If there’s someone other than the players and the game makers on this island… Gigi’s mind went back to the contents of the bag she’d found. “The knife,” she said urgently.
If someone had snuck a knife onto the island—
“I have to tell them,” Gigi blurted out. “Avery. The Hawthornes.” She made it two steps toward the emergency button before Brady caught her. She didn’t realize at first why his hands were on her shoulders, why he’d stopped her.
“You can’t tell them, Gigi.”
She stared at Brady. “I have to t—”
“You’re not telling anyone a damn thing, pixie dust,” Knox growled.
Gigi frowned. “Pixie dust?” That probably wasn’t the important thing here, but still.
“Nicknames,” Knox said, sounding almost defensive. “You said mine needed work.” Catching himself, he scowled. “And if you press that button, if you tell the game makers any of this, what do you think happens next? What happens to the second annual Grandest Game?”
The game was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be mind-bending and awe-inspiring, the challenge of a lifetime. It was supposed to be safe.
“They wouldn’t cancel it,” Gigi said.
“Are you sure about that?” Knox jerked his head toward Brady. “Because his mother is the best woman I have ever known, and not all of us
have trust funds to fall back on.”
That hurt, but it was true. Gigi looked down. “I can help. I already told Brady—”
Shifting the sword to his left hand, Brady put his right hand under Gigi’s chin and lifted her eyes to his. “The way you help,” he said gently, “is by saying nothing. Knox is right. We can’t run the risk that they’ll cancel the game. If there is someone on this island who shouldn’t be here, there’s no way that person is coming anywhere near this house unless they want to be caught. Besides which…” Brady’s gaze shifted to Knox. “If there is an unknown sponsor in play, that sponsor’s goal is to win a bet against a bunch of other rich people with too much time and money on their hands, not to go after anyone.”
“But the knife,” Gigi said.
“Is in your possession,” Brady finished, bringing his eyes back to hers. There was something about the way he looked at her, something so unexpectedly raw, that Gigi remembered that the thing that made Brady happy was his mama’s dog.
And his mama. The game had to go on. In the morning, once their team had made it down to the dock and on to the next phase of the competition, Gigi would find a way to talk to Avery one-on-one, really talk to her. She’d come clean about everything, and she’d make sure that the heiress took care of Brady’s mother, one way or another. But for now…
Gigi would do what she’d come here to do. She’d play. “I figured something out.” Gigi stepped back from Brady’s touch. “About the riddle. A horse named Lily or Rose is a mare.”
Brady turned back to the wall. “A mare.”
“Wait.” Knox held out a hand. “Where’s the bug?” “The bug?” Gigi said innocently.
“What did you do with it?” Knox demanded, scanning her hands.
“I tucked it in my cleavage, next to my pen.” Gigi shrugged. “I mean, I don’t really have cleavage, but it is a locationally helpful term.”
Knox kneaded his forehead and bared his teeth. “Someone could be listening to us right now.”
Gigi shrugged again. “And yet, the bug is in my cleavage, and I’m betting neither of you is going to go after it, so there we are.”
Brady cocked his head to the side.
“Don’t,” Knox warned sharply, then shifted to what he likely thought was a pleasant tone. “Why would you want to stay bugged?” he asked Gigi. “Why not just crush it and be done with it?”
Because Xander might need it intact to trace its source.
“Because I don’t think this necklace was meant for me,” Gigi realized, and after saying it, she suspected it was true. “And of course, the nefarious parties would expect us to destroy it. I’m nothing if not optimistically contrary, so I won’t.”
Brady considered this, crossing his arms and studying her like a rare book. He gave a subtle nod, accepting whatever he saw.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Knox muttered.
“A horse named Lily or Rose is a mare,” Brady said, echoing her earlier insight.
“Take it line by line?” Gigi suggested, turning back to the riddle on the wall. “Before fall…”
“After the center,” Knox added grudgingly. Brady continued, “In front of a mare.”
“I think ‘coolness in shadow’ probably means ‘shade,'” Gigi said.
“Look at the modifiers,” Brady said, placing his palm flat on the wall beside the first line of the riddle. “Before.” He moved his hand down to the next line. “After this…” He skimmed his palm over the second line, then down to the third. “And that.”
Gigi scanned down further. “In front of this or that.”
“Before, after, in front of.” Knox swore under his breath. “We’re looking for a word.”
“One that can go before fall,” Gigi said. “In front of mare or shade.” And there it was.
“You were right, kid,” Knox told Gigi. “Not bad at all was good.”
“And the center,” Gigi replied, grinning so hard her cheeks hurt, “is the
mid.”
Fall.
Mid.
Good.
Mare.
Shade.
Brady laid a hand on Gigi’s shoulder and smiled. Not a small smile. Not
a subtle one. A something-to-behold, earth-shattering, hope-you-don’t-ever- want-to-breathe-again kind of smile.
“You’re the one who unlocked this,” Brady said. “You make the call.”
A rush of energy coursed through Gigi’s body like a tidal wave—or a dozen of them. Maybe it was solving the riddle. Maybe it was that smile. Either way, she practically tap-danced her way to the phone booth.
Behind her, she heard Knox, his voice low: “What the hell are you doing, Daniels?”
Brady’s reply wasn’t nearly so quiet. “Being human. You should try it.” Gigi picked up the pay phone. “The answer is night.”
