Page 29 of Cruel Debts
A cute blush worked its way up her cheeks. “I don’t get dressed until I’m at the club.” She glared daggers at me, and Irealized I was staring at her tits, hidden beneath a thick hoodie she’d swiped from who knew which one of the others. “You see something you like?”
Unfortunately.“No.”
What a smooth liar.
Denying Trinity was hot was like saying the ocean was dry. That birds couldn’t fly. It was obvious to anyone with eyes. It’d be a miracle if I could keep mine off her long enough to do this job. Because there was no way in hell I was goingthere.Not with my best friend’s sister. Mydeadbest friend’slittlesister.
No fucking way.
“Get ready, then. When do you have to be there?”
She shook that fucking bag again. “I am ready. And I go on in an hour.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the keys from the hook on the wall. “Let’s get this over with.”
If I thought watchingTrinity work was going to be hard, it was nothing compared to actuallyseeingmen and women ogle her like a piece of meat. She strutted around in that skimpy little lingerie set, her assets on display for all to see, as she wound her brush around yetanotherman’s dick, turning his tiny pecker into a serpent coiled.
As if that would help him look bigger or more impressive when he took his pants off.
As if a woman would want that thing between her legs just because of a fancy design.
Women liked cars, jewelery, fancy things—they didn’t go for mediocre men like the one standing on the dais now, his handsin his hair, flexing like his muscled torso made up for what steroids had done to his Johnson.
I, on the other hand, built my muscles the hard way—with unending work, dedication, and perseverance inside a gym every day of the week, without breaks, even when I was sick or weak or feeling lazy.
You couldn’t attain perfection without some sacrifice.
And I’d sacrificed a lot.
“Okay, who’s next?”
Her voice rang out over the room, and I watched several men swarm forward, thankfully stopped by the club’s security. I could have trusted these goons to protect her. Until now, they’d been doing a damn good job. But the problem with that was they weren’t trained like I was. They weren’t as competent as I was. Their eyes weren’t as sharp, their minds not as clear. They could be distracted by naked bodies and the atmosphere, believing themselves to be safe in their little club.
But there was no such thing as safety here, not when all your clients were strangers, unnamed nobodies who wore masks to hide their true identities.
“How about you, Miss?” the bodyguard-slash-organizer at the front of the line said, pointing to a woman along the back wall wearing a satin black number and a dark, face-covering mask. “Care to give it a go?”
The way she moved felt like trouble. I couldn’t pin one specific aspect of her person down as the thing that made alarm bells ring in my head, but I knew immediately that this one was trouble. So, being the professional I was, I moved forward, stepping closer to the dais with intent.
Her legs were toned beneath the sheer pants she wore, her shoes sensible and flat—not like the other women here wearing skyscraper heels to make their legs longer and asses plumper. Her hands, at her sides at first, lifted to take her coat off, andI held my breath as something shiny glinted in the light of the room.
Gun.
She’s got a gun!
In a second, I was racing across the room, locking eyes with Trinity, who looked to me like she’d been watching my every move this whole time as well. The understanding in her gaze was a second too late, though, and I watched her look toward the threat in the room just as the woman dodged the security guard and made a lunge at Trinity, the gun I’d previously suspected actually a blade—and a gnarly one, at that.
“Trinity, get down!”
She dropped to the floor like she’d been shot, and I thanked my lucky stars that for once, she’d listened, as I slammed into the woman with the knife, taking the blade straight in the meat of my arm as we tussled on the ground.
Security at the club didn’t even bother to help. Their concern was the crowd control, getting their customers out of the way and to safety.
They couldn’t give a fuck about Trinity. Or maybe they were in on it.
I rolled on the floor with the attacker, coming to a stop at the edge of the dais with a grunt. Before I could react, she was on her feet and blending into the crowd, abandoning her outer layer for something red as she ditched her full mask and switched to a half mask of a different color. I grabbed my arm to stem the flow of blood and made to go after her, but then Trinity was at my side, her hands on my bicep, feeling the edges of my wound, a worried thread in her voice she fought hard to hide.
“Liam, you’re hurt!” Her face was pale, and she looked from the wound to me, no doubt worried it was serious.
