Page 100 of How to Kill Your Rival

‘Well, you sound all right,’ I say.

He rolls his wrists when I cut the zip ties. Checking himself over.

‘You took your time,’ he says. ‘I’m dying for a piss. They only let me go twice a day. Worse than school.’

I stare at him.

‘Took my time?’ I ask. ‘We’ve busted our arse this week to get your emo backside home.’

He shrugs. ‘Still took bloody ages.’

‘Fraser. I burned a house down. There was a warehouse up to the gunwales with dildos. James nearly got strangled⁠—’

‘That’s an exaggeration,’ James says from across the room.

Fraser’s shoulders drop, and he pulls me into a hug, holding on a little tighter than I think he ever has before.

‘Go have your pee,’ I say, shoving him towards the bathroom.

‘Legs working?’ James says.

‘Bit stiff, but I can walk to the can.’

After his toilet trip, we get him to the car, dumping him in the back.

‘Is there food?’ Fraser says. ‘I’m absolutely starving.’

‘Probably some mints in the door somewhere,’ James says.

‘That’s not food.’

‘It’s all I’ve got until I get to the services.’

Fraser considers it. ‘I’ll take them, but I definitely want a burger. No, two. Maybe three.’

I look at James and smile.

We got him.

‘Can someone explain the dildo warehouse? That’s the bit I most want to hear about.’ Fraser pops a mint in his mouth and looks at me expectantly.

32

JAMES

The burger is damned good.

I feel like we’ve barely eaten for the past five days, between worry and progress. The last thing I ate was likely my cum from Eliza’s thighs.

Protein? Yes. A balanced meal? Not so much.

Eliza is driving while I try very hard to be a good passenger princess and not a backseat driver.

‘We should probably call Maggie,’ Eliza says, not taking her eyes off the road. The sun is rising in the distance, which means it’s not too early to phone.

‘What for?’ Fraser asks.

‘Oh, I don’t know, to let her know you’re not headless in some shallow grave somewhere.’ Eliza shoots him the kind of look that only siblings have perfected.