Page 21 of Cruel Debts (Killers of Port Wylde #4)

SEVENTEEN

TRINITY

I wasn't sure how long Liam planned to leave me in there, but as fate would have it, someone else must've noticed me banging on the door, because about an hour later, it opened, and in walked a woman who looked slightly familiar.

She might've been one of the girls from the commons area when I first arrived, I was pretty sure.

Her name, though, was another story. I had no idea what it was, and I wasn't sure I wanted to ask.

"You in here alone?" she said questioningly, her eyes scanning the room as if she'd find one of the men responsible for my well-being in a corner somewhere. "Where's your escort?"

"I don't need a babysitter," I snapped, instantly regretting the choice. "Sorry, I'm not great company right now."

The raven-haired beauty offered me a hand and helped me off the floor, eyeing my outfit pointedly. "You, ah, like to work out?"

"I was actually going fishing," I said by way of explanation. Apparently, it was one she understood.

"Catch anything good?" Her smile was contagious, and I grinned right along with her.

"Nothing worth mentioning." My hand shot out, and she took it willingly, shaking it with a firm, deadly grip. "Trinity."

"Harper," she said in return, her eyes dancing with mischief. "You, ah, want some company? The real refuse might be gone already, but you never know with some of these men if you're safe to roam the hallways alone."

"Do you think I can't handle myself?" I strolled right out the door, hands on my hips and head held high. "I'm a big girl. I'm sure there's nothing in these halls that's going to kill me for simply existing."

"Well, not anymore, at least," she hedged, her eyes skirting to the side. "But there are things in here that might fuck with you for looking like that. Well, and not being able to defend yourself."

"Who says I can't defend myself?"

Her foot darted out so fast, I was left reeling as I hit the floor, ass first. "I says," she muttered, offering me a hand again. I took it, but not very willingly. "Listen, why don't you come hang with me for a little while, and I'll teach you a few things?"

"I don't need charity," I snapped, hating that I really did.

I was reliant on the generosity of others, and as much as I resented it, she was my only option so far, and without her, who knew how long I'd have been stuck in that room?

"But I suppose if you let me pay you back somehow, I might be willing to learn a few things. "

Which is how I ended up in her dorm, thankfully empty for now, shoving furniture against the walls to make room for her lessons. When we cleared the living room space, she clapped her hands and declared class in session.

I didn't know what hit me.

I lay on my back, on the hard floor, staring up at a woman with a grin of victory on her face and traces of skeleton makeup on her lips. She stared down at me and frowned.

"There's room for improvement, but you're going to need a lot of work. You're hot garbage at this right now." Her feet planted, and she hoisted me to mine, dusting off my ass when I got my balance. "I started out pretty shit, too, and then someone pushed me off a bridge and tried to kill me."

"Oh my god!" My gasp would have been audible in a tropical storm. "Did you ever pay them back?"

"No," a grumpy voice in the far corner said slowly. "She's sleeping with him. Well, him and his two brothers."

Another voice joined the fray, immediately setting me on edge for reasons I couldn't explain. "I'm not claiming you two idiots as brothers this week." This one belonged to a bigger, more muscular man with dark skin and braids. "Hi there. New friend, Harper?"

Harper tossed her hair over a shoulder and smiled as the tall man moved closer, leaning in to give her a kiss. "Hey, Ro. Plans today?"

"Just cleaning up some loose ends for our last contract." His eyes fell on me, and he waited patiently for her to say something.

"Oh, right. Rowan, this is Trinity. She's, uh, she's with?—"

"The Gunners. I've heard of her. Well, we all have, really. Less of an introduction and more of a promise that we'll wake up missing limbs and vital organs if we so much as breathe in the same direction as you."

"Rowan, if I were you, I'd look away. Who knows? She might be a medusa and turn you to stone if you look directly in her eyes." The other man joined us, and his looks were as day and night as mine and my brother's.

Harper rolled her eyes. "That's Nash. He's a grump, so you can just ignore him."

"Yo," the one called Nash said by way of greeting, his head buried in their fridge. "If you're looking for self-defense classes, you might want someone other than Harper. She's not the best teacher."

I watched a pillow from the couch go sailing across the room and hit him square in the back of the head.

"I'm better than you, asshole," Harper shouted back, a grin a mile wide on her face. "You're just mean."

"And Rowan isn't much better. When he tried to teach you, all you two got done was fucking."

My brows were in my hairline. I'd never been party to such a wild ass conversation before, and the fact that they felt so comfortable having it around a stranger like me was telling of their character and ease.

"Say that again with your whole chest, why don't you, Nash?—"

"Maybe I will!"

