Page 6 of The Game

Interesting which one I chose to listen to.

“One minute,” I said and set out after the woman.

I caught up as she left the warehouse at the back reception, her polite murmur to the guy holding the door for her music to my ears.

That voice would feature in my dirty dreams.

She didn’t notice me track her to the exit, or barging the doorman out of the way so I could watch her retreat to a little blue car in her hurry. I snapped a picture of her. Another of the licence plate. She still didn’t look up in her hurry to get to the emergency that summoned her.

No worries. I’d see her later.

She sped away, one of her tyres squealing on the road, and reluctantly, I forced myself inside the building and to my interview.

The red-brick office was sparse, with filing cabinets, a wide black desk, and a spotlight on me so I could barely see the interviewer. Only that he wore the same mask as my escort had.

I reached out a long arm and tapped the lamp down so it didn’t shine in my eyes. Fucking intimidation technique could kiss my ass.

“Who was the woman?” I asked.

The man tilted his head. I had my share of inkwork, but he was a walking tattoo parlour with designs down his arms and even on the backs of his hands.

“I’m not at liberty to identify a client.”

Holy fuck. She was a contestant then. My mind replayed her words. Something about a hospital and an emergency. Was she some kind of medic? That would make my angel whip-smart to go with a knockout face and killer body.

Just as quickly as my interest arose, I locked it down. One of my greatest assets in a fight was my ability to create a strategy and telegraph none of it. My opponents never knew my next move. She hadn’t anticipated me. This asshole wouldn’t either.

I’d sign up for their game. I’d write my signature against any terms and conditions they wanted.

I was going to get that woman if it fucking killed me.

Chapter 4

Emmeline

Strange things had been happening all week. I’d had a spate of long shifts, overtime, and emergencies that chewed up any free time I had that didn’t need to be spent sleeping. But I hadn’t missed the fact that my bullish neighbour no longer parked over my bay, or that he wouldn’t meet my eye. His Tesla had a cracked roof, which was odd. Almost like someone with a heavy fist had punched it. Perhaps that was why he was being more careful.

Also, I’d come out of the health appointment ordered by the warehouse to find a suspiciously new-looking tyre on my car where I was sure it had been balding before. Maybe I’d imagined it. I was working so hard, sometimes life outside of work got blurry.

That fact hadn’t stopped me from obsessing over the meeting I’d had to run out on. I still hadn’t called them back, even though I’d passed the physical and managed to book two weeks off work.

I hoped it could be enough.

I hadn’t yet confirmed my spot. Though I was sure to after meeting The Warrior in that corridor.

God, that had the power to keep me up at night, if exhaustion hadn’t dragged me into dreams of the huge man.

At my appointment with the skeleton-masked man, we hadn’t finished talking when my phone call interrupted us. What I’d heard about the game had been eye-opening, though. My interviewer had run through a list of criteria I needed to meet before he’d consider me as a candidate. My age wasn’t a problem, and there was the medical I knew I’d pass. He’d told me what the men had to guarantee—their health and wealth. The fact they’d never lay a hand on any woman in anger or risk being set upon by the gang. Their commitment to the lady they won.

Then he’d moved on to the rules.

Even remembering what he’d listed set me on fire every time I thought of it.

Twenty men hunted five women. Once I was in the basement, there was no way out until one of the men had claimed me. They beat each other bloody to be the victor over the woman they wanted. Then the couple were somehow tied together.

I was missing two pieces of information and hadn’t had the guts to call them back and ask for the answers.

In the doctor’s staffroom, I pulled my phone from my locker. This morning, I’d been summoned to a meeting with the chairwoman of the care board that commissioned my job, and I had twenty minutes until I needed to attend it.

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