Page 54 of Cruel Games

Game, set, match. This bitch was done for before she even got in the ranks.

I should have known she would be a step ahead. “I mean, we discussed a lot before I accepted their invitation to join them. Obviously, their daily life and such would come into play. And maybe the public knows a little more about the Guild than you think.” She fingered the pin on the edge of my jacket pocket, smiling softly. “You could say I have an eye for shiny things.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat from having her hands so close to me, yet still so far away. “We’re not all that bad, St. Clair. And you have to admit, chicks love bikes. Just look at the Bone Boys and their girl?—”

“Skeleton Crew,Jackal?—”

“Semantics, Lilly. Who cares what I call them? Point still stands.”

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “There’s a huge difference between Angel Blackwood’s fancy street bike and your muddy, bloody dirtbikes.”

“I’m not exactly a squeaky clean kind of girl,” Ivy mumbled, making my cock twitch in my pants.Down boy.

I could attest to that statement with my whole being.

I winced as my shirt rubbed against the still-sore burns from the lit end of her cigarette.Fucking ouch.

If I didn’t get those cleaned soon, they’d get infected. And I didn’t have time for that. “Just put me down as her emergency contact, and let’s sign the contract, yeah?” I stared pointedly at the clock on the wall, a relic of a bygone era when time meant something to me. “I have shit to do.”

St. Clair sighed but tugged the paperwork back to her side of the table and jotted down a few things. “Okay, well, I’m not happy with the lack of information, but since you three are responsible for your members, it’s on your asses if she’s not trustworthy or steps out of line.” Her gaze pinned Ivy to her chair, filled with promise and a little threat. “And I will be watching. So don’t screw up or step out of line.”

I processed the words she’d said as Ivy reached for the penand signed the contract with the Guild. Then processed them again, and froze, the full implication of her words hitting me in the face. “Wait a second. So if she screws up, it’s on us?”

Lilly smiled. “Yes.”

“What about?—”

“IfIvy Go Fuck Yourselfscrews up a contract, steps out of line, or breaks a Guild rule, then you’re all out.”

I didn’t miss the cracking of a smile on the edge of Ivy’s lips. “How is that fair?”

“Surely, if you trust her enough to join your crew, you trust her not to mess up too badly, right?”

St. Clair had me there. Either I admitted we were all playing an elaborate ruse to save our lives and revealed how we’d managed to be bested by a civvie, or I played the game and took the very real risk of losing everything we’d worked so hard to build.

Coyote leaned forward and signed his name next to hers as a witness and a sponsor. “We do.”

Lilly smiled. “Good. It’s settled, then. Oh, and the usual contractors are running a deal right now, if you’d like to have your dorms restructured to accommodate your new member. Provided she needs her own room, that is.”

Another jab that hinted she knew more than she let on. This one was one I wouldn’t take sitting down, though. “She’ll need other accommodations outside of our unit.”

“Request denied.”

Dingo smirked from his seat to my left as I slammed my hand down on the table and growled in indignation. “What the fuck do you mean, denied?”

“I said what I said. The last three wings still need a hazmat team to come in and remove the asbestos and lead paint. They’re still walled off for that very reason. And all my other rooms are filled up. Which means you’re stuck with her in your house.As it should be, considering you’re a crew. None of my other teams have asked to be split up.”

Dingo chuckled under his breath. “None of your other crews are us.”

“You’re a team. Act like one.” She pulled a folder from her pile of files as an afterthought, offering it to Ivy. “Here’s the next contract for the Neon Dogs. I hope to see good results from all of you.” She handed Ivy a pin, bright and shiny and new, just like ours had all been once upon a time. “Welcome to the Guild.”

TWENTY-ONE

DINGO

Livingwith girls wasn’t that hard. Hell, I had a sister and a brother.I knew what it was like to share space with siblings, even thoughts of a different gender. Jackal had a sister, too. So, if any of us should be taking to this, it should have been us.

So why was it Coyote who seemed to be the most comfortable as he strode around the place, avoiding the bitch’s piercing gaze and smiling to himself like he had a bunch of secrets he didn’t feel like sharing, and Jackal and I who seemed to be so close to an edge that we might fall off if we sneezed in the wrong direction?

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