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Plates rattle as he plants both hands on the table. “I’m talking to you.”
I finish chewing, take a sip of water, and finally look up. “Running,” the words leave me sounding like a mockery. It wasn’t my intention, of course, but Mason’s already turning red with fury.
He stares at me for a long moment before letting out a short laugh. “Oh.” A smile spreads across his face, but there’s nothing friendly about it. “We got a smart-ass.”
Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful. Not only have I attracted the attention of a watcher—if not more—but now this asshole as well.
So much for laying low.
The conversation is over as far as I’m concerned, but apparently Mason disagrees, seeing as he remains standing at the far end of the table, smiling like he’s expecting me to react.
I don’t.
“You fucking deaf or something? I was talking to you,” he fumes, rooted to his spot.
I can feel Leo’s eyes on me from the opposite end of the room. As for the two at my sides, they are completely evading theirs, and thank fuck for that.
Swallowing the rest of my food and gulping down the rest of my water, I calmly place the fork down, leaning back in my chair, eyes now pinned directly onto his. This gesture of complete collectiveness, cold shoulder, and defiance makes Mason visibly uncomfortable.
“You fucking—” the man fumes, grabbing a steak knife, but as he starts to round the table, the mechanical voice blares from the walls.
“Players are reminded that all acts of violence resulting in death must be reserved for designated games. Premature eliminations are not permitted.”
Mason works his jaw as his dark eyes shift from the cameras above and back to me. Reluctantly, he backs away, tossing the steak knife onto the table but not without getting the last word in, seething through his teeth.
“Watch your back.”
Chapter 34
Adrian
The room looks different without the columns.
Empty and almost abandoned. Just like my favorite riding jacket I tossed earlier, leaving me with only a fitted navy ribbed quarter-zip hugging my body now.
Lucas and Amani stand beside me. I made sure of that. I also made sure we ended up as far away from Mason and his little fan club as possible. Who, by the way, keeps staring at me.
Not long after that, the mechanical voice announced that the next game would begin shortly.
“The watchers have voted on the second official game.”
A large screen flickers to life on the wall and a map of the forest appears. Several red markers blink throughout the trees.
“This game is a version of Capture the Flag. Three flag stations have been placed throughout the forest. Each station contains multiple flags.”
The red markers start to pulse on the map.
“Your objective is simple. Locate a flag station, retrieve a single flag, and return to home base before the sixty-minute timer expires.”
The map zooms outward, and the building we’re in appears at the center, surrounded by a green perimeter that follows the line of the inner fence.
“The area inside the fence line is considered a safe zone; therefore, no hunters are allowed inside that area. No contestant may be harmed or harm others while inside the designated safe zone either.”
Then the green fades as everything beyond it turns red.
“The forest outside the perimeter is active game territory. Contestants found outside the safe zone with or without a flag when the timer expires will be eliminated.”
The screen changes one final time, and a countdown appears in bright red numbers.
