Page 99 of Play The Game

“She can’t speak if she’s dead,” he says calmly, and my grip loosens a fraction. I must have spoken that thought out loud.

Her eyes are still bulging as she sucks in air, and she fixes her gaze over my shoulder like she always fucking does. No one else matters to this fucking despicable, money-hungry whore but the guys she’s fixated on. My fucking guys.

“Blaise, please—” she gurgles, and he cuts her off.

“Just get the facts out of her so we can get back to Arbour. That’s where we need to be, babe.”

Babe. Only Harley ever calls me that. My lip threatens to wobble, but it’s like my emotions are just out of reach. Annabelle’s eyes stay glued to Blaise like I’m not even there, pinning her to the wall by her throat. I can’t get what I need like this. She won’t look at me with Blaise in the room.

“I’ll get the truth. You should go.”

Blaise moves his hand from my wrist to my hip, covering my body with his own until I’m surrounded by him. “I’m not leaving you with this cunt. I don’t care what you do to her; I’m with you.”

Annabelle starts fucking crying, and I can’t contain my snarl at her. “She won’t focus with you in the room. She’ll just spout her usual fucking lies.”

Blaise grunts and shifts on his feet like he’s going to put up a fight. Illi speaks up from the doorway. “Go on, kid. I’ll watch your girl and you can go help the other one watch over the Crow’s little ice queen. Nothing will touch her with me around, I’ll see to it.”

When the door clicks shut, Illi speaks, “The doctors said he was dosed with ketamine. A dirty batch.”

This fucking cunt.

I stare her down but there’s no remorse in her. “So you were going to rape him?”

She scoffs at me. “Girls can’t rape guys! I just needed him to forget about you and your fucking magical slum pussy for an hour and then we could be together again. Everything was finally working out; he has his money and we could be together without the other two. How the fuck was I supposed to know the pills would do this?”

She’s dead.

The second I have the story out of her, I’m gutting her. Nice and slow. Cleanup will be a bitch but, fuck it, I’ll call in a favor and the Bear can pin it on some underling of his. While I’m plotting her disembowelment, she continues on her little rant until something she says pings in my memory.

“What dealer?”

She sputters to a stop. “What? Some guy. What does it matter? He was from the slums like you and gave me the pill in a little bag.”

Slums.

The Bay.

My voice shakes. “Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me the fucking bag!” I hiss at her.

She fumbles around in her pocket before dropping the little clear bag on my palm. I know it’s the Jackal’s before I turn it over and see his insignia. Even with Illi taking out the stream of underlings the Jackal hired, he’s still found a crack in our defense.

I stare at her, long enough that it finally dawns on her that she’s utterly defenseless, hogtied in a closet with a murderous girl and her thug-looking mountain of a friend.

She’s fucked.

“Look, I didn’t fucking know it would do this to him! I just wanted him back!” She sobs, and I feel fucking nothing but icy bloodlust pumping through my veins. I drop my hands away from her and start to look for my knife. Blaise had grabbed it and stashed it in his pocket for me while I’d been frozen in fear, waiting with my phone pressed against my ear. Illi steps up and takes my arm, pulling me out of the room and into the hallway, pushing me until I find myself wrapped in Blaise’s arms.

“I’ll sort this for you, kid. It’s my job and my fucking pleasure to take care of this for you.”

I stare at him, cold and detached. He nods at me like he knows how blank I am inside.

“She fucked with the wrong family. I’ll treat her with the same patience and understanding as you did with the guy who bid on Odie. Stay with your mobster, kid. I’ll check on you guys when it’s done.”

He ushers us back out to the waiting room and at the last moment, he grabs Ash’s arm. Ash stares at him with the rage that’s filling every fiber of his being. If anyone else did that Illi would thumb their eyes out, but he just nods at him with respect. “Welcome to the family. We’re going to burn this place to the fucking ground.”