Page 54 of Addicted Lies

A fucked-up mix of relief and nausea sets low in my stomach. I want to chase after her, but I know better than to do that. I don’t deserve Billie. I never did. We only got together because she had a need. And maybe I did pity her a little at the start. I know what it’s like to be trapped in a cage, not of your own making. My brother and I never deserved to be on the streets, barely surviving. And I saw the same frustration in her gaze—frustration at her brother’s suffocating overprotectiveness.

I pick up her discarded towel and toss it in the trash, and then I wait a while for the red on my cheek to fade. When I exit the bathroom, one of the dancers is standing there, and she smiles at me.

“Heeey, handsome,” she says, slurring a little. I’ve seen her before but never cared to remember her name. “Need a hand in there?” She flicks her gaze to the bathroom. I ignore her and push past her, a cold disdain radiating from me because I don’t crave any woman other than the one I just purposely pushed away.

I notice Billie at the bar talking with Ivy and that Matthew prick. She looks like nothing happened, and I try my hardest to distract myself from glancing in her direction or doing something I’ll regret, like killing Matthew. I liked him before, and even worked with him twice. But the moment he held out his hand to Billie in introduction was the moment I swore I’d kill him one day.

Eli is sitting on a couch, Jewel perched on his lap, as they talk with Hawke, who has a blonde sitting on his own lap. He frequents this place enough that he has a favorite dancer. I don’t have the heart to tell her he has favorites everywhere.

I pull out my phone and lean against the wall. Dutton walks over, muttering something under his breath as Posie joins Billie and the others. He looks like he’s about to kill me as he comes to a stop in front of me.

I wonder if this is the time. Has he finally found out about me and Billie?

Did his fiancée tell him what she stumbled across months ago?

Oddly enough, I find myself welcoming the repercussions.

“What?” I ask him.

“No one deserves her. No one,” he says and throws a look Billie’s way.

He doesn’t know about us, then. Because if he did, he would’ve already tried to kill me. To him, everyone is a piece of shit, and she’s his baby sister. At first, I found it weird he was so protective of her. But then I thought about Hawke and how if someone hurt him, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.

Her being a woman in this world makes it worse. It’s rough, especially when everyone knows their family name. They all know who she is. I find her shackles ironically part of her draw for a lot of people, and I can’t fucking stand it. I wonder how many of them get to see the true fiery side of her.

“Then shall we tie him up tonight and carve a message into his chest?” I ask, doing my best to sound bored. We all have our “soothing” methods, and Dutton favors the blade. I’m not going to judge him for it, even if one day he uses it against me. Then again, I most likely won’t ever lay another hand on his sister.

“No,” Dutton growls. “If it were you out there trying to win my sister over, I would kill you. Wouldn’t even second-guess it. But Posie keeps on telling me Matthew is fine, and I need to let Billie decide.” He looks back in the direction he came from, and I do as well. His words sink in. I’m not scared of Dutton, but he’s a man I respect. And he has given me respect in return, so I thought we were good. But it’s another reminder that I’ll never be viewed as anything more than that street rat. And although I’d come to terms with that a long time ago, it doesn’t do anything to steer me away from the one thing I really want.

Billie laughs, and I can’t fucking stand it. Can’t stand that she’s laughing at another man or looking in his direction.

“You good?” Dutton asks, and I snap out of my thoughts, my phone cracking under the force I was holding it with.

“Perfect,” I say, trying to keep my voice calm.

“Since you’re not drinking, you can drive Billie and Ivy home. I’m not letting that fucker drive her home the first night.”

I go to argue, but I know doing so will make Dutton suspicious, considering I’ve done it so many times before. I want to leave, vanish from this place, because I know I’ll only last a few more minutes before I actually break that guy’s fucking neck.

“Ford.” Eli is calling me over to him.

“He most likely wants to ask about the poisonings. Are you any closer to figuring that out?” Dutton asks as we walk over together.

“Not yet,” I tell him. We’re all on high alert because it might not just be Eli they target. Anyone associated with him could be in danger, too.

Eli and Jewel are standing close to one another, and I can tell that Eli’s gone into his killer mode.

They’ve found something.

Or, most likely, someone.

“Will was able to track down someone suspicious the security guard had been in contact with days before his death.”

My phone buzzes. A document has been shared to my device. It’s a photo of a guy named Henry Fall. My eyebrows furrow as I read the information on him.

“He used to work for Laurence Tate,” Hawke says. Our gazes meet, and we share a silent thought. Tate is the guy we killed to get Anya her ring.Fuck. We brought trouble for Eli.

Eli’s gaze ping-pongs between us, knowing when Hawke and I are having silent conversations. Then Hawke opens his mouth and shares the missing link. The strangeness of the situation is the bouncer at Eli’s club was never in association with any guys from the wharf. So, potentially, there’s more than one person involved with this. The only way we’ll find out is by torture, of course. Thank fuck because I need something to replace this ravenous desire.

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