Page 83 of The Masks She Wore

?He laughed, the sound warming my skin. “My cock is a weapon as much as it is your toy,” he hummed. “Sit. Now.”

?He released me, leaving me a dizzy puddle of need and arousal.

?And he took my coffee with him for added measure.

?With a huff and a glare at his back, I headed for the table, but I didn’t take the seat next to him. Rather, I picked up my things and moved them to the spot at the very end of the table, furthest away from them both.

?I settled and leaned back in my chair angrily.

?Zo took me in before turning to Jack and raising a brow.

?God, what was her problem? I hadn’t done anything wrong. Certainly not to her, yet she was acting as if I kicked her dog.

?I pulled my notebook over again and tore out the page, starting over.

?Masked Dicks,written by

?I stared at the page for a long time before releasing a sigh.

?Written by a lost spirit.

?I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair, angry. “I understand that you both are career criminals and you’ve thought of everything,” I began, finding Jack’s eyes, “but as is human instinct, I still have to ask for myself. Did anyone in your fucked up organization look into who paid you for the hit?”

?Zo rolled her eyes, leaning back in her own chair as she thrummed her fingers, annoyed by my very existence.

?Jack looked annoyed but understanding. “Yes. The bank account was open for half an hour. Long enough to get the funds into it and transfer them to Malachi’s account. They used a scrambled IP address, a fake name, fake addresses, fake everything. There’s no way to trace it.”

?My glare softened a little, grateful that he didn’t just treat me as if I were too stupid to even earn an answer. “I didn’t know you could scramble IP addresses,” I commented, my eyes falling to the notebook. I thought about it a moment. “Did you check the paper for fingerprints?”

?“Jack threw it away after he got the assignment,” Zo answered, annoyed. “We don’t keep shit like that.”

?My eyes lifted to her in irritation. I leaned over the table, making sure she saw how serious I was, although I doubted that it carried any weight if she was anything like Jack. “I didn’t make yourpartnerdo this fucked up shit to me, okay? If you’ve got a problem, take it up with him. This,” I gestured to the three of us, “is not my choice, you absolute cunt.” Maybe a little too far, but God, I wastired. I didn’t want to think about any of this. I wanted to do the toxic thing and pretend like none of this happened, get fucked until I was in a coma, rehydrate, and repeat. Was that too much to ask here?

?Her eyebrows lifted into her hairline. “Excuse me? Do you have any idea—”

?“You could be the most dangerous person in the world, and I still couldn’t give a fuck right now,” I interjected. “Heclaimedme.Hecarved his initial into my chest,hedecided to fuck me instead of kill me. Him. Not me. I didn’t have a choice in any of this. Not…until, you know,later on.So drop the pathetic attitude while you’re in my house, or I swear toGod, I’ll do everything in my power to make your life a living hell.”

?She laughed at that. “Jack controls your leash, sweetheart, you can’t do anything.”

?“His punishments range from too many orgasms to I assume none,” I stated evenly. “That’s worth it to shut you up.”

?Zo leaned in then, something evil sparking in her eye. “How many times do you think you’ll survive him bringing you to the edge only to abandon you? Me? I survived 26 hours straight. No food, no water, no moving other than when he cleaned me up, just teasing. Just the edge.”

?It was an effort not to react. 26 hour—

?I straightened as the words fell through me. I looked between them, realization swimming through me in waves of nausea and dizziness.

?Zo sat back. “You didn’t think you were his first, did you?”

?Absolutely not, that would have been completely delusional, but her? The humiliation that filled me twisted my stomach. I felt weightless with it, my mind humming. I should have just kept my mouth shut, let her talk her shit. Who was I to argue back anyway? I wasn’t a part of this world. She was right, I was just his dog.

?I set my jaw and leaned back in my chair. “No,” I stated evenly just as my phone started ringing.

?I gripped it in my hand, turning it just enough for me to see the screen.

?“Don’t answer that, Rae,” Jack ordered me.

?I found his eyes, putting every ounce of hatred I felt for him in that moment into that glare before I stood and answered it. “Hey, Viv.” I didn’t want to talk to her. No part of me wanted to talk to her, but at the moment, talking to her seemed far less painful than sitting in my humiliation.

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