by Naomi West
“Your pet is hiding,” Cherri said, sniffing a little. She shook her head but she looked amused as she rounded on me, her hands on her hips. “I'm hardly the one you need to watch out for, Rip.”
“I know,” I responded honestly. “But that doesn't change the fact that you'd like to see Liv dead.”
“Plans change,” Cherri said, shrugging her shoulders a little.
I didn't know what to say in response to that, although I knew that the last thing I needed was to hedge my bets with someone as mercurial as she seemed to be. But I would never be so bold as to say that to her face.
“I think we need to come up with a different plan,” Cherri said, turning to me with her hands on her hips. “Entirely.”
I frowned at her. “You heard me on the phone, though. Cat wants nothing to do with—”
“Cat wants the packages delivered to her,” Cherri interrupted. “She doesn't really care how that happens, she just wants them done.” She cocked her head to the side. “And if you're not going to do it, I suppose it falls to me to deliver them.”
I frowned at her. “That's what I was trying to get you to do before,” I reminded her. “So I don't believe you're doing this just for–“
“Of course I'm not doing it for free,” Cherri scoffed. She eyed me keenly. “I expect you to figure out where my sister is being hidden now, and I expect you to ensure that she'll be freed once the packages are delivered to Cat, just as we had originally bargained. It's your fault that things are changing now.”
I could feel my frown deepen. “There's not much that I can do,” I said. “Cat would never let me anywhere near her plans, and especially not after I showed up at the prison and told her that I wasn't going to deliver the packages.”
“I need to get my sister free,” Cherri said, a scowl on her face. “With every new day, all I can think is of all the new tortures that the Gemini Riders must have come up with for her.” She shuddered a little. “She's my little sister, the baby of my family. I can't let her...”
“I don't know that I can help her,” I repeated. “Cat wouldn't let me near her. I doubt I could even figure out where Cat has hidden her, not without help. I'm too recognizable, too—”
“I could help.”
I whipped around towards the doorway, staring in surprise at Liv, who was standing there. She fidgeted with her fingers as though realizing that her appearance was….
Well, I could never say that her appearance was unwanted, but that said, I really didn't expect to see her there, and she was supposed to be hidden someplace. I frowned at her, but that didn't seem to dissuade her. Instead, she strode boldly into the room. “Look, Rip, we should be working together, shouldn't we?” she asked, tossing her hair a little. “You and Cherri and I, we all have things that we want. And at this point, I think the best bet for all of us is to work together.”
I scowled at her. “You should just stay out of this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Rip, I'd love to, but there is no staying out of this at this point. You've got me involved in this, remember? There was someone who already wanted to take me out down in the lobby of our motel—remember?” She strode into the room, staring at Cherri. Finally, she came to a stop, her hands on her hips. “Look, I know you don't want to hear anything that I have to say, but just hear me out, okay?”
Cherri stared back at her, her lips pursed. “Fine,” she finally said, glancing over at me. There was something in her expression that I couldn't read, but I suddenly realized that she wasn't angry, wasn't gunning for Liv's life like she had been. Instead, she almost seemed to have a look of respect on her face.
I frowned at the two of them, wondering how this would play out, but only time would tell.
“I need to find my sister,” Cherri said, staring at Liv. “Because of whatever Rip did at the prison—”
“You know it's more than that,” Liv interrupted. When Cherri started to say something, she rolled her eyes. “Come on. You strike me as someone who's intelligent. Did you really think Cat was going to give your sister back that easily? You struck a bargain with the devil himself; of course things weren't going to go according to plan.”
Cherri paused for a moment and then inclined her head in acknowledgement of Liv's words. “That said—”
“You'll need to disguise me,” Liv said. She fixed her challenging eyes on me, staring me down. “Look, I know I'm in enough danger as it is, but I'm ready to strike a new bargain with you. I need you to look out for Barry.”
I frowned at her. “I'm not sure—”
“Yes, you are,” she interrupted. With her hands on her hips, she was a force to be reckoned with, and I wasn't sure what I could do to dissuade her from her current feelings. “You wouldn't have taken this job if you didn't think that you had backups,” she pointed out. “And if you didn't have Damien and his people, this mission would have probably failed already.”
“Damien hasn't—”
“He hasn't helped you yet,” she agreed, nodding her head. “But that doesn't mean that he couldn't help you.” Her eyes were blazing with a clear challenge, and even though my first instinct was to dissuade her from all of this, I couldn't help but think…
Cherri laughed a little, the sound loud and ringing in the small room. “Wow, Rip,” she said. “I knew that you cared about the bitch, but I didn't realize you were this far gone for her. No wonder Cat targeted her. You're a sitting duck; don't you realize that?”
