Page 80 of Cruel Games

I snapped it in half like it was nothing but paper, staring down at the tiny gemstones that fell out of the hollow fake as I tipped it upside down in my hand.

“They’re fake?”

Dingo peered over my shoulder, and his frown deepened. I handed him the cracked bone and reached in to shake a few more, each one making a satisfying rattling sound against my ear. “They’re transporting gems in fake bones. But isn’t that tricky? Why not just hide them in something mundane?”

“Because the person transporting them wasn’t supposed to know,” Jackal said simply, like he’d done this a million and one times. “Would be my guess, at least. If someone thinks they’re moving bones, they’re not going to think to pick them up and check them for hidden riches, are they?”

He had a point.

But how had our client known? And why were these so important?

I didn’t realize I’d spoken the last part aloud until Dingo’s hands came down on my shoulders and led me to the front of the car. “It doesn’t matter why or how. Only thing that matters is we kill him and dump him in the river, and we leave the car where the client specified.”

Which meant one of us would need to drive the car. And since they all had bikes?—

“Here,” Dingo said suddenly, slipping my mask back over my head. “You take my bike and follow me. I’ll drive the car, then ride back with you.”

“Oh, okay,” I murmured in agreement. “I wanted to see how it handled, anyhow. You know, for when you guys get me mine.”

“As if,” Jackal sneered, already headed back up the alley where they’d stashed their rides. “I ain’t buying youshit.”

He and Coyote didn’t wait for me; once they were on their bikes, they were off like rockets in the sky, the only sign of them a set of taillights quickly fading in the distance.

“Fine then. I didn’t want to stick together, anyhow.”

I rammed my foot against the kickstand and revved the engine, following Dingo and the stranger’s car in the opposite direction.

THIRTY-ONE

DINGO

“Get his feet, Ivy,”I groaned, “this dude is heavy as shit.”

Sure enough,though the target didn’t look a pound over a hundred and eighty, he had to be easily two twenty or more. And he was bulky, which made one-person carrying hard.

And, I mean, shewasright there, so why not have her help?

She didn’t hesitate like most girls would. Instead, she slipped his calves easily under her arms and lifted him from behind the knees, grinning through the obvious effort it was taking to carry this lump of dead weight.

“So, are we gonna just throw him in and hope he drowns, or are we gonna kill him first?”

I stared down at the man in question, thinking very seriously about the question being asked of me. “Well, why don’t you finish him once we get to the end of the docks, and I’ll just kick him into the water, and then boom, job done.”

“Too easy.” She unceremoniously dropped his legs and kicked him, hard enough to draw a moan from his tied-up ass. “Hey there, buddy. You wanna live, you’d better wake up.”

The man wasn’t gagged, so waking him up might not be the best idea, but it was too late to rein her back in. Sure enough, just like I worried, he woke up and immediately began drawing attention to himself, and by default, us, as well, by shouting loud enough to wake half a neighborhood.

“You haveno ideawho you’re messing with!”

“Sure we don’t,” she sassed back, lifting her foot pointedly above his head. “And if you’d like to keep breathing air, you’ll shut that fucking wailing up and listen carefully.”

Surprisingly, the man shut up. Must’ve seen something in Ivy’s eyes that clued him in on the seriousness. When it was apparent he planned to pay attention, she smiled down at him, sort of like a shark must look at a fish before it bites it in half.

“Good boy.”

I didn’t wanna analyze why that made my cock twitch in my pants.

“Here’s the deal. You’re gonna get one chance to pick. Either I can end you fast and shove your body in the river, or you can fight and struggle and make things difficult, and I’llstillend you, but it’ll be slow and painful and really, really messy. And then, when I dump your mangled body in the river, the crocs will likely devour you before anyone finds your body.”

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