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Chapter 1
Clay
He was staring at me. That wasn't strange in and of itself — people stared at me all the time. My slender body and pretty face made it easy to catch attention, especially when I was putting on an innocent act to get what I wanted. It was even less shocking since I was in a part of town I had no business being in, around some of the roughest people our city had to offer.
His staring at me wasn’t strange, because I didn’t belong here.
No, the way he stared at me was strange because, for just a second, I felt like I’d seen that stare before. And I felt like he could see straight through me.
“Clay.” A rough voice saying my name snapped my attention to my left. I tore my gaze from those startling blue eyes so I could let a slow smile play across my face as I turned to Nick. “You here to square up your debt?”
I didn’t have to look to see broad, tattooed shoulders flinch in my periphery. He wasn't watching me anymore; he’d turned back to working on a car that was probably stolen. The way he reacted to the words let me know he had an idea of the ins and outs of this place. It was a car garage — it also belonged to one of the most notorious drug and trafficking rings in the city. It was no wonder I’d been sent here to square up.
I just didn’t know what he was doing here. I’d never seen him before, and I didn’t have time to be distracted by his blue eyes.
“It’s not my debt, Nick. You know that. But that doesn’t matter, does it?”
Nick looked me over, and the corner of his mouth pulled up in a grin that had nothing good painted in its lines. He shook his head and let his eyes linger on my lips. “Not in the slightest. If your boss is sending you as payment, it’s a done deal. Might as well accept it. Who knows?” he brought a hand up and flicked one of the loose, blond curls from my forehead. “Maybe you’ll like it.”
“Doubtful.” I didn’t shove his hand away, though. He was right. I had a mission, and backing out now would bring everything down in flames. We were in the endgame, and I couldn’t fuck it up just because Nick’s hand on my skin made bugs crawl through my veins.
“Whatever. Come on.” He jerked his head toward a door in the back of the shop. It was locked — it was always locked — and I could see the red alarm flickering in a steady pulse to let everyone know touching it would bring in the hounds. “It’s time you met the boss.”
Which confirmed what I already knew. Nick wasn’t the boss. Nick was a front.
He was a pawn.
I was about to meet the big dogs.
“Nick.” The voice startled me enough that I turned again — my attention was ripped from the place I’d been working to gain access to for months. It was the man by the car. His broad body was soaked in grease and covered in ink. The tank top he wore had probably started its life a pristine white, but it was stained a dirty gray now. He was looking between the two of us with heated concern dancing behind his eyes.
Yeah, he knew what was going on here. Maybe he was new, but he wasn’t an idiot.
“What’s up, Jayce?” Nick didn’t sound annoyed by the interruption, but something in my chest twisted at the sound of his name.
Jayce.
I didn’t know him, so what the fuck was with the familiarity?
“Uh…” His gaze flicked between Nick and me, and he licked his full lips for a fraction of a second. “I don’t know if I can get this car done before my shift is up. I’m gonna stay behind and finish.”
“You expecting to get paid for it?”
Jayce shook his head and ran fingers through dark hair that slicked back from the car grease on his hands. “Nah, just don’t like leaving a job unfinished. You know how it is.”
“Right.” Nick fished in his pockets for a second and then threw a set of keys across the room. Jayce caught them with ease. “Lock up when you’re done.”
That was… trusting of Nick. Maybe he knew this Jayce better than I thought. Maybe he wasn’t new.
Maybe he was someone important?
I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him one more time — the broad sweep of his shoulders and the black swirl of his tattoos certainly gave him the look of someone who would run with the kind of people I was hunting down. But… there was something about the way he’d looked at me, his eyes wide and curious, that didn’t send the warning bells I usually felt when I was in danger on high alert.
I hadn’t seen him when I’d cased the place, and his picture wasn’t in any file I’d read before I infiltrated the location. I’d spent the last three weeks pretending I worked for some asshole named Keyton just so I could get into the basement to settle a debt.
I knew how they settled debts — money, flesh, and pain. From what I’d learned, they didn’t actually care what order it came in, as long as they got their fill.
I forced my eyes away from the figure of the mechanic in the corner of the shop and back to Nick. I was in a precariously dangerous situation, and letting my mind wander when I needed to keep focused was a great way to get myself killed.
