Play to Win

by Tiffany Snow

  A trip to the bathroom made me feel more human, and I tugged on fresh clothes after my shower. I desperately needed coffee and wandered into the kitchen. Ryker was already awake and sipping on a steaming mug of nirvana.

  “I didn’t realize you’d stayed,” I said, pouring myself a cup. It felt odd—really odd—to be here at Parker’s with Ryker. The last time he and I’d had coffee together had been in my kitchen and we’d probably made love before, after, or both. A slight pang of sadness in my chest at the thought made me remember that even being in love with someone else, it would still take some time to get used to our new friend status.

  “Parker looked like he might have his hands full with the two of you last night, so I crashed on the couch.”

  Ah.

  “So any news on the shooting or my apartment?” I asked, taking the seat at the table across from him.

  “Actually, yeah,” Ryker said, pulling out a three-by-four color mug shot. “Forensics found trace DNA on the cat. Like a needle in a haystack, but they narrowed it down to this guy, Rafael Miso.”

  I was studying the photo when I heard, “Who’s he?”

  We both turned to see Parker had come out of his office. All he wore was jeans, and I stared. With his hair tousled and a shadow of stubble on his jaw, he looked mouthwatering. He obviously didn’t have the same effect on Ryker, because Ryker just answered Parker’s question as if nothing were amiss.

  “Miso is a common street thug. Hires himself out to the highest bidder for petty crimes, vandalism, theft, B&E…that kind of thing.”

  Parker poured himself a cup of coffee and sat at the table with us. I tore my gaze away to focus on something else. Anything else. Last night’s hormones hadn’t gone away with my inebriation and they were acutely reminding me of how very well Parker and I fit together.

  “So someone probably hired him to break into my apartment and kill Morris?” I asked, trying to pull my head out of the fantasies I was conjuring of Parker and me.

  “It’s not like he would have had any cause to go there on his own,” Ryker replied, which was just this side of saying Duh. I shot him a look. “Sorry,” he said. “I just don’t particularly like the idea of somebody hiring a guy like him to break into your place.”

  Yeah, me neither.

  “Let’s pay Rafael a visit,” Parker said.

  “We can’t just go start cracking skulls and shit,” Ryker said. “It’s an ongoing investigation. Plus, it’s not even technically my case. I’ve just been calling in favors to stay in the loop.”

  “You and I both know what’s going to happen if the cops pick up Rafael,” Parker said. “He’ll call for his lawyer and clam up and we won’t get anything out of him. If it was Shea who hired him, then we’ll know for sure. Let’s rule out any third party involvement here.”

  “Where are you going?”

  I turned with a sigh to see Natalie easing into the last remaining chair. She’d brushed her hair and I smelled mint toothpaste, but she still wore Parker’s shirt, which was conveniently unbuttoned to show off cleavage. The oh-I-just-rolled-out-of-bed thing might’ve fooled a man, but I knew better.

  “We think we know who killed the neighbor’s cat and left it on Sage’s bed,” Ryker said. “Parker’s trying to convince me we should take a field trip to see him.”

  “Can I come?” Natalie asked.

  Both men stared at her. “Why?” Ryker asked.

  She shrugged. “I’m going crazy, worrying about Jessie. I need to keep my mind off it. Sitting around here, staring at the walls, isn’t helping.”

  There was no way I was letting her tag along with Parker and Ryker without me. “I’m coming, too,” I said.

  Parker glanced at Ryker. “It’s not a bad idea to have Sage with us, not after last night.”

  They exchanged a meaningful look I couldn’t interpret, but my spidey sense went off. “What happened last night?” They’d been gone for a while together and I’d been too drunk when they returned to quiz them about their whereabouts.

  “Nothing,” they said in unison.

  Right.

  “You can either tell me or take us with you,” I said. Neither of them hurried to spill their guts—big surprise. “Then it’s settled. We’re coming.” And I could keep an eye on Natalie.

  “It could be dangerous,” Ryker said, which only made Parker roll his eyes.

