Page 78 of Wicked Games

“How are things going with Felix?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Thank fuck we’re talking on the phone and not in person. My dad can read people like no one else. It’s one of the things that makes him so good at business and why no one fucks with us.

It also means I can’t hide anything from him because he sees through me like I’m made of cellophane. There’s no way in hell I’d be able to hide the fact that I’ve been hooking up with Felix from him if we were face to face.

“Are you getting along?”

“Yeah, mostly.”

Jace lets out a snort of laughter. I grab a pen off the coffee table and throw it at him.

He catches it, still laughing, and twirls it around his fingers.

“How is he?” Dad continues.

“He seems to be okay,” I say carefully. It’s not a lie, but it isn’t the whole truth, either.

“That’s good.” He sounds distracted now. “I have to go. We’ll talk about how to deal with this situation more when you’re home. Send me the dossier as soon as you can, as well as any new details as they come up.”

“Doing it right now,” Jace calls, and he spins around in his chair to face his computer. “You’ll have it in a few seconds.”

“Excellent. Goodbye, boys.”

“Bye,” the three of us echo.

He ends the call, and I go to toss my phone onto the coffee table when all three of our phones ping with a text.

I open the notification and read the short message.

“What’s going on?” Jax asks.

“They want to see us at the main house.” I tuck my phone away. “No details other than it’s about the Rapture.”

“When do we need to be there?” Jace asks as he spins back around to presumably shut down his computer.

“Now.” I stand and stretch my arms over my head. “Hopefully this doesn’t take all fucking night.”

Jace stands and uses his hip to push his chair in. “Ready?”

Jax and I nod, and the three of us head out of their room.

19

FELIX

The silencein the room is heavy and oppressive as I stare at the book I’m holding and try to read the words for the umpteenth time.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break, and instead of looking forward to the chance to go home and escape the world for a week, I’m dreading it.

Holidays are a huge deal in Killian’s family, and it’s our turn to host this year. That means my mother will spend the first half of our break freaking out as she not only organizes dinner for Killian’s massive extended family but also follows the tradition of trying to outdo whatever was planned the year before.

Thanks to the less-than-socially acceptable way my mother joined Killian’s family, she always gets extra neurotic about any sort of family event planning and uses it to try to prove that she belongs and is one of them.

Most of his family has accepted her out of respect for Killian’s dad, but that’s not good enough for my mom. She doesn’t just want to be accepted. She wants to be celebrated and treated like she didn’t betray her best friend’s memory and usurp her life. That means my week off will be spent avoiding her so I don’t getroped into wasting my break helping set up for a dinner I don’t even want to go to and dealing with the crowds of people who’ll be at the house while the stupid dinner is happening.

I’d honestly rather stay at school and spend the break alone, but that isn’t an option. I mentioned the possibility to my mother a few weeks ago during one of our rare calls, but she just turned on the guilt about how much she misses me and how she’s been looking forward to seeing me when I know for a fact she’s more worried about what everyone would say if I wasn’t there than she is about spending quality time with me.

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