Page 19 of Cruel Debts
“What can I say? You two spoil me.” His hands gripped the wheel tightly. “Come on, you two. The longer we wait, the longer this is gonna take. We can clean out the fucking room together when we get back.”
He wasn’t wrong, though it would be weird to clean house with a girl watching us work. Let alone a girl I had some unresolved feelings for.
“Fine,” Liam spat, his hands on the passenger side door handle. “Get in, fucker. Let’s go.”
“Yeah,” echoed Hawke, “we’re burning daylight here, Asher.”
I glanced out at the exit of the parking garage, taking note of the pitch black of the night. “Debatable.”
But nonetheless, I got in the car and settled in for the half hour ride ahead.
This was a mistake.
A big, fat, fuck up of a mistake.
We all three wore the masks we’d adopted during our time in the Guild, with the idea that maybe until we felt this girl out, it was best to keep a layer of anonymity between us.
Hawke looked absolutely lethal in his oni mask, the tusks of the demon half-shape creating a frightening visage every time he smiled beneath them. Liam wore a simple neck gaiter, his eyes the only thing visible above it as he scanned the parking lot for signs of danger.
He was already on the job, it seemed.
I slid my plague doctor mask into place on my head, shrugging off the usual laughs and jeers from the other two. Sure, it was an antiquated mask, but it served two purposes—vintage appreciation for my profession, and a deterrent toanyone I might not want to talk to. It certainly scared away a lot of the normies.
We walked in the back door and were ushered into the office without preamble, Minnie’s only indication that she had noticed the masks a raised brow and a slight chuckle.
I sat on the end of the desk in her office, Liam to my left in an ornate chair, with Hawke leaning against the far wall, his arms once more crossed over his chest. The three of us made quite a sight, but that was the point, really. Putting off the rest of society would make this babysitting job way easier.
Minnie’s fingers steepled over her desk as she leaned forward, her glare intense and piercing. “Before the girl gets here, let’s go over a few things. One: She still works for me. She’s asked to stay on her nights, and I agreed, provided one of you accompanies her. St. Clair said this won’t be a problem.” She eyed us all in turn, waiting, perhaps, for us to protest. But protesting at this point would do no good. “Second: if anything happens to her, something bad will happen to you. She’s not like my other girls. Someone out there is missing her, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the fence when they eventually come looking.”
I raised my brow an inch. “If she’s not your usual runaway, then why’s she here?” I squinted at her, sensing something was off. “What is she to you?”
“Right now, she’s a high-value target. And that brings me to number three: She’s seen some shit. I don’t know what all that fucker did to her while she was locked up in his place, but she hasn’t had time to process it. So maybe lose the masks and stop acting like hardasses. She hasn’t had a second to breathe since she escaped and came here. You’re going to scare her.”
“That’s the point, Minnie,” Hawke muttered, rolling his eyes again. “She’s gotta understand we’re dangerous, and not to befucked with. The masks are the quickest way to drive home that we’re not like her.”
“We’re far from the most dangerous things to her in that asylum. It’s imperative that she listen to our orders right out of the gate, or she could be facing people more dangerous to her than the man after her.”
Minnie frowned. “You all are a bit rough, I’ll admit, but I see your points.” She huffed and kicked her seat back, throwing her boots on the end of her desk like she owned the place. Which she kind of did. “I’ll let her know to come in now. You three be nice.”
I chuckled, chancing a grin under my mask that I knew she didn’t get to see. “No promises.”
“Anton, let her in.”
A man’s voice crackled over the other end of the walkie-talkie, and the office door opened to admit a figure that I wouldn’t have recognized unless she’d told me who she was.
Dressed in baggy sweats and a pair of sunglasses more suited to the daytime, the girl marched in with a bag on her shoulder, her gait nothing like the confident swagger she’d displayed the night I met her in her painting studio. She walked like someone had deposited sandbags on her shoulders, weighing her down so much it hurt.
I almost reached out to take the bag from her, then tightened my fingers into a fist.
Get it together, Asher.
Minnie stood and motioned for her to move into the room, the door closing behind her. She kept going until she stood beside Minnie, behind the heavy oak desk separating us. I waited for her to take off the glasses, but she never did.
Strange. Maybe she had a black eye. Maybe more happened to her in that house than she wanted to admit.
I made a mental note to see if Mallory would make a house call and see if she needed therapy. I could understand better than anyone how trauma like that could change you.
I lived with my trauma every day of my life.
