Page 45 of Grave Games

What the hell. “Excuse me, what—”

“Cool your jets, Ash, this situation has nothing to do with you,” Tyr said, talking over me in a way that made me think he hadn’t even heard me. “Romeo brought his woman in because Hades decided to close in on her yesterday. That action earned Marvel the beatdown we were just talking about. We’re battening down the hatches and calling for a region-wide church meeting. Part of the process of battening shit down is making sure we’ve got Chef’s sister squared away. Until further notice, she’s working here because we’re desperate for the help, and because there’s no way anyone would even think about touching her while under my roof. So take a breath and shut your mouth, yeah?”

“Dude, she busted my nose like a fucking professional MMA fighter,” Ashtray said, obviously ignoring Tyr’s order to shut up and shocking me to my core. “Yet here she is, looking like she doesn’t even weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. Oh Jesus, does everyone know she’s the one who fucked up my nose?” he suddenly gasped, complete with a pearl-clutch. “Oh shit, man, I’ll never be able to live this down.”

I actually felt my jaw drop. “What? I didn’t—”

“Don’t play the innocent little victim card with me, lady.” Clearly furious, Ashtray rounded on me, looming over me like a grizzly standing on its hind legs. “You’re scarier than half the brothers I know. Where’d you learn to throw elbows like that? Some super-charged Krav-Maga class you took? Are you like a black belt or something and nobody told me about it? Because I swear to Christ, I never would’ve agreed to come near you if I’d known you were a trained ninja.”

It only took a heartbeat for his words to lock into place.

Throw elbows.

Fucked up my nose.

Never would’ve agreed to come near you.

I’d only thrown elbows at one person in recent days, and I’d done it out of sheer terror. The night of the blizzard when I’d been attacked, the night I’d finally given Romeo a chance, because he’d saved my life.

Or so I’d thought.

Never would’ve agreed…

Agreed.

The attack on me had been anagreement.

A setup.

Romeo set me up.

Goddamn it.

“You got what you deserved.” The words were out of my mouth to stain the air, and when both the man who’d been sent to attack me and my new boss blinked, I bared my teeth in grim satisfaction. “Come at me again and I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.”

“There. You see? See that look on her face?” Triumphant, the brain-trust known as Ashtray turned to Tyr. “That’s the stone-cold killer I had to deal with last week, Tyr. She might look all sweet and innocent in the light of day, but she’s really fucking Rambo in disguise. It’s no wonder she got the jump on me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was actually a trained commando in disguise.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Ash, shutup,” Tyr snapped, looking ready to strangle the other man. “I don’t want to hear another word out of you. And you,” he added, turning the full brunt of his glare on me, when I hadn’t done a damn thing except defend myself. “No one on my side of the fence iscoming at you, you hear me? But you sure as hell are in the sights of Hades and his crew, especially after Marvel’s beatdown. It’s clear they wanted to start something by trying to take you hostage, and Romeo responded to their aggression by giving Marvel what he deserved. But because you haven’t officially been claimed by Romeo, Hades won’t see it as a leveling of the scales. Beating up his useless mouth-breather of a son embarrassed the head of the Chicago Gravediggers, so Hades is going to retaliate. Believe me, you’re safer here with us than you are on your own.”

“I think I’ll be safest when I’m as far away from all of you as I can get.” With the stark realization that I was surrounded on all sides by men who had no problem attacking me, I turned on my heel and took one step toward the open doorway before crashing to a halt, my eyes locking with Romeo’s.

Chapter Sixteen

The Games You Play

For a full five seconds my body froze so badly I couldn’t have moved if my life depended on it. Then, when I realized my life probably did depend on it, I managed to unlock my jaw.

“Move,” I gritted out.

He nodded once. “Okay.”

The grim flash of triumph his response gave me vanished when he surged forward and hauled me up and over his shoulder before I could even guess what he was going to do. I gasped as the point of his shoulder went into my stomach while his arms clamped around my legs in an unbreakable grip, telegraphing to me without words that I wasn’t going anywhere that he didn’t want me to go.

“I’ve got this,” I heard him tell the room at large even as he moved through the door. “Give me an hour.”

“It’s going to take more than an hour for you to convince me you’re not the lowest creep I’ve ever met,” I raged at him from my upside-down position. The showroom flew by as he stalked toward the office where I’d spent the morning thinking it would be mine for the next few weeks. The world suddenly whirled like a kaleidoscope only to find myself dropped into the desk chair. Half a second later Romeo had both doors that had access to the office locked, and the small window looking out onto the showroom covered with blinds. Then he turned to face me, and a jolt of fear shot through me at the terrible look in his eyes. I’d never seen the dangerous Gravedigger side of this man, but for the first time I wondered if I was about to.

“Go ahead. Let me have it.”

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