Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Fools. He wouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss her opinion. She was usually right. It was part of the reason he’d always found her so damned aggravating.
He’d come to understand her so much better lately. Understand that what he had once considered unbearable smugness and a need to show everyone else up with her knowledge, was actually Beth’s way of trying to be useful to her friends. It had massively altered Gideon’s negative perception of her.
He recognized how comfortable she had to feel in this group to be able to voice her opinions with such confidence. And he now properly understood how much she valued these friendships. He felt like a prick for shaking her confidence to the extent that her stutter had returned and was happy that it did not appear to have harmed her self-confidence within the group.
“Everybody cool with that?” Lucy’s voice interrupted Gideon’s grim train of thought and—while the others nodded enthusiastically in response to Luce’s question—he realized that he had not one clue what the plan was.
Shit.
“Hatethishatethishatethishatethis,” Beth whispered over and over to herself as she crept into position behind some corrugated metal and a rusty claw-footed bathtub that was really squandered out in this terrible, barren war-torn wasteland. She couldn’t believe they would have to do this all over again on a different playing field after this match ended. “Thissucksthissucksthissucksthissucks.”
She was pinned down in this position. The enemy knew where she was and Beth was pretty certain that she and Cam were the last two standing in her team.
She had witnessed the lovely Adam Reece’s brutal takedown just a few minutes earlier.
“Leave me,” the man had whispered urgently. “I’m done. You can do this, Elizabeth. Defend the flag. Pick them off when they try to go for it.”
“I can’t do it alone,” she had cried in response.
“Be brave,” he’d murmured, his hand clutched over his chest which was liberally splattered with bright yellow. “God, this hurts.”
“Adam…” He’d lifted a hand to her face and she’d felt the wetness from the yellow paint smear across her cheek.
“We should have gone with your plan,” he admitted on a pained wheeze. “Now go. I hear them coming.”
Sure enough, the loud rustling in the underbrush confirmed his words. The noise was accompanied by Kyle’s voice. “I’m pretty sure I got him. He must be close.”
After one last look at her fallen comrade, Beth had fled in terror.
Now here she cowered, her marker cradled in her arms, as she lifted her head to get her bearings. Something whizzed by her ear and thunked against the bathtub, and Beth stared in horror at the fresh, spreading bright yellow stain on the side of the bath. She leaped without thinking, diving up and over the rim of the tub, until she was huddled inside the bath.
This was an indefensible position.
“Think, Beth. Think.”
They would have to come right up to the bath to get her, which would make them vulnerable. She could pick them off like that. But she would be trapped in here if they chose to outwait her. They would fire on her anytime she so much as twitched in here. And the second she lifted her head above the rim, she’d be a goner.
“Beeeeeeth,” Kyle’s voice was taunting and high-pitched and sing-songy. “Come out and plaaaaay.”
“Go to hell, Kyle,” she yelled back. “Why don’t you come and get me?”
“You can’t stay in there forever, Beth,” he retorted.
“Says who? I’m happy here. Comfy and cozy. I might just settle down for a nap.”
“Surrender, and we’ll go easy on you.”
“Never! Not after what you did to Adam.”
“It’s war, Beth. It wasn’t personal.”
She needed to get out of here. If she could get to the other side of the tub she might stand more of a chance unless a couple of them managed to slink by her and lay in wait to ambush her.
She’d have to be fast, and she’d have to rely on them missing. Because they would fire on her. Where was Cam? It would be so much better if he could cover her while she made her move. But she had no idea where he was. Or if he was even still alive in the game. Perhaps he was depending on Beth to defend their flag while he went for the enemy’s.
“If you’re waiting for back up, it’s not coming,” Kyle gloated. “My man, Gideon, clocked your fearless leader less than five minutes ago. You’re the last one, Beth. One of you and three of us. You don’t stand a chance. If you surrender, you won’t be shot. You’ve managed to avoid the sting so far, right?”
Gideon stood by quietly as Kyle revealed a seriously psychopathic bent while he taunted Beth. Jesus, the guy was chillingly good at it. Gideon found himself unable to participate, not wanting to make himself into even more of bad guy in her eyes.