39. Jackal
THIRTY-NINE
JACKAL
We’d been looking for Ivy for damn near an hour when I ran into none other than the Ghost, strolling out of the back parlor like he had the biggest news ever. That cocky grin split his face in half, even behind his stupid Oni mask, and I frowned as he spotted us and made a beeline in our direction.
“Ah, just the assholes I was looking for. How you boys doing?”
Dingo scowled. “We were fine until you showed up, Ghost. What the fuck do you want?”
He slid his hand lovingly along the banister next to us, his eyes cutting into our souls as he met each of our gazes in turn. “A little birdie told me you’re looking for someone.” He pretended to look around as if just now noticing there were only three of us. “Where’s that lovely lady of yours who’s been holding your leashes all night?”
My hands balled into fists. “None of your business.”
Coyote growled behind me. “Jackal.”
I waved his attention off. “Not now, Coyote.” I turned back to Ghost with a shit-eating grin on my lips. “She’s exactly where she wants to be. Sorry you can’t find someone to suck your dick, Ghost. But that’s not our problem, and taking it out on us isn’t winning you anything.”
“Fine, fine,” he muttered, raising his hands in a defensive manner. “But if you’re looking for someone in a cute red dress with a pair of the most gorgeous blue eyes you’ve ever seen and a pair of tits that beg to be manhandled?—”
He paused for a moment as he let his words linger in the air between us. He knew exactly what he was doing, dammit. It was his intention to get a rise out of us.
And he knew if it happened, I’d be the one to give it to him.
I gritted my teeth and tried desperately to swallow the urge to shove my fist down his cocky throat.
“She’s currently hurrying up the back stairs. But you’d better be fast,” he added as we hurried off in the direction of the back commons area. “She didn’t look too good when she crawled out of the air vents.”
I didn’t stop to wonder what he meant by that. All I could think was to make it to her as fast as I could.
Coyote should have known better than to leave her alone in a building full of some of the most volatile criminals in the fucking free world. But I couldn’t fault him for following an order. Hell, if she told the poor guy to jump out the window, he’d probably do it on the spot, no questions asked, just to see her smile for him.
He was a lovesick fool. And most of us were no better. She had effectively started wrapping us around her little finger, and the longer we spent in her company, the weaker we became.
Obviously, I was the only exception. She couldn’t make me bend or break, no matter how much she tried. I wasn’t some lovey-dovey sap who needed to be nice to get in her pants.
No.
She’d come crawling to me because she thought it was the very last thing I wanted. And if I really needed a hole to fuck, there were plenty of women out there willing to overlook my profession and past to suck my dick for a buck.
Although now that I let that thought run free in my mind, it left me with a bitter aftertaste I wasn’t used to and didn’t like.
I didn’t have feelings for that bitch. I didn’t.
Only the feelings a dog has for their owner.
Nothing more.
The back commons were empty, and we made the decision to split up when we reached it. I headed up the back stairs, Coyote doubled back to the front staircase, and Dingo headed for the back doors in the next room, convinced if she were going to make a run for it, now would be the time.
Maybe she’d realized suddenly that she couldn’t bring herself to kill us. Maybe she got a little hot and heavy with Coyote and decided she couldn’t handle him. Maybe she wanted to play a game with us, one we weren’t aware we were playing.
If it was a game she was after, I’d give it to her. She must’ve forgotten who she was playing with. I was starting to grow tired of the promise Coyote had drawn out of me, out of us, and it was well past time to stop with the game of hide and seek. She’d find out eventually her father wasn’t the man she thought he was, and when she did, there was nothing safe about being on either side of the line.
No matter whether we told her or didn’t, she would still blame us.
I crested the stairs on our floor and spotted something sparkly at the end of the hall, right in front of our door. I strode down the hall with a quickness and knelt in front of it, examining the little bauble, recognizing its shape as something she’d put in her hair tonight to match her pretty dress.
Now, staring up at me from the floor, the shining fake rubies glittered in a mocking manner, as if to say you’re too late.
