Page 115 of Cruel Lies

I was too blind to see it before, but now, there was no turning back.

Weeks wasted tracking and tailing her while she worked, watching her coworkers, running background checks on anyone associated with her. Money down the drain thanks to Rowan having her tailed. And who knew what Nash had truly been up to every night while I slept?

We all needed her to be whole, as much as none of us wanted to admit it. She turned us into different versions of ourselves, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Maybe retaining a portion of our humanity was better in the long run.

She softened into my side and her hand found mine as a slow smile curled her lips. I wanted to know what she dreamed of. Was it something good? Was it something that hadn’t happened? Was it a memory, or a prediction of the future? A fantasy she might never voice out loud?

"Sleep well, bitch," I muttered, realizing what it truly was to hate someone and love them at the same time. "I’ll be right here."

And for the first time in a long time, I fucking meant it.

FORTY-SEVEN

NASH

"I swear,man, we didn’t know! We didn’t fucking know she was yourgirlwhen we took the money."

I slammedthe fucking two-by-four into Clyde’s side again, tenderizing him like a side of beef as I salivated at every drop of blood the fucker gave up.

"You," —thwack—"are,"—thwack—"a piece ofshit," —thwack, thwack—"and it brings me great joy to beat you to death for laying a fuckingfingeron her."

"Easy, Nash," Rowan called as he watched idly on from the other side of the warehouse. "They’ve gotta be alive when we turn them in to Lilly."

I quirked a brow and stared at the bloody piece of shit who thought it’d be wise to take a job that included killing the girl under our protection. Bonnie, who we hadn’t started on yet, sat in a chair nearby, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, so high out of her mind that she couldn’t even work up any sympathy or sadness for her partner in crime.

I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it was her idea to take the job.

"Who agreed to turn them in? Not me." I slammed the splintering wood into Clyde’s face this time, relishing the way he turned his head with a groan and spat out several gold-plated teeth. "Oh, shit, Clyde. You put money in that mouth. Maybe I should knock out a little more to pay for her medical bills."

"Fuck, man, no more," he mumbled as the stench of piss burned the inside of my nostrils. "Please, just take me in. I’ll do whatever you want; just turn me in to the Guild."

"I dunno, man," I mulled, mocking his verbal skills as I notched the damn wooden plank over my shoulder like I was lining up for a home run swing. "You did avery bad thing,Clyde, and you’re gonna die for it either way. We only really needoneof you to tell the story when we get back." I paced around him slowly, really soaking up his panic and desperation. Drinking in his fear. "Nobody says it’s gotta beyou."

Bonnie perked up at that, her eyes watchingClyde for any sign he might make himself more valuable than she could be. Or maybe she thought he’d take the fall for her like a good little whipped-ass dog. But humans, at their core, are flawed, weak creatures. And this one in front of me was a prime specimen of how they would turn on each other, even those closest to them, if forced to choose between life as a traitor or death as a loyalist dog.

"Now’s your chance, Clyde," I murmured, as if the two of us were sharing a secret. "You can make it worth my while to keep you alive, and I can kill the bitch instead and let you plead your case to Lilly." I glanced at Bonnie, whose eyes were wide with fear now, trying desperately to mumble and yell around her gag and failing.

"She said we should take the job! It wasn’t me! I didn’t want to do it, but she said you pissed her off and deserved it. Think you’re better than the rest of us. Needed taken down a peg. And the money was too good to pass up."

Give a man an inch of rope, and he’ll still manage to hang himself and anyone with him.

"So, you were just walking along the sidewalk, and some stranger approached you and asked you to kill a woman, is that it?" I lifted the wood again, threatening him with more pain if I didn’t like the answers he gave. "How did it happen?"

Somehow, Bonnie managed to get her gag loose, and that shrill screaming voice made me cringe as she started making demands of her partner.

"Don’t you tell them afucking thing,Clyde! They’ll still kill you and then me, too. Just shut your fucking mouth and don’t say another fuckingword,you worthless scumbag. You’re the one who was trying to pick up hookers and got us into this mess."

These two were better primetime tv than a fucking late-night soap opera.

"So, whose fault is it,really,Clyde? How does picking up ahooker play into becoming a pawn in a game you’re not skilled enough to be playing?"

Rowan strolled over with a gun in his hand—Bonnie’s, to be exact. He twirled the thing lazily, staring at the shiny metal in his hands.

We weren’t gun guys. But that didn’t mean we’d neverusedone. Quite the opposite, actually.

And this one had fired several bullets into the body of the woman we?—

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