Page 65 of Pin-up Girl

Jules passed his phone back to me, the screen lit up. I read it, then looked back at him. His gaze was steady, intense.

“I—” I was about to refuse, but Emmett leaned over my shoulder.

“Smart, Jules. So, Cass, what does Infinity hold over your head to make you do their dirty work?”

I handed back the phone, and Jules took it while watching Cass in a way that scared me.

“They don’t need anything. I’m happy to fuck with their brats for fun.”

Ah, shit. I had already told them the organizationalwaysheld something over our heads. She was going to be pissed.

“Nice try, babe.” A panty-dropping smirk adorned Emmett’s face, and I wanted to smack it off, but I kept quiet. “We know they have something on you. What is it?”

“Why would I tell you?” She curled her lip in disgust.

“Because we’re the only thing standing between Infinity and Elise. If you were smart, you’d answer our questions. Then maybe we’d help you, too,” Milo said from the driver’s seat, his gaze on Cass through the rearview mirror.

She looked at me, her brow furrowed like she didn’t understand me. If I had three guesses on what she was thinking, the top one would be that I was probably too high on dicks and orgasms to save myself.

When I didn’t say anything, she turned to look out of the other window, completely ignoring that she was in a car full of dangerous men. In the rearview mirror, Milo turned his attention to me, but I shook my head. If he knew me even a little bit, he would know I wanted them to leave her alone. Even if they felt she was a liability, I wanted them to trust me.

They didn’t say anything else as we drove.

By the time I started paying attention to where we were, I tensed. We were nowhere near the Shack, and very close to my apartment, the one I shared with Cass.

I glanced at Emmett from under my eyelashes, but he wasn’t paying attention, simply staring at his knees with his arms crossed. Then I looked at Cass. If she thought something was suspicious, she wasn’t letting on at all. Damn, she was a tough bitch.

Milo smoothly pulled up to the curb, then twisted around to face us once the Caddy was in park. “Cassidy.” He waited until she looked at him. “As of now, you work for us. We want any information that comes your way that even smells like it could be about us. And when I say us, I mean me, Emmett, Jules, or Elise. Can you be trusted to do that?”

Oh my fucking god. Were they actually going to let her go? Without strong-arming her into submission? I was so happy, tears of relief threatened to form in the corners of my eyes, but I forced those fuckers back. I was a bad bitch too, and I needed to remember it, especially if we were going to survive.

Cass opened her door and got one leg over before she responded. “I’ll help, because it’s what’s best for Elise. I love her more than anyone else on this planet. If you hurt her, I don’t care what the little boy’s club thinks they can or can’t do to me. I’ll fuck you up.”

“Sure, if you think you can.” Emmett grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Oh, eat a dick.” She jumped out and slammed the door with more force than necessary.

Jules handed his phone back so I could see what he wrote.What a lovely person. I see exactly where you get your bitchiness from.

A grin pulled at my lips. I’d always been a bitch, but I’d let Cass take some of the credit. We’d bonded over our experiences, and it was normal that we would share some of our personality traits.

“Let me see that.” Emmett snatched it from my hand. “Yeah, I’d say I see exactly where Pin-up got her spunk.” He handed the phone back over Jules’ shoulder and adjusted himself in the seat.

I scooted over to give Emmett the space he wanted. From the way he shifted away from me once Cassidy got out of the car, he clearly didn’t want to accidentally touch me.

The road back to where we were looked long and bumpy.

Chapter Eighteen

For the brief ride to the Shack, I let myself reminisce back to the first job I worked. The kings weren’t the first boys I was supposed to get close to. That job was so easy, it was almost a joke. The poor kid. He didn’t have a prayer of surviving amongst the big boys. It was all Robert’s fault really.

Robert had been my buddy my senior year of school, subbing often for my bio teacher who was in and out with some kind of chronic illness. I was head of the class, so I hadn’t thought anything strange when he took a shine to me. In fact, I’d been flattered by his attention. We’d joke, and we’d eat lunch together in the lab. It was never anything romantic, more of a brotherly affection for the nerdy wannabe teacher. I was mostly a loner so there was no one to notice I was gone.

Once he had spent enough time with me to profile me, cataloging my strengths and weaknesses, he laid it all out one day after school. He’d persuaded me to help set up for the next lab project, so we were completely alone, and he made it very clear there was no choice. That was the day Ellie was enrolled in boarding school.

I was livid, a boiling pot of emotions I’d never felt before. He was even the one who so kindly let me know I could blame my mother for my new life and my loss of virginity. So when he sent me on my first job, I sobered up long enough to seduce some random nerd right out of his father’s secrets. I wanted to hurt someone else. It felt good.

No matter how hard I tried to keep at least a few morals, I knew a small part of me would always love the flux of power that filled me when I hurt someone else. It didn’t matter if it was physical or emotional. I knew I was fucked up, and probably always would be.

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