  “There’s two of us and it’s not like we’d be walking in on him without a clue,” Parker said. “Let’s track him down. You can chat with him and maybe I’ll do a little breaking and entering.”

  “Don’t tell me that,” Ryker admonished, glaring.

  “Fine. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

  “And what’ll these two do while you’re breaking the law and I’m breaking Rafael?”

  Two blue gazes landed on me and Natalie.

  “We’ll wait in the car,” I offered. “Won’t be any trouble. I swear.”

  Famous last words, right?

  * * *

  Everything about Natalie set my teeth on edge. From her laugh, to the way she liked to toss her hair, to how she kept finding excuses to touch Parker.

  She’d changed into what I guessed she thought was a “badass” outfit—black skintight jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a V-neck. The shirt was cut low enough to showcase cleavage that could only be achieved with a state-of-the-art combination of primo elastic and exceptional padding.

  I tried to unobtrusively readjust my own assets inside my JC Penney’s special as I followed Parker and Natalie through the parking garage. She stuck to him like glue, asking him what he and Ryker were going to do about Jessie and the ransom note.

  “Ryker’s working on it,” Parker said, disengaging her arm from his so he could unlock the car. “We still have time before the deadline.”

  Natalie chewed her lip and nodded before stepping in front of me to scoot into the front passenger seat. The door slammed shut.

  Guess I shoulda called shotgun.

  I glanced up and caught Parker’s eye above the car. He raised an eyebrow and I swear the corner of his mouth twitched. My eyes narrowed. So he thought this was funny, did he? Maybe he liked the idea of Natalie hanging all over him, hoping I’d get jealous?

  Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.

  “So, Sage,” Natalie said as Parker drove, following Ryker’s motorcycle ahead of us. “What do you do for your dad’s company?”

  “Um, well, I just started working there,” I said. “I’m learning the business right now.”

  “I just don’t think I could do that,” Natalie said, more to Parker than me. “Jump into a business and job I know nothing about just because it’s run by family. Seems like a really big responsibility.”

  My jaw wanted to drop at her audacity, couched in a gosh-I’m-just-being-honest tone. I had to hand it to her; she was really good. I could easily see how Parker and Ryker had been taken in, when they were younger and less worldwise, by the manipulations of this woman.

  “Sage is very smart,” Parker said. “I’m sure she won’t have any trouble at all.”

  I had a grudging appreciation for his defense of me, but that didn’t make me any more inclined to like Natalie.

  We drove to a part of the city where my dad would’ve felt at home, but which made me want to glance over my shoulder constantly. Ryker parked in a side alley where the shadows concealed his bike from the autumn sunshine, while Parker drove another block to park in a half-filled lot.

  “You’re staying in the car,” he said to Natalie and me.

  “That’s what we promised,” I said. Not that I was happy about it, but I’d rather be here than left back at his apartment.

  Parker glanced out the rear window to where Ryker stood waiting on the sidewalk. His gaze caught mine and I tried to communicate for him to be careful in the way I looked at him. I didn’t want either of them to get hurt, especially tracking down a guy who might have no problem doing to a person what he
’d done to Morris.

  As though he knew what I was thinking, Parker gave a slight nod, handed me his car keys, and got out.

  “We’ll be back soon,” he said to us, then shut the door.

  Natalie and I watched the two of them head down the street and turn into a tenement building that had seen better days. Three men were loitering outside and I saw another guy peeing in the alley.

  Eww.

  “Nice place,” Natalie said.

  I didn’t bother responding. I had nothing to say to her and wasn’t inclined to make small talk. Instead, I just watched out the window.

  “You don’t like me very much, do you,” she asked, and it wasn’t a question.

  In the interest of diplomacy, I tried to be vague in my answer. “I don’t know you well enough to like you or not like you.”

  “Parker and Ryker like me. I’m sure you will, too. It just takes time.”

  I thought it was debatable whether Parker and Ryker liked her, but kept my silence. My attention was drawn closer to the building. A man had climbed down the fire escape on the side nearest us and the alley and was running.

