Chapter 15 Silas
Chapter Fifteen
SILAS
When Kai had thrown my words about our kiss back at me, I’d known that wasn’t the right time to push.
Something that was further compounded by his refusal to talk about the real reason he’d left.
Kai was a stubborn fucker at the best of times.
Once he’d made a decision or had an idea about something, he stuck to it, come what may.
The only way around it was to wait him out.
So that was what I was doing. I was waiting. But I wasn’t giving him space. We’d had enough space between us recently. Like hell was I letting him push me away again.
Not ready to be parted from Kai, I persuaded him to hit up an escape room with me. We’d done most of the ones in the area, but fortunately, a new place had opened while we’d been on tour.
“What’s the theme of this one?” Kai asked as I drove us into Portsmouth.
“Millennium Meltdown.” I dropped my voice into a mock ominous tone. “With only an hour until midnight, can we prevent Y2K before it’s too late?”
Kai made a noise that was half-groan and half-laugh. “Ah, it’s going to have lots of shit from our childhood labelled as nostalgia, isn’t it.”
“Most likely. No doubt we’ll be walking out feeling as old as our knees tell us we are.”
We exchanged a conspiratorial grin. Neither of us actually thought thirty-five was old, but some of our joints disagreed. Especially after several shows on the trot.
“Remember the first room we did?” Kai stroked the stubble on his chin.
I gave a hoot. “Christ, I don’t think I could ever forget that. It was the 1940s war one, and we got so hung up on that fucking replica decoding machine that we didn’t get out.”
“I still say they shouldn’t put items in the room unless they are relevant to a game,” Kai groused.
“So you’ve said. On the way to every game we’ve done since.”
We grinned at each other again, and some of the tension I’d been carrying lifted. This was us. This is what we did. Spent time together and gave each other shit.
Not wanting to lose the moment, I continued our reminiscing. “Remember when you thought the light fitting was a clue?”
Kai covered his face with both his hands. “Why’d you have to bring that one up? I paid for the damages!”
Laughter bubbled out of me. “You’re the reason they have that warning now about how the lights are not part of the game. Little do they know it’s because of Kai, guitarist for Caffeine Daydreams.”
“You’re a dick, you know that.”
I winked at him as I pulled into the car park. “Ah, but I’m your dick.”
Kai coughed and turned his head away. “Oh, Dylan’s here.”
“Yep.” I turned off the engine. “Thought it was a good idea given the last time we were in public together…”
I didn’t need to finish my sentence. The way Kai stiffened told me that the memory of the kiss was as fresh for him as it was for me.
Judging by the speed at which he exited the car and loped over to Dylan, he still wasn’t ready to discuss it.
That’s fine, I told myself as I got out and joined them. That’s not what today is about.
No, today was about reminding Kai about us. Showing him that we could be together without any of the awkwardness. I wouldn’t push him to talk about it until he was ready.
We walked into the escape room, excitement already rising. Since giving our first one a shot a few years ago, Kai and I had made it our mission to take on as many as possible.
The game master came out to greet us, his customer service smile faltering as he spotted us. “Oh my god.”
Familiar with this reaction, I stepped forwards and extended my hand. “Hi, I’m Silas and this is Kai. We’ve got a game booked for eleven a.m.?”
Dylan smirked from his position against the wall. He always found it funny when I introduced us to people who recognised us. But it was a good way to remind them that we were just ordinary guys, there to do what anyone else was.
It worked too. The game master fixed his smile and shook my hand. “Lovely to meet you. Have you done an escape room before?”
“A few,” Kai hedged.
“Ah, a couple of experts.” The game master clapped his hands enthusiastically. “I’ll hold back on the hints then.”
“Please don’t,” I said in alarm. “We’ve done a lot, but not successfully.”
“Because you don’t listen,” Kai said with an eye-roll. “If you listened, we’d get out faster.”
I arched my brows at him. “Or perhaps you should, you know, not touch the light fittings.”
The game master winced. “Ah, you know you can’t do that here, right? If it doesn’t move instantly, it means—”
“It’s not supposed to.” Kai cringed. “It’s okay. I learned my lesson the hard way.”
“Phew. For a second there, you had me thinking I was going to have to tell one of my idols off.” The game master shot Kai a coy look that had me frowning.
Fortunately, Dylan took that as his cue. “On that note, I’m assuming all of you will be happy signing an NDA? Kai and Silas want to enjoy their time here without worrying about any information being leaked to the press.”
