Page 28 of Cruel Debts
I wasn’t done here in Port Wylde. And until I was, there wasn’t a person on this planet who could keep me away.
Not even the Gunners themselves.
All fucking three of them.
THIRTEEN
LIAM
“Yes,Mrs. McCoy, we found her. And I’ll have her on the first train back to you today, just as soon as I can buy the ticket.”
Trinity’s mother snorted down the line. “I’m not an idiot, Liam. You can’t make that girl do anything she doesn’t want to do. Unless you chain her to the seat and put a guard on her a foot away, she’s going to be off that train and back to wherever she’s been holing up before you make it home.”
I sighed in exasperation. “She’s promised to behave.”
“Let me remind you who you’re talking about,” she said cooly, the humor seeping through the line. “If she won’t come home, she won’t come home, as much as her father wants her to. But I will send a guard to the station to await her possible arrival. Just send me the details.” She chuckled as I swore, spotting Trinity hurrying her way across the kitchen again, a bottle of water in one hand, a skillet in the other. “Good luck, Liam.”
The line went dead and I dropped my phone on the couch, standing with a quickness when I realized what the fucking pan was for.
She was headed straight for Hawke.
For a split second, I almost wanted to let her connect with the back of his thick skull.Almost.But unlike her, I had to live withhim for the long run. And letting him get injured wasn’t viewed as polite, even between murderers.
“Trinity, put the pan down,” I commanded, unsurprised that she wasn’t listening. She never had, not even when we’d first known her. She did and said exactly what she pleased, nothing else, and heaven help the person who tried to stop her.
It was one of the things that made her so dangerous.
How did you protect someone from themselves?
“Aww, come on, Liam,” she pouted as I took the pan out of her hands, seconds away from Hawke’s worst headache in years. “He deserved it!”
She’d been here three days now, and after thwarting a plane ticket, a greyhound, and an escort, I was beginning to think her mother was right. She was going to do what she wanted, when she wanted. And I didn’t have the capacity to babysit her all the way home. Not that she’d hesitate to knock me out and let me ride the whole way there alone while she came back here and caused who knew what kind of havoc. I would try one last time to send her back where she belonged, and then call it a wash.
Or maybe tell Hawke he had to find a way to get rid of her. He couldn’t stand her presence in the place. It set him on edge. And when Hawke wanted to make something happen, it happened. People might die, but the devil was in the details, really.
She bounced away with a pout, and I had to swallow the sigh that built up inside me. Trinity McCoy was more of a handful now that she was grown, and had I known what I was signing up for back then, I would have told Keehn to take his blood oath and stick it up his ass.
Trinity was borderline infuriating on a good day.
I couldn’t imagine putting up with her long-term.
Today was my day to watch her, as it were, and I was already tired of the whole thing. I had arealjob to be doing, a job thatshe put in jeopardy with her mere presence. A job I couldn’t take her along for.
A job that would essentially keep her safe, should I ever get around to completing it.
“I have to work tonight,”she said with a sigh, holding her bag of paints and brushes up to dangle them in my face. Maybe she thought that would make me sympathetic to her. It did the opposite. I had no desire to let her drag me into the sex club as a fucking assistant and bodyguard.
“I’m not taking you.”
She stomped her foot, and I had to choke back a laugh. “You have to. You promised my employer, who is technicallyyouremployer as well, that you would see to it I could attend work again, on my nights, if I wanted.” She stuck her tongue out at me as I rolled my eyes skyward and groaned. “And I want.”
“Youwantto give me a headache is what youwantto do.” Still, a deal was a deal, and I couldn’t really argue the point. We signed a deal with Minnie, just like we’d signed a contract with St. Clair. Honoring it was the bare minimum.
I wouldn’t let a little discomfort tarnish my good name.
“Fine,” I sighed, wincing when she threw her hands around my neck excitedly. “But you need to do as I say. If I think there’s a danger to your life, you’re out of there, I don’t care what you’re doing.” I looked her up and down, realizing there was no way this was what she planned to wear at that club. We had all seen her on paint night. As much as I’d like to pretend I hadn’t.
“What are you planning to wear?”
