Page 12 of Cruel Games

And we weren’t going to analyze why that stirred feelings of rage inside me. Men like him didn’t deserve to be loved by anyone, let alone to the level this work insinuated.

“Hey, bitch?—”

A hand slammed down on my shoulder, shaking me to my core as I realized where I was.

South End. Dangerous even for a Guild member.

South End was the place even the crazy contract killers didn’t go. The place where the original asylum residents had been turned out to when the state shut it down and put it up for auction. Most of the city left this part alone, determined to pretend the crazies didn’t exist. Even the Guild didn’t often fuck with the Southies. They’d rip you to shreds and eat you for dinner, quite literally.

I shook off the grip and spun around to face my assailant, realizing a little late that he had a pretty big pistol in one hand and a fucking weird ass demon half-mask that hid his eyes and gave him a frightening silhouette, with the horns popping out on top. He wasn’t one of the Dogs. But he was of their ilk. The hints were in the way he moved, the way he watched me as I took a step back and narrowed my eyes at him dangerously, the way his gaze cut to my hands as I raised the bat in my hand, then lowered it again, realizing he might recognize it, even in this dark alley.

He scanned me from tip to toe, a slow grin crossing his face. “You’re in a dangerous neighborhood, little lady.”

I huffed in annoyance. Last thing I needed was to get caught busting into, and then out of, the fucking asylum. “How do you know I’m not the danger here?”

His smile cracked in half, tipping up in a saccharine half-smile as he chuckled. “You’re not a Southie. I used to walk these streets, sweetheart. I know my own kind. You’re not one of us.” His gun waved nonchalantly in my direction, still pointed away from us both in an almost military-like manner. He set me on edge, and not in a good way.

Whoever this man was, he was trained, and trained well.

“I’m just on my way out,” I hedged, eyeing his finger as it strayed closer to the trigger. “No need to fire that thing.”

“I’ll let you go if you tell me why you’re carrying a bat that doesn’t belong to you, and how you managed to get into the Guild without being caught.”

So someonehadspotted me.It was too much to ask for to have managed the escape unnoticed in a building filled with trained killers. Still, answering him might be more dangerous than ignoring his demand. I’d have to play it careful.

“Who says the bat isn’t mine?” I tucked it behind my legs, playing at coy. “And I’d have to be pretty stupid to sneak into the Guild. That place is filled with killers and psychos, and I’m no dummy.”

“You’re pretty dumb if you think for one second I believe that innocent girl act.” His hand came up and adjusted the side of his mask, a grimace of discomfort crossing his lips for a second before his mask of indifference fell back into place. “And unless Jackal suddenly grew tits, then his bat is in the hands of someone it doesn’t belong to.”

He had me there.

“So I stole some asshole’s bat. Who cares? It’s not like he’ll miss it.” My lips twitched at the idea of admitting even that little truth. “Besides, I’m just borrowing it. I’ll give it back eventually.”

Buried in the side of his head, sure.

But at least I’d be returning it.

Nobody specified how.

“Sure you will.” He scratched the side of his temple with that fucking pistol, and I damn near winced at thelaissez-fairemanner in which he’d switched from trained gun owner to criminally neglectful and unsafe. It felt like someone’d switched the lights off inside and forgotten to flip them back on.

The effect was . . . jarring, to say the least.

“Listen, buddy. I’ve got places to be. So unless you’re going to shoot me, I think I’ll be taking my leave?—”

I moved to slide past him, but his hand shot out at the last minute, barring my escape. His face was an inch from my own, the mask nearly touching my skin. I could feel the chill radiating off what I realized now was painted metal, it wasso close. His hot breath against my ear was a stark contrast as his words skated across my skin.

“I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon, little lady. You just make sure to tell Jackal the Ghost says hello next time you see him.” His head jerked in the opposite direction from where I’d been heading, and I chanced a glance in that direction, spotting a well-lit street that looked like it led back into civilized territory. “You wanna get out of here in one piece, take that road. Six blocks, and you’ll be able to follow the wall of the asylum to the junction. You’d better get out of here soon, before the crazies wake up and cause trouble.”

I turned on a heel and held Jackal’s bat over my shoulder as I jogged down the street, my chest loosening its death grip on my heart with every inch I put between me and the man who’d called himself the Ghost.

As I left the darkness behind for the light, I wondered what kind of man I’d just been saved by, and what sort of indebted bullshit I might now be twisted up in, owing him quite possibly my life.

I didn’t need any more ties to this fucking place, these fucking people.

Let him tell Jackal hello on his own.

I was nobody’s messenger.

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