happened was, An0nym0us1 had me call in a fake tip. They’d swatted Randall’s family. They were making me hurt my friends in exchange for my sister’s life.

There was no point clawing for some other explanation. This was exactly as deranged as it seemed.

Now that I knew, a confusing mix of fright and fury churned in my chest. As much as I wanted to curl up into the fetal position under one of these hospital chairs, I wanted to find An0nym0us1 and set their face on fire. How dare they do this to us?

Before Mrs. Lewis could answer Akira, Randall asked, “How’s Dad?”

Nessa whimpered, “Daddy,” and Mrs. Lewis hugged her closer, checking her watch. “I haven’t gotten an update in a while. He’s been in surgery for over an hour.”

“Why didn’t you call me back?” Randall demanded.

“My phone ran out of battery. I tried calling you from the nurse’s station.” She motioned vaguely toward it. I glanced over and saw Chantel, one of Mom’s nurse friends who often came over for coffee and gossip, bustling around doing paperwork. When I’d first walked in, she’d waved and mouthed, She’s in surgery, maybe thinking I was here to visit.

Randall scrolled through his phone. “Oh, that’s what that number was…”

Mrs. Lewis gave him a shaky side-eye. “Well, I figured you’d be safe at Crystal’s, anyway.”

Wrong again. None of my friends were safe with me, apparently.

“Uh…” Randall rubbed the back of his neck, like he didn’t know whether to burden his mother with more terrible news. The four of us exchanged wary looks, and Mrs. Lewis frowned.

“What is it?” she asked.

But before any of us could explain what happened to Matty, Chief Sanchez strolled in. Mrs. Lewis’s expression hardened, and she sat straight in her chair. He immediately spotted us and ambled over. “Mrs. Lewis. I’m real sorry about what happened. Can we have a word without the kids for a minute?”

Randall tried coercing Nessa to come with us, but she refused to unbury her face from her mother’s armpit, so Mrs. Lewis snaked her arm around her again and waved us away.

Across the room, Randall plopped down next to Akira, white as a sheet. “What the fuuuuuuck?” Dylan sat across from the rest of us, elbows on his knees, pale and shell-shocked.

“Randall, that’s all so messed up, I’m so sorry,” said Zoey, her face filling Akira’s phone screen. Randall grunted in reply. “Have you guys seen Melanie or Kenna?” Matty’s mothers.

“Nope,” said Akira. “No sign of them.”

“Maybe they’re in another waiting room,” I suggested, though a sinking feeling pressed on my insides.

“Or maybe—” Randall’s voice caught in his throat.

“Don’t,” Akira snapped. “Don’t even think it. He’s going to be fine.” She clasped Randall’s hand. She knew as well as I did that losing both his father and Matty in one night would destroy him. Matty. My eyes fluttered closed, and I focused, like maybe I could sense his presence somewhere in the hospital. But there was nothing. Nothing. My heart ached for him, and in that moment, I wished I’d given him—us—a chance. I’d denied feeling anything for him, but clearly, that wasn’t true. So why had I resisted so hard? Maybe because I was scared. Or maybe …

I opened my eyes, immediately meeting Dylan’s. He’d been watching. A current ran through me so fiercely it felt like I’d been zapped by a shock staff in real life. I quickly averted my gaze, my cheeks going warm.

Yeah. That’d explain it.

“I don’t get it.” Randall raked back his mussed waves. “Why would the cops bust down our door like that?”

“Your parents aren’t, like, under investigation for anything, are they?” said Akira.

Oh, damn. My friends still didn’t realize it was a swatting. They didn’t know anything about the fake tip. Of course I knew—I’d made the call. Someone wanted to take us down, one by one, and was making me do it.

But why?

It had to be the MortalDusk tourney. Someone wanted to take us out of the running. The timing was too big a coincidence—that had to be it. But I couldn’t say a word. My phone was as effective a gag as the one binding Caelyn’s mouth. An0nym0us1 was always listening, and I couldn’t ditch my phone to speak freely. If you don’t respond to my messages within a minute, she dies. I couldn’t risk missing one. I had to hope my friends would puzzle this out.

Akira’s question hung in the air for a long moment, until Randall burst out laughing.

“What the hell’s so funny?” I asked, shocked.

“My parents? Under investigation? I mean, c’mon, they’re a couple of website designers who watch Netflix every night. They’re as vanilla as it gets.”

“We always think we know everything about our parents,” said Dylan. “But anyone can have a dark side.” A haunted look darkened his slate-colored eyes. Was there something painful in his past he hadn’t told us? I wanted to reach for his hand, but he was too far, and I was frozen in place.