  “I think that’s our guy,” I said, shoving open the car door. “And he’s getting away.”

  Natalie popped out of the car, too, and we watched him run toward us, then take a sharp left into a building that could’ve doubled as a haunted house on Halloween.

  “Let’s go,” Natalie said, and before I could argue the wisdom of that decision—or lack thereof—she’d taken off running.

  Shit.

  I ran after her, my promise to Parker to stay in the car reverberating inside my head. He was so going to kill me for this. But what was I supposed to do? I kinda felt like her babysitter. If something happened to her on my watch, would Parker and Ryker blame me? I felt like the older sister cleaning up the messes of a younger sibling.

  Natalie ran inside the dilapidated building and I followed, first casting a quick glance over to where Ryker and Parker should be. I saw some commotion and prayed they were both all right before I ducked inside.

  The inside was different than I’d thought it’d be…it was much worse. A rank smell hit me first in the nearly pitch-black room. The only light was what filtered through the boarded-up windows and open doorway. I couldn’t spot Natalie at all, though I’d been just ten seconds behind her.

  Belatedly, I realized I was doing a good impression of a perfect target, silhouetted as I was against the light in the open doorway at my back. I scampered farther inside, toward the shadows, which was actually in the opposite direction of where I wanted to be.

  Before Parker killed me, I was going to kill Natalie.

  In the quiet, I could hear only the sound of my hard breathing loud in my ears—a helluva time to regret not spending more time at the gym. If anyone, such as Freddie or Jason or Chuckie, was waiting to get me in the shadows, I wouldn’t be hard to find.

  My skin prickled like someone was watching me and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Where the hell was Natalie?

  A muffled sound above me made me look up. Was that Natalie’s voice on the floor above? In which case, where were the freaking stairs?

  I debated using the flashlight on my phone, but that would make me a target, too, so I waited for my eyes to adjust the best they could do before slowly moving farther into the building.

  Empty boxes littered the corners, stretching into a darkened hallway. My fingers itched for something—anything—I could use as a weapon, and I saw a glint of broken glass. Pausing to crouch down, I carefully picked up a shard about as big as my palm. It had a nasty looking point on one end, but I’d have to be real careful using it or I’d cut myself, too. Though I supposed if I did have to use it, cutting my hand would be the least of my worries.

  Calling Natalie’s name was out of the question, so I kept moving. She had to be in here, probably recklessly running after that guy. If she caught him, I didn’t want to think what he would do to her or if that had indeed been her voice I’d heard. I didn’t like her and chasing after the guy had been dumb, but I didn’t want her to get hurt for being bitchy and stupid.

  Dust and grime was thick on the floor, and the air smelled musty and rank. It grew colder as I eased slowly down the hallway, the sunlight not having penetrated this far into the building to warm the previous night’s chill.

  A soft scuffling ahead made me pause, and my pulse leapt until my heart felt it would burst out of my chest. I listened hard, focusing my eyes in the direction of the sound. Three sets of red eyes blinked back at me.

  Well, rats. Like literally…rats, complete with beady eyes and nasty-ass long tails.

  Eww.

  A shiver crawled over my skin, but I shook it off, creeping forward again.

  A gaping blackness appeared on my left, taking me by surprise—hello, horror flicks!—and I sucked in a breath before I realized it was the stairwell going up that I’d been searching for.

  Fabulous.

  I consoled myself with images of what I’d do to Natalie when I found her as I gingerly climbed the wooden stairs. It was an older building, to have wooden stairs, and they creaked under my feet, making me wince. Hey, ax murderer! Here’s your next victim!

  The building was only three stories high so when a landing appeared with a barely legible “2” displayed, I took a deep breath and peered into the hallway from the stairwell. When nothing jumped out and said “Boo!” I crept farther, listening for any sign Natalie or Rafael was here. It’s as if they’ve both disappeared into thin air, I thought crankily, trying not to let my fear overcome sense.

  A noise from above made me jerk my head up to stare at the ceiling. It sounded like a footfall. Someone was above me.

