Page 32 of Cruel Debts (Killers of Port Wylde #4)

TWENTY-EIGHT

TRINITY

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I mean, sure, I wasn't interested in these jackfucks standing around me trying to snag some fun, but still?—

"Excuse me?" I batted my eyes sweetly at Asher, flushing red when I realized Liam stood next to him with a matching scowl on his face. "I'm not taken."

It didn't matter that I wasn't thinking of pursuing these two. I was a grown ass woman. If I felt like pursuing someone in this damn club, then I damn well would.

Asher gritted his teeth and stared down at me with eyes that said don't argue, play along. Too bad for him I was bad with following orders. And I still hadn't forgiven them for the other day. That was still fresh, like an open wound being held together with butterfly stitches and glue.

"Yes," Liam growled, reaching down to grab my wrist, "you are."

I looked around like a smartass, putting a hand at my eyes to act as a visor to search the room. "Funny, I don't remember coming in with you. Nor do I remember being in a relationship with anyone."

One of the guys pushed Asher in the chest, growling menacingly, puffing himself up to appear bigger. "You heard the lady, she can play with whoever she wants."

"Now wait a minute, I didn't say I was interested in playing with you, buddy.

" I tugged on his arm, mostly because he had no idea who he just shoved, and I wasn't trying to get fired for letting these assholes start a fight.

"Maybe you should go find Candace. She's been looking for some fun all night?—"

He slung me to his partner, shaking me loose, and I grunted as his hands went around my upper arms like steel bands while the first idiot squared off with Liam next.

This was going to be bad, fast.

Think, Trinity, think!

There were two options. I could leave them to it and go find security, who should be just around the corner.

Liam, Asher, and these two fools would be banned from the premises.

I would be alone, unprotected, and very vulnerable, which I didn't like.

Or I could try to de-escalate by agreeing with the guys, or going with them, effectively ending their participation in the stand-off.

I wanted neither option. They both sounded like shit.

Tensions were high as I raised my finger and started to speak, but idiot number two shook me a little, and I squeaked in pain, flinching in his grip.

That got the attention of the guys, who looked ready to murder now.

"Let her go, asshole, or I'll remove your arms and beat you with them," Asher spat, his eyes narrowed to slits. "I can do it, too. I used to be a surgeon in the military."

Liam's eyes were dark now, too. "You ever hear of the Guild?" He tapped the pin on his shoulder, flexing his own muscles for maximum effect. "We're killers, guys. And we're good at it. So good, in fact, that they'll never find your bodies."

The two of them exchanged a look over my head, probably contemplating the likelihood of Liam and Asher's stories.

I hated to break their disillusion, but they weren't making it out of here any way you cut the cake.

Once they walked away from these two, Hawke was bound to be right around the corner, lying in wait.

Probably with every intention of beating their asses.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll let our girl go and walk the fuck away, right now, while we still feel like letting you."

These men weren't the kind to just let someone threaten them and get away with it. But something in Asher and Liam's eyes must've changed their minds, because the one holding onto me suddenly slacked his grip and backed up, his hands in the air.

"Sorry for the mistake; we must've got the band colors wrong."

"Right," his companion muttered slowly, grinning weakly at Asher. "Sorry for that."

"No hard feelings, right, boys?" Liam said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "We'll all just go our separate ways, and it'll be like this little altercation never happened."

They nodded and turned tail, and then I was alone in the empty room with Liam, Asher, and my paints.

Which I decided to turn around and start picking up, instead of turning on the guys, like I wanted desperately to do.

Okay, so it was hot. Their show of dominance was attractive, the protective manner in which they staked their claim had me thinking of other ways they could claim and dominate me, but I was mad still, dammit.

I didn't have to listen to my fucking vagina every time a good-looking man she had the hots for since we were in high school growled around her.

"Trinity—"

I put up a hand. "I'm not interested, sorry."

"Pretty Bird?—"

"Nope."

I was determined to ignore them until I stopped breathing, or at least until I was asleep. They hadn't earned my attention, affection, or appreciation.

What if I had wanted to get laid today? What if I had decided to play with others while I was here on work?

