“I mean... I have photo proof of what we just did.” The shock on his face made me smile, and I stood to face him. “I don’t think I can pretend it didn’t happen when I can now see proof of it at any moment. Honestly,everyonecould see proof of what we did.”
“Why would they need to? It was a moment of temporary insanity. Nothing actually happened. It’s not like it went any further.”
“They won’t know that, and the evidence looks pretty damning.” A thrilling shiver ran through me, my aching need to take control of any situation, finding plenty of happiness in Aiden’s sudden worry.
His jaw ticked, the flex of it making me miss his mouth on mine already. “And what do you want? You’re threatening to blackmail me? Over what?” His eyes burned into mine, his hands still clenched at his sides.
“I’m not threatening,” I said, letting the words roll slowly off my tongue, savoring the power shift between us. “I’m giving you options.”
He took a step toward me, his presence suffocating, and for a second I thought he might kiss me again—if only to shut me up.
I wished.
“And what exactly are my options?” he asked, his voice dangerously low, the gravelly edge sending a shiver down my spine.
I smiled, tilting my head up enough to meet his deadly gaze head-on. “Either you help me with something I need, no questions asked, or...” I held up my phone, the screen still showing the damning photos, “everyone sees exactly what happened between us along with a pretty story I tell them.”
His silence stretched out, the tension in the room thick and suffocating. “You really want to play this game, Psycho?”
I stepped closer, close enough to feel his heat, close enough to remind him of how easily he had lost control moments ago, and close enough to think of how badly I wanted it to happen again.
Of course I wanted to play this game. I would do anything to force Aiden to look at me as anything more than an annoying thorn in his side, and if he gave in once, it only gave me a delusional idea I could get him to do it again.
I let the silence stretch, the weight of it heavy between us. His gaze shifted from my lips back to my eyes, burning with something darker than anger. I smiled, knowing that, for once, I had the upper hand and I had no intention of letting it go.
“I think I started the game, and I’m the one making the rules.”
Chapter 5
Aiden
Rule #2: Don’t let your feelings interfere with your job.
Icrouched down to look at the blood pooling on the floor.
Another night of work meant another night of light torture.
Torture wasn’t exactly our business plan, but when you’re dealing with the kind of idiots who rip off criminals, it somehow always gets there fast.
Hero was too busy cutting another finger off to notice how annoyed I was getting now. Thoughts of Evie’s blackmail threats gnawed at the edges of my mind—a constant reminder that if I’d fucked up that badly once, it could happen again.
The guy screamed as Hero slammed the knife down over another finger.
“You stole from Dimitri, and he isn’t happy,” Hero said. “Tell us where the cars you took are, and we can stop.”
I appreciated Dimitri being one of our best paying customers, if only because he had more problems than anyone else we dealt with, but I truly didn’t understand how he stayed afloat when every week someone was stealing from him or attempting to kill him.
“I didn’t take the cars!” he yelled.
“We have you on fucking camera. Of course you took them,” I said.
Hero stepped back and pulled his hoodie off, throwing it on the couch. He was getting into it now, his brain working faster than his fingers. I knew the frustration that was coming next. It was a double-edged sword for him: he wanted them to break fast, but he loved to take his time.
“All right, I think I’m going to start cutting into his tongue. He doesn’t seem to need it,” Hero said, deadly serious but with a twisted smirk.
I let out an exasperated sigh. “I swear if tongues are your new thing, tell me right this fucking second.”
He shrugged. “Not sure yet. Let me dig into his, and I’ll tell you. Eyeballs are still number one. Can you even skin a tongue? Like, is there an outer layer?” He peered down, opening the guy’s mouth with the blade of his knife and turning it until the blade pressed into his lips.
