These Deadly Games(60)

He stood, stretching his arms overhead. “What time is it?”

I glanced at my alarm clock. “Almost eight.” That meant Mom had already left for her nursing shift. She must not have checked on me before she left, wanting to let me sleep.

But Dylan didn’t need to know she wasn’t here.

“Please. I need you to go.” I motioned to the window.

He pulled his fingers through his mussed hair, then collected his thermos, checking that his cup was empty before twisting it on. “Should I wait for you? My Jeep’s parked down the—”

“No. I’ll text you later, after my mom goes to work.”

He stilled, and his nostrils flared. “You won’t go anywhere until then?”

“What makes you think I’m gonna go somewhere?”

He picked up my notepad and tapped the address scrawled next to Jeremy’s name. Crap. That wasn’t even the right address, though. I tried to yank the notebook back, but he wouldn’t let go. “Don’t, Crystal. It’s too dangerous.” No. What was too dangerous was involving him. What was too dangerous was continuing this conversation any longer.

“Now you’re being paranoid. Just because I wrote that down doesn’t mean I’m planning to go there.”

“Well, I’m not leaving until you promise me you won’t go stalking him. If it is him, and that asshole hurts you—”

“I won’t, okay?” I huffed, cutting him off, and clutched my phone to my sweater to try muffling our voices. “Now, please, just go.” I slid the window open and nudged him toward it. “I don’t want to get grounded for the rest of my life.”

“Promise me.”

I winced. I hated making promises I had no intention of keeping. When he saw me hesitate, something like fear crossed his face. “At least let me come with you.”

But teaming up with Dylan would mean revealing my plan and telling him about An0nym0us1, which would explicitly break their rules. They’d kill Caelyn. They’d make me kill him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’d better be telling me the truth,” he said, his voice low and raspy.

“I—” But before I could say anything else, he was kissing me, pressing me back against the wall next to my window. My heart seemed to trip over itself as his lips moved against mine, but then I cupped his face and kissed him back. He let out a soft moan. Warmth like heated honey oozed through me, and I tried pulling him closer even though he was already crushed against me. I was desperate to feel safe, even if only for a moment. His kisses felt urgent, hungry, like he was afraid to lose me before he ever even had me.

The moment our lips parted, he whispered, “Promise me.”

“I promise.” A lie. Obviously.

“Okay. Thank you. Text me when the coast is clear. I’ll come pick you up, and we’ll figure this out together.”

“Alright.”

He grabbed his thermos and climbed out the window, and my heart thrashed against my rib cage as I watched him descend the hill. My God. What the hell just happened?

I couldn’t let kisses and my mushy insides distract me right now. I shut my blinds and brightened my phone screen, and the video of Caelyn started again, playing on a loop.

Anger burned my lungs. I couldn’t let An0nym0us1 control me. I couldn’t let them try to hurt any more people I loved. What if they made me go after Akira again? Or Randall? Or Dylan? I touched my lips. No. This deck was stacked against me, with every advantage in their court.

I couldn’t win this game if I played strictly by their rules.

Now it was time to bend them.

I let the phone fall from my grip and gasped like it was an accident. It clattered on the edge of my desk, then fell to the floor. I threw myself over it, covering the front-facing camera as I held down the power button for ten … nine … eight … seven … six.…

If you don’t play, they’ll kill me.

Three … two … one.



* * *



I had to move fast.

I had Mom’s laptop now—I’d surreptitiously watched her type her password enough times to know it was CrystalCaelyn123. Now I was free to search for Jeremy’s address faster than on my slow Kindle, but all I could find was that listing with his parents’ address. It displayed lots of useless information about them—their ages, occupations, education levels, phone number—

Huh. Phone number.

If An0nym0us1 could make me pretend to be some Lance Burdly dude, I could pretend to be someone else.

But I couldn’t turn my phone back on. We did have a landline in the kitchen, one we never used … but what if An0nym0us1 was monitoring that as well?

If you think I didn’t think of everything, your sister won’t survive.

I squeezed the bridge of my nose. They couldn’t have thought of everything. There had to be some way to outsmart them. I needed to get creative.

I pulled up an incognito window, set up a burner Gmail account, and logged in to Google Voice. Dammit—I had to create a new number before placing any calls, and I’d have to verify an existing phone number first. But there was an option for them to call me with a four-digit code. I could use the landline for that.

Risky. So risky.

But it was this or play some sick game and hurt someone else. I couldn’t waffle. I had to do this.