Page 62 of Hard Game

Jesus Christ, not now.

“You should tell me about yourself before we’re raped to death or shot.”

I tune her out, refusing to let myself rise to her fury. I need to focus because if I know Tassa, every cage in this room will open very soon, and when it does, I need to move as fast as I can. There will be casualties, which I hate, but I had been counting on the police turning up. Speaking of which…didn’t Alastor say they’d arrived? My stomach sinks. He probably meant the bent cops that wouldn’t protect us. But then someone races down the metal staircase, muttering something in Alastor’s ear.

Alastor’s face changes, and he lifts his deadly glare at me. Then to the detective. “You bastard,” he hisses, backing away and racing for the stairs. “You’ll pay, Max, and so will your fucking family.”

Excellent. It’s happening.

“What’s going on?” Detective Diess demands from beside me as Alastor runs along the metal platform, disappearing behind the door he came from earlier.

I shrug. “I don’t know, Detective. Maybe he had to pee.”

Her fist connects with the back of my head, and white pain splinters through my vision. I roar my frustration, turning to grab her by the throat and slam her against the bars.

“What is wrong with you?!” I demand, my face inches from hers. “Why can’t you stop fucking hitting me?”

“Because I’m in a cage in a trafficking lair because of you!” She sobs, shoving me in the chest. “I’ve been kidnapped, raped?—”

“I know that,” I say, releasing her. “But you have to fucking trust me, Lauren! Why don’t you fucking trust me? I didn’t kidnap you, and I didn’t rape you; in fact, when we did stuff, you shot me!”

Despite everything, she laughs, but it’s gone too as quickly as it came. She shoves me again. “So? I wanted to lock these bastards up, but instead of letting me shoot to injure, you dragged me into a cage!”

“He’d have killed every fucking woman in here!” I snap back, red, blurring the edges of my vision. “Someone’s sister, daughter, mother…cousin!”

She stares at me, her chest heaving.

“I couldn’t risk that, and I won’t risk you. Fucking trust me.”

I realize I’ve used her name for the second time today. Lauren. I love the way it feels on my tongue. It tastes almost as good as she does.

“How can I trust you when I don’t even know who you are?” Detective Lauren Diess stares at me, her eyes streaming. “And so far, your plan has us locked in a cage surrounded by armed men. So what next, huh?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and turn away from her, urging Tassa to come through for me. I don’t doubt Tassa, but she could be overpowered if she lost her vision, maybe if one of them knew who she was and taunted her with Zia’s death…

Don’t think like that.

Tassa has been here before, maybe not on this scale, fuck, but she’s no stranger to these men and their sick perversions.

“Trust me.”

“So you keep saying, and I’d rather not,” Lauren snaps, shooting me a scathing look.

“Is this our first tiff?” I mutter, and she practically growls at me.

“Fuck you.”

“Anytime, but could you not shoot me next time?”

“I swear to God, Max?—”

My heart stings when she uses my real name. I can’t be Max; I can’t think of my family, the family Alastor just threatened. The family that thinks I deserted them. They weren’t far wrong.

“Call me Maddox,” I say, twisting my head to look at her beautiful face, puffy eyes, and swollen lips. The bruises on her throat make my stomach twist with agony, and I physically wince at the thought of what she’s been through. “No one will touch you again, I swear it.”

She says nothing but flattens her lips and stares at the ground.

“I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t there. I wasn’t quick enough; I had to take care of Bernie and some others. I’m sorry, Lauren.”

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