Page 128 of Convict's Game

Silence. Then the vibrator resumed, stronger than before. My hips jerked involuntarily.

“We never were. Not from the first time I saw you.”

My body shook. Need blurred my thoughts.

“Convict…”

“Say it.” His voice held a plea. “Or anyone here will see how desperate you are for me. I’ll make you scream for as long as it takes.”

A sob caught in my throat. “Love is earned. Not demanded.”

“Not for me. Not now. I need it.”

My mind raced, my emotions spilling over themselves. In a flurry, the events of the past few weeks battered me with a barrage of hits. Of suddenly being alone, no job, no grandparents. Of being at a loss of how to fix a terrible situation and at the centre of everyone’s blame. Of slowly realising all was not as it seemed in the life I’d been swept up in then abandoned to.

“I asked you not to lie to me,” I bit out, focusing on that last point above all others. Others had lied to me repeatedly. Convicthad, too. “On the night of your big confession, I asked it and you said you wouldn’t anymore. Have you kept that promise?”

He hesitated. “I think so. Fuck. I’m not sure. Lying comes as easily to me as breathing. Same as stealing, hurting, and every other crime there is. It’s second fucking nature.”

Tears spilled hot down my cheeks, soaked up by the skeleton crew bandanna. “Then how am I supposed to trust you? I need that from you. I need you to be honest. Never to lie to me.”

A ragged breath sounded through the earpiece.

“I’m trying, Mila. I’m trying to be what you need. You keep putting barriers between us.”

“By making demands like this? Do you know how messed up that is?”

“Yes, because I’m messed up. I’m the king of red flags. Yet still you want me.”

I opened my mouth to answer.

A harsh crackle cut through the earpiece. “Convict. Salter’s in play. We’re mobilising. Five minutes.”

Convict swore a bitter stream.

The vibrator stopped abruptly. Rushed footsteps followed. Hands on my wrists, undoing the cuffs. The toy removed and discarded.

I sagged forward, only for his arms to catch me.

His tone was harsh. “I have to go. You’ll be guarded all night. Unless you ask me to stay.”

I wasn’t going to ask it. I needed the space. But his mouth was on mine, hot, desperate, unfinished.

Then he was gone.

I knelt alone in the cage entrance, my blindfold slipping askew.

Around me, the club throbbed with life. Strangers’ eyes burned across my skin, but a quiet enquiry from Clem told me he hadn’t left me unprotected.

I wiped my face, my chest rising and falling.

I’d nearly said words I couldn’t take back. And now, I wasn’t sure if he’d return.

Chapter 43

Convict

My crew’s convoy of night-black vehicles crept through Deadwater’s industrial quarter. Hidden in the back of the lead truck with Shade, Arran, Manny, and Tyler, I touched the gun at my hip, every one of us armed to the teeth with the weapons glinting in the dim red light.