“You have been a naughty little girl,” Maddox said as he pulled up a chair and spun it around to lean his torso against the chair back when he sat down. “You have been digging around and sticking your nose into places it shouldn’t be.”

“Can’t be helped,” I replied, folding my arms and crossing my legs. The chain attaching my right ankle to the floor rattled noisily. “It’s my job to snoop around where I shouldn’t.”

“Heh, I like your spunk,” He placed six guns on the table between us and flashed me a devious smile. “How about we play a little game? After all, your punishment for jeopardizing my company’s reputation might as well be amusing to me.”

I arched an eyebrow. “A rigged version of Russian Roulette? Doesn’t sound very fun.”

“Rigged? What could make you think that?”

“You know which one is loaded,” I commented flatly. “After all, you’re the one who brought them in here and placed them on the table. It’s less risky than a single gun with one bullet on your part.”

Maddox got an irritated twitch under his eye. “Well, aren’t you a clever one? And here I was hoping to see you cry and tremble as you fearfully hold a gun to your head. How unamusing. Why don’t I give you a sliver of hope that you can beat me? Ladies first. If you guess right, I’ll be stuck with the unlucky bullet.”

I looked at the guns and picked one up before pointing it at him. “Then what’s to stop me from doing this?”

“Nuh, uh, uh. That’s against the rules little lady. If you try to shoot me, I’ll grab the loaded one and shoot you first. I’d hate to cut our little game short, so play fair.”

Rolling my eyes, I held the gun to my temple and squeezed the trigger. Click.

“Not even a flinch…” Maddox commented as he copied me. Click. “You must be the bravest or craziest girl I’ve ever met.”

“Your reaction from when I pointed it at you told me that gun was safe,” I picked another. “And judging your eye movements, I bet this one is safe too.” Click.

Maddox frowned. Click. “I don’t like this cocky attitude you’re getting. There’s two left. Which will you choose?”

I picked up the two guns, comparing their weight. “This game is double rigged. You loaded two of the guns. That way if I did try to shoot you with a loaded gun, you had a backup. Also, even if I guessed right the first two times, both would have bullets the final round.”

A dark look crossed Maddox’s face as he stood up and tried to grab a gun from me.

“And that reaction confirms my theory,” I said, aiming with my left hand at his head and my right at the chain bolted to the floor. I fired. The chain broke and the ricochet bullet shattered a nearby light. I kept the remaining gun trained on Maddox as I maneuvered to the exit. “I will admit, this little game of yours was rather fun after all, but you need to work on that poker face of yours. I’ll accept a rematch if we meet again.”

With that, I slipped out the door and made my escape into the shadows of the night.