Page 137 of A Breath of Life
Without releasing me, he licked two fingers and pinched a sizable amount of the powdery, colorful pile he’d made. “A taste for the road. Open up.”
My heart thundered. I had no clue what the pills were or how they would affect me. I flashed my attention to Joshua, who did his best to cover a nod. Was he telling me to go ahead?Fuck me.
Before I could think too hard about what I was doing or pause too long to cause suspicion, I opened and allowed the Jackal to coat my tongue with the dust. When instructed, I sucked his fingers clean, seductively rolling my tongue around the digits to hopefully erase the doubt in his all-too-knowing gaze.
The substance was bitter and unpleasant, but I somehow avoided wincing and instead licked my lips slowly and erotically as though I’d enjoyed it.
The Jackal grinned, a glint shining in his eyes.
With a smirk, he trailed his finger down the length of a suspender to the front of my pants. Humming, he fondled my uninterested cock. It didn’t seem to bother him that I was the furthest thing from aroused.
“You may go now.”
Dismissed, shaken by what I’d done, I aimed for the hallway that led to the bathroom. Nothing could erase the acrid taste from my mouth, and I wanted to spit and gag and make myself vomit. My focus had never been on the bathroom, but I contemplated ducking inside for a moment to rinse my mouth. What had I done? Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was not good.
In my panicked state, I almost rounded the corner without giving Joshua the cue.
Halting, heart hammering, eyes watering, I glanced over my shoulder. Joshua wasn’t looking.Look at me, asshole.My companion was too busy taking a fucking hit off the tray. This would not fall apart because of him. What was I going to do?
Wavering, on the verge of returning to the table, Joshua finally glanced up. Eye contact was brief, but when I touched the brim of my pageboy hat—the sign he was meant to wait for—he winked.
Thank fucking god.I vanished around the corner but didn’t race away. Head down and hugging a wall to avoid other patrons coming and going, I waited for it to happen.
And waited.
And waited.
Ten seconds passed. Twenty.
I cursed, fearing Joshua wouldn’t follow through when glass shattered.
Men shouted in surprise. Chairs clattered to the ground as I imagined people launching themselves to their feet, having no idea what the heck had happened.
“Now,” I said into my inconspicuous microphone. “Now, now, now.”
Within a second, the lights in the entire building flickered, and I hoped it meant the computers and cameras were officially on the fritz. My cousin had assured me they would need at least a few minutes for their system to reboot.
I ran as more shouts erupted behind me in the main room. I passed the bathrooms on my right, almost colliding with a guy as he exited, and continued to the end of the hall, hoping and praying Joshua was right about a back entrance and that Costa was able to get inside with his fancy as fuck gadgets.
As I rounded the corner, hoping and praying I would run into my cousin on his way into the building, I came face-to-face with the Bishop.
We both startled.
He narrowed his eyes in recognition. Before I could react, he unearthed a pistol and aimed it at my chest.
“Oh fuck,” I muttered, unsure what to do.
He raised his arm with a smirk. “Going somewhere?”
A single gunshot pierced the air, and I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for impact.
34
Diem
Aspear of ice shot down my spine at the sound of gunshots. No. Notmultiple. One single shot. So far. Fuck this. If people were shooting, I wasn’t sticking around to find out why. Tied to a chair, I was an easy fucking target, unable to defend myself if someone came after me, and theywouldcome after me. I’d be dead before I hit the ground. If I was going to die, I was going to die fighting.
I folded my body in half and went for the knife strapped to my ankle. Getting it unsheathed proved trickier than I expected with the rope so tightly secured around my legs, not to mention the clunky fucking handcuffs restricting my movements.
