Dark Game (Merikh Book 1) Read Free Page A

would be coming from.
    “Are they following?”
    “No,” Mouse said. “You're clear.”
    “Come and get me.”
    “I'm on my way.” There was a moment of silence and then she went on. “What the hell happened? I've never seen you run like this before.”
    “Yes, you have. One other time.”
    A sharp intake of breath and she said, “But that means...”
    “We are done here. We're getting out of town.”
     
     

Chapter 2
    The motel room smelled of years of stale smoke and sadness. There were stains on the carpet, the walls, the table; everywhere they weren't required by law to clean. Even the twin beds weren't spotless but at least they tried with them.
    “Just take a breath,” Mouse said, stepping out of my way as I hurried across the room with another suitcase to stack by the door. “They aren't following. We have time.”
    “You don't know that. You can't know that, not with this.” I gestured at the high-tech equipment we used for surveillance. “This is all useless here.”
    “Stop.” Mouse stepped in front of me and brought me to a halt. She was taller than me, taller than most people, and hard to ignore. She had dark skin and long brown hair hanging loose down her back, and even stuck in a motel room on surveillance, she was dressed in an expensive suit. In her forties, she also had the kind of confidence that came from growing up around mobsters, marrying a hitman, and holding her own. When she gave an order you obeyed, even if you didn't want to.
    “We're not discussing this. We're leaving.”
    “Oh? You're putting your foot down?” She crossed her arms and spread her stance so she took up more of the room.
    “Where this is concerned, yes.”
    “Why don't you just tell me what happened?” She gestured at the bed, telling me to sit. I obeyed and she followed, sitting beside me and taking my hand in hers. “So, tell me about the diner.”
    I gave a quick rundown, hitting the high points and not sparing her from the parts where I got smacked around like child. When I got to the scary part, the magic part, my voice dropped to a whisper, as though the goons might crawl out from under the bed at any moment. For all I knew, they might.
    “So you're saying this is going to be harder than we expected?” She paused, letting me prepare an objection before speaking over me. “Magic or not, we're doing this. We don't have a choice.”
    “I'm not facing something like this again. It didn't exactly go well last time.” Images of Mouse's husband disintegrating ran through my imagination, and I could see that she was thinking it, too. ‘We’re not the right people for this job.’
    “Somebody thinks we are.”
    “Or somebody is smart enough to know they can't face it, and so they picked us for the firing squad.”
    “Maybe.” She looked thoughtful, staring off into the distance as she weighed our options. She'd been affected far more than me the last time, losing a husband and her old life in one night. So when she finally spoke, she took me by surprise. “We won last time.”
    “We survived last time. We managed to not all die; I wouldn't call that a win.”
    “What do you think the Broker's going to say when we call him and tell him, with three days left, that we can't do this? No, don't answer; I'll tell you. He'll threaten our lives, then you'll call his bluff. Then he'll threaten our livelihood and you'll tell him to shove it, at which point he’ll make some comment about how statuesque and black I am, and it’ll piss you off even more. And then I'll have to save the day.”
    “And then we'll leave,” I said softly.
    “And then we won’t be able to find work ever again, let alone pay back our debts. And it’s worth keeping in mind who we owe, and how they deal with people who can’t pay their debts.” She stopped and allowed the silence to do the work for her. I had no answer, no plan that didn't end with us destitute or dead, and the longer neither of us said anything the more