Page 79 of Kept to Kill
She could hear sounds of merriment inside, roaring laughter, loud singing. Thoughts of what was going on in there, of what she would be walking into, scared her. She’d accompanied Vineri to celebrations before, but it had only been for show. His guards had always surrounded her so that no one who wasn’t supposed to could get close enough to die. Here there’d be no such protections.
She wrapped her arms around herself under her black cloak, beneath which she wore nothing but the disguise that Quin had procured for her. Was she really going to do this? Could she go in there with gods only knew how many people? She looked up at Quin’s face when she knew he wouldn’t notice, his gaze fixed on the door, waiting for it to open. When it did, his part would be over and hers would just be beginning.
She tried to force all thoughts of uncertainty away. If she didn’t, she knew she would become more and more terrified and they’d probably find her hiding in a wardrobe, shaking like a useless little leaf after the carousing was over.
Quin looked down at her for a moment, his gaze unfathomable. She wished she knew what he was thinking. Did he care if this went poorly past her not getting the job done? Was he worried for her or was she as expendable to him as she’d always been?
Perhaps she didn’t want to know, she mused, thinking back to when he’d held her in his arms. She’d never felt so safe, so protected. It hadn’t lasted long, but she’d treasure that memory for the rest of her life, she thought as she gazed up at the building. However long that might be …
The door creaked open and her heart felt like it stopped for just a moment in her chest. It was time. She took a deep breath and forced herself to walk forward, ignoring Quin.
As soon as she reached the threshold, a servant who stood on the other side of the door made sure she was inside and, mostly ignoring her, left her standing in the back hall beside the kitchen by herself.
She looked behind her at the door, already shut. She could run. She could still get out of here. As she heard more manly laughter, the clink of glasses and girlish giggles, she wanted to.
No, she had told them she would do it and she would not make herself a liar. She could be free after this was done. Truly free.
She let the cloak drop to the floor, stashed it behind some boxes of refuse, and walked on bare feet towards the sounds of merriment.
Keeping to the shadows wasn’t difficult either. There weren’t that many candles, and the place was quite dim, bordering on gloomy. She entered one of the main rooms filled with low murmurs and breathy moans. It was a cacophony and, luckily for her, it looked like the attentions of all of the men in the room were engaged with the many beautiful and very naked women. Her eyes widened at the sight of one of them bent backwards, legs spread and being taken by one man while she took another with her mouth.
Lily felt her cheeks heat as she thought about doing that with Bastian and Mal and berated herself. She was here tokillthree men, not to have imaginings of carnal pleasures with the Brothers. She sashayed across the room, not hurrying, not acting as if she had anywhere to be, all while ensuring no one was within arm’s reach of her.
Mal had told her earlier that her targets rarely cavorted with their men. She didn’t know who they were, exactly, outside of this building, but the other unit had been able to provide sketches of the men that Mal had made her memorize down to the smallest detail – though little else was known about them save their faces, which she thought a bit odd. Kitore was large, but still a contained place. People couldn’t go unnoticed forever here. If any of her unit had thought the same, though, they certainly hadn’t spoken to her about it.
She walked past a door as she continued her slow search of the house and heard muted voices from within. Putting her ear against the wood, she tried to discern how many were inside as she went through the plan of the building that Mal had also made her commit to memory. She counted at least two.
Looking around her, she wondered how she could gain entry, sure that there had been another room adjacent to this one with a door joining them together. She went down the corridor to the entrance of the next room, opening it with care and formulating a conceivable lie if she was confronted.
The room was deserted, thank the gods, and the connecting door to the other room was slightly ajar. She padded across the room, not making a noise on the thick woolen carpets that covered the floors. She peered through the door and found three men, who fitted the sketches she’d looked at, sitting at the table. Could this be them already alone? Would it really be this easy?
The men spoke in low voices, two sitting on comfy chairs by the fire while the third paced. Lily took a deep breath. It was now or never, she thought. She might not get a better chance than this.
She stepped into their room, pasting what she hoped was a sultry smile onto her face.
The dark-haired one looked up and frowned. ‘The whores are to stay in the main room unless called,’ he said, staring at her breasts through the gauze she wore.
‘Yes, my lord,’ she said, ‘but all of the other men seem to be engaged by my friends, and I’m lonely,’ she pouted, hoping she sounded plausible.
The blond one grinned. ‘Don’t send her away. We’re almost finished our business anyway.’
Dark-Hair rolled his eyes, yet they still somehow never left her chest. ‘We aren’t here to dally with whores,’ he complained. ‘How you can after all that’s happened, I—’
‘We all deal with grief in our own ways,’ the blond one snapped, his smile turning brittle. ‘Come here, girl.’
Lily took small steps towards them, her mind screaming at her to run. There was something about these three men. Their gazes were false and something in them was menacing, predatory, but she couldn’t figure out what. They seemed like normal men, but she knew somehow that they were not.
Logically, this was no different than being in that pleasure tent in the camp. Although that had been terrifying in its own right, she’d come out of it in one piece. Somehow, this was worse.
She could do this, she told herself as she stood before the blond while the dark-haired ones looked on.
‘So you’ve been yearning for some company, have you?’ Blondie asked her, looking her up and down.
She nodded, fluttering her eyelashes at him and pretending shyness that was in fact revulsion.
‘I didn’t notice you earlier,’ the first one muttered.
‘I was detained. I came later,’ she said, biting her lip as she’d noticed other courtesans doing in the pleasure tent. Drawing from that small experience was the best she could do, however. She had no real idea how paid women acted and no experience of seduction. She stepped a little bit closer, close enough for Blondie to reach her. As soon as she was in his sphere, he pulled her into his lap. But his hands only touched the silky cloth of her dress.
