Page 18 of Our Tricks

“After our parents died, Devin and I ended up with a woman named Mary. She was an awesome foster mom and the person we needed after losing our parents. Mary loved to play card games, and while we were still pretty young, we were old enough to figure out Go Fish, Old Maid, Uno, and things like that,” I shared as we headed up. “Devin didn’t have a competitive bone in his body… that was all me. As was true his whole life, he could be manipulated into doing just about anything if you worded it right.”

Pausing, I took a moment as memories of that time flashed through my mind—the small glimpse of happiness we had before everything was stripped away from us once again.

“Mary used to say out of the two of us, I was the tricky one, always keeping something up my sleeve. In a way, I guess that stuck with me subconsciously, as she always teased me about my tricky ways. As for the two… well, I suppose I started all this in revenge for Devin, and I didn’t want to leave him out of things,” I explained, then cocked my head deep in thought. “To be honest, I don’t think even Wes knows all that.”

The doors opened, and we exited once more into the futuristic world of the twentieth floor.

“What about the spade?” Sprocket asked, taking my hand and lifting the ring to his lips. “We know it’s important, or you wouldn’t use it.”

I let my hand cup his cheek, my thumb gliding over the prickle of stubble before dropping it to take his hand. “In my art classes, we learned how so many symbols we see all the time can have so many meanings through the ages. The spade has a long history full of dueling meanings but is most commonly known as a symbol of war or death. Yet on the opposing side of things, it has a spiritual meaning of new beginnings or a fresh start.”

“Dueling natures,” Void commented. “With the good also comes the bad. I think that about sums up the life you’ve lived as Two Tricks.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” I agreed, stopping before I entered the office.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath allowing my inner demon’s coldness to take over. This wasn’t a job for Dax, the woman these men loved and married. Right now, Two Tricks, the cold, calculated killer and mastermind behind the Hidden Empire, needed to play the leading role. When I stepped into that room, I was going to torture a man, who I’m sure would kill me the second he got a chance. This was war, things got messy, and no matter what, I wouldn’t lose any of the family I’d built for myself.

Snapping my eyes open, I straightened my shoulders and entered, a grin tugging at my lips, knowing what was coming next.

Chapter 7

Dax

Ken still wasn’t awake, but that was fine. I’d fix that in a moment. The rest of my men stood along the wall, and Tommaso was also there. Ghost was pulling random things out of the drawers but paused when he heard me enter.

He glanced over his shoulder, did a double take, and shifted to face me. “I think this is the first time I’m meeting Two Tricks face to face.”

“You were at the event last night,” I reminded him.

“True, but I was focused on Harper. As I’m sure you know, certain people seem to take your entire focus when it’s needed,” Ghost said as he leaned on the counter. “Do you have a plan in mind, or do you want this to be a joint effort?”

Taking a moment, I thought about that. “I realize there’s value in what I can learn from you while we have the supplies and a person to practice on, if you will. You never know what might come in handy later on.”

Ghost flashed me a bright smile. “Fantastic, I was hoping you said something along those lines. Do we have any rules for this? Does he need to be alive at the end of this?”

“No, he can die once we get what we need. Nothing that would keep him from talking, but I think that’s about it,” I offered. “My suspicion is that he’s one of Marco’s men, or he works for one of the other scum who sucks up to Marco.”

“That leaves us with so many options,” Ghost said, clapping his hands excitedly then grabbed an odd-looking stick. “Got to hand it to you, Camster, you knocked the hell out of him. I wonder if this will do the trick to wake him up?”

At the sound of the electric current, I knew exactly what that was. It seems they’d modified a cattle prod into something a little easier to handle for human use. Ghost jammed it into Ken’s side and hit the button, making Ken’s body seize up as the current flooded his body. His eyes snapped open, and a groan of pain could be heard. I was pretty impressed he didn’t scream with the way that one blood vessel popped out on his forehead.

Ghost pulled the prod away, giving Ken a chance to catch his breath. After a moment, the man looked around the room, and I got the feeling he recognized it. When his gaze fell on me, he tipped his chin up as if he were looking down on me for some reason. “Well, if it isn’t the bitch herself, come to do the dirty work.”

This time when he spoke, there was a heavy accent I couldn’t place. It was clear to me that Ken was absolutely a persona this man was using. Was there really a Ken who worked here and took that man’s persona to get into the building, or had he been a sleeper agent of some kind?

“What I find odd is that you speak as if you know me. If that’s the case, you know just how much I fucking hate being called a bitch,” I said as I stepped closer. “All you’ve done is make me curious, and for you, my friend, that’s not a good thing.”

Before anyone could stop me or question what I was doing, I stabbed my knife deep into the meaty part of the man’s thigh. Ken grunted, closing his eyes at the pain, but nothing else came out of his mouth.

“That’s for calling me a bitch, no way I could let that slide,” I commented, then I twisted the knife to the right, then to the left, and then let go of the hilt. “Just wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to fall out or anything.”

Ghost snickered as he set the cattle prod on the workbench and picked up a pair of pliers as well as a bottle of acid. “Which do you think will work faster? I personally think ripping off fingernails is a lot of work, but it does seem to be effective on most people. This guy, I’m not so sure… he seems to be a professional. I vote for acid.”

“What do you think, Ken? Down to lose a few fingernails?” I asked, cocking my head. “Or are you only going to speak if you can insult me? I’ll warn you if your plan is to piss me off enough to get yourself killed, it won’t work. Sadly, I’m a vindictive bitch and hate to give people what they want.”

All my men laughed at that, nodding their heads in agreement.

“See, even my husbands, the men who love me for some godforsaken reason, agree with that,” I said, gesturing to the men around me. “Let’s make a deal, you and I. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll just shoot you in the fucking head. Make me draw this out, and it will give Ghost and me more time to play with all the goodies in this room. Do you know what’s in here?” Pausing, I watched his face to see if he’d give anything away, but he just continued to watch me with his dull, boring eyes.