Page 8 of At Their Mercy: Part I

I scratched the side of my head.

He chuckled. “It’s okay. You don’t have to confirm. I just remembered it’s been a topic at Macklin and Walker’s. We had dinner there at some point, and it was mentioned in passing—and Walker was like, ‘Well, we pretend it’s their birthday, at any rate.’”

Ah.

Made sense, I supposed. Many of the guys out here had known the Tenleys far longer than I had. Of course they had their own theories and knowledge.

“Don’t tell anyone,” I requested.

He shook his head and removed his shoes. “It’s none of my business anyway. But I get it. I’d be fucking furious if I found out Ty had lied about his birthday to me.”

Exactly.

The doors opened over on the patio, and four members came out with towels and drinks. I didn’t know them, so I didn’t have to pretend to be social. I was fairly sure they belonged to the bondage crowd, though.

We weren’t feeling the worst of the summer heat yet, but May was still warm enough to kick-start all the usual summer activities. More people in the pool, the grills running hot most nights, and more members gathering on the patio.

“Don’t you work from home, by the way?” I asked.

Lane nodded. “Yup.”

“So, why do you dress up?” I was curious.

If I worked from home, I’d wear what I was wearing right now. Sweats and a tee.

“Structure,” was his simple response. “It’d be too easy for me to turn into a couch potato.”

I loved couches and I loved potatoes. I didn’t see the issue.

“I try to start my day with a gym session,” he went on. “Then I shower and put on clothes. I work. I try to go out for lunch too.” He shrugged.

We were not the same.

He wasn’t some fancy Suit or anything, but he definitely pulled off the preppy look. With the nice pants, the leather shoes, the blazer… He wore one of those Ralph Lauren polo shirts underneath.

His ink spoke of that other side to him, though. The primal prey with hedonistic tendencies who hunted pythons in the Everglades. His arm had a full sleeve that consisted of nothing but snake scales.

It was sexy as hell.

Sometimes, he paired it with black-framed glasses.

I may have indulged in a fantasy or two.

In my defense, River and Reese had brought it up more than once. They wanted to see me with Lane, Macklin, and Tate.

“Any news on the latest prank?” he asked.

Well…

“You mean with the weird app countdown and interrogations?”

He nodded.

I shook my head. “Not that I know of.”

Penelope had saved my ass at the last Game. I’d been embarrassingly close to blowing my cover when Ash and KC had interrogated me.

In retrospect, I was in way over my head. I’d thought I was ready to play with the big boys, but evidently not.