  Going back into the pitch-black stairwell required an enormous amount of will. Natalie had been very right. I didn’t like her. Not at all.

  My hand was sweaty, gripping the shard of glass, and it turned slippery in my hand as I felt for the railing and took the stairs up one step at a time. I hugged the wall, figuring steps would be less creaky there, and I was right. I wiped my palm on my jeans, holding the glass as tightly as I dared.

  The doorway to the top floor loomed. I listened, straining to hear as I pressed my back against the wall. My blood was thundering so hard in my ears, it seemed incredible that no one else could hear it. I was breathing too fast, from fear and adrenaline rather than exertion, and I made a conscious effort to breathe more slowly and deeply. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

  A woman’s muffled scream hit my ears. Shit. Natalie.

  I rushed through the door and turned right, following the sound, which abruptly cut off. Oh no; what if he’d hurt or killed her?

  It was dark and I felt along the wall. My hand hit a door frame, then open space as I passed by a room.

  Someone grabbed my arm.

  I screamed in reflex, jerking backward, but they didn’t let go. I was pulled into the room and up hard against a man. He smelled like the building.

  I was too close to get much leverage, but I had my glass shard. I swung my arm and buried it into his side. There was a grunt and I was suddenly free.

  Spinning around, I got two steps before he hurtled into me and we went crashing to the floor. I kicked out, but he was lying on my legs. It was dark and I couldn’t see a thing, but neither could he. Squirming, I flipped over. A burning sensation in my leg told me I’d gotten hurt somehow.

  He grappled with my flailing legs, and one of my kicks managed to make a solid connection. He grunted again, then growled. I felt his lunge though I couldn’t see it, and flung myself to the side just as he buried the point of a knife in the floor by my head. I wouldn’t have even been able to see it if the blade hadn’t shimmered ever so slightly in a tiny pinpoint of light.

  I didn’t think; I was just fighting for my life. Grabbing the hilt, I yanked it out of the floor. My hand was slippery. Damn glass must’ve cut me. The guy grabbed my arm, holding the knife away from him, his breath h
ot against my neck and his body crushing mine. He was too strong. He squeezed, harder and harder, until I had no choice but to drop the knife.

  I twisted, ramming the heel of my palm into his nose and up as hard as I could. He yelped, instinctively cringing away from me. I grabbed the knife just as he saw it and lunged toward me.

  The blade sank into his arm, high on his bicep. I think he was as surprised as I was because he stopped, and both of us looked at the knife. I let go; the sickening feel of the blade going through skin and muscle was one I knew I’d never forget. He looked at me, his eyes wide and reflecting light the way a cat’s might, or the way the rats’ had. I got a good look at him: Rafael.

  Someone called my name and we both looked toward the sound. Rafael looked back at me, then suddenly he turned and ran, disappearing into the darkness.

  I was shaking and my leg hurt, but the pain was separate somehow, as if it was happening to someone else. Adrenaline and shock, I reasoned. I was alive, Rafael was gone, but I still hadn’t found Natalie.

  Though I really really didn’t want to, I got up to search the floor. My leg hurt and so did my hand as I crept down the hallway, hoping Rafael hadn’t stuck around to leap at me like a worker in a haunted house. Then I heard voices.

  I stopped in my tracks, straining my ears to listen. I couldn’t tell what they said or whether they were male or female. But then they stopped and I heard scuffling, then glass breaking and a man’s full-throated yell. It was filled with terror and sent a shiver down my spine. The yell abruptly cut off.

  I didn’t know what to do. I knew I’d heard more than one voice, which meant there was someone else up here with me. But if I moved, they’d know I was here.

  The sound of footsteps coming toward me made my breath freeze in my lungs. They were moving quickly. In seconds, they’d be on me.

  My cell rang, the shrill noise nearly making me jump out of my skin.

  Muttering curses, I fumbled for the phone, hitting the button to take the call, but I didn’t speak. I waited, listening. The footsteps had stopped. They’d heard my phone, of course. They knew I was here.