“I don’t think he gets to come in the bed yet though,” Julian said. “Can we at least be fair about that?”

“Agreed,” Michael said. “He gets his own bed.”

Rob looked at all of us as if he had definitely gotten in over his head. But regardless, he still didn’t let go of my hand, so that was a good sign at least.

The next topic of discussion, which was a welcome diversion from the heated and intimate subject of my affections for all of the guys and their subdued jealousy over it, was about David and the drug operation that he had going on at the school. We explained everything that had happened to Rob, at least all of the pertinent parts that he needed to know about. And in turn, he shared everything he knew about what was going on outside of the campus. Turned out that David had even more control and power over the city than my father had.

He was making more money than my father could have ever even dreamed of thanks to the manufacturing, trafficking, and the built-in user base.

Word had spread way past the campus walls, and he was even distributing to thousands of people in the city that had heard about David’s new drug through word of mouth. “Prisma” was now the hottest new drug of choice among not only just the college-aged crowd but most of their parents too. David had plans to buy out the whole city, including Rob’s agency, which was why he found a way to get an assignment here and see what he could find out before he was blocked from doing so.

That news was particularly disturbing because it meant that the five of us were now entirely on our own.

There was no help coming from law enforcement or city government or anyone else in Charlotte. David had reached them all first, and with either the promise of drugs or money or power, he had gotten everyone in the city to come into the fold with him. There was literally no one else we could trust outside of the five of us.

“So, what good is this investigation even doing anyone then?” Julian asked. “Honestly, I’m not trying to be a dick just because you came and added to the group of guys that’s trying to steal my girl away from me, but I really want to know. If there’s no support from anyone back at your agency, then even if you’re able to get some intel on David and prove that he’s running this giant illegal drug operation, how does it help?”

“It’s a fair question,” Rob said. “At first, I honestly didn’t know how it would help or even what I would find here. But when I started seeing just how bad things were getting, I kind of made a vow to myself that I would handle it.”

“You would handle it?” Michael laughed. “Sorry, but let me give you fair warning here. You can’t go up against David alone. Trust me when I say that we’ve tried and failed more times than I’d like to admit. Why do you think we’re all still here? David has an entire army of guards and cronies that do his bidding, and they are all ruthless thugs. He has reach across the country and he has a violent vengeance and inferiority complex that you would not believe until you see it for yourself. If there was any chance of us being able to get the hell out of here and survive it, believe me when I tell you that we would in a heartbeat. I admire your audacity, but there’s no way to go up against David and his henchmen vigilante style and survive.”

“Michael?” I asked before anyone else could start talking again. “Did you mean what you said about getting out of here if we could?”

He nodded. “Yes of course, why?”

“Even if it meant giving up on the thought of revenge against David and giving up on trying to bring down his whole operation and bring him to justice?”

“Yes, Lisette. All I want to do now is get us out of here. I don’t care about any of the rest of it anymore. It’s too big for us to handle and I just want us to be able to escape and find a life somewhere else. I think that’s what we all want, right?”

I looked around at the rest of the guys and they all seemed to be in agreement.

“Okay then,” I said. “Then, there’s something else that I need to tell you.”

And I figured now was the time to tell the boys about the ‘game’ David was playing with me.

11

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Adam asked as I went to sit beside him on the couch. As he put his arm around my shoulder, I leaned against his chest. It was one of my favorite positions, to lean against Adam’s chest and feel the rise and fall of his breaths while he held me.

“I couldn’t,” I said. “David warned me that if I told any of you about the perverse rules of his little game, that he would kill all of you.”

“Then why tell them now?” Rob asked as he handed his glass to Michael for another pour of whiskey.

It was actually pretty impressive how quickly all the guys seemed to come onto the same side of things.

“When I heard that the Winter Gala was going to be a masquerade party it got me thinking that there might be some possibility for escape in that scenario. I was trying to think of a way to do it myself without having to tell you about David’s game and his threats, but I just wasn’t coming up with anything on my own. Then tonight, with all of us on the same page now and with the knowledge that David’s reach is over the entire city, I just thought that it was worth the risk to tell all of you and see if we could find a way out of this together.”

Michael walked over and knelt down in front of the couch.

“Lisette, you can always tell us anything. Please don’t keep something like this a secret again. We can’t help you if we don’t know the whole picture. And we’re big boys, David doesn’t scare us.” He kissed me and I felt the instant relief of not having to keep that dreadful secret anymore.

“Alright, so what do we do?” Julian asked.

“Let’s look at all the factors here,” Michael said. “We’ve got the Winter Masquerade Gala, that’s one night coming up where everyone will be costumed, likely drunk, and the auditorium will be crowded and more than likely under heavy security. David will be distracted by his ego being stroked by all of the people who have come to celebrate at the big party that he’s throwing.”

Rob interjected. “You can be sure that there will be some sort of mass distribution of his new drug at this party.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Michael agreed.

“So we’ve got costumes, distractions, and drugs. So far that’s a pretty good mix for an escape,” Adam said.

“Agreed. But we’ve also got David waiting for Lisette’s decision on his little game. If she doesn’t have an answer for him, he’ll know we’re up to something.”

“But I don’t have an answer for him,” I said.

“That’s why we need to come up with one,” Michael continued. “We’ll play David’s game. Choose someone to leave with, tell him the name of one of us that you’ll sacrifice, and then one of us can escape with Rob in his car. You’ll be able to get out of there with whoever it is that you’ve chosen. We’ll fake the death of the second one. Essentially it will get us all out together at the same time. We’ll all meet Rob at his car, and he’ll drive like hell until we’ve put enough distance between us.”

“Sounds like as good a plan as any,” Rob said.

“Are you sure you want to get caught up in all of this?” I asked him.

“I already am,” Rob smiled at me.

“Tomorrow,” Michael said. “Go tell David that you’ll announce your choice for his game on the night of the gala. The party is only a few more days away, until then we’ll just all keep our heads down. Rob you go to your grad classes and act like a student and we’ll keep acting like advisors. Lisette, you can play up being really upset about having to make the decision but just make sure you let David believe your freedom means more to you than any of us do. That should sell the whole thing. When the night of the gala gets here, we’ll be ready to go.”

“This might just be crazy enough to work,” Adam said.

“I sure as hell hope so,” Julian said. “Because if it doesn’t, we’re all dead.”

After ironing out a few more details, everyone got pretty tired and ready to head to bed. Rob stood up and started to leave toward the stairwell.

“You aren’t going to stay?” I asked as I walked toward him while the other guys got ready for bed.

“No, not yet,” he said. “I think I should still keep an eye on the student body a bit to make sure those drugs don’t start making them go really off the rails. Plus, Julian is right. I haven’t earned my place in the bed yet.” Rob winked at me teasingly.

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“Sure.”

“Have you slept with all three of them?”

“Yes, I have. I know it might seem strange to you, but I love them all. I tried not to at first, and I think they tried too. But we just couldn’t stay away from each other.”

“How do you feel about me?” Rob asked.

“I don’t know yet,” I answered truthfully.