Page 24 of Cruel Debts (Killers of Port Wylde #4)

TWENTY

ASHER

"You sure do have one hell of a bedside manner, Doc— Ow, dammit!" Ghoul, or Nash, whatever we were supposed to call him these days, growled at me as I tugged the bullet out of his damn arm. This was the third time I'd had to personally stitch him up in a month, and it was getting old.

"You know, I wouldn't have to see your ugly face so damn often if you'd learn to dodge bullets." I set the hemostats on the table and rolled my eyes as I reached for the thread and needle. "Sit still, asshole."

"I'm sat," he growled, his fingers gripping the edge of the table. "I shoulda just had Harpie girl take it out. She's gentler than your ass."

"You do a lot of complaining for a man whose open wound is within reaching distance of someone who was kicked out of the military for committing war crimes in a POW medic unit."

He scoffed at my veiled threat. "You don't scare me." I tugged the thread in his arm tighter, and he just grinned. "Yeah, daddy, just like that."

I gagged a little at his terrible humor. "You're insufferable."

"And you're a dick."

"Nashville, be nice," Harper muttered as she wandered into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge with barely a glance in our direction. "Or no treats for you later."

"Treats? What did you make?"

Her eyes sparkled as she turned them on him with a wink. "You won't ever find out unless you let stitch you up."

"Are you gonna pop them for me later?" He shifted in his seat, the bulge in his pants obvious now from my angle.

Fucking psycho.

"You wish." She sets a bottle down next to me on the counter and smiles. "For you, . Sorry he's so uncivilized still. I swear I'm trying to work on his table manners."

"Bitch," he growled, reaching out to touch her. "Why are you putting me down in front of the guests?"

Her shrug was brief and uninterested. "Why not? You need brought down a peg every now and again."

She's not wrong. This man walked around like he was a gift in mortal form to the Guild, and he never let anyone forget it. His unbearableness has nothing to do with the gruesome scar stretching from the edges of his smile, and everything to do with his personality and attitude.

The scars don't hurt his badass, I-should-really-come-with-a-warning-label persona, though.

"So, how's your girl doing lately?" Harper asked quietly, staring at her fingernails as I tied off the last stitch in Nash's skin. "She get out and do anything very often? She mentioned a job?—"

"Maybe you should keep your nose on your face and out of other people's business," I told her slowly, my hackles rising with her intense not-scrutiny. "Trinity is fine just where she is—until the man hunting her down is found, she'll be safest there."

Harper and Nash exchanged a knowing look. "You keep her locked up in the apartment upstairs?"

I frowned. "What's the problem? She's got plenty to do?—"

"I found her locked in the fucking gym the other day," Harper pointed out, crossing her arms to glare at me over them. "When she does get out, it's not far, and it's always shitty for her."

"And how would you know—wait, what do you mean you found her?"

I knew Liam left her locked in the gym, but she hadn't mentioned someone had set her free, or helped her. To find out it was Harper, of the Skeleton Crew, alleviated some worries, but created a whole new set of them for my sanity.

"I mean, she wouldn't have gotten out if I hadn't noticed the chair in front of the danm door and moved it."

"She spent time with you, then?" I wasn't angry or upset, merely curious. And my curiosity wouldn't be satisfied until she answered the question that had been, for all intents and purposes, rhetorical.

Of course she spent time with Harper. Why wouldn't she, when she'd been locked up like a fucking fairytale princess in a storybook by her three insufferable captors?

"I taught her some self-defense moves," Harper admitted, shrugging at my look of astonishment. "What? Can't a girl learn to defend herself?"

My frown deepened. "She's too soft for all that. We've known her for years. She's not the kind of girl to kick ass. She's the kind of girl you protect."

"She's soft, is what you're saying," Nash pointed out, his brow quirked. "Didn't peg you all for self-sacrificing white knights, ironically enough."

I shoved a thumb into the still-fresh scarring over the last bullet I'd removed from him a few weeks ago, and relished the hiss it garnered in response. "She's a contract, nothing more. We owe her brother, and we made a blood oath. Something you probably don't know anything about."

Nash blinked slowly. "Dude, I have two brothers. I share a girlfriend with them. I think I know a lot more than you about blood ties and the like?—"

"Nash!"

He tugged her into his lap even as she swatted him for his big mouth. "What, Harpie girl? It's true. I thought you were over acting shy about us. You getting cold feet again?"

Her frown was comical. "Not on your life, you prick."

"Good, then quit complaining."

"Ahem," I cleared my throat, waiting for them to shut up long enough to get a word in edgewise. "If you two are done with my services, I'll send the bill through St. Clair, as usual. And take my leave."

I'd rather be anywhere but here right about now. Home, resting my eyes, is a good start.

Harper followed me to the door, her posture stiff as she stopped me before I could leave. Her hand curled around the handle, and those dark eyes glared up at me from beneath bushy brows that made her look more dangerous than she likely was.

