Page 131 of Cruel Games

“No,” I said quietly, realizing now that I’d come back, I planned to see this out to the end. I couldn’t just leave him there in the entryway and walk away. It was clear now that they’d never stop looking for me. No matter how far or fast I ran, they’d eventually find me.

It was just easier to give up the chase and let them win.

Or so I told myself.

“I can handle him just fine,” I said, smiling at her despite the soreness in my shoulder and legs. “After all,” I said, shifting his weight on my back, “I owe them my life. Maybe it’s time I show my gratitude.”

“They were just doing their jobs,” Doc said quietly, his face a mask of indifference. “You don’t owe them anything.”

“The whole reason I’m still alive, still free, and not a slave of the sex trafficking rings, is because someone stepped up and helped my mother when she couldn’t protect me on her own.” I looked around at the whole room, taking another step inside as the chill night air cut through the leather jacket I still wore around my waist. “The Guild is what saved me, gave me another chance.” My eyes softened as I looked at Coyote’s sleeping face, draped over my shoulder like dead weight, defenseless in his slumber. “And there’s nothing for me to go back to. Everything I have is right here in these four walls.”

“Well, technically, two of them are out there on the streets looking for you. This one hasn’t slept in six straight days. He was supposed to be here, sleeping, but clearly he’s just as stubborn as you are.”

Lilly let me pass, watching as I climbed the stairs instead of taking the elevator, one foot in front of the other, legs threatening to give out on me at any moment. I hoped she wouldn’t call them back right away, but knowing her, it wouldn’t be long before Jackal and Dingo bore down on us and started in on me for leaving.

“Come on, you stubborn fool,” I panted under my breath, realizing I bit off more than I could chew with the stubborn desire to carry him myself. “One more set of stairs, and I can dump you in your bed and take a shower.”

I reached the door with barely any energy to spare, finally feeling the effects of my lack of food and proper rest for a week. In such a short time on the streets, I’d turned into a shell of myself, desperate to feel nothing at all as I watched the light die out of the eyes of the men who’d quite possibly come damn close to the beginning of the end for me.

Finding the old Rolodex my father had stashed in the back of his garage wasn't easy. I always thought it was weird that he keptit there, considering there was one on his desk, too. But there it was, untouched, covered in dust in the back of a cabinet that I’d broken into after leaving my mother’s house for the last time.

I took it out and started working through the list like a woman on a mission.

I’d been almost out of names when Coyote found me.

He grunted as I slid him off my shoulders and onto the couch, collapsing as he went down, unable to stand even for myself for another second. My legs felt like jelly, weak and wobbly, unable to support my body weight.

Damn.

And I thought I’d be able to shower off the dingy stains of the streets before someone found me here.

I crawled to the nearest bathroom, sighing in relief when I realized it was Jackal’s. I could barely lift myself into the tub as I turned on the water in the dark, flinging my clothes onto the floor as the steam revived me.

That water got cold long before I did. And still I didn’t move, determined to get all I could out of this last moment alone.

I heard the front door open and shut, frantic voices echoing through the front room as they discovered Coyote on the couch.

“Where is she? St. Clair said she brought him back.”

“Well, if he’s here, she’s gotta be, right?”

“What if she left again? Fuck, what if we just missed her, and?—”

“I didn’t leave,” I yelled weakly from the dark bathroom, shielding my eyes as the sound of footsteps bounded in my direction. Sure enough, they turned the lights on, blinding me despite my preparedness. “Fuck, turn that out, it’s too bright.”

Jackal complied, leaving the one in his bedroom on behind him. He fell to his knees at the lip of the bathtub, gripping the edge as he stared at me like I might disappear when he blinked.

“Are you real?” he asked quietly, a single finger reaching out to poke me in the arm.

“Ow, yes, I’m real, you idiot,” I snapped, the touch too much and not enough all at once. “Stop poking me, I’m not the Pillsbury Dough Boy, for fuck’s sake.”

“Where did you go?” Dingo asked, frowning when I shook my head to refuse him. “No, don’t do that. Tell us why you left without even saying goodbye.”

“I needed to face some demons on my own, okay?” My eyes drifted to the water I sat in, suddenly self-conscious of how I looked. “They were stronger than I expected.”

“Did you beat them, or did they beat you?”

I shrugged. “Let’s call it a draw.”

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