Chapter 66
Piper
The next few days pass without incident.
We fall into a routine.
Our days are spent on the slopes.
We even went heli skiing once.
We eat at different restaurants dotted throughout the mountains, and in the evenings we usually end up in the living room, watching television, listening to music, ordering food, drinking, or playing games.
And then there’s Hunter and me.
Every night, we share a bed and we have more sex than ever.
We’re closer.
And it isn’t just physical. It’s everything else too.
The conversations we have, the way he holds me through the night, the comfort of waking up beside him in the morning. Being around him has started to feel too natural.
But soon we’ll go back.
Back to reality, and to everything that makes it difficult to breathe.
After another full day on the slopes, we all meet in the living room.
Octavia walks in and takes a seat on the floor.
Hunter looks around. “Any thoughts on food?”
“Pizza,” I say immediately.
He nods once. “Done.”
“I fancy sushi,” Octavia says.
Hunter looks at her flatly. “Then get your fucking sushi.”
She narrows her eyes at him, but there’s a small, knowing smile on her lips as she looks between us.
“Do not speak to my woman like that,” Milo growls. “Or I’ll kill you.”
“All talk, no follow through.”
A blade lodges in the wall just behind Hunter’s head as he ducks.
He doesn’t react, he simply pulls out his phone and starts typing.
My heart is racing.
I hate this.
Violence in general, but for most of them this is perfectly normal.
He must see the tension on my face, because his hand finds mine and gives it a gentle squeeze.
That stupid dimple appears as he continues typing with one hand.
Adelaide sighs.
“Kill each other or don’t, just deal with the bodies yourselves. I’m not calling my team.”
“As if I’d trust your team to do the job properly,” Isaak says.
And that, as usual, earns Adelaide’s ire.
I open my Kindle and start reading, leaving them to their nonsense.
I barely pay attention to the conversation around me, but before long the doorbell rings and I smile.
With the amount of skiing we’ve been doing, I’m hungry almost all the time.
Everyone ordered something different.
Pizza, sushi, but in the end we just share everything.
Adelaide puts on another cheesy romance.
The first night she discovered how much Isaak hated them, she took it as a personal challenge.
Now the rest of us suffer the consequences.
Not me, though.
I love them.
Love stories with happy endings, comfort reads, films where everything works out in the end.
They’re my favourite kind.
I stay away from anything too dramatic, toxic, or complicated.
There’s already enough of that in my life.
But as for Adelaide and Isaak, they’re trying very hard to hate each other.
And they are failing.
Even harder.
The men make their way towards the kitchen in search of drinks.
Hunter returns a few moments later and places a flute of champagne in my hand.
We sit in comfortable silence for a while before I decide to break it.
“We should play something else tonight. I’m tired of Clue.”
Adelaide’s face brightens.
“We should spice things up. One lie, two truths.”
Everyone seems to agree.
A shocker, honestly.
“I’ll start,” Arlo volunteers.
A few drinks in, everyone seems a little more at ease.
“One, I’ve broken into a government server. Two, I have a brother. Three, I hate skiing.”
“The lie is that you have a brother,” I say.
His expression doesn’t change.
He neither confirms nor denies it.
But everyone seems to agree that is, in fact, the lie.
Milo snorts. “That was obvious.”
I go next.
“One, I competed in the Olympics before I was sixteen. Two, I have a husband. Three, I hate violence, but if the situation calls for it, I can break a man’s bones with one hand.”
Hunter studies me closely.
“You have a husband is the lie. The fuck, Piper?”
I shrug lightly, but my pulse is racing under the weight of his attention and the dark look that has taken over his face.
Isaak goes next.
“One, I speak six languages. Two, I’ve killed for money. Three, I keep a secret that could destroy someone.”
Adelaide studies him.
“The lie is number three.”
“It’s a convenient fiction.”
Adelaide rolls her eyes. “You’re exhausting.”
“Hold on a moment,” Milo says. “I think the lie is number two. My cousin would never kill for money. He has plenty. He kills for shits and giggles, not for cash.”
Isaak’s eyes narrow. “I suppose you’ll never know.”
“I’ll go next.” Adelaide says. “One, I’ve ordered someone’s execution. Two, I am in love. Three, I would burn this entire chalet down with all of you in it and sleep perfectly fine.”
“The lie is two,” Ophelia says quietly.
Adelaide’s eyes flicker.
“Correct.”
Octavia claps slowly.
“How touching. Obviously you’re not in love. You don’t have the capacity for it, your body, you mind, your soul weren’t built that way.”
“Enough.” Isaak booms.
Milo’s attention snaps to him.
“Now, if you’d said you were in love. I might have voted truth. You seem enamoured with the cartel bi…” A smirk plays on Octavia’s lips as she looks at Isaak.
“Don’t finish that sentence,” he snaps. “Not even my cousin can protect you from my wrath.”
“I’ll fucking kill you cousin. When it comes to my woman, consider yourself dead and buried.” Milo says, a slightly unhinged look in his eyes.
“Right. Enough posturing. I’ll go next.” Octavia breaks their staring contest.
Everyone takes a turn, and by the end of the game, the relaxed atmosphere from earlier has long since vanished.
The room is full with tension.
Every answer sounded like a lie, except most of them probably weren’t.
And that only proves how far away we all are from one another.
How this friendship we’re trying to build was always bound to be complicated.
The world we were born into doesn’t make room for things like this.
Not when everyone carries secrets, traumas, scars.
Hunter keeps his eyes on me.
He takes part in the conversation when necessary, but his focus remains firmly on me.
Usually, I like it.
Tonight, it burns.
Especially after the nonsense I came out with earlier.
That was foolish.
I shouldn’t have said that.
I stay a few minutes longer. Pretend everything’s fine.
I’m fine.
I try to breathe. But eventually it all becomes too much.
I push to my feet, catching everyone’s attention.
“I’m tired,” I say quietly.
Then I turn and head for the stairs without another word.
I feel him behind me. As usual, he’s following.
I step into my room, and he follows me inside, shutting the door behind him.
I can practically feel the anger radiating from him.
Perhaps confusion as well.
Disbelief?
Whatever it is, it’s not good.
“What the actual fuck, Piper?” he booms.