Page 10 of Cruel Debts (Killers of Port Wylde #4)

EIGHT

ASHER

“What the fuck do you mean, we’re going to be bodyguards?”

St. Clair shrugged as she picked at a nail bed, her face dismissive and uninterested.

“Minnie’s been invaluable lately to my overall goals, and she asked for a favor.

So I gave her one.” Flicking the imaginary dirt from her nails, she turned to Liam and Hawke, looping them in on the whole thing.

“Starting tonight, you three will be protecting a girl Minnie says has been through some shit. She just escaped your most recent high-profile target, and we think he might be looking to silence her.”

I was going to throttle Minnie the second I didn’t need her anymore.

“Babysitting isn’t in my list of services for a damn reason, St. Clair.”

Hawke just grumbled under his breath, arms folded in front of him. “What he said.”

Only Liam seemed interested in the details. “She’s on the run from Frye? Nobody’s ever escaped from his place before.” A look of thoughtfulness passed across his brow for a second, worrying me. If Liam was intrigued, there was no getting out of this, even if I refused.

“Who are we protecting? One of her dungeon girls?”

Ah, so that’s where his mind was. Sex.

“As much as you’d like that, I don’t think I need to remind you that this is a job, and you should keep it in your pants so you don’t complicate things, Sentry.”

Her eyes skimmed Hawke, who didn’t look like he could be any less interested in the whole thing, and then fell on me.

I knew that look.

Oh, hell no.

“Where would she stay?” I pointed at the three of us in turn, brows hiked up my forehead. “You can’t seriously think it’s a good idea to bring another normie in this place and expect her to be safe?—”

“Ivy and Harper seem to be doing just fine,” she pointed out, her expression hardening. “And she’d stay with you three, of course. You even have a spare room she can crash in.”

She wasn’t wrong. Once upon a time, we’d entertained the idea of Keehn joining us here, when he finally came round. But every year with no word from him drove that hope further and further from reality, until we’d just started using the room as storage for our guns and equipment.

We’d have to clear that shit out, obviously.

“When is this supposed to happen?” Hawke asked finally, shoving off the wall.

“Tonight. I told Minnie one of you would be over to pick the girl up before she opened tonight.”

That was in two hours. “You expect us to normie-proof our whole apartment in less than an hour, and then drive across town to the club, pick this girl up, and come back here with no time to prep?”

“Only one of you needs to go pick her up. And for the love of god, don’t scare the poor thing.”

I made a mental note to do exactly that. Might save us some time in the long run, educating her on why exactly she should listen to us and stay in the fucking dorm.

There were worse than us in this place. Crazier, too. She might not fare so well if she ran into the wrong ones. If we scared her early on, maybe she’d listen from the start.

Or maybe that was wishful thinking on my part.

Liam’s scowl looked like it was ready to consume him. “What the fuck happens if we refuse?”

“You can’t,” Lilly said pointedly. “You work for me, Sentry, not the other way around. And when I say you’re taking a job, you’re supposed to thank me and do as you’re told.”

I didn’t like it, but she was right. And that meant there was no point in dragging this out any longer.

“I’ll stay and help Hawke tidy up the spare room. You go down to the club and pick up the girl.”

Liam snorted. “Absolutely not. Let Hawke go pick her up. He hates cleaning anyhow.”

Hawke shrugged. “If it means I can get out of here, I guess I’m down.” He stuck his hand in my pocket and lifted the keys from me, winking as I just growled in irritation.

When he’d left the room, I turned back to St. Clair, who looked ready to dismiss us. “What do we know about the girl aside from what you’ve told us?”

“Not much, actually. Minnie says she’s too old to be a runaway, but still pretty young. And she works for her at the club, obviously. Something about still working her nights, with an escort from one of you, obviously.”

So not only would we be babysitting, we’d be frequenting the club several nights a week, maybe more. “She a dancer?”

“Painter, from what I hear.”

Painter.

What was it Minnie had said about her missing girl a few weeks ago?

“She took a private gig, and won’t be back for awhile.”

Maybe this was the girl I’d been looking for. The body painter who’d managed to sink her claws into me, the girl I couldn’t get out of my mind.

I raced out the door with a muttered apology to Liam on the way out. There was no way I was letting Hawke cash in on this opportunity without me.

If she were the girl I’d been looking for this whole time, I wanted to be there to see her with my own two eyes.

I might not understand the urge, but I understood to ignore it would be painful and pointless.

Liam would have to clear out the guest room on his own this time.

As it turned out, Liam caught up to me in the parking garage, just as I made it to the car and stopped Hawke from peeling out alone.

“Oh, hell no. You’re not sticking me with the cleaning job alone, asshole.” He threw a punch in my direction, but I dodged him easily, my scowl returning with a vengeance.

“Someone has to do it,” I pointed out. “Why not you?”

Hawke chuckled at our argument as he started the car, revving the engine in the background. “Are you two lovebirds done arguing about whose turn it is to do the chores? We have somewhere to be.”

