"Hunter is enjoying this too much," Bruno whispered sotto voce.
Hunter smirked at him, but Bruno didn't flinch. He stood his ground as if this wasn't the craziest thing he'd ever done.
It was by far the craziest thing I'd ever done, and that bar was pretty high.
"Do you know how to play?" Logan asked me.
I knew how to answer this question. I shrugged one shoulder, dipping my head to the side to meet it.
"I played a little bit at university. How hard can it be?"
Just as I suspected, he gave me a look like I was toast. With a hint that he knew, maybe, justmaybeI was bullshitting.
We'd see.
"Do you know how to play?" I asked sweetly.
He leaned over and whispered in my ear: "Baby, I can do it in my sleep."
If his words and heated breath on my ear was supposed to make me wet, mission accomplished. Yeah, he was here to play dirty.
Fortunately, two could play at that game. I adjusted the front of my top, pushing my breasts up a little closer to my chin.
Logan raised an eyebrow in response.
Bruno looked at them shamelessly.
Sanun gave me a slow glance, and the faintest of eye rolls. He was going to be the most difficult one to get around or distract. That was okay, I'd worked with harder than that before. I could do it again.
"We'll start by drawing for opponents," Hunter was saying. "The draw is completely random."
He picked up slips of paper from a table at the side of the room and offered them around to all of us, along with a pencil each.
"No stabbing anyone with the pencil. Anyone who does, your life is immediately forfeit. Don't tempt me. Put your name down and put it in the hat," he said, pointing to a literal hat. One that, like the elevator, had seen better days.
So much so that, when I dropped my slip of paper inside, I made sure not to touch the rim. It looked as though half a dozen generations of people had sweated onto the fabric. Gross.
I didn't want to survive this only to die of some nasty disease caught from the inside of a hat.
When everyone's name was inside, Hunter gave the pieces of paper a good stir with his hand. He must have more faith in the cleanliness of the hat than I did.
"Everyone will draw a name," he said. "Needless to say, if you draw your own, you put the paper back and choose another."
"But I wanted to play with myself," Bruno said jokingly.
"You can play with yourself after this," Logan told him. "If you live long enough."
"Oh, I will," Bruno assured him. "All of you are going down." He gave me a wink, and an idea that I tucked away for later.
Hunter cleared his throat, glancing at Bruno for his interruption. Possibly tempted to kill him right now
"When your name is chosen, move to the side of the room with Parker. You will not be choosing for yourself." He moved around the room, offering the hat to person after person.
When it was my turn, I held my breath and reached in, pulled out a piece of paper and read the name on it. "Nolan."
Logan glanced over at it and grunted, but I couldn't tell what that meant. Did he think it was a good match-up? Or was I completely fucked?
No, I told myself.I'm not completely fucked. I'm going to win this.
