Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 460

He didn't answer, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.

The flight was not very long, and the city fell away beneath us, replaced by green hills and empty roads and eventually a stretch of country that looked like it had been forgotten by everyone except the crows. The meeting place was a building in the middle of nowhere. Inside, three men waited, and the moment I walked in behind Sparrow, I felt their eyes crawl over me like something with too many legs.

I did not like the way they looked at me. I had been looked at by a great many men in my life, in a great many ways, and I knew the difference between interest and ownership. This was ownership. They stared at me like I was something on the table they might buy, and Sparrow seemed entirely unbothered by it.

The meeting began. I listened to them talk around each other in numbers and threats, all of it wrapped in the careful language of men who did not want to say what they actually meant. After a while, I could not sit there another second with their eyes on me like oil.

"Can I step outside for a moment?" I asked, touching Sparrow's arm.

"Don't go too far."

"I'll be right outside."

The air was a relief. I walked a little way from the building, stretching my legs, and that was when I noticed the hill, not too far off, rising soft and green against the sky. My shoes were comfortable enough, and I had spent all morning sitting still, so I climbed it.

At the top, the wind hit me full in the face, and I closed my eyes and spread my arms wide and let it push against me. It felt good. It felt like the first clean thing all day. I stood there breathing, my hair whipping around my shoulders, the whole ugly afternoon falling away.

Movement flickered at the edge of my vision.

Before I could turn, I heard Sparrow's voice screaming my name. Then came the crack of a gunshot, and the world tilted, and I was falling, tumbling down the hill with the sky and the grass and the sound of my own heartbeat all tangled together.

"No point wasting it," another said. "Before the boss finishes his meeting with Sparrow, we could have a little fun with her."

"I don't know," the armed one said. "That's not the plan. We're supposed to hold her, make Sparrow compliant."

"Don't be a wet blanket. What, you don't want a turn with something that pretty? We need her alive, fine. We keep her alive. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves first."

The armed one was quiet for a moment, and then his eyes traveled over me, slow and appraising, and he licked his lips. "Thinking about it, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea."

I looked back at him, and underneath the fear, a colder part of me was already doing the math. Not here. Not in the truck. The space was too tight, and he had the gun, and any move I made would put me at a disadvantage. I needed room. I needed them separated. So I relaxed into the seat and let them think they had already won.