Page 19 of Bad Ruck

Dallas' frown deepened. "I don't know, I couldn't hear. She told them about me and said she was going to tell Otis Skinner everything I said to her. She was going to confirm his suspicions that Ramsey isn't working with him."

"She was working with Skinner," I concluded softly. I didn't want to believe it, but I trusted Dallas. If that was what he overheard, then it was true.

"I thought maybe she was saying those things to put Skinner off," Dallas said. "She was supposed to be pretending to work with him. I—" He swallowed hard. "I went back in to talk to her. She was still on the phone. She ended the call." His eyes were glazed again as he thought back, trying to get his thoughts and memories straight.

"I confronted her. Asked her whose side she was on. She laughed it off and said she was on the same side as me. But then I told her I was working with Otis Skinner and Dominic King. She seemed surprised, but she said she was too. They paid her well to stay loyal. She said she was going to get out of stripping because they paid her so much money. Then she asked about someone I've never heard of. It was a test. If I was really working for them, I'd know. I tried to pretend, but she saw right through me. Then she grabbed up a knife and she came at me."

He closed his eyes. "She took me by surprise, but I overpowered her. I got the knife from her and then… I don't know what happened next. One minute she was staring at the knife in my hand, and the next she screamed. She lunged for the knife. Then she was dead."

"Fuck," Storm whispered.

"Yeah," Frost agreed. He put a hand on Dallas' bicep. "It happens so quickly, you don't even know it's happening until it's done. And then you wonder… What the fuck do I do next?"

Dallas opened red rimmed eyes and looked over at him. "Yeah. I panicked. I ran. Threw the knife in the first rubbish bin I found, and ran. I didn't know where I was going, but I ended up here."

"I'm glad you did," I said. "We were worried about you. You didn't answer your phone."

He blinked a couple of times, confused again. "I don't know where it is. I lost it… Somewhere. I don't remember if I had it after I ran. Everything is blank."

"Don't push yourself," I said. "It'll come back to you. We should find that knife though. In case the police find it first."

"I'll tell Ice," Frost said. "He'll know how to deal with it."

"We need to let Ramsey know," Atlas said. "He went to see Otis Skinner. He might be walking into something. Whoever India was talking to, might have gone to him when she didn't."

"I'll call him," Storm said. He rose to his feet and took a few steps away.

"Do you remember the name of the person India asked you about?" I asked Dallas. "They could be important."

He thought for a moment. "I think it was… Nile Fox?"

I pressed my lips together, trying to figure out why that name rang a vague bell. Whatever it was, it didn't come to me. Nothing more than that I heard it before. Ramsey or my brother might have a better idea who they were.

"Ramsey is on his way back," Storm said. "It seems Otis Skinner is pissed off because someone killed his minion."

Dallas flinched.

"She would have killed you," I said. "She came at you with a knife, you did what you had to do." He was a big guy, he might have overpowered her, but if she was desperate, who knowswhat she might have done. She could have had another knife, or a gun. She could have waited until he turned his back before using it.

When it came down to it, did it matter? She was dead and he wasn't. If she was working for Dominic King and Otis Skinner, then she would have ended up dead sooner or later anyway. If not by us, then by someone else.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I tried talking to her, but she wouldn't listen. I could have called for help. Or tied her up, or… something."

"Either way, she'd still be dead," I said. "If you hesitated and hadn’t bolted, they might have seen you. There's a greater chance they would have known who killed her. They'd be hunting for you as we speak. Right now, they have no idea it was you."

"I suppose." He put his hand on the back of my head and pulled me in closer, until our noses were touching again, and his breath was on my mouth. "I should hate myself for killing her. But I don't."

"You shouldn't hate yourself," I assured him. "You survived. That was all you could do."

"Dallas?" Frost crept in closer. "Did you enjoy it? Is that what got you freaked out?"

Dallas huffed out a warm breath that tickled my cheek. "I didn't want to."

"Neither did I when I killed Ivy," Frost said. "But I did. Honestly, I'm a bit jealous of you. I bet Atlas is too. He didn't seem to hate killing Bruce Fergus."

In the corner of my eye, Atlas shifted uncomfortably. "I prefer not to kill women.” He huffed out a breath. “Chelsea is right, you did what you had to do. To protect yourself and all of us. If she spoke to Otis Skinner, we'd all be fucked right now. We're not, because of you.”

He took a couple of steps closer and crouched down. “I can tell you, killing for the first time, that's the hardest one. It gets easier after that. Eventually, you stop thinking about them as people and they just become jobs. It's you or it's them. If you think any harder than that, you'll drive yourself crazy."

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