by C.E. Wilson
Chapter Four
“Am I good, or am I amazing?” Archer asked when he heard rustling from the woods several minutes after Micah had left.
“You’re damn good,” Roderick said as he walked towards the now-extinguished firepit. “Though Micah did get a pretty good hit on me.”
“A small price to pay. Trust me, this is the best way to win Devony. She’s so innocent and naive that she won’t even realize she’s crossing a line by standing up for another man so much. Can you believe Micah actually took my advice?”
“I told you that you were good. Your words were so believable.”
“And just think, Roderick! Micah will be pestering Devony constantly and Devony will be bothering Capetown! There’s no way he’ll believe she’s just trying to help – he’ll think she has other intentions about wanting to keep Micah around.”
“What are you going to do?” Roderick asked.
“Me? I’m going to talk to Capetown and make sure he suspects Devony is up to no good. I’ll be sure to mention Devony’s flirting with him and hint that it’s why she’s working so hard to have him help out with the tournament. The harder Devony works to help Micah, the worse it’s going to look to Orion. And that, Roderick, is exactly what I plan on doing tomorrow.”
“I don’t know,” Roderick said, rubbing the back his neck. “This seems like a lot of work. My nose hurts like a bitch. I was thinking about giving this whole thing up.”
“Are you kidding? Don’t be so impatient! So you got nicked on the nose, it happens. Consider it a battle wound. What more could you want, Roderick? Orion no longer trusts Micah and that’s a good thing, so don’t you dare wuss out on me. We’re seeing this through to the end. Do you understand?”
“Sure,” Roderick said. “Is there anything else?”
“This is where my girlfriend is going to help us out,” Archer explained. “I’ll have her talk to Devony and make sure she knows Micah was wronged and has put in a lot of work for this tournament and shouldn’t be turned away because of some little fight. Plus, I’m going to have to spend a bunch of time talking to Capetown tomorrow. I have to make sure he sees Micah and Devony talking.”
“So that’s how it’s going to work?”
“That’s all, my friend. Not a bad plan, right? Time is the key. With the tournament tomorrow, Orion won’t have a lot of time to think because he’ll be so stressed. He’ll listen to anything I have to say because he trusts me now. We’ll have to move quickly, we can’t allow him time to think. I’ll talk to Capetown first thing tomorrow.”
“And me?”
“Sit back and don’t mess things up. Let me do what I need to.”
Act III