Too late for what, though?
I stepped into our shared quarters and just listened for a moment, not surprised there wasn’t a single light on in the place. If she was trying to be sneaky, announcing her presence with a light was the easiest way to lose that advantage.
A crash from the direction of my room had me sliding across the floor, thanking myself for insisting we put a rug in this damn place, as much as I hated cleaning it on the regular. It muffled my steps and enabled me to be quick.
And once inside my room, I realized not all of the lights were off.
No, she’d turned this one on. Maybe she needed to find something in here. Or maybe she needed to look at herself in the mirror and see something. Regardless, I shoved the door open and found her crouched on the countertop, her hand on the latch of the window, her eyes wide and panicked as she looked up at me and met my gaze.
She wasn’t even there. Her eyes were dead, soulless. In their depths, though, just as she lifted that fucking window and set one foot outside.
Something inside me compelled me to stop her, to try, at least. I tamped it down, but it rose again like heartburn on wing night after I’d stupidly ordered the challenge sauce and refused a drink. It was persistent as a gale-force wind battering the roof of a low-income man who couldn’t afford to replace those shingles.
I hated it.
Don’t go, Ivy, it whispered, the words like chalk on my tongue, like molasses in my throat. Stay.
I couldn’t open my mouth, or those traitorous words would spill forth and make me a liar. I didn’t like feeling this confused, this out of sorts. I didn’t like the way she turned me into some sort of begging dog, like my emotions were tied to her in some manner.
Like I cared.
I didn’t.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I said instead, my voice level and a little harsh. “Leaving us so soon?”
She flinched like I’d physically hit her with my fist.
Her mouth opened, her lips parting on a sigh that felt like her soul trying to escape her body, and then, without a sound, she was gone, her whole body contorting so she could dart out onto the fire escape as she kicked the damn window shut behind her.
I wasn’t fast enough to catch up to her. It took me valuable seconds to reopen the window and fit my big frame out into the cool night air, the soft drizzle of a light rain settling on my exposed skin. I buried down the steps, only a level behind her, but on the second to last flight of stairs before the ladder, I twisted an ankle and went down like a ton of bricks, sliding and slipping all over the damn metal grating, imprinting the fucking pattern of it across my face and arms.
I cringed at the pain but forced myself to keep going, every second counting as I heard the dull echo of her shoes hitting the ground.
My feet hit just seconds after hers as I cleared the rail in a ballsy move my knees would certainly be protesting later.
Puddles splashed as I chased her like a shadow, following the sound of her feet in the alleys and corridors of South End, a place she had no business being. I didn’t even like coming here, especially after dark. Thankfully there was still light outside, which would keep some of the Southies at bay until the darkness engulfed their territory and increased the danger for us.
Damn, she was fast.
I didn’t know if she was aware I followe dso closely, but I came to a halt when she turned a corner and ended up on Main St. The lights were blinding here, and she quickly flagged down a cab and disappeared into the night, the car much faster than I was.
I spotted a lone street bike in the distance and decided if I was going to catch up to her, it would call for some drastic measures. I’d need to practically fly to get to her in time before she was out of sight.
So I broke one of my own cardinal fucking rules and thanked the stars the bike’s owner had left the key in the damn thing. I threw a leg over the middle and settled into the seat, kickstarting it with a single kick to the peg.
And then, I was off, racing through traffic to catch the cab she’d slipped into.
Finding her in a sea of vehicles wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped, but somehow, I managed, spotting her just as the taxi turned a corner. I wove between cars and gained ground, skidding through the red light amidst horns blaring and a few curses tossed out an open window .
But I didn’t care. All that mattered was getting to her.
Her taxi kept going until it pulled to a halt in front of a bank a substantial distance from the Guild. In a matter of minutes, we’d crossed the whole city, and now I stood here with a stolen bike between my legs, staring at the woman who’d collared me after damn near killing me as she strode into the building with a purpose.
I stood in the rain, waiting for her to emerge, my thoughts running wild.
What are you up to, Ivy?