They couldn't stop me. It didn't matter that I only chose the 'single and mingle' bracelet color to increase my tips.

What mattered was I still should be able to make those choices for myself.

Since these three assholes didn't want anything to do with me romantically, and had said so on more than one occasion.

They let me pack up my paints, and they even let me walk back to the dressing rooms under my own power. But the second I shoved open the door, Liam put his hand on it and kept it there, against the wall, so he could see inside.

"Get your bag and your coat," he snarled, his eyes hard. "We're leaving."

Like fuck we were. "I don't remember telling you I was ready to go."

"I don't remember asking."

It was a standoff. I bounced into the dressing rooms, grabbed my bag, and then unzipped it, keeping eye contact with him the entire time.

When my hand reached for the strap of my top, he realized I had no intention of just grabbing my shit to go, and with a sigh, he barged right the fuck in and grabbed my bag from my hands, zipping it with a quickness.

"Hey, wait—waht do you think you're doing—Liam, stop—ahhhhhh!"

Being upside-down out of nowhere was always a frustrating experience. But in my current state of undress, being on Liam's shoulder with my ass in his face was more than just a little irritating. It was humiliating.

Especially when I started to wriggle, to try and get free, and he swatted my ass like I was a child in need of a spanking.

I would examine how that made me clench my thighs in response later.

"Let me the fuck go, you brute!" The strong expanse of his back wasn't even twitching as I rained my fists down on it, and I realized he intended to just take me out of here in this costume in front of everyone in this place. "No."

No, no, no, a thousand times, no.

"If you think you're going to carry me out of here like a sack of potatoes?—"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do, and you're going to hold still and let me do it, Trin, or I'll swat you again." He gritted his teeth so hard I could hear it over the pounding of my own heart. "Someone should have done it to you sooner."

"What, the carrying thing?" I propped my elbow on his shoulder, tilting my head as he walked past Asher and tossed the other man my bag. "Or the spanking thing? Because unless you want me to cream all over your shoulder, then I'd keep your hand far, far away from my ass."

His groan devolved into a choking gasp, and then he was setting me on my feet, which I considered a win.

Until he then started to drag me to the back door, no less rough than before.

My heels were hard to stumble along in, but I managed. Just barely, though.

It was starting to hurt.

"Liam, come on, this is ridiculous—where are you taking me?—"

The alleyway door slammed against the side of the building as he shoved us through it, still moving like he was a man on a mission, top speed for his boot-clad ass. He wasn't stumbling along on skyscraper stripper heels, nor was he wearing less than what I slept in most nights.

I shivered against the night air as Liam crowded me in with his arms against the side of their car.

"What the hell did you think you were doing back there, Trin? Those men could have been dangerous ? —"

"They were clients. Not assassins, you dipshit," I spat back, incensed and ready to fight. "You could have let me turn them down and moved along?—"

"You could have just told them no." He lifted the arm where my bracelet still hung around my wrist and shook it in front of my face. "Where do you get off, wearing a bracelet that invites trouble like that?"

"Where do I get off?" I laughed, loud and directly in his face, like an unhinged angel of chaos.

"Where, indeed." My hands balled into fists at my sides.

Surely these assholes weren't serious right now.

"I'd get off back at the Guild if I thought anyone would give me the time of day to do so with me—" When Liam moved to interrupt, I shoved my fist in his face, and he was so stunned, it bought me a second to keep going.

"Since that's out of the question, I'm stuck helping myself, and maybe tonight I wanted to find someone who was interested?—"

Asher reached around me and opened the door, shoving me in the backseat with little fanfare. I felt the door close behind me and had all of two seconds to react before Hawke slid into the seat beside me, his eyes hard.

He gave me a stern glare while Liam and Asher stormed around the car. "Not now, Trinity. I want to live to see the Guild again tonight."

Liam yanked the driver's door open and threw himself in the seat, watching Asher out of the side view mirrors as he popped the trunk and threw my belongings in it. I gritted my teeth and frowned at the back of his head, refusing to meet his gaze in the rear-view mirror.

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of thinking he'd won.