Someone shouted out, “Here, here!”
“What you do in that ten minutes is your ownbusiness, but be sure to share later.” He chuckled. “After anotherten minutes, the flare will go off again, and you’ll have threeminutes to triple up. Just imagine what can happen with athreesome.”
Cat calls sounded all around us and thenbursts of laughter.
“After that last ten minutes, he will firethe last flare to end the game. If, of course, you can’t findanyone to merge with when the flare is shot, you must go for thecan. Anyone who doesn’t kick the can loses. You will get negativefive points. But as we all know, there are some things that arebetter than winning. Very few, but there are some. To sweeten thepot, I have another twist. There are ten pristine bottles ofAppleton rum out there.” He swept his arm out over the gardens.“Feel free to drink as much as you’d like while in that hidingspot.”
“Does anyone have any questions? Oh, yeah,those of you who are never it get the chance to win, too.The sooner you kick the can, the more points you get. Of course, ifyou get caught, you lose ten points. And the person who isit must be outside the red line during the hunt.”
I noticed the large area on the groundaround the can marked off with red tape. It was obvious that thisgame was meant to tempt the participants with either great make-outsessions, alcohol, or some mystery prize. There was something foreveryone. I’m sure most everybody would be taking advantage of atleast two. I didn’t want to be anyone’s prize, but I also neededtime to go explore the house. I needed to plant the bugs andcameras. An entire game would take thirty minutes, but I’d neverhave that full time. Maybe I’d have twenty minutes max. I’d have tohang out near the patio pretending that I was trying to win bykicking the can. Others would be choosing that option too, so Iwouldn’t look suspicious.
Chapter 13
I decided the best plan of action would beto hide close to the house and sneak in, but I needed some moredirection as to where Jericho’s room was. I turned to the girl nextto me, who happened to be Jericho’s date, and said, “Gosh, I can’timagine living in this house. It’s bigger than a hotel. I betJericho gets lost on his way to his room.” I watched hercarefully.
Her eyes flicked to the west wing of thehouse before she said, “He never gets lost, but I have a fewtimes.” She smiled, her face thoughtful.
I wondered how often she’d been in his room.Jericho came down and pushed his way between us, his hand slidingdown my arm. I stood firm, but his date moved to the side to lethim in. He didn’t look at her first; his gaze settled on me.
“I hope you liked dinner.”
“It was great,” I said, forcing myself to benice.
“What are you talking about? You barely ateanything—you looked like you were being forced to eat sand orsomething,” Viktor said.
I punched him, feeling heat in my cheeks.“Not cool. He didn’t need to know that.”
Jericho chuckled. “Sorry about that. I couldhave my chef make you something. I can’t have you starve.” Hewinked at me.
“Seriously. I’m fine.”
He leaned in close and whispered, “I’ll comelooking for you. Look for me.” He moved away from us with his dateon his arm. Jericho was definitely not upset with me. Despite myrevulsion for him, I considered trying to find him for half asecond, but knew the more important thing for tonight was placingthe bugs in his room. If I had the chance, I’d go for his phone.Maybe I’d get to do both.
I narrowed my eyes in his direction as hedisappeared into the crowd.
“Where should we hide?” Viktor asked, havingno clue what Jericho had just said. “I say we hurry from place toplace until we find one of the jackpots.”
I swung my head around to look at him. “Ithought we were supposed to hide separately.”
“We are, but we need to know where eachother will be, so we can partner up. We’ll run parallel to eachother until we find the booze and then hide right by eachother.”
“Maybe I intend on winning the prize.” Iwaggled my eyebrows.
“There are better things to be had in thisgame.” He gave me a seductive glance.
“Maybe for you, but for someone like me,expensive prizes look pretty enticing. And I can get drinks fromyou any time I want.” I looked toward his coat pocket, pretendingnot to know what he was really insinuating.
He raised his eyebrows. “I have somethingbetter than even this.” He patted his pocket.
Since he didn’t let it go, I said, “Like Isaid, I want what’s in the box more.”
“I’ll have to prove you wrong. Give me thechance.” He moved in, his nose just to the side of mine, his softbreath sending a whisper on my cheek and lips.
“I’m not that kind of girl,” I said, my lipsgrazing his as they moved before I jerked away. The flare went up.I took off, pretending I was headed away from the house, anddisappeared into the crazy crowds looking for a place to hide. Imade my way west, checking for Viktor every minute or so, and thenheaded in the direction of the house. I hid in some tall bushesnear a door leading inside.
I watched as the boy who was itheaded out in the opposite direction, looking for players to catch.I didn’t hesitate. I started up toward the house—then someonegrabbed me. I resisted the urge to hurt whoever it was, remindingmyself that we were playing a game. I knew it couldn’t be the boywho was it, he was all the way on the other side of thebuilding. It couldn’t be Viktor, could it? Why hadn’t I noticed himfollowing me? I held the scream that had lodged itself in my throatand turned abruptly around, ready to take the necessary steps toget away from him, but it wasn’t Viktor.
