The crowd was loud—clapping, shouting, pounding their feet. Rampage was loud and flashy. Cole was the opposite. He dodged most of the man’s hits. I clocked pretty early that Cole was playing with him.
A cat and his mouse.
A wolf and his prey.
Around me, I saw wads of cash changing hands as people placed their bets. A group of women two rows away were screaming Cole’s name.
Soon, Cole’s hits got harder, more brutal.
“This will be over soon,” Landon murmured.
Suddenly, a flash of purple in the crowd caught my attention. My pulse leaped and I leaned forward.
A woman with the same-color hair was cheering and clapping, and my gut tightened. It wasn’t Lark.
Dammit, I needed to find her. I needed to get this situation sorted with her.
She wouldn’t be so easy to lure out again, but it was past time that I explained about Ed. I knew she’d be upset, hurt.
But she wasn’t alone. She had me.
Done with the fight, Cole landed two brutal hits. Rampage hit the mats, tried once to get up, then collapsed.
“Annnnd the winner is the Wolf!”
The crowd went wild.
A sense of rightness filled me. I’d help Lark through it.
I knew we were connected. I’d felt it from the moment we’d collided in that back alley in Paris.
I’d explain, then I’d help her deal with it.
But first, I had to find her.
CHAPTER 6
LARK
The keys jingled in the lock as I opened the door with my hip. I juggled the takeout bag in one hand, and quickly kicked the door closed behind me.
I’d made it.
The young couple across the hall was always trying to talk to me. I wasn’t here to make friends. They’d cornered me the first day I’d rented the place and wanted to hang out. I shook my head. They were nice and normal. I wasn’t.
The apartment I’d rented was under one of my aliases and it was empty. There wasn’t a lick of furniture. The place wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t going to win any style awards, either. It was an older building full of one-bedroom apartments a few blocks away from the Strip. The kind of place where no one would pay much attention to a quiet tenant. Especially one who came in dressed differently each time. One day I could be a woman, the next day a man, and the next an old lady. Mastering disguises was one of the first things Ed had taught me when I was young.
Well, no one paid much attention except for the overly friendly Tawnee and Jeff across the hall.
I set the takeout bag on the scarred kitchen counter that was a bland, boring beige. I had a small inflatable mattress in the corner of the living room, sitting beside my duffel bag.
I opened the white, Chinese take-out container and the smell of noodles hit me. I grabbed the wooden chopsticks and a bottle of water, then crossed the empty living room. I settled down on the floor to eat my dinner.
Staying in a place like this meant there was less chance that Bastian could find me. It was harder to find a lone short-term lease on a private apartment, than a woman staying at a hotel. I slid down the wall, my knees up, and started eating.
I’d let him lure me to that bar today.Stupid.
I had to be more careful. I had to be in control. I knew how dangerous he was. The Reaper had earned his reputation. Ed had always spoken about Bastian with pride. He’d recruited Bastian as a wild teenager and trained him. Turned him into a legend.