Liv turned her fiery gaze on Cherri. “What you don't seem to realize,” she said, “is that I could be the only hope that you have. If you want to see your sister alive again, that is.”
Cherri made a scoffing noise, rolling her eyes again. “What do you really think you're going to do?” she asked.
Liv gave her a gleaming grin, though. “Well, I could probably figure out where your sister is being held, at least,” she said. “I'm not saying that I could rescue her or anything like that, but...”
“How do you think you're going to figure out where she's being held?” Cherri asked suspiciously. “You might be implicated in all of this now, but that doesn't mean you're a member of the Gemini Riders. And it would take years before anyone of Cat's people would deign to talk to you.”
“You think so?” Liv asked, her eyes narrowing as she took a few steps closer to Cherri. She grinned a little, a lethal little grin that I had never seen on her before. “All I have to do is remind them how much they want to accept me into their fold. All I have to do is remind them what could happen if I felt like an outsider. They don't want to kill me or they would have done so already. What they would rather do is keep me as one of theirs, but an obedient servant for them. And I can do that.”
Cherri still looked unsure. Liv sneered at her this time. “Do you really not think that I could help you out?” she asked. “What you don't realize is that I've been cataloguing everything you've done for the whole time I've known you.” Her eyes narrowed further. “I could go to the authorities, and I could destroy you, Cherri Velasquez, if I really wanted to, that is. But I don't really want to.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“You're going to need to disguise me,” Liv said. “As someone that the Gemini Riders would talk to, if it weren't for...” She gestured between all of them. “I think the best way is going to be to find other Gemini Riders operatives. We know there have to be quite a few of them scattered around the city, right? They'd have information on where your sister is.”
“And what, you think they're just going to tell you all about it?” Cherri asked, rolling her eyes a little. “They're not stupid.”
“No, they're not,” Liv agreed. “But they probably don't realize that that's classified information. As long as I can convince them to talk to me...” She trailed off, frowning a little. “It would have to be someone who isn't very high up in Cat's organization.”
“A prostitute, maybe?” I suggested. “We know she has Gemini Riders recruited from all walks of the city. And wh
ores can be chatty if they think they're amongst friends. And they see a lot of secrets...”
“Right,” Liv said, nodding her head. “So you'll have to dress me up as a prostitute. And then...” She snapped her fingers. “I'll pretend I'm one of the Gemini Riders and that Cat has sent me to...” She frowned. “Well, I'll figure it out as I go.”
“That'll never work,” Cherri said, shaking her head.
Liv shrugged. “If it doesn't work, what does it matter?” she asked. “We might as well try it.”
Cherri stared at Liv for a long moment, lips pursed. Finally, she shrugged as well. “It's your skin. But even though I know you're just a goody-goody, I know you wouldn't be agreeing to do this just for free. What are your terms?”
“In return...” Liv fixed Cherri with a look. “You're going to owe me one. You can't just kill me off when your sister is free, or when you're done with this whole thing. What's more, you're going to have to smuggle the packages into the prison yourself. Cat will be expecting this.” She fixed me with a look as well. “And you're going to owe me one as well, Rip. You're going to use everyone that you know. You're going to contact Damien and have him use everyone that he knows. And you're going to make sure that Barry doesn't get hurt in all of this.”
I stared at her, suddenly seeing her in a new light. She had seemed like a weak, female interloper for the whole time that I had known her, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she had been calling the shots all along. I never should have kept her alive to start with, but from the time that we had helped her brother change his tire, I realized that she had been in charge of everything, for all that I had tried to deny it.
She would have made a great member of the Gemini Riders, if she had just been able to get over her personal qualms about the organization.
I grinned a little at her and was surprised to see that Cherri was grinning at her as well, albeit more dangerously. “All right,” Cherri agreed. “We'll dress you up in a disguise. But if your plan doesn't work...”
“It will,” Liv said confidently. She narrowed her eyes at Cherri and held out her hand for a handshake. “It's nice to have you one our team.”
Cherri was clearly surprised but reached out to shake Liv's hand without comment.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Liv
I stared down at the outfit Rip had handed me, blushing a little. “I don't think—”
“Just put it on,” Cherri interrupted, rolling her eyes. “If you want to pretend to be a prostitute, you're going to have to dress the part. And those jeans aren't going to cut it.”
“But this doesn't even qualify as a ... skirt,” I argued, holding up the skimpy bit of fabric. In fact, the only way I could tell it was a skirt was from inference, because the other piece, although also skimpy (and a bit see-through) had sleeves.
“Easy access,” Cherri said with a little shrug. “Come on, you've got a great body; it's not going to kill you to flaunt it a little for once in your life.”
