Page 35 of Ready Or Not

Venison? That’s why it tastes off. “It’s fine.”

“You suck at lying, you know that?” Riley slowly puts another bite in her mouth.

My face burns, and anger runs through me. I lean back in my seat. I’ve always sucked at lying, and Riley seems exceptionally good at picking up lies. Which is fucking unfair. But clearly, she’s onto me right now. I need to take another route.

I pick at the skin around my nails. “You took me to piss off Manson.”

Riley eyes me, her gaze dead. She just watches me for a while. For a second, I feel like crawling out of my skin. How am I supposed to respond to a stare like that? I know what expression to show around angry people, sad people, happy people. But this? This is nothing.

So I suck in a breath and, finally, let my face fall into the expression I always make while thinking.

I stop trying.

A hint of something enters Riley’s eyes. She waves her knife at me. “You know killing you would make my life easier, right?”

I do know that. The question that has been burning in my mind is: why hasn’t she? I narrow my eyes at her.

Riley stares at me, and then a smirk creeps up her face. “Do you want me to kill you, bambi?”

“No.” The word slips out before I realize what I’m saying. But when I say it, I realize how much I mean it. I want to be in control of the way I go. I don’t want it to be at the hands of some fucking crazy woman.

Riley smiles at me. It’s a brilliant kind of smile where she shows all her teeth. “Well then. Let’s go get some groceries.”

I blink. This is a trick. No one goes from blank to friendly that quickly.

“Listen, I don’t like a mopey, whiney prisoner. You’re not useful to me if you’re starving.” Riley shoves the last bites into her mouth. “Plus, I’m bored.”

I cross my arms. She’s…bored? I’m having the worst twenty-four hours of my life, and she’sbored?

Riley cocks her head. “Want to, or not?”

I consider stabbing her with my knife, but I know she’d just kill me. “Yes.” I get up.

“Good. Leave the knife. If you stab me on the way over, it’ll kill both of us.” Riley moves to the back door, unsets the trap, and opens the door.

I follow slowly. Instead of walking outside, Riley turns. “Loud noise. Cover your ears.”

I stare at her, watching her whip a pistol out of the back of her pants. Things move in slow motion as Riley points the gun at something outside, and an explosion fills the room.

I scream, clapping my hands over my ears. My whole body buzzes.

“Sorry,” comes a muffled voice, then a hand clamps down over my elbow.

“What the hell?” I yank back.

“Come on.” Riley motions outside. The gun is back in her waistband, and she’s acting like nothing happened.

I try to calm my racing heart. The noise made my blood heat and race, and I can feel it everywhere.

“Why?” I demand, not even able to pretend I’m not rattled. I follow Riley across the yard to the barn. The sun is blazing hot, and it looks like it is the middle of the afternoon.

“Manson had one last trail cam up to watch me.”

“What?”

Riley holds the barn door open for me. “You’re like a broken record. What? Why?” She rolls her eyes. “I found most of the others, but he thought I missed that one.”

So she found cameras and just left the last one? “Why?” I step inside, wincing as I realize I repeated the question.