Page 27 of Cruel Lies

"Are you planning to kill me?"

She delivered her lines with zero emotion, not a hint of inflection in her tone. It felt robotic, like she was on autopilot. The effect was jarring.

"I’m not sure what I’m planning to do with you, but anyone that goes into the asylum as a target comes out in a body bag. So just chew on that for a while."

She seemed more than a little concerned at that revelation, but her face didn’t give her away.

No, it was those eyes of hers, holding all her secrets on display for anyone to read like a book. Those expressive pools of blue that used to be able to bend us all to her whim at the drop of a hat.

I put the pedal to the floor and zipped through the mostly empty streets, heading for the safety of the Guild, wishing our target had been anyone but her. Things wouldn’t be so damn complicated if it had only been someone else.

I glanced at her one more time out the corner of my eye, watching her wilt as the seriousness finally settled in. She shot me one more pleading gaze, but I just shook my head and chuckled under my breath.

That look might’ve gotten her everything she wanted once upon a time. But not anymore.

Sorry, sugar. Those days are long over.

ELEVEN

HARPER

Somehow,these fuckers knew who I was. Considering their line of work, itwasn’t surprising. Whatwassurprising was that they didn’t seem to realize it until they got close to me. So either they had no clue who they were actually sent to kill, or they thought they were after my alias.

I needed more info, but this one seemed like a dead end.

His knife was at my throat again as we pulled into the parking lot of the Port Wylde Asylum, an old rundown mental hospital that had been bought at a tax auction and now housed the craziest fuckers capable of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Usually murder. Sometimes torture. Past that, I had no idea what to expect in the fucking asylum, home of the Guild.

Hell, ordinary people like me were lucky to hear those little tidbits. Knowledge of what exactly the Guild was seemed to be a guarded secret.

I was about to get my first glimpse at the inside of this selective club of killers and criminals. Possibly my last, too.

The asshole who’d kidnapped me threw my duffel bag over his shoulder and led me through the fucking parking garage like a trophy, holding onto my hair still as a reminder he could and would cause me pain if I caused him any trouble.

I took a mental note of the path he chose to lead me through, wincing at the bright fluorescent when we stepped into what I could only describe as a mudroom for murderers.

Along one wall was a trough filled with dirtbike riding gear in various states of being washed, and a single man holding a hose nearby. He spared only a cursory glance to my captor, then did a double-take when he realized there was a woman attached to the end of his arm.

"Well, well, Ghoul, it looks like you finally snagged you a plaything. Did you have to chase her down, or did she come willingly?" He leered at me, baring sharpened rows of teeth that made him look like some twisted fae halfling from anightmarish fairytale. His eyes on me made my skin crawl, and I found myself recoiling against the man he’d dubbed Ghoul.

Better the devil you knew than the one you didn’t,and this man in front of me was covered in enough mud and blood to paint the walls of my whole apartment.

My captor snarled at him in a very predatory manner, and I caught a glimpse of the monster beneath that sent a shiver down my spine. A small part of it was intrigue, and I didn’t like that.

I wasnota danger hound. I wasnotimagining the thrill of someone like that going down on me.

Iwasn’t.

"She’s mine, Jackal, and you’d do best to remember that. Hands off her, you hear?"

Something in his tone struck a familiar chord in me, like I’d heard those words in his voice before. But that was impossible. I’d mainly kept to myself during my stay in Port Wylde. Aside from a few hookups and short-term boyfriends, I was a loner. And I certainly didn’t associate with men like these. It was highly unlikely I knew this man or had even encountered him before.

"Fuck off, Ghoul, I touch what I want." To prove his point, he leaned forward and curled a stray strand of my hair around his finger, laughing when I snapped my blunted teeth at him and growled. "Oho, she’s feisty. Honey, you’ll have to do better than that to scare me, though." When he moved to touch me again, I lashed out with a free foot and kicked at him, hating the mocking laugh that echoed around us as he dodged it and shot me a playful wink.

Ghoulseemed less than amused.

"You come within an inch of her again, and I’ll make you a nine-fingered Jackal, got that?"

The stare-down was intense, and if I wasn’t already resigned to the idea of dying, I might not have done what I did next. But somehow, a little bubble of laughter snuck its way up my throatand into the air, shocking not just me but the men involved in the standoff, as well.

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