I blushed a little and then retreated into the dressing room to get changed. I was glad there wasn't a mirror in the dressing room; I didn't want to see how ridiculous I looked in those clothes. It was bad enough to look down and see how much of my skin was still visible.
“Everything fit okay?” Rip called into the stall.
I sighed and reluctantly opened the door, taking a step out.
Rip gawked at me, his jaw dropping as his eyes skimmed my body. “Uh, wow,” he said, not seeming to know where to look. His eyes traced the skin of my stomach and then slid down the length of my legs. There was something hungry in the way that he was looking at me, and I wondered if he really thought I looked ... sexy.
The thought made me blush worse and instinctively tug at the hem of the crop top, trying to cover up a little more. “Is this…?” My eyes slid over to Cherri, wondering what her take on the outfit was.
“You don't look slutty enough,” she said frankly, putting her hands on her hips. “The skirt's fine, especially if we can get some nice boots on you. I have a pair that should do the trick. And then we'll have to do your hair and makeup...” She started walking around me, eyeing me. “I think it could work. We'll need a different shirt, though. And a different bra.”
“Or a shirt that doesn't show off my bra?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“No, I like that,” Cherri said. “No offense, but you're not very well-endowed in that area, so we need all the help we can get in making you look sexy.”
I could feel my cheeks burning and folded my arms over my chest. “Fine,” I said, though. “Go find me another shirt, then.”
As Cherri went off to find something else, I turned to Rip. “Well?” I asked, seeing that his eyes were still coasting across the clothes.
“I'd fuck you,” Rip said honestly, his voice sounding raw with desire.
I blinked at him. Even though we'd already slept together a couple times, even though I knew that I was attracted to him, I still was surprised to hear that from him.
He moved closer, crowding me back against the door of the dressing room. “I really want to fuck you right here,” he growled in an undertone. “Just push that skirt up and shove your panties to the side and—”
I couldn't help groaning, rocking my hips up against his. “I want that,” I told him truthfully, but I couldn't help the way my eyes darted around, expecting someone else from the shop to be watching us.
Rip pushed me back into the dressing room, coming in after me and locking the door behind him. I bit my lower lip, staring up at him through my eyelashes.
“You minx,” he said, sounding amused.
I shrugged a little. “Well, you guys told me to flaunt it.” I gasped a little, though, as he hemmed me in against the wall, putting an arm up over my head. His other hand came down between my legs, slipping past the flimsy fabric of my panties and pressing up into my core. He grinned down at me, crooking his fingers and dragging the pads of them slowly across my walls, creating the perfect feeling of friction.
“Already so wet,” he hummed, sounding pleased with me. He kissed the side of my neck and then pulled away. “Bend over.”
I did as he ordered, leaning over and putting my hands on the little stool that stood in the corner of the changing room. I couldn't deny that there was something unbelievably sexy about being taken in such a degrading sort of way — and in semi-public, no less. I tried to muffle my noises, knowing that Cherri was probably waiting right outside the door.
The thought made me groan, and I leaned down even further, my arms hardly able to support the weight of my upper body. I pushed back into his thrusts, feeling like I could come at any second. And sure enough, when he leaned down and grabbed my hair, pulling at it hard, I whimpered a little and climaxed harder than I had ever climaxed before.
Rip continued to pound into me, using my body in his efforts to find his own orgasm. It didn't take long before he was spilling deep inside of me, coming with a muffled groan of his own.
He pulled away, leaving me feeling shivery and achingly empty for a moment, but we were done just in time; two seconds later, Cherri was knocking on the door to the dressing room. “You guys, I don't have time for this,” she snapped. “Come try this shirt on, Liv.”
I straightened up and tugged my panties back into place, glancing over at Rip as I smoothed the skirt back into place. I wanted to say something to him, but I wasn't really sure what. Rip seemed to be feeling it, too, though, and he reached out to pull me gruffly into his arms for a quick hug before he opened the dressing room door, staring mildly at Cherri.
Cherri rolled her eyes at us and thrust the shirt towards me. “Go on,” she said.
I caught the shirt and retreated into the dressing room, glancing over at Rip as I did so.
Suddenly, I had the sinking feeling that I was in way over my head with him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rip
Liv glanced over at me and blushed a little. “
Quit staring at me like that,” she said, but I could tell from the breathy note in her voice that she was secretly pleased to have my eyes on her.
And I couldn't help it. She was dressed up in those sexy clothes again, only this time it was for real. Cherri had put all the finishing touches on her, doing up her hair so that it fanned out all around her face and doing her makeup as well. I never could have guesses how intense Liv's eyes would look when they were smeared with eyeliner. And the bright red lipstick on her lips made her look utterly kissable.
I could only imagine how debauched she would look if I threw her down on the sheets now and fucked her within an inch of her life. But we didn't have time for that just now.