The bespectacled game master looked appalled. “We would never do that. What happens in the game room, stays in the game room.”
Dylan’s smile didn’t waver. “So signing the NDA won’t be an issue then, will it.”
I swear, Dylan got his way through stone-cold politeness more often than not.
It only took a few minutes for the staff to be rounded up and their signatures given.
Kai and I used the time to explore their range of EXIT games, pretending we couldn’t see the way the staff were all lingering to observe us.
“Have we played this one?” I held up the Airplane Crash one.
“Yep. Took us four hours before we completed it.”
I put it back on the shelf. Our obsession extended beyond playing in actual rooms. We had most of these board game versions to keep us occupied when travelling. “How about this one?”
By the time they were ready for us in the room, we’d picked up four games we hadn’t played. It was a small thing that we’d done a hundred times before, but it gave me hope that Kai really did want to keep spending time with me.
“I’ll take those,” Dylan said with a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll be out here if you need me.”
I thanked him and handed them over, but Kai was hovering nearby.
“You can come in with us if you like,” Kai blurted suddenly. “We could always use a third brain.”
“Or second, seeing as you two share one,” Dylan responded while I glared at Kai. “But it—”
I didn’t give him a chance to finish, rudely talking over him. “No, he can’t. It’s a two-person room.”
Kai shuffled on his feet awkwardly. “I’m sure they’ll make an exception…for us.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. We rarely flaunted our fame to get our own way. Of all of us, Kai was usually the one most against it.
I stepped closer to Kai, dropping my voice low so the only one who might hear was Dylan. “Got a problem being locked in a room with me, Kai?”
His eyes fell to my lips as he drew in a quick breath. “No. Of course not.”
“Good.” I didn’t back away. Didn’t break eye contact. “Because, as it happens, I can think of lots of things we could get up to in a locked room. Just the two of us.”
Kai reeled back a step, his jaw falling open. “What?”
I smirked at him, letting my eyes trail over his body. I’d never been a subtle flirt, and if Kai mistook this, then he was a bigger idiot than I was. “All those different…puzzles. We don’t want a third person getting in the way. It’d slow things down.”
He tilted his head like he’d caught onto my double meaning but struggled to understand if I meant it.
“Well, either way, I’m out,” Dylan said, cutting into the tension fizzing between us. “Don’t fancy being locked in a room. I’ll sit out here and play 2468 until you come back.”
I shot him a look of thanks. “You’re addicted to that game.”
“Gotta have something to keep me distracted while babysitting you two.” He softened his words with a wink.
The game master approached. “Okay! If you’re ready, follow me.”
The awkward tension between Kai and me lasted through the game master’s pregame spiel. But once the door was closed and the timer started, it dissipated as we got caught up in the room.
Kai had been right—it was full of nostalgia that made us feel old. Before long, we were searching out keys and trying to figure out codes. We’d never had a problem working as a team. It was part of what made us so successful on stage. All the shit that had been going on between us faded.
We were having fun.
My senses were heightened around Kai in a way they never had been before. I shivered every time his skin touched mine as he passed me a key. My temperature rose another degree whenever he brushed past me.
All those casual touches that I’d once taken as normal meant something else now.
Something so much more.
We unlocked a door into another room and let out a resounding whoop.
I swept into the closet-sized space and eyed the tangled wires with dismay.
“Lots of coloured wires and sockets. I’m guessing if we put them in the right places, it’ll complete the game.
No idea where I’m supposed to put them though. ”
“Bollocks,” Kai said from the doorway. “Give me a second. I’m sure I saw something with colours on out here.”
Not wanting to be idle, I spent the time Kai was gone shoving the wires into various sockets, hoping to stumble across the answer. Luck was not on my side.
“Here,” Kai said, squeezing into the narrow space beside me. He was frowning down at a piece of paper in his hand. “I think this is it.”
Using the grid he’d found, we worked together to quickly plug the wires into the right sockets. I crouched to do the lower ones while Kai leaned over me to do the ones on top.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered as my competitive streak kicked in. I’d be a grumpy fucker if we didn’t escape in time.
“Almost there,” Kai said. Just then, a red cable sailed past my head. “Balls.”
“I got it.” I swiped it up, pushing to a standing position. My chest brushed against Kai’s as I rose, our bodies bumping together.