Page 133 of Cruel Lies

I was just existing. Every day, I left the house with the hopes that Lilly would return us to the roster, that we could pick up a job. I didn’t like feeling stagnant. Twiddling our thumbs wasn’t our style, and the involuntary unemployment worried us all.

Only Harper seemed unfazed, even going so far as to reassure me that Lilly was understanding and wouldn’t keep us out much longer.

I had yet to see the promise be fulfilled. Better yet, I wanted to know why the hell Harper seemed so confident in her reassurances.

Ihatednot knowing what was going on. But Harper insisted she had it covered.

What that meant, I didn’t know, and I was afraid to find out.

As if on cue, another loud thump came from the other side of the wall, and now all three of us swiveled to stare pointedly at the locked office door with malicious intent.

"If they don’t come out of there soon, I’m picking the lock and telling Lilly to get fucked." Nash cracked his knuckles ominously, his teeth bared as he glared a hole into the door to the office. "She’d better not be hurting Harper." He sniffed, as if another option had just presented itself to him. "Or rearranging furniture."

Angel worked fast, dicing vegetables for dinner as Nash growled like a fucking feral dog. But in between chops, I could see him out of the corner of my eye, his head lifting to glance in her direction.

We were all goners for her. And man, did it show.

Just as I was about to crawl out of my skin from restlessness, the door finally opened and out walked—or, in Harper’s case, hobbled—the two ladies who’d been causing the ruckus in my office space.

I eyed Harper’s limp with unconcealed curiosity, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You look like someone beat your ass, Harper." My eyes drifted to Lilly, now on guard. "I thought you said you wouldn’t hurt her?"

"I didn’t," she grumbled, dusting her palms on her pants. "We might’ve gotten too excited over something and fell off the couch. That’s all."

Harper had always been a lousy liar, and it showed in the way she chewed at the corner of her mouth when she was trying to conceal something. Just like she was doing now.

"When are you gonna put us back on a job, Lilly?"

Nash blurted out what we were all wondering, and I had toappreciate his bluntness. I hadn’t worked around to broaching the subject again, but it burned in the back of my mind, like an itch you just couldn’t scratch. An annoying fly who came back no matter how many times you swatted him away.

Lilly’s eyes drifted lazily to me first, and I watched the beginnings of a smile curl her mouth. "I actually came here to see if you’d like to take a new one on tonight."

"Tonight?" Angel and Nash both stared in my direction, and we exchanged conversation with little more than a look.

Never in our career here had Lilly given such short notice, and certainly not without asking us if we wanted the job first.

Something was up.

"What kind of job?"

Harper wandered into the kitchen to pluck a slice of carrot from Angel’s pile, grinning at him when he growled a warning in her direction.

She really did turn us all into animals at our core.

"Well, if you want the details, you all can come down to my office to discuss it. Or just you. I’m not picky, Boss."

She shot Harper an air kiss and a wink as she slipped from our quarters, and just like that, all eyes were suddenly on the still-healing girl in our midst.

Who then suddenly adopted a very innocent stare that had exactly zero of us fooled.

"I don’t know why you’re all looking at me. I’m not in charge here." Those eyelashes of hers batted playfully, and she shot me a look that had me harder than a fucking steel beam. "Or am I, Ro?"

"I make the plans around here," I cut back, standing to grab my coat off the damn wall so I could follow Lilly to her office.

As I slipped from the room, the others chuckled under their breath, and a single sentence followed me out the door.

"Sure you do, bud."

Arguingwith Lilly over the contract took almost an hour—a record for me. She’d been shortchanged for this job by the client, but he was a bad enough guy that she didn’t want to let him off the hook for nonpayment. So she was offering the job as an olive branch of sorts—you do this for me for free, and I’ll overlook the fact that you saved your last mark instead of killing her.

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