The Odds - Jeff Strand Page 0,30

kicks were already growing weaker.

“You’re allowed to leave now,” Rick said. “They’ll take care of everything.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t leave? Are you injured?”

Ethan couldn’t explain it. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to save the woman’s life, but walking out of the room while she was still being murdered seemed unspeakably cold hearted.

“No,” he said. “I mean, I am injured, but I can walk. They’re smothering the woman.”

“Oh, I know. I’ll call you back when you’re on your way home.”

Ethan wondered if the woman in the shallow grave would also have been eliminated, even if he’d dug her up in time. He saw no reason to ask. He was pretty sure he knew the answer.

The woman was barely struggling anymore.

She didn’t even know Ethan was there. Why didn’t he just leave the room? He sure as hell wasn’t bringing her any peace in his final moments.

He waited.

The woman stopped moving. The man kept the pillow pressed against her face.

“We’ll give it another minute or so,” he said.

Ethan looked away from the woman, instead seeing the blood-soaked body of the other player. He looked down at the floor instead.

“All right, she’s gone,” said the man, removing the pillow. “I’m going to need you to leave us to our business now.”

Ethan nodded and stood up.

“Hold up,” said the man. “I didn’t realize you’d been cut so bad. Let’s get you patched up before you go.”

“Thank you,” said Ethan, barely able to believe the words came out of his mouth.

11

The man in the facemask applied a generous amount of antiseptic to the wound on Ethan’s arm, and then taped gauze over it. “You’ll need to keep changing the dressing,” he said, giving Ethan a roll of additional gauze and some tape. “The cut isn’t that deep but you sure don’t want it to get infected.”

“What do I tell my wife?” Ethan asked.

The man shrugged. “I dunno. That’s your call. I’m just here to make sure you don’t lose your arm.”

Rick called as Ethan drove home. “Congratulations again,” he said. “I believed in you, even if you didn’t believe in yourself.”

“I never said I didn’t believe in myself. When did self-doubt become part of this? It’s like you’re trying to say generic inspirational stuff without even thinking about the context.”

“You’re being antagonistic again.”

“I watched a man get shot,” said Ethan. “And I don’t mean just shot in the chest, where his shirt could hide most of it, I mean I saw him take multiple bullet hits to the face. And then I watched an innocent old lady get smothered with a pillow. So yes, Rick, I’m feeling kind of rude right now.”

“Nobody forced you to watch the old lady die.”

“Eat my dick.”

“Just remember who’s on your side.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re besties, I’m sorry, I forgot. So I guess I’m not the only player, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Do I have to be worried that I’ll be told to murder somebody?” Ethan asked.

“I’d worry about a lot of things.”

“Great.”

“But you earned a point tonight, so I hope you feel good about yourself.”

“It’s like you keep setting me up to be rude to you. How do you think I’m going to respond to that? Do you think I’m going to thank you for showing me how amazing I can be?”

“I’m trying to make the best of what I know isn’t a high point in your life,” said Rick.

“I met you in Vegas,” said Ethan. “You followed me here to Kansas City. Where was the other guy from?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know.”

“Did you make him travel here?”

“I’m not answering those kinds of questions about the game.”

“I’d just like to know if I have to add sudden out of town trips to the list of things I have to lie to my wife about.”

“It can’t hurt to start thinking of cover stories.”

“When does the game end? How many rounds are there?”

“Do you really think I’m going to tell you that?” asked Rick.

“Sure. Why not? If somebody’s on Survivor they know that it’s thirty-nine days. You know what it takes to win Monopoly.”

“I guess that’s a fair point,” Rick admitted, “but I’m not authorized to tell you. All I can say is, go home and try to get a good night’s sleep.”

“Sure. No problem. It’s not like I saw anything that’ll give me a sleepless night.”

Everybody was in the living room when Ethan got home. Tim and Patrick were still playing the same video game, while Jenny sat on the couch reading a book, or at least