Page 66 of The Grandest Game
“Take it line by line?” Gigi suggested, turning back to the riddle on the wall.“Before fall…”
“After the center,” Knox bit out grudgingly.
Brady went next.“In front of amare.”
“I thinkcoolness in shadowprobably meansshade,” Gigi said.
“Look at the modifiers.” Brady placed his palm flat on the wall beside the first line of the riddle. “Before.” Brady moved his hand down to the next line. “Afterthis…” he skimmed his palm over the second line, then down to the third. “Andthat.”
Gigi scanned down further. “In front ofthisorthat.”
“Before, after, in front of.” Knox swore under his breath. “We’re looking for aword.”
“One that can go beforefall,” Gigi said. “In front ofmareorshade.”
And there it was.
“You were right, kid,” Knox told Gigi.“Not bad at allwasgood.”
“And the center,” Gigi replied, grinning so hard her cheeks hurt, “is themid.”
Fall.
Mid.
Good.
Mare.
Shade.
Brady laid a hand on Gigi’s shoulder and smiled. Not a small smile. Not a subtle one. A something-to-behold, earth-shattering, hope-you-don’t-ever-want-to-breathe-again kind of smile.
“You’re the one who unlocked this,” Brady said. “You make the call.”
A rush of energy coursed through Gigi’s body like a tidal wave—or a dozen of them. Maybe it was solving the riddle. Maybe it was that smile. Either way, she practically tap-danced her way to the phone booth.
Behind her, she heard Knox, his voice low:“What the hell are you doing, Daniels?”
Brady’s reply wasn’t nearly so quiet. “Being human. You should try it.”
Gigi picked up the pay phone. “The answer isnight.”
Chapter 50
ROHAN
Iam doing this—playing the Hawthorne heiress’s game,winningit at all costs—for my father.Rohan gave himself a moment or two in the labyrinth as he stepped over the threshold into darkness.
To the best of his knowledge, Savannah’s father, Sheffield Grayson, had disappeared off the face of the planet nearly three years earlier, immediately after becoming the subject of FBI and IRS investigations. Rohan had pegged the man as a coward, one who had recklessly set his gilded life on fire and left his wife and daughters to face the flames alone.
And yet… Savannah was playing this gameforher father.
You don’t strike me as the forgiving type, Savvy. We have that much in common.That thought pulled Rohan from the labyrinth as the metal chamber rotated closed behind them.
Three torches burst to life in the corners of a decently sized triangular room lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves. Savannah strodeforward and ran her hand through the tip of the flame of the closest torch.Fearless.“Real fire,” she reported.
Rohan eyed the contents of the shelves surrounding them.Board games. Hundreds of them.In the center of the room, there was a recessed area in the floor, three feet lower than the rest of the room. Sitting in that recessed area, there was a round, mahogany table.
