He sat us up all the way, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. His usually perfectly styled hair looked like he'd run his fingers through it one too many times, and there were shadows under his eyes. "Did you get some sleep?"
"Yeah," I croaked, reluctantly pulling away from him and rolling my shoulders. "Thank you."
He took my wrists in his hands, gently inspecting the welts. "These look like they hurt."
"They do," I admitted. "I just need some ibuprofen, I'm sure."
"I'm on it." He stood, stretching, and then peered out of the windows as he headed for the kitchen. "Your Ghost got here last night."
"He did?" I asked with a frisson of alarm. "When?"
"Sometime late. He came in, looked around, told me to stay where I was, and he's been out and around the house somewhere." His voice grew distant as he opened the cupboard.
I frowned at my front door. "Creepy," I muttered.
Like I'd summoned the specter from beyond the veil, my front door opened, and the new bodyguard walked in. Although he didn't look like a bodyguard, not like I'd imagined he might, anyway. He was wearing a faded, distressed T-shirt that could be designer or could just be really old, well-worn jeans, and a couple of thick, leather bracelets on his wrists. Despite his laid-back attire, his light blue eyes were sharp as they swept the room, and he looked me up and down with assessing calm.
At a loss as to how to react to this stranger in my home, I lifted a hand. "Hi."
Ghost inclined his head once. "Evelyn. Are you feeling better?"
That was a loaded question. No, I didn't feel better. I felt worse. I felt like a gullible, simpering idiot for letting myself fall for Benjamin only to get handed off to a stranger when heneeded to return to his life. Not that I blamed him—he hadn't asked to be involved in any of this. It was shameful enough that I'd allowed him to stay when it served my own selfish desires. I wouldn't make it worse by guilting him for doing the logical thing by calling Ghost. But… it didn't feel "better," that was for sure. "I'm good," I said with an attempt at a smile.
Benjamin met Ghost at the door with a bottle of pills in one hand and a glass of water in the other. Ghost split a look between us. "Security systems are in good condition. Seems like last night was a mix of cleverness on their part and bad luck on yours."
Benjamin nodded, uncharacteristically solemn. "Got it."
There was something detached about him, something more aloof than I was used to, and it only made that ache in my throat tighten. I hated this. I hated feeling like this and not knowing what he was thinking or ifmythoughts would burden him. I took in his profile, trying to memorize the strong places of his face, the way his lips looked perfectly kissable even when they were pressed together. We hadn't taken any pictures together—I wasn't used to taking them on a regular basis. Somehow, it felt too late to ask now.
"About our plan," Ghost said, coming into the house farther and laying down a tablet on the table. "We need to make a few adjustments."
"One second." Benjamin returned to me, but I was already standing and reaching for the pills and water.
"It's fine. I'm good." I gave him a tight smile.
His blue eyes were stormier than I remembered, running over me with concern, but then he nodded and handed me the water and pills. "Do you need a minute to get ready? We can wait."
I looked down at my grass-stained dress from last night. "Oh, yeah."
A tinge of amusement tilted his lips. "We'll wait for you. Go ahead."
Ghost didn't seem to mind waiting, tapping away on his phone and obviously keeping busy, so I opened the pill bottle, swallowed two pills, and then headed for the loft. My legs wobbled like a Jell-O frog, and I found myself lightheaded as I reached the top of the staircase. Yeah, this was Hell. This entire situation was fucked up, and I couldn't decide if I wanted things to go back to the way they'd been before all of it or if I just wanted it to end so I could face whatever was next.
Without Benjamin. Pain stabbed my heart, and I rubbed my chest.
I got dressed as quickly as I could, finding a comfortable loungewear set in heather gray. The top swooped down my shoulders and back, and the shorts would battle what I sensed would be a warmer spring day. I pulled my hair into a bun with a scrunchie as I went back down the stairs and joined Ghost and Benjamin at the table. Benjamin had changed too, and he wore one of his usual outfits, a crisp, linen button-down the color of ripe blueberries and black dress pants.
Ghost already had the satellite picture of my property pulled up on the screen. I came to stand next to Benjamin, but he didn't pull me to his side like he'd done for the last few days. I tried not to let that hurt me, but I felt my heart fracturing bit by bit.
"I don't want to underestimate our opponents," Ghost said, zooming in on the screen to an area highlighted in red. "Remington's intel on the players puts about five of them at Evie's 'level' of the game. That's more than we'd hoped for, but they are working their way through the other clues expeditiously. I think word is getting around that she's an easy target."
Benjamin's jaw flexed. "Great."
"It is, actually." Ghost sent an amused glance toward me and then to Benjamin. "They'll be lulled into my trap. If we do this right, it ends tomorrow. We'll trace Numlock6 and shut them down."
"Tomorrow?" I clarified. "Not Saturday?"
"That's the adjustment." Ghost straightened away from the table. "We need to move up the timeline. The success that player had yesterday is making the rounds. They know you're vulnerable now."