A firm hand pulled me out of the way just as Nash came crashing over the couch and took Harper to the ground, the two of them only half-wrestling. I turned to see the most beautiful man I'd ever laid eyes on—everything about him was radiant beauty. And his violet eyes?—

"You might want to give them some space. They'll be going at it until one of them taps out. And they're both stubborn, so it could be a while." His smile beamed at me, and it was nearly blinding in its intensity. "Angel. I think your boys call me Pretty Boy."

"Oh, right, I think I've heard of you." Mostly, I'd heard he was deadly accurate with a knife and stunning beyond compare. I could attest to the latter now. I hoped to never be able to attest to the former. "I'm?—"

"Trinity McCoy. I know all about you." He squinted carefully, assessing my face.

"You're the daughter of a rich oil mogul.

Originally from Covenant Hollow, where your parents still reside.

Your brother Keehn has been missing for years.

" He checked his nails, picking at invisible lint on his shirt.

"You are here, I assume, because you want to find him, correct? "

I frowned. "You know an awful lot for a stranger."

He shrugged, his sharp violet eyes missing nothing. "It's part of the job. I'd be dead already if I wasn't good at it."

"Fair enough." Nash and Harper rolled across the floor again, coming within inches of our feet where we stood. "How long do you think this'll keep going?"

"Not long, I hope. I have things to do, and they require Nash's assistance.

" He leaned down as they passed by us again and yanked Nash up by the back of his collar, dragging him away from the girl in the center of the fray.

"Come, brother mine. We have work to do that doesn't involve maiming our woman. "

"You let him go, Angel, so I can kick his ass!" Harper was on her feet again, fists up as she faced off with Nash, who struggled against his brother's grip. "I can take him."

"I'd prefer you not, princess," Angel growled, his eyes narrowed. "But if you want to kill him when we come back, you're more than welcome to have him once he's outlived his usefulness to me."

"Spoilsport," she pouted, her arms crossed over her chest. "See if I come to you looking for cuddles tonight."

Angel looked devastated, but he looked pretty while doing it. "Well, that's disappointing, but I'm sure I'll survive. Now, behave and play nice with the neighbor girl. If she goes home with even so much as a hint of a bruise on her, we're all fucked."

I watched him pretty much frog-march his brother out of the room, leaving us two women and Rowan alone again.

Rowan's laugh was friendly and boisterous. It reminded me of my brother. "Ah, so sorry you had to meet them like that. Nash is a troublemaker, and Angel is . . . difficult at best. I'd say out of all of us, I'm probably the most normal, Harper included."

"Oh, I'm used to chaos," I said, laughing as I took his offered hand. "I live with the guys, and we all grew up together. They're my brother's best friends. So you could say it was like having four brothers growing up."

"Ever feel any type of way about those brothers of yours?" Harper grinned at me with a pointed look, but Rowan leaned over and smacked her in the shoulder, shooting her a warning with his eyes. "Ow, hey, what? I was just asking."

"Ask things like that when I'm not around," he grumbled, marching out the front door.

And then there were two.

"So, seriously, though—I've got eyeballs. I know they're older, but like, they're hot. You ever, ya know, think about hooking up with one of 'em—or all of 'em?"

Harper looked as serious as a heart attack. And it just so happened I could make her day this time around. "Tell you what—you teach me how to dodge one of those leg sweeps you pulled on me earlier, and I'll tell you all about how I feel about the Gunners."

"Gunners as in plural?"

"Gunners, as in all three of them."

Harper laughed, her hands animated as she slapped her thigh. "Okay, Trinity. You hooked me. Maybe you're not as defenseless as you look."

I chuckled and took her hand as we repositioned ourselves. "I have my ways."

A few hours later, Harper and I decided I should probably head back, considering the guys might start to be concerned if I didn't come back and I wasn't still locked in the weight room.

She was nice enough to drop me off at my door, and with a promise to spend more time together, I left her in the hallway and marched into the apartment, fully prepared to start yelling.

Instead, I was met with a tangible amount of silence as I scanned the room and found them all waiting for me, different expressions on their faces that had me worried for my safety.

"You all alright?" I asked quietly, hoping that would be enough to throw them off their game.

"Where were you all day?" Asher asked, leaning forward in his seat, his hands resting on his knees. "We were concerned."

Hawke stomped back and forth by the kitchen sink, a feral look of rage in his eyes. "You were warned not to leave here without an escort, Trinity."

"Don't look at me like that, Hawke," I spat, turning on Liam, who was conveniently silent in the armchair. "Liam's the one who decided to lock me in the gym and leave me there alone."

Suddenly, all the tension in the room shifted as they turned their eyes on their partner, the rage intensifying as I snuck away from that chaos waiting to happen and slipped into my room.

And if I kept the door cracked a little to see and hear the impending meltdown?

Well, nobody but me had to know.