7. Zane
Zane
By the time Kane makes it home, I’m ready to tear him a new asshole.
I couldn’t sleep after learning that he invited another player into the game, but not only is there one other person to worry about, it’s Samson fucking Wright.
His father is one of those corporate guys who make shady deals in the background.
Killing his son will turn heads our way, no matter how cleanly we go about it.
And if we kill Mercy and leave Sam alive?
That man will strike back if we take his pretty little friend away.
It’s a lose-fucking-lose situation now, when it was so simple before. No one would mourn Mercy Morningstar’s disappearance, but Sam is another story. The heir to the Wright fortune is a face we can’t erase so easily.
Kane steps through the front door, and I’m on him in two seconds flat. Shoving his chest, I snarl at him. “What the fuck were you thinking?” His back slams into the wall. “Sam Wright isn’t a target.”
He looks at me without a spark of recognition in his eyes. “Should that name mean something to me?”
Frustrated, I wrap my fists in the front of his t-shirt and haul him into the living room.
“ Yes , it fucking should. You didn’t recognize him?
You’ve tried to sleep with him twice.” I keep a detailed record of every frat brother and sorority sister that Kane has sex with, and Sam’s name has never made it onto the list. I don’t think he’s into men.
Tossing Kane onto the couch, I pick up my laptop from the kitchen island and hand it to him. “Here. Read his file.”
While Kane browses Sam’s school records, I pace from one end of the apartment to the other, burning my usual path across the carpet. I’m wearing it thin from how often we do this. “You know that I look into all of our targets.”
“I know.”
“So you can’t be surprised that I’m vetoing this.”
“You can’t veto it. We won’t get Mercy if we don’t include him. You’re the one who insisted on killing her,” he reminds me, frowning at me over the top of the monitor. “We could have fucked her last night. Had a little fun. I could have made her forget all about Alejandro.”
I’m going to have an aneurysm. My head pounds in time with my heartbeat, and I have to close my eyes. Why does his solution to everything always involve his dick? I take a deep breath in through my nose. “What are we going to do?” I open my eyes to find Kane staring out the balcony’s glass doors.
“We’ll make it look like an accident. Put them together.
The police could find them this time, and then it’s not our problem.
His dad won’t search the city for their killer if it’s ruled an accident or suicide.
” Kane leans back and sinks into the pleather couch, carelessly tossing my laptop to the side.
“They looked close. We could make them seem like they’re dating.
” He’s frowning as he says it, but it’s not a bad idea.
“That could work,” I say slowly, moving to the window to close the blinds.
“They could be dating for real now. He says he wants her to fall in love with him.” Sure, he might say it’s to save her life, but he wouldn’t have chosen that condition for winning the game if he didn’t already want her to fall for him. “He could win. He has a headstart.”
“Bull shit ,” Kane snaps, punching the cushion beside him.
“She doesn’t like him that way.” But I can tell he’s not convinced; his forehead crinkles as he glares at his fists.
“She doesn’t. ” Switching gears, he jabs a finger at me.
“Just sleep with her, man, and it’ll all be over.
Then you won’t have to worry about the other guy.
But we’ll wait to kill her until next year; I want to watch her spiral. ”
Displeasure sours inside my gut. It’s not that she isn’t pretty—she’s got this haunting quality about her—but I just don’t feel that way about her. Kane can drop his pants for anyone, but I don’t want her anywhere near me. Not like that. “No,” I answer simply, “I don’t think I will.”
I can’t wait to watch her fail over and over again, tripping over herself as she gets more desperate with each passing month.
I wonder if she’ll grow bolder the closer we get to the deadline.
But, realistically, I doubt we’ll make it to the spring with this game.
It’ll probably be over by the new year, and Kane and I can move on with our lives.
Speaking of—“Are you graduating this year?”
The sudden swing in conversation turns Kane off.
He pushes himself off the couch and tries to hide in his bedroom.
I block him from closing the door. “You’re a fifth-year senior.
You need to graduate.” We can’t keep killing in the same place or we’ll get caught.
We’ve already had a few close calls with the feds.
At this rate, we’ll have to go underground and join the Baranovas in their illegal deals just to stay under the radar.
I really don’t want to have to learn to speak Russian.
Kane grabs his sketchbook from the desk and flips to a random page. “I don’t need to graduate. I already have a portfolio and enough clients to keep us running for years.”
I prepare myself for our usual argument. He doesn’t want to leave the city, and he doesn’t want to stop pretending that he’s a student. But he’s an artist—he can live and work anywhere. “Then drop out.”
He scratches a line onto the page. “I’m good, thanks.”
“You don’t even go to class.”
“I finished them all.”
Sighing, I retreat to the living room and grab my laptop.
Pulling open a new browser tab, I log in to his student portal and open his graduation profile to check his transcript.
He’s taking one studio class this semester, and then he has one more before he’s officially done with his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts.
“It says here that you have a studio class.”
“I turn in my assignments after hours.”
“So you don’t actually go?”
He ignores my question, but it gives me space to think. I click back to Sam’s student profile and confirm his major before searching for Mercy’s.
Fine Arts.
Senior.
She’s in the same grade and discipline as Kane.
If we’re going to win this game, we need to work smarter, not harder. Sam has the upper hand on account of his relationship with Mercy. We’re at a disadvantage.
It’s time we changed that.
“You’re going to class,” I inform Kane, snapping my laptop closed, “because Mercy will be there.”
That catches Kane’s attention. He drops the sketchbook and pencil onto his bed and jumps up like he’s ready to leave immediately. “She will? You’re sure?”
“If you’re both enrolled in Painting Level III with Mrs. Lebottowitz, then yeah. Next semester she has to take an Exhibition class, and then she’s graduating.” I nod my head. “Same as you.”
Kane claps me on the shoulder and grins. “Guess I’m graduating with our siren. You should be thrilled.”
My smile pinches, but I play it off well enough. I’ll be glad to get out of this city, so graduation should convince Kane that it’s worthwhile. Mercy, however, is still as much of a problem as she was the moment she stumbled into our sights.
I can’t kill her outside of the game, or Kane will leave me.
So all I can do is push them into as many situations as possible to make her fall in love with him without sleeping with him.
Because if Kane gives her that piece of himself, it’s only a matter of time before he carves out his heart and puts it in her hands.
I’ve seen this time and time again with each new target, and every year, it gets harder and harder for him to pull back right at the cliff’s edge, just before the fall.
And if Kane falls in love with Mercy, a woman who doesn’t deserve an ounce of his attention, it might be the one thing that finally breaks me.