Page 48 of Carnal Wagers

“Yes, don’t stop.” She groaned, her body shivering against mine. “I’m so close.”

It was like the clouds split and clarity hit. Sirens rang in the distance. A muddled argument racketed from a street down. The damp wetness of new drizzle against my face finally registered. Droplets pattered against the debris and metal around us and doused the rest of the frenzy.

The waistband of her pants clung to the fingers I’d dug inside to pull them down. A breeze whipped against us and through my open pant zipper.

Jaysus, I was losing my fecking mind. I shoved her off me, rose, and adjusted my pants.

“What was that for?” she protested.

I swiped a hand down my face and extended the other to her. It was the least I could do after…that. The moment she was up, I dropped her hand.

Unease built between us like a bridgeless river. It was better that way. No attachments meant no loss. No loss meant no added layer of suffocating emptiness.

Questions brewed beneath her wet lashes. I turned away from her and surveyed the mess. I stomped over to each cartel man and pressed fingers against their necks. Three dead. Four unconscious. Inwardly, I sighed. I went a little too far down the rabbit hole with this.

I checked my phone, satisfied it still worked, and made a quick call to Brody with the street name, body count, and who. He logged the information and assigned the job to the nearest active cleaner the clan had on duty, who gave an eight-minute response time. Not great, but I was already lucky no cops had ventured this way during my lapse of judgement. Until then, I hauled the bodies and piled them behind the couch.

I wiped the remains of my sweater over my face, suddenly feeling wrecked and drained. Shoulders slouched, I cracked my neck and picked up my helmet. In the visor, my blurred reflection brooded back at me. Today I’d faced the demons, but then tomorrow would come, and I’d have to find something else to keep my head above water. Was it really worth it?

“Need a ride?”

I jerked around. She was still there, completely drenched and surprisingly unbothered by my shabby cover job. She bobbed her head at my helmet.

“You can’t drive like that.”

“Where are you parked?”

She stole a peek over her shoulder. “That black Lexus.” Her palms swept one over the other. “Why don’t you come back to my place? We can continue where we left off.”

Her face lit up with something close to hopeful naivete. Nothing like the woman who’d slapped a mobster without a second thought five minutes ago and humped my cock on a side street like a two-bit whore. It killed the heat she aroused.

Hope was pointless. It would only lead to another grave and the stinging misery of reality.

“No.”

“Cillian, we—”

“No,” I snapped. “Stop following me. Stop coming on to me. Whatever you think this is, it’s not. It never will be. Get the hint, and feck off back to where you came from.”

I expected her to scurry away from my rage. Instead, her fists clenched. Her mouth curved into an odd pout. Her light eyes blazed in the darkness of the night.

“You should know I don’t give up.”

As the cleaner pulled up and flagged me down, she reached her Lexus’ passenger door. I watched as she opened it, and the interior lights flicked on. A growl grated its way out of my throat, and my inner beast stretched its claws, all because the shadow of a man waited for her inside.

Chapter 14

“Wow.” I whistled as Cillian’s front door clicked shut behind me. “I’m in.”

“Don’t sound so impressed,” Erel grumbled in my earpiece.

With a chuckle, I knuckle-rolled the flat, keyless fob Franc had coded and Erel had printed for me. I had to hand it to them. They were good. They managed to copy Cillian’s phone from the receiver we’d planted under his car during one of our texting sessions over the last few days and gained access to the management application and system for his apartment. It was one reason no one would ever convince me that new tech was always better.

“Now, be careful,” Erel warned. “You have an hour, max two, before they head back from their meeting at the boxing gym.”

“That’s plenty of time to put phase two into effect.”

“Try not to let your arrogance make your presence overly known.”