King’s eyes stay on mine as he picks it up and takes a long drink.
“Little Bird, come play,” Killian taunts, snapping me out of my Kingston trance.
“Play what?” I ask, watching them all with suspicion.
Killian raises a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Well, if I get to choose…”
If I play a game with them, cards by the looks of it, what could be the worst that could happen?
“Go on, Little Bird. They don’t bite,” Justice adds faintly.
“Oh, don’t we?” Killian teases, sending me a wink.
King kicks out the chair opposite his, nodding his head toward it. “Well, come on, Little Dove.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, while pinning me with his icy glare. “Don’t you want to see if we bite?”
My legs shake beneath my weight, and my breath catches in my throat, but I find myself heading straight for the chair. One step. Two step. Three… I sit, noticing the cards laid out on the table.
“What are we playing?”
King leans back in his chair and grins. “You.”
I clear my throat. I’ve never seen his smirk, and now I wish I hadn’t. It’s deadly, like something you’d imagine in your nightmares. The only difference between him and the monster that awaits you in those nightmares when you close your eyes is that Kingston comes dressed as everything you’ve ever wanted.
“He’s kidding.” Keaton stares at me blankly.
“Or is he?” Killian teases.
Kyrin rolls his eyes, dealing my hand. “The game is called sixers.” Kyrin hands me six cards and continues. “The object of the game is to read people. Can you do that?”
“Honestly?” I answer, scooping up my cards. “No.”
Kyrin pauses his dealing, his eyes going around the table. He keeps talking. “Well, you might learn, or you might not. I guess we’re about to find out. So the object is for all of us to pick up the cards. The dealer, who is me for this hand, has three questions. You start with the left and go around the circle. Use your three questions wisely, because that’s all you get before you have to guess the one card they pick out of the six they have. You get it right, you get that card. The player with the most cards at the end of the game has one dare to use. So, say if I won, I could choose one of you to do anything that I wanted, and you’d have to do it.”
I raise a challenging eyebrow. “And if we don’t?”
Kyrin flicks the deck of cards between his fingers. “We’ve never had someone tap out before, so who knows, Little Dove. I guess it would put you in an awfully fragile situation.”
I gulp quietly so I don’t exhibit my fear. “What are the rules?” I ask, peeking at my cards. This was an awful idea.
Kyrin pours another glass of vodka, sliding it toward me. “You can’t ask the color, the family, or whether it’s an odd number.”
“What?” I gasp, ignoring the drink. “How am I supposed to figure out the card?”
“I guess you’re about to figure that out,” Keaton murmurs.
Kyrin places the rest of the cards into the middle of the table and turns to Keaton. He searches his eyes for a few seconds. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Black.”
“Really? I thought it was red.”
Keaton glares.
Kyrin chuckles. “King of hearts.”
Keaton flicks the card around, revealing the king of hearts.
“What? That’s impossible!” I don’t understand the dynamic of many card games, but I’m almost certain I have never seen one played like this.
Killian leans into me. “This will be hard for you because you’re new and we’re intimidating, but I’ll tell you a secret.” He leans in farther, close enough for me to feel his lips over my earlobe. “People usually display what they hold.”
I have no idea what that means.
“Stop fucking cheating, Kill,” King mutters, shaking his head.
“Hey! I mean, we’ve never had a girl in our group before. I’m just making sure she has a fair go. And man, we’ve thrown her into the deep end by playing sixers.”
“Bullshit.” Killian chuckles, glaring at me. “We’ve been playing this game since we we’re two years old.”
The silence spills out between the group.
“Two?” I ask, shocked. How could a two-year-old know how to play a game that I can’t play?
Keaton answers, “He’s kidding.” He says the words, but I don’t feel their truth.
They continue to go around the circle, and I watch as one after the other gets them right. King has the most cards stacked against him when it’s my turn to deal. I put the cards in the middle of the table.
“You gonna drink your drink?” Kyrin asks, nudging his head toward the glass.
“I don’t take drinks from strangers.”
“Huh.” Kyrin smiles. “Maybe that’s something we could learn. You know, don’t take humans who don’t belong to you.”
I wince, but not enough for any of them to notice.
My eyes flick to Killian who is on my left. He holds up his card, tapping it against his mouth. “Come on, Little Bird. You know you’ve got this.”
I have no idea what I’ve got, and this game is weird. I don’t know where to start or what I should ask.
“Ever kissed a stranger?” Not sure why that came out of my mouth, but I’ll go with it, because it’s Killian. What’s the worst that could happen?
“Take me to dinner before you fuck me, Little Bird.” He chuckles, hiding behind his card.
His left eye twitches.
I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. “I don’t know. Six of diamonds?”
“Wrong!” Killian flashes a ten of hearts.
“This game sucks,” I murmur, before realizing who is next.
Kingston stares at me flatly, his thick eyelashes fanning across his high cheekbones every time he blinks. His lips are the perfect size. Not too plump but not too thin. His face is in flawless symmetry, every feature perfect and aligned.
He holds my stare, the card tucked between his thumb and his pointer finger. He holds his drink in the other hand. I notice the leather bracelet on his wrist and the black ring on his finger.
Silence fills the space around us, and I swear I’m breathing loudly.
I blink slowly. “Ever been in love?”
He holds my stare, not so much as flinching. “Never.”
“Ever plan to?”
His jaw clenches. “Never.”
“Some might say you have a black heart.”
He cocks his head as the corner of his mouth kicks up an inch. It’s subtle, but I caught it. I carry on, my tongue swiping across my bottom lip. His eyes fall from mine to catch the movement before they come back up. Again, subtly. “Some might say…” I whisper. What the fuck am I doing? “That you’re an ace of spades.”
He stills. His eyes narrow on me, and everything around me ceases to exist. In this moment, it’s just him and me and our silent tug-of-war.
He tenses his jaw a few times and then flips the card around to face me.
Everything comes back into real time when the rest of the boys erupt into a fit of disbelief. There, between King’s fingers, is the ace of spades.