These Games We Play

chapter fifty six: The drop

Oren and the arctic specialist got me back to True North in impressive time. Eli and another guard were waiting outside when we got there.

"Do a sweep of the perimeter," Oren told his men. "If anyone needs a reminder that this is private property, feel free to provide it."

"I guess that's it for skiing," I said. In theory, that was a good thing. I now had an excuse to stay at True North, to do what I'd come to do. "A win for me and my fear of heights because I am never going on the ski lift again."

I took my skis off. Grayson did the same, and we headed inside, but before we made it to the back door, a clump of snow fell down from the roof, right at our feet. I looked up just in time to see Jameson dropping. He landed beside me on skis, no poles in sight.

"Nice entrance," Grayson told him dryly. I rolled my eyes.

"I try." Jameson smiled, and then he brandished an object in his hands. It took me a second to realize that it was a picture frame. Why is he holding a picture frame? This was Jameson Hawthorne. We'd come here for a reason. I knew why. My heart jackrabbited.

"Is that...," I started to say. Jameson shrugged.

"What can I say? I really am just that good." He lazily placed the frame in my hand, then turned to grab a pair of ski poles leaning against the side of the house.

"And I challenge you," he told Grayson, "to a Drop."

☆☆☆☆

I had no idea what a drop was and I didn't want to find out. Instead, I focused on the picture frame. The picture in the frame was one I'd seen on the stairs, of all three of Tobias Hawthorne's children. Jameson hadn't provided any information before taking off, but as I walked down the interior stairs toward the basement, I turned the frame over in my hands and saw the image carved into the back. The face of a compass.

I was so engrossed in what I was looking at that I almost ran into Rebecca. And Thea.

Thea and Rebecca, I realized, taking a step back. The former had the latter pressed up against the wall of the stairwell. Rebecca's hands were on the sides of Thea's face. Thea's hair looked like it had been torn from its ponytail.

They were kissing.

The last words I'd heard them exchange rang in my ears. Some things are unforgivable. People aren't perfect. Thea noticed me but didn't pull back from the kiss until Rebecca's green eyes went almost comically wide, and even then Thea took her sweet time stepping back.

"Eva." Rebecca sounded mortified. "This isn't-"

"Any of your business," Thea finished, her lips lifting up on the ends.

I sidestepped both of them. "Agreed." This star-crossed-and probably ill-advised-make-out session was not my concern.

The frame in my hand was. So, I made my way down the rest of the staircase, a woman on a mission. On the lower level, I found Cam on Xander's shoulders, inspecting the blades of a fan. With Lia watching compeltly amused.

"He's very tall," Cam told me approvingly. "And he's only dropped me once!"

"Don't worry," Lia told me, "I got plenty of pictures."

Thea and Rebecca came into the room behind me. Xander shot them a look, but I stayed on task.

"Jamie gave me this." I held up my bounty and sat down on an oversized suede chair.

"A picture frame from the stairwell." I placed it face down on my lap. "Look at the back." Cam dismounted, and everyone crowded around me.

"Take the back off the frame," Xander said immediately. I looked up at him.