Page 99 of Cruel Games

Just then, Lilly St. Clair stood over with a smile on her face, one she didn’t even bother to try and hide as she surveyed the four of us, her eyes dancing over the harnesses with glee.

“You three look fancy,” she mused, her voice tinted with amusement. “Lose a bet or something?”

“Or something,” Dingo muttered, his arms crossed over his chest. “Nice party, boss.”

“Of course it is,” she replied, her hand on her hip as those piercing eyes fell on Ivy. It felt like she could see right through a person, and for some reason, I found myself stepping slightly in front of her to put myself between the two females. “I orchestrated it.”

“Your party planning skills are definitely top tier,” Ivy mused, her hand on her chin. “Why waste your time wrangling a bunchof criminals when you could be hosting high society parties as the wife to some rich man?”

Her eyes darkened, and for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the woman she was before she found the Guild and turned it into what it was now. “Not all of us hunger for power or riches, Ivy. Some of us prefer to see justice carried out like it should be. Or maybe I just prefer the freedom that a life of crime in the shadows affords me.”

“Mmm, contemplating world domination again, St. Clair?”

Her on-again, off-again cop ex-husband slid up next to her, his hand wrapping possessively around her waist as he stared down the four of us for a moment. Lilly just shrugged his embrace off and stepped aside, putting distance between her and the man I was convinced kept her from going to jail for the rest of her life.

“Nothing so drastic,” she quipped, tossing her hair to whip him in the face. To his credit, he withstood it with a fair amount of grace, more than most men. “I’m just explaining to Ivy here that I’m not like most women she knows.”

Officer McCoy grinned, his eyes cutting over her features with lust and admiration. “You are very much a one-of-a-kind woman, Lilly St. Clair.”

“For once, we agree, Keehn.” Her eyes trailed over the room, and she waved at someone over our shoulders as she dismissed herself and made a beeline through the crowd. Officer McCoy, of course, followed in her shadow like a whipped dog, always chasing after the woman who’d gotten away. I didn’t know the history there, but I suspected there was more there than I’d ever know for sure.

The affairs of others didn’t concern me.

“I need to take a leak,” Dingo said suddenly, his lips twitching. “You plan to follow me in there to watch me piss?”

Ivy’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Gods, no. But I’m watching the clock, Dingo. Don’t keep me waiting.”

“I’ll go with him,” Jackal started, and surprisingly, Ivy leaned over and unclipped both of them, rolling the leashes up around her forearm.

“Go, hurry,” she said quietly, shooing them with her hands.

They wasted no time in disappearing around the corner. I doubted they’d come back, now that they had their freedom.

That left me and Ivy alone in a room full of strangers.

I turned to her, hoping for some cues to follow, but she was miles away, her eyes unfocused and glazed over as she drowned in her thoughts. Her grip on the end of my leash was tight, her knuckles whiter than snow, and my hand reached out of its own accord and covered hers, massaging the tension from it.

“Where are you, Ivy?” I whispered, not expecting her to hear me.

“Hell,” she whispered back, her hand turning over in mine to clench onto it tightly. “I’m in hell, and I’m never getting out, am I?”

I tugged her into a nearby hallway, thankful for the quiet it provided. “What do you mean, hell?”

She sighed, her hair falling into her face as she leaned against the wall and sagged to the floor. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me,” I murmured, brushing her hair out of her eyes so I could stare into their depths.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Her eyes sought mine, and for a brief, breathless moment, I worried she might just stand up and leave me there wondering. “It’s not important.”

“To me, it is.”

I had no idea what I was saying, but if I stopped now, who knew when I’d work up the courage to speak to her again?

“You shouldn’t care about the woman who’s going to eventually kill you.”

I didn’t believe she’d kill us, not anymore. Her threat had started ringing hollow a while ago, and though she didn’t stop making the idle threats, I knew she realized it, too. Though sheprobably had quite a bit of inner conflict going on because of that epiphany.

I played along, though, because I wanted her to keep talking to me. I’d do anything for her attention right now, one on one. “I know,” I uttered, inching closer to her, our noses almost touching. “Don’t care.”

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