"Listen, I'm only gonna say this once, and then I'll drop the whole thing.

" She sucked her teeth and sighed, a very Trinity-esque move if I'd ever seen one.

"That girl you got up there—Trinity. She's not as soft as you wanna believe.

And if you don't get her out of that place and into some fresh air, you're gonna find out that keeping a human locked up is harder than you think. Or you'll break her."

"I don't need your advice on how to care for another human being," I grumbled, though her words had merit I wasn't willing to admit to. "Thanks for your concern, though."

"You don't know what it's like," she said suddenly, a crack in her voice that wasn't there before, making her seem vulnerable.

Scared. "To wonder if every time you round a corner, someone's going to kill you, after all this time.

To be on the run for years and always live with a bat under your bed and a knife in your pillow.

" Her body shook, and I wondered how much this admission was going to cost her in the long run.

"It's not fun, but neither is being hidden away because someone else thinks it's too dangerous for you to be out in the sunlight for five minutes. "

"We promised her boss, her parents?—"

"It doesn't matter what contracts you signed or who you made promises to. What matters is how much damage you're doing to her in the long run." Harper sighed, and her fingers ran through her hair as she sought out the right words to convey her point.

I felt sorry she'd ever had to suffer the life she did for as long as she went through that whole ordeal. "Trinity isn't you, Harper."

"She's not; you're right. But what she is is human, and she needs to get out and do something. She needs ways to feel human again, . And if you can't do that for her, she'll bolt at the first opportunity, and you won't find her until it's too late."

Ominous words from a small, wounded woman. "I'll take it into consideration," I admitted finally, though the intent behind them was still wishy-washy at best.

Once I was in the hallway, alone, the words she'd left with me as I departed rose unbidden again in my mind. Were we really doing her harm by doing what we could to keep her safe? Should we be doing it differently?

Did I need to re-evaluate our plan here?

I knew if I mentioned it to Liam, he'd shoot it down in seconds.

But the longer I thought about it as I walked back up the stairs, as I entered our dorm, as I found myself alone in the commons, music coming from the one closed door in the place—hers—the more I wondered if I should do something.

If I could do anything that would make a difference.

She'd be safe with me. And there's nothing that was discussed that said I couldn't take her with me somewhere. If I didn't disclose to the others where this somewhere was, then that wasn't the same as lying outright.

It was close, but not the same. And hell, there was no one leader in this group. I could do whatever the hell I wanted with our ward.

Who the hell would stop me?

I jumped in the shower, washing away the little bit of blood and gore from the impromptu surgery on a fellow Guild member, and then dressed casually—or as casually as I could, considering what I had in my closet. Something had to be done about the Trinity situation.

I found myself outside her door about a half hour later, after psyching myself up for the inevitable argument she'd no doubt give me until she realized this was a reward, not a punishment.

The first set of knocks went unanswered, so I tried again, pleased and a little relieved when she finally yanked the door open and looked me dead in the eyes.

"What do you want?"

Oh, so it was going to be one of those days? Great. "I want you to go somewhere with me."

"No way," she dismissed me, turning her nose up at the idea. "Last time I trusted a man to take me somewhere, I ended up locked in a gym for hours. Not falling for that shit again."

Damn Liam and his bullshit. "Listen, I'm not him, okay?" I reached for her arm, gripping her wrist so she couldn't run away from me. "I'm going for a walk on the grounds, and I'd like to take you with me."

She stared me down like that was the second-stupidest idea she'd ever heard. "That's so boring, I think my soul just died a little at the suggestion."

"Fine," I sighed, pivoting. I had several things planned. Obviously, she wasn't going to bite on the first one. The safest one. "What if we go out for ice cream?"

Her brow twitched up. "You? Go out for ice cream?

" The way she slowly realized what that entailed was adorably cute, and I had to look away before I outed myself.

I might be dedicated to the promise to do her no harm and protect her, but I wasn't immune to her.

To the way she made me feel inside. "Yeah, right.

And what's next? Along the way, we stop at a train station, and you nail me in a crate and ship me back to my parents? "

I grunted at what would have been a wonderful idea once upon a time, but was now just impossible and stupid. She'd break loose in minutes and be here to torture us in an hour if we tried it.

Maybe she wasn't as soft as we kept pretending she was. Maybe the problem wasn't her, it was us, and how we still looked at her like our friend's kid sister.

"I'm not sending you away," I told her, and it was the truth, whether she believed it or not. "Would it make you feel better if I let you drive us there and back?"

Her eyes narrowed. "We have to drive?"

"Only if you want to," I told her, "but it's close enough to walk if you're up for it."

She thought it over for a moment, the gears working in her head. Likely there were pros and cons to both, but ultimately, the lengthened time out of the dorms won out.

"I wanna walk."

"Fine by me," I give in, sighing despite my words. "Put on some comfortable shoes, though. It's not a short walk."