A Month Of Wild Games

003:The Price of Trust

Cara’s heart raced as the shadowy figure stepped fully into the room. He was tall, dressed in black from head to toe, his face partially obscured by a dark mask. His presence was as commanding as the cold steel of a weapon, and Cara’s instincts told her she couldn’t trust him.

Michael’s expression darkened when he saw the figure, but he didn’t seem surprised. Instead, he stood still, almost resigned to whatever was about to happen.

“Who the hell are you?” Cara demanded, taking a cautious step back. Her hand instinctively gripped the edge of the table, her mind whirling with questions. “What’s going on here? Why did you come?”

The man’s voice was low and gravelly, but there was no warmth in it. “I’m the one who makes sure you survive this, Cara. Z isn’t the only one playing games. We are too. You’re a pawn in his world now, but I’m here to make sure you’re still breathing when this is all over.”

Cara’s breath hitched as the weight of his words settled in. Pawn. Survive. This wasn’t just a game. This was war.

“You don’t trust him,” Michael said, his voice steady but full of an undercurrent of tension. “But you’re going to have to. He’s here to help.”

“Help?” Cara scoffed, disbelief flooding her chest. “This is help? You bring in some masked stranger and expect me to just… trust him?”

The man stepped closer, his sharp eyes scanning her, then shifting to Michael. “Trust me, I’d rather not be here either. But this is the mess we’re in. Z’s not the only player in this game, Cara. And if you want any chance of surviving the next few days, we need to move. Now.”

A chill ran down her spine. She didn’t know who to fear more: the masked stranger in front of her or the shadowy manipulator named Z. Both were unknowns—both were dangerous.

Cara shook her head, trying to regain some control of the situation. “I’m done with all this. I’m walking away. You two can fight this out, but I’m not—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the masked man reached forward and grabbed her arm, his grip tight but not painful. “You don’t get to walk away, Cara,” he said, his tone cold. “Z knows everything about you. He’s been watching you, tracking your every move. And right now, there’s no running. You’re already too deep.”

Michael moved quickly, his expression hardening. “He’s right. You can’t run from this. But you can fight it. With us. We can fight back if we work together.”

The tension in the room grew thicker, and Cara’s breath became shallow. Her head was spinning, and she wanted to scream, to push them both away. But she knew, deep down, there was no way out. She had already been drawn into a game far darker than she could have ever imagined.

“Then tell me,” she demanded, her voice rising with a dangerous edge, “what the hell do you want from me? What do you want me to do?”

The masked man released her arm and stepped back, his eyes studying her with an almost clinical detachment. “We want you to play the game. Z has plans for you. He wants you to make a choice. But you don’t have to do what he says. We can offer you another way out.”

Cara swallowed hard. “Another way out? And what’s the catch?”

Michael didn’t answer immediately, his gaze flicking to the stranger before turning back to her. “The catch is that it’s dangerous. If you make the wrong move, there’s no coming back from it.”

She clenched her fists, determination rising in her. She couldn’t just give up. She had survived too much already.

“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “Tell me what I need to do.”

The masked man nodded, as if he had been waiting for her to give in. “There’s a meeting tonight. Z will be there, and so will you. You’ll play his game, but you’ll play by your own rules.”

“And what if I can’t?” she asked, her voice quiet but firm. “What if I’m not strong enough?”

“You are,” Michael said quietly, his eyes softening just slightly. “I believe in you, Cara. You’ve always had the strength. You just have to remember how to use it.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes. There was a vulnerability there that she hadn’t seen in years, and for a fleeting moment, it almost felt like things could go back to the way they used to be. But then the reality of their situation crashed back in.

Z was playing a game, and Cara was the piece in the middle.

Just as Cara is about to step outside, she sees something that makes her blood run cold—a black SUV parked across the street, its engine running. Inside, a man in a suit is watching her through the tinted window. His cold gaze is unmistakable. It’s Z’s eyes.

Cara’s gaze locked onto the SUV across the street. Her heart skipped a beat. There was no mistaking it—the man in the car wasn’t just someone passing by. He was watching her. Waiting for something.

She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“That’s him,” she whispered, barely able to believe it. Z. She could feel his eyes on her, even from a distance. It was as if his presence suffocated the air around her.

Michael’s eyes flicked to the window, his jaw tightening. “Don’t look at him. He wants you to,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “You need to focus. Now.”

Cara tore her eyes away from the SUV, but the image of Z’s cold, calculating gaze lingered in her mind. The chill that ran through her bones was deeper than fear. It was a warning. A signal that her life had taken a turn into the unknown.

“I need to get out of here,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. “I can’t do this. Not with him watching me.”

Michael stepped closer, his hand gripping her arm with unexpected force. “You have no choice,” he said, his voice hard, but there was an undercurrent of something softer—maybe even regret. “Z’s already made his move. You’re a part of this now. Whether you like it or not.”

The masked man shifted, his gaze never leaving Cara. “We’ve been trying to protect you,” he said, his voice cool and detached. “But we can’t shield you forever. You need to decide where you stand.”

Cara looked from one man to the other. Michael’s eyes were filled with something she couldn’t quite place. Regret? Fear? She wasn’t sure. And then there was the masked stranger—his emotions unreadable, but the certainty in his voice left no room for negotiation.

“I can’t be a pawn in someone else’s game,” she said, her voice shaking with frustration. “You want me to just sit here and wait for him to strike? I won’t do it.”

Michael took a step back, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “You think you have a choice? Z controls everything. He knows your every move, your every weakness. But you do have power, Cara. Your choices are the only thing you can still control.”

The weight of his words hit her hard. The realization that her life was no longer hers to direct—a pawn in a game of which she had no rulebook—settled deep in her gut. She had no illusions anymore. Whatever Z had planned for her, it wasn’t going to be easy. And maybe it wasn’t just her survival that was at stake anymore.

Cara turned to the masked man, her gaze fierce. “And you? What do you get out of this? Helping me? What’s in it for you?”

The masked man paused, his eyes glinting beneath the shadow of his hood. “I’m here to make sure this game doesn’t end in Z’s favor. But you’ll find out soon enough that I have my own reasons for doing this.”

A shiver ran down Cara’s spine as his words hung in the air. She didn’t trust him. She couldn’t. But right now, she didn’t have much of a choice. The danger felt too close, too real, to do anything else.

She looked at Michael, eyes narrowing. “If I’m doing this… then we need to be clear about one thing.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You and I are not allies. Not yet. If you want me to trust you, you’re going to have to prove that you’re not just another puppet in this twisted game.”

Michael’s eyes flashed with something dangerous—something far more intense than she’d ever seen before. “Fine,” he said, his tone raw. “But you’d better understand something, Cara. I’m not here to protect you. I’m here to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.”

Her pulse quickened. There was no sugarcoating it. There was no happily-ever-after waiting for her. This was going to be a fight—against Z, against herself, and against everything she thought she knew.

As Cara stepped back toward the door, her phone buzzed again. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the name on the screen. It wasn’t Z. It wasn’t Michael. It was an unknown number.

Her thumb hovered over the screen before she swiped to open the message.

“I can help you. You don’t have to trust them. But you have to trust me. – A”

Michael’s eyes narrowed as he watched her read the message. “Who is it?”

Cara hesitated, her fingers trembling. “I don’t know… but I’m going to find out.”

Just as she starts to type a reply, she hears the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching the door. The masked man’s hand shot out to stop her, his face hard. “Don’t open that door. Whatever happens next, you need to trust me.”

But Cara’s instincts screamed at her. The world outside was closing in, and she could feel the suffocating pressure of the game surrounding her.

And then, the doorknob turned.