The Obsession (Filthy Rich Americans 2)

Royce asked it, although I suspected from his urgent tone he already knew the answer. “What happens when he catches someone?”

Macalister looked at me expectantly. He wanted me to say it out loud.

My voice was hollow. “He eats them.”

Royce’s eyes widened and his face turned an ugly shade of red. “No.”

“Be quiet.”

Macalister’s sharp voice might have silenced his son, but it had no effect on the loud voices in my brain. Royce had told me his father didn’t play a game unless he thought he was going to win. Macalister was taller than I was, which meant he had a longer stride. On the nights he couldn’t sleep, he ran on the treadmill. In a footrace, he’d beat me easily. And he believed I didn’t know the path out, at least not that well.

Even with all of that, it still didn’t seem like a guaranteed win for him.

“That’s it?” I spat the question out. “All I have to do is make it out of the maze before you catch me?”

Once again, a pleased look flashed through his expression. He understood I saw through his offer and needed to know the catch. “Before we start, I’ll be allowed to disorient you however I see fit.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Disorient me?”

My stomach became an arctic crevasse as his fingers went to the knot of his tie and worked it loose. The silk was the color of blood, and he unthreaded it painstakingly slow from his collar, coiling it over his hand.

“I’ll cover your eyes and turn you around. I’ll do things to make you lose your bearings.” With the tie gone, he undid the top button of his shirt, and an arrogant smile crept onto his face. “The game isn’t worth playing if I don’t have a fair chance to win.”

That definitely made it harder on me, but I’d spent so many afternoons memorizing every twist and turn, each statue decorating the dead ends, that I knew this maze. I could conquer it blindfolded.

And Macalister had no idea.

The risk was great, but the promise of freedom was so tantalizing . . . was it crazy to consider playing? I turned and glanced at Royce, who glared at his father with such contempt, it was breathtaking.

I swallowed down my nerves, pushed a wayward lock of hair out of my face, and prepared to negotiate. “I’m not saying yes, but if I were, I’d need a thirty-second head start.”

Macalister’s lips curled up into something too insidious to be called a smile. “Ten.”

The shift in Royce happened faster than a clap of thunder, and his desperate plea tore me in two. “Marist, don’t.”

The anger that radiated from Macalister was so hot, it invaded my senses with smoke. My mouth filled with ash. He glared back at his son. “If she doesn’t, I’ll strip you of your seat.”

Oh, God.

Two months ago, I’d stood in the rain in this hedge maze and told Royce I was going to destroy his life the way he’d done to me, and now I could execute that plan with terrible accuracy. He’d sold me out, and Macalister just presented me with the opportunity to do the same.

If I didn’t play his father’s ridiculous game, Royce would lose everything. The loss of his board seat had the same effect as castling in chess. It’d throw all the plans he’d spent his life building up to into chaos.

Pain twisted in my heart. I’d fought too hard and given up too much to get Royce that seat, but if I played the game and somehow lost . . . then we’d both lose.

The walls of the hedge maze closed in, their prickly branches tearing at my skin. The Minotaur was a much better fit for Macalister than Zeus. He wasn’t a god tonight—he was a monster pretending to be human.

Royce cemented back into his statue form, and his stricken face was haunting. He didn’t want to lose me, but he didn’t want to lose his position on the board either. It was clear all the same thoughts I’d had were running through his mind.

All, except for one.

I’m going to win.

I lifted my shoulders and puffed up my chest, trying to look as confident and intimidating as possible. It was laughable. I was thirty years younger than Macalister, a foot shorter, and wearing a summery gold dress with ballet flats. But I’d negotiated with him before, and I had to try now.

“I need a twenty second head start.”

He looked at me with the ruthless eyes of a Goliath CEO crushing a tiny competitor. “My offer is ten, and it’s final.”

There was no point in bluffing. He knew I wasn’t going to walk away. I took in a stilted breath as I repeated the deal. “All right. I escape the maze, and I’m free. You’ll stay out of my life and my relationship with Royce.”