Page 91 of The Grandest Game
“Maybe I’m not just telling you.” Knox turned and jerked his head toward the front of her dress.The bug.“The Thorps aren’t the only game in town, and Orion Thorp isn’t the only member of his family who likes to play. I don’t know who’s listening, but maybe I’ll say something to spark their interest and they’ll make me a more competitive offer.”
Money.That was what Knox wanted her to believe this wasabout, but Gigi’s gut said that he’d told her because he wanted her to know that he wasn’t all bad.
Knox doesn’t let people in, Brady had said.
“Why wouldn’t you tell Brady that Calla said good-bye?” Gigi said, quietly repeating her question. “Why would you tell me?”
“Maybe I’m telling you because Ican’ttell him.” Knox shifted the objects to one hand as he lifted the other to the collar of his dress shirt. “And I have never and will never tell Brady, because Brady couldn’t even begin to understand a Calla Thorp good-bye.”
Knox pulled his collar roughly down, baring the skin at the base of his neck—and a white, puckered, triangular scar.
Chapter 65
ROHAN
What kind of deal are you proposing?” Savannah asked.
A good sign, that. “You implied that you are playing this game for something other than the prize money,” Rohan noted, “whereas I am interestedonlyin the money.”
“No deal.” Savannah tried to step past him, into the next room. Their final room.
Rohan blocked her, leaving them standing very close. “You haven’t heard my terms.”
“Are you suggesting that you would help me win, then willingly step back and allow me to claim victory under the mere promise that I would then give the money to you?” Savannah wore her skepticism like a crown. “You don’t trust me that much, Rohan—or at all.”
And there was the rub. “Then perhaps the deal is this,” Rohan countered. “We agree to work together on the next phase of the game—to a point.” Rohan had struck his first deal with the Proprietor—with the Mercy—when he was five years old. If therewas one thing he knew, it was how to bargain with the devil. “Once you and I have dispatched the competition in whatever phase or phases come next, once the Grandest Game is nearly won…” He flashed his teeth in the kind of smile that he hoped reminded Savannah of hands fisted in hair, of grips that were just a little painful. “At that point, we’re free to do everything in our power to take each other down.”
In the end, he would win—no matter what lines he had to cross to do it.
“You said that you would enjoy destroying me, love.” Rohan smiled. “Consider the feeling mutual.”
“An alliance where the end goal is betrayal.” Savannah studied him for the longest time. “How novel.”
“It’s not betrayal,” Rohan said, hyperaware of every place that her body almost touched his, “if we both go into this with open eyes.”
“Believe me, British.” Savannah leaned forward. “My eyes are open.” Savannah pushed past him, stepping over theFINALEthreshold. Rohan followed, turning sharply to what it soon became apparent was a hallway lined with mirrors.
He could see Savannah from every side.Angles. Curves. Power.
The mirrored hall let out into another room—a large one. The first thing Rohan saw was the mats on the floor, marked off just so. Propped against the closest wall were two sabers, two masks, two white jackets with metal overlay.
“Fencing,” Rohan said.How very appropriate.
“Swordplay.” Savannah looked from the sabers to the sword in Rohan’s hand to his face, then strode to the far side of the room—a rock-climbing wall. She said not a single word as she began to climb, vintage silk gown and all.
Rohan noted, with some appreciation, that she hadn’t parted with the three objects she’d claimed from the prior room: the silk fan, the vial of glitter, and the lint roller. She held themandmanaged to climb.
That left Rohan with the birthday card and the longsword. “That makes three swords in this game now, total,” he called. “There could be something to that.”
He examined the blades on the sabers. Unlike the longsword, they bore no writing. Rohan tested the weight of each of the sabers, then tried on each of the masks, before turning the jackets inside out.
“If you really wanted me to consider making a deal,” Savannah called down to him, pulling herself to the top of the wall, “you’d offer me the longsword in exchange. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you guard that thing. Your body is always conveniently in between it and me.”
Rohan thought he’d been subtler than that. “You’re still wearing the lock and chain,” he countered. “Despite the fact that it’s servedapurpose in the Grandest Game by foreshadowing the nature of the game, you cannot be sure it’s served itsonlypurpose. Do you blame me for hedging my bets with the sword?”
“I’m fully capable of blaming you for everything,” Savannah said. “What do you make of the wall behind you?”
Is this a test, Savvy?Rohan turned. The wall in question appeared to be an enormous whiteboard. An intricate maze had been drawn upon its surface, with three end points:
