Two

Cain

"You’re still thinking about it."

Cole didn’t even look up from the glass of scotch he was swirling. We were back at the townhouse, which was way too big for two people but exactly the right size for two Calloways. The floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the darker parts of campus, but honestly, all I could see was the reflection of my brother leaning against the kitchen island.

"I'm thinking about how my neck still hurts from sitting in that cheap wooden chair at the back of the room," I lied, tossing my keys onto the counter so the metal clattered and echoed too loudly in the quiet house.

"Liar," Cole said, his voice dropping into that smooth, knowing tone that usually meant he’d already won some argument I didn't even know we were having. "You’re thinking about the scholarship kid. The one with the cheap hoodie and the backbone made of steel."

I poured myself a drink, the amber liquid catching the light. I didn't want to admit it—I didn't want to tell Cole that I could still feel the way Eli had looked at me. It wasn't fear or the usual worship I got in this town, but pure, unadulterated annoyance. He looked at me like I was a fly he wanted to swat, and it was insulting, but also kind of exhilarating.

"He was just some kid, Cole. Rude, yeah, but just a kid."

"He's not just some kid, Cain, and you know it." Cole finally looked at me, his eyes dark and sharp. We had the same face, the same build, the same everything, but right then I could see the hunger in him, which was just a mirror of my own. "I want him."

The air in the kitchen shifted. We'd shared everything since the womb—cars, clothes, reputations, secrets. But we had never, not once in twenty-one years, wanted the same person. Our tastes usually branched off enough to keep things civil: I liked the chase, and Cole liked the capture.

"Funny," I said, leaning back against the fridge. "Because I was just sitting here thinking the exact same thing."

Cole totally stilled. He didn't blink or move a muscle. "That's a problem."

"Is it?" I tilted my head. I know my brother better than I know my own pulse, and I knew that look in his eye—he was already calculating, already figuring out the angles. "Or is it an opportunity?"

"A bet," Cole murmured, a slow, dangerous smirk spreading across his face.

"A bet," I agreed. "Whoever gets him first wins. Total submission, no half-measures, and the loser owes the winner something huge. Something that will actually hurt to give up."

Cole didn't hesitate, just held out his hand across the marble island. "Deal."

We shook on it. His grip was like iron, a silent promise that he wasn't going to play fair, but I didn't expect him to. We weren't built for fairness.

As we broke apart, I watched him walk toward the stairs. He didn't have to say his plan out loud for me to know what it was because Cole lived in the silences. He was going to loom, show up in Eli’s personal space, say absolutely nothing, and let the sheer weight of his presence wear the kid down. He'd wait for Eli’s heart rate to spike, wait for that physical tension to become unbearable until Eli broke just to make the pressure stop. Cole always thought the body would give in before the mind.

He was wrong. Especially about Eli.

I stayed in the kitchen long after Cole’s door clicked shut upstairs. I knew how I was going to do it because Eli wasn't the kind of guy you could just hover over until he snapped. He was a scholarship kid at a school for the elite, so he was used to being the underdog and used to people trying to intimidate him.

No, Eli needed to be understood. He needed someone to peel back all those defensive layers. I’d be the one who actually listened and found out why he looked so angry at the world, and then I’d show him that I was the only one who could handle that anger. I’d earn his trust, inch by painful inch, until he didn't even realize he’d handed me the keys to his entire life. I’d make him feel like we were the only two real people in this whole fake university.

By the time he realized I was playing a game, he’d already be totally in love with me.

I finished my drink, the ice clinking against the glass. I should have felt better now that the terms were set, I should have been focused on winning. But there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind, something I wouldn't even admit to Cole.

What if this didn't end with a winner?

I thought about how Eli had just turned back to his notes today, completely dismissing me. He wasn't just some prize to be won; he was like a fire that could actually burn us if we weren't careful. For the first time ever, I wondered if "winning" would cost more than I was willing to pay.

But then I pictured his face—the way his eyes snapped with defiance—and the doubt just vanished. I wanted that fire, and I wanted to be the one who owned it.

Cole could try his silent intimidation tactics all he wanted. He could stand in the shadows and hope for a physical reaction, but I was going to get inside Eli's head. And once I was in there, I was never leaving.

I headed upstairs, my footsteps light on the carpet. Tomorrow, the real work would start, and Eli would find out that the wrong chair was just the beginning of his problems.

I passed Cole’s room and saw the light still on under the door. He was probably sitting there, staring at a wall, already imagining Eli’s hands shaking when he got too close. He was so sure his way was the right way, and so sure he knew how this story ended.

I went into my own room and closed the door. I didn't turn on the light, I just stood by the window and looked out at the campus. Somewhere out there, in some cramped dorm room that probably smelled like cheap laundry detergent, Eli was sleeping and had no idea that his life had just become a scoreboard.

He had no idea that we were coming for him. Both of us.

And as I stood there in the dark, I realized I wasn't just thinking about the bet anymore. I wasn't just thinking about beating Cole or winning some stupid prize, I was thinking about the way Eli’s voice sounded when he told me to prove the chair was mine.

It was the most honest thing anyone had said to me in years.

I shouldn't have liked it. I should have hated him for it, but as I finally climbed into bed, all I could think about was seeing him again. Just to see if he’d do it again. Just to see if I could make him stop.

The loser owes the winner something huge, we’d said.

I just hoped I wasn't the one who ended up losing everything. Because as much as I knew Cole, and as much as I knew myself, I was starting to realize neither of us knew how to walk away from something we both wanted this badly. We were going to tear each other apart, and Eli was totally going to be the one holding the matches.

Fine by me. I’ve always liked the heat.

I closed my eyes, but I didn't fall asleep for a long time, and every time I did, I just saw those sharp, dark eyes looking up at me from the head of the table.

"Prove it," he’d said.

"Watch me," I whispered into the empty room.

The game was on. And God help anyone who got in the way, especially Eli, and especially my brother. Because when it came to something this perfect, I didn't know how to share, and I definitely didn't know how to lose.

I could feel the obsession starting to take root, deep and ugly and beautiful all at once. It wasnt just a bet, it was a war. And I had every intention of being the last man standing.

Even if it meant breaking my brother.

Even if it meant breaking myself.

Even if it meant breaking the only person who had actually looked at me and seen something other than a bank account.

Yeah. This was going to be fun.