Page 41 of Cruel Debts
"I think you guys need to remember who you're talking to here," she growled, eyes narrowed to damn near slits. "Who the boss is in this house of horrific killers and crazies."
"And I thinkyouneed to remember who works for you," Asher said with a snarl, leaning over the table. "Who you hired to do your dirty work."
"I'm well aware I hired a bunch of unstable lunatics and men with questionable pasts. The point still stands: you're not incharge here. I am." Lilly cleared her throat, her eyes drifting to her closet. "The rules are the rules, and I can't change them for you because you're the founding crew and I like you. If I start showing favoritism, I'll lose all credibility in this joint. And I don't have time to rebuild."
"I don't care what you do or don‘t have, St. Clair," I said with a snarl. "I don't want this girl underfoot anymore, which means we have to take out the bastard who's after her. And that means you're going to have to divulge some of the moresensitive informationpertaining to the contract and the employer."
"Your employer isme,"she said back, sizing me up pointedly. "The conversation is over. If you have other, unorthodox ways of obtaining the information you need, well, then I won't stop you from using them. But you're not getting it out of me."
I had the feeling she already knew we had resources she didn't know about, that this was her way of encouraging us to go around her without actually coming out to say it.
That was all the permission I needed, honestly.
“Fine. You don’t wanna give us the info we need, we’ll just have to get it ourselves.” I stood, motioning for the others to follow me out of the office. They remained silent, only a step behind me, until finally, once we rounded the main foyer into the halls, Asher put a hand out to stop me.
”What gives, Hawke?”
Liam poked me in the side and frowned, standing shoulder to shoulder with Asher. “Yeah, what’s the deal? You know damn well we need that intel?—"
”She didn’t say no,” I pointed out, hoping they’d get it and I wouldn’t have to spell it out for them. “What she said was in between the lines, boys. You just have to learn tolisten.”
They stared blankly at me until something clicked in Asher’s empty head. “Ohhhh,” he drawled, his brows lifting until theyran into the hairline of his perfect face. “I see what you’re saying.”
”I don’t,” Liam growled, but he shrugged it off. “As long as someone does, I suppose it’s fine. Fill me in if and when you need to.”
I was pretty sure I could get the intel I needed from the club. Trinity's employer knew something, but she wasn't talking, and if all three of us rolled up at once, there was no way we were getting what we needed out of her.
Asher was too business-forward. Liam didn't want to know.
But me?
I was a regular there. Going back for some sex, as a casual customer on mask night? Well, that wouldn't arouse any suspicions.
Just me.
Asher,when I finally told him my plans for the night, was not impressed with the ideas running through my tiny, stupid brain, as he so eloquently called it.
"Trinity's gonna be pissed if she finds out."
I shrugged, already thinking further ahead. "Doesn't matter. It needs to be done, and she's a liability there. Can't drag her with me, or the ladies won't talk. And they're the ones with all the good intel, and you know it."
I was right. He knew it, I knew it, hell,Trinitywould know it if she stopped to think about it. But telling her would make her start her crusade to return to work. And if I was busy babysitting her, I couldn't do my damn job.
Keeping her alive longer than a few weeks.
Liam walked into the room, cruising the kitchen for a snack as he half-assedly listened to our conversation. I paid him no more mind than a fly on shit.
"So, when do you plan to go?" Asher flipped his phone open and checked the calendar app. "Tonight?"
"It makes sense," I said slowly, thinking about what I could wear to make myself less noticeable. "It's the high-end clientele night. I'll need good duds to blend in."
A door somewhere opened, and I heard the voice of the bane of my current existence ricochet in my ears. "Good duds? Hawke, I doubt you own a single thing in your closet that counts ashigh-end."She eyed Asher with barely-concealed lust, and I had to bite back a snarky comment or face his wrath. "Asher, though, dresses like he knows what shape his body is, and how to buy clothes that fit it." Asher cleared his throat pointedly, looking in any direction other than the one where she stood with her hip cocked out and a look on her face that suggested she'd eat him for dinner if he got naked and lay out on the table.
He was determined to act as if her interest didn't exist. That was his plan. I didn't have the heart to tell him there was no pretending that attraction away. Especially when I could see how much she got under his skin.
"So, what are you suggesting, Trin? You trying to say I should raid Asher's boring ass closet for clothes?"
Her brow rose, and she smiled at me. It wasn't a smile, though, so much as it was a baring of her pointy teeth, which I suspected she'd used on a man or two in her life, and not in a good way.
