Play Dirty (Wages of Sin #2) - Neve Wilder Page 0,47

always had, and he was easily exploited. But he’d only agreed to bring Az to the warehouse with Madi in tow as a gift for Bennington. Ryan agreed a quick bullet to Madi’s head would guarantee Bennington’s trust.

Unlike Brazil, this warehouse was in the middle of a crowded Boston shipyard. Az had noted hundreds of containers stacked along the water, cranes working to load them onto large cargo ships. Was this how they moved the women? Cargo ships? Was that the purpose of keeping all these women in those shipping containers?

“You look like somebody kicked your puppy.” Ryan leaned against the wall beside him close enough for Az to feel the heat of his body despite the amount of space available. Az forced himself not to move away. Despite making himself clear that their arrangement was strictly business, it wouldn’t pay to make it look like Ryan’s touch made him recoil, even if it did.

“I wasn’t permitted pets growing up. My mother was allergic,” Az said conversationally.

Ryan chuckled. “I thought you might be feeling some guilt about agreeing to put a bullet in your boyfriend’s head to get on the boss’s good side.”

“There’s no such thing as sentimentality in our line of work. You know that. He was exceptionally talented in bed, but that is all it was. A working relationship with benefits. He broke the rules when he took off with my half of the money.” The lies usually rolled off Az’s tongue like honey, but this one had barbs, hooking under his flesh, making him bleed.

He didn’t like lying about Madi’s character, which was ridiculous since that's what he’d been doing for the last thirty days or so. Calling Madi a thief, calling him untrustworthy, unprofessional. Madi was a lot of things but never those things. The lies hadn’t mattered until that night. Now, they did.

Ryan made a noise of surprise. “I guess I was wrong about your guilt. You two are well suited, both so cold-blooded.”

The meaning seemed obvious, given they were both professional killers, but Ryan’s smug voice hinted at some deeper meaning. “Is that so?” Az arched a brow.

Ryan hmm’d. “I did some asking around about your friend after you came to me that night. It seems you are both cut from the same cloth. I’ve heard he once betrayed his own lover for just fifty-thousand dollars.”

Adrenaline spiked through Az’s blood. Was that true? Some warped and twisted part of Az hoped it was. If Madi could kill a lover for fifty-thousand dollars, surely he would understand why Az was doing this. If he could get Madi to understand, perhaps he could get Madi to forgive him. He needed Madi to forgive him.

Az shrugged. “I didn’t know.”

“It seems only fair that he be on the other end of the barrel this time, no? Metaphorically speaking, of course. Bennington doesn’t care how you put him down as long as he’s dead. Knowing my boss, he’ll likely mutilate the corpse as a message to others who think he might be weak or vulnerable. To tell you the truth, at first, I thought Bennington had taken out both of his partners for a bigger piece of the pot.”

Az was quiet for a long moment. There was that word again… Vulnerable. In their world. being seen as soft made them a target. He’d cast Madi as the villain to Ryan and Bennington to find their other bases of operation, but it was Az who’d proven defenseless. He’d been helpless to resist Madi’s pull. He’d offered up his flesh to Az’s blade, a blood offering, one Az had accepted just before he’d betrayed him in the most egregious way possible.

“Speaking of, how much longer do we have to wait for your boss?” Az asked, needing to be done with this regardless of the outcome. Something about Ryan’s noncommittal shrug raised the hairs on Az’s arms and unsettled him. “Bathroom?” he asked.

“Back of the building on your right. Don’t get lost.”

Az took his words for what they were. A threat. Don’t go snooping where you don’t belong. They were long past that. There were doors at the front and back of the building, and two shipping containers sat towards the front, just like in Rio. Girls and boys were being brought, one by one, to a wall where a plain blue cloth hung. A man photographed each one against the backdrop before another escorted them toward a hallway. Passport photos? Where did they plan to ship them? It didn’t matter. Az