Liam rolled his eyes so hard I was afraid they might stick in the back of his head. “Says the asshole who never cleans a thing in our dorm.”

“What can I say? You two spoil me.” His hands gripped the wheel tightly. “Come on, you two. The longer we wait, the longer this is gonna take. We can clean out the fucking room together when we get back.”

He wasn’t wrong, though it would be weird to clean house with a girl watching us work. Let alone a girl I had some unresolved feelings for.

“Fine,” Liam spat, his hands on the passenger side door handle. “Get in, fucker. Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” echoed Hawke, “we’re burning daylight here, Asher.”

I glanced out at the exit of the parking garage, taking note of the pitch black of the night. “Debatable.”

But nonetheless, I got in the car and settled in for the half hour ride ahead.

This was a mistake.

A big, fat, fuck up of a mistake.

We all three wore the masks we’d adopted during our time in the Guild, with the idea that maybe until we felt this girl out, it was best to keep a layer of anonymity between us.

Hawke looked absolutely lethal in his oni mask, the tusks of the demon half-shape creating a frightening visage every time he smiled beneath them. Liam wore a simple neck gaiter, his eyes the only thing visible above it as he scanned the parking lot for signs of danger.

He was already on the job, it seemed.

I slid my plague doctor mask into place on my head, shrugging off the usual laughs and jeers from the other two.

Sure, it was an antiquated mask, but it served two purposes—vintage appreciation for my profession, and a deterrent to anyone I might not want to talk to.

It certainly scared away a lot of the normies.

We walked in the back door and were ushered into the office without preamble, Minnie’s only indication that she had noticed the masks a raised brow and a slight chuckle.

I sat on the end of the desk in her office, Liam to my left in an ornate chair, with Hawke leaning against the far wall, his arms once more crossed over his chest. The three of us made quite a sight, but that was the point, really.

Putting off the rest of society would make this babysitting job way easier.

Minnie’s fingers steepled over her desk as she leaned forward, her glare intense and piercing.

“Before the girl gets here, let’s go over a few things.

One: She still works for me. She’s asked to stay on her nights, and I agreed, provided one of you accompanies her.

St. Clair said this won’t be a problem.” She eyed us all in turn, waiting, perhaps, for us to protest. But protesting at this point would do no good.

“Second: if anything happens to her, something bad will happen to you. She’s not like my other girls.

Someone out there is missing her, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of the fence when they eventually come looking. ”

I raised my brow an inch. “If she’s not your usual runaway, then why’s she here?” I squinted at her, sensing something was off. “What is she to you?”

“Right now, she’s a high-value target. And that brings me to number three: She’s seen some shit.

I don’t know what all that fucker did to her while she was locked up in his place, but she hasn’t had time to process it.

So maybe lose the masks and stop acting like hardasses.

She hasn’t had a second to breathe since she escaped and came here. You’re going to scare her.”

“That’s the point, Minnie,” Hawke muttered, rolling his eyes again. “She’s gotta understand we’re dangerous, and not to be fucked with. The masks are the quickest way to drive home that we’re not like her.”

“We’re far from the most dangerous things to her in that asylum. It’s imperative that she listen to our orders right out of the gate, or she could be facing people more dangerous to her than the man after her.”

Minnie frowned. “You all are a bit rough, I’ll admit, but I see your points.” She huffed and kicked her seat back, throwing her boots on the end of her desk like she owned the place. Which she kind of did. “I’ll let her know to come in now. You three be nice.”

I chuckled, chancing a grin under my mask that I knew she didn’t get to see. “No promises.”

“Anton, let her in.”

A man’s voice crackled over the other end of the walkie-talkie, and the office door opened to admit a figure that I wouldn’t have recognized unless she’d told me who she was.

Dressed in baggy sweats and a pair of sunglasses more suited to the daytime, the girl marched in with a bag on her shoulder, her gait nothing like the confident swagger she’d displayed the night I met her in her painting studio.

She walked like someone had deposited sandbags on her shoulders, weighing her down so much it hurt.

I almost reached out to take the bag from her, then tightened my fingers into a fist.

Get it together, Asher.

Minnie stood and motioned for her to move into the room, the door closing behind her. She kept going until she stood beside Minnie, behind the heavy oak desk separating us. I waited for her to take off the glasses, but she never did.

Strange. Maybe she had a black eye. Maybe more happened to her in that house than she wanted to admit.

I made a mental note to see if Mallory would make a house call and see if she needed therapy. I could understand better than anyone how trauma like that could change you.

I lived with my trauma every day of my life.

“T, meet your protection detail for the foreseeable future. , Sentry, and Ghost.”

As she mentioned our names, each of us raised a hand or gave a nod, letting her know who was who. Thankfully, nobody here knew our real names. The monikers we used to instill fear in our targets served as a warning.

She didn’t seem impressed. In fact, if the boredom and irritation etched into the lines of her face were any indication, she was . . . bored.

Bored.

No fucking way.