Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 304

Chapter 304

1 sighed, the long-suffering sigh of a woman who had been sent on an errand by a man who did not appreciate her hard work.

Hatchet-face was not buying it, I could see the skepticism hardening behind his eyes, but Baby-face was already relaxing, his hand typing in the code and unlocking the door, and that was all the opening I needed.

I struck Hatchet-face first because he was the threat, my hand moving in the same precise arc that had dropped four other men tonight, and he went down with a grunt of surprise that died in his throat before it could become a warning.

Baby-face had time to register what was happening, time to reach for his weapon and begin the process of reacting, but his body was slower than his brain, and by the time his fingers found the grip of his gun, I had already pivoted and struck him in the exact same spot, watching his eyes go wide with disbelief before they rolled back and his body crumpled to the floor.

Six guards down. But I didn’t want any of the men to die. So they could easily be found, I went through the trouble of retrieving all the other four unconscious men, one after the other, and leaving them just right outside the door.

It took nearly ten minutes of dragging dead weight, and by the time I finished, sweat clung to the back of my dress.

I had actually memorized the access code a while ago, watching Julian’s fingers dance across the keypad with the casual arrogance of a man who had never considered that the woman standing behind him might be paying attention. But I couldn’t take any chances. What if the password was changed after I left with Tasha? That was why I had the men unlock the door before I took them out.

Now, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The apartment was quiet, lit only by the pale amber glow of the city filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Julian was on the couch, exactly where I had expected him to be, his head tilted back against the cushions, his mouth slightly open, an empty whiskey glass on the coffee table in front of him and the faint sour smell of alcohol hanging in the air around him like a ghost. He was asleep.

Actually, genuinely asleep. I stood over him for a moment, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest.

I left him snoring on the couch and made my way to the bedroom where Maya and Jasmine were, my footsteps silent, my heart rate finally beginning to slow from its combat pace to something approaching normal. The bedroom door was unlocked, Julian had never bothered to lock it, because where were they going to go, and when I pushed it open, I found both of them awake and waiting, their faces illuminated by the thin strip of light from the hallway.

Maya was sitting on the edge of the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, her hair falling around her face in tangled waves. Jasmine was standing by the window with her arms crossed over her chest, her expression guarded and suspicious in equal measure, the expression of a woman who had learned the hard way that hope was just another word for disappointment.

“Get ready,” I whispered, keeping my voice low enough that it would not carry down the hallway to where Julian was sleeping. “We’re leaving. Right now. Both of you.”

Maya’s eyes went wide, and I could see the war playing out behind them: hope fighting against fear, relief struggling against the learned helplessness that had been drilled into her since the day Big Bryan’s men dragged her into the Phantom Circle. “How? The guards…”

“The guards are sleeping. All six of them. They’re going to stay that way for a while, but we need to move.

1/2

15 Bus

Jasmine did not ask questions. She was already pulling on her shoes, her movements quick and efficient, the movements of someone who had been waiting for exactly this moment and was not going to waste a single second of it on unnecessary conversation.

Maya followed a beat later, her hands shaking so badly she could barely tie her laces, and I had to resist the urge to do it for her, to treat her like the child she sometimes seemed to be even though she was only a year younger than all of us.

2/2

• 15 Bens