Page 68 of Cruel Debts
My heels were hard to stumble along in, but I managed. Just barely, though.
It was starting to hurt.
"Liam, come on, this is ridiculous—where are you taking me?—"
The alleyway door slammed against the side of the building as he shoved us through it, still moving like he was a man on a mission, top speed for his boot-clad ass. He wasn't stumbling along on skyscraper stripper heels, nor was he wearing less than what I slept in most nights.
I shivered against the night air as Liam crowded me in with his arms against the side of their car.
"What thehelldid you think you were doing back there, Trin? Those men could have beendangerous?—"
"They wereclients.Not assassins, you dipshit," I spat back, incensed and ready to fight. "You could have let me turn them down and moved along?—"
"You could have just told them no." He lifted the arm where my bracelet still hung around my wrist and shook it in front of my face. "Where do you get off, wearing a bracelet that invites trouble like that?"
"Where do I get off?" I laughed, loud and directly in his face, like an unhinged angel of chaos. "Where, indeed." My hands balled into fists at my sides. Surely these assholes weren't serious right now. "I'd get off back at the Guild if I thought anyone would give me the time of day to do so with me—" When Liam moved to interrupt, I shoved my fist in his face, and he was so stunned, it bought me a second to keep going. "Since that's out of the question, I'm stuck helping myself, and maybe tonight I wanted to find someone whowasinterested?—"
Asher reached around me and opened the door, shoving me in the backseat with little fanfare. I felt the door close behind me and had all of two seconds to react before Hawke slid into the seat beside me, his eyes hard.
He gave me a stern glare while Liam and Asher stormed around the car. "Not now, Trinity. I want to live to see the Guild again tonight."
Liam yanked the driver's door open and threw himself in the seat, watching Asher out of the side view mirrors as he popped the trunk and threw my belongings in it. I gritted my teeth and frowned at the back of his head, refusing to meet his gaze in the rear-view mirror.
I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of thinking he'd won.
The ride to the Guild was silent. Just like my ride with Asher to the damn club. The walk up the damn stairs was humiliating, though, because not only was I still wearing my outfit, but I was flanked by three men who looked very much like they were ready to kill if anyone so much as said a single word.
The second the door closed on my little prison, though, I snapped.
"I don't know who the hell raised you beasts, but this is unacceptable!" I whirled on them, one by one, venom in my words, claws out, fangs ready to bite. "Asher took me to work. There is no reason I should be dragged from my job because you three can't handle a little bit of attention in my direction?—"
"I'm out of this one," Hawke said with a grin. "This isn't my battle. I wasn't even in the room."
Liar,I wanted to say, because I clearly saw him standing on the wall all night, watching while one of the club girls hung on his every word and move.
But I didn't. I let him go. If Hawke wanted to be a coward, I'd let him. He wasn't the one who threatened to kill two men for looking at me and making a sexual pass.
Areasonablepass, mind you, all things considered.
Liam, though, wasn't getting off so easily. "You," I say with a strangled stream, like some she-beast who's finally coming out to hunt. "You and your attitude really piss me off. First, you locked me in a communal gym room andabandoned me,then you locked me up and told me I'm not going out without permission, and you lied to me like I'm incapable of handling the truth?—"
I was still so pissed at that, I had to stop and take a breath. And then I threw my finger right back into his chest and snarled."Youthink that I should just do as you say and behave, until you finish whatever it is you're doing, so that you can send me home and forget I ever existed."
"Couldn't forget you existed if Itried,"Liam mumbled, but I heard him loud and clear.
"You don't get to act like you give a damn now,Sentry."I didn't care about the way he flinched when I refused to use his real name. I didn't. Not even a little bit. Because he didn't care aboutmyfeelings when he hid the truth from me. "You're only doing this because my parentsbeggedyou to. And for some not-so-secret-anymore reason, you felt guilty enough to do it."
Guilty because he'd already failed one of their kids. Guilty because he should have done more. Guilty because instead of sticking around, instead of coming to the funeral they held for him, when they buried an empty coffin, Liam sent flowers and a sympathy card. EvenHawkeshowed up, and hehatedmy parents.
He looked guilty now, too.
"What's the matter,Sentry?Are you so ashamed of what you did that you can't bring yourself to speak up now?" I shoved him in the chest, and he stepped back, regret in his eyes mingling with anger and something else. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I'm out of here," he said, grabbing his workout bag on the way through the living room. When the door closed on him, it was just me and Asher, and I had no idea what to make of his display of venom tonight.
"You're usually the smart, restrained one." I frowned as he stepped closer, his hands clenching and unclenching as he watched me, looking me over in a predatory manner. "What happened?"
"I couldn't watch them put their hands on you, Pretty Bird, that's what happened." He stepped forward, and now he had me backing up, though I don't like the fear and excitement that traveled together through my veins. "They could have been dangerous."
