Ink & Bone (New York Crime Kings Book 5) by Skyla Madi Page A

“Where’d you hear that?”
    “I told you.” She shuffles closer. “Skull’s information is accurate.”
    Clenching my jaw, I close my eyes. Laura shifts on the bed, and I know she’s slipping closer to me. The mattress compresses, and I keep my eyes shut. Maybe if I ignore her she’ll go away.
    “Does he know?” Laura presses a damp finger to my wound, and I wince, snapping my eyes open. “That you can’t have children?”
    She applies more pressure to my injury than Skull does. Go figure. “Yes, he knows.”
    Nodding, Laura falls into silence as she massages the antibacterial cream into my broken flesh. Seemingly in thought, her eyebrows furrow. When the white cream turns clear, she tosses the tube off the bed and bounces onto her knees.
    “Want to know a secret?” she asks, settling forward on her hands. She inches closer and closer, until her hands press into the mattress either side of my waist and her smooth, flat tummy brushes my thigh. “I can’t have children, either.”
    “You can’t?” Laura’s stare flickers between my eyes and my lips, and it stirs a strange feeling in the pit of my belly.
    Sighing, she reaches into the band of her black, lacy underwear and plucks out the world’s smallest silver key. “I was sterilized.”
    My heart stutters dramatically. “As in…”
    She reaches for my handcuffs and frees my wrists. I rub at them, at the angry red marks. “It was one of Skull’s conditions if I wanted to be with him. He’s terrified of having children.”
    I grimace. “You did it for him? To be with him?” She nods. “How could you do such a thing?”
    Huffing, Laura snags me by the wrist and drags me off the bed, tucking my cuffs into her panties. I hiss as I plant the foot of my bad leg on the floor, and my muscles tighten. Without a word, she tugs me along behind her and into the bathroom. I glance up at the window I climbed out of days ago and see that a thin plank of wood has been nailed across it, preventing me from ever escaping again.
    “Get in the tub,” she bites out, and the echo of her voice vibrates in yellow lines all around the room.
    I guess I offended her. Laura releases me, and I sway on my feet. With free hands, I cup my breasts, covering them from sight. I don’t know why she wants me to get into the bathtub. It’s empty.
    Laura clicks her fingers at me. “I said get in the tub.”
    “You didn’t answer me,” I point out, stepping over the ledge of the large spa bath. I sit on the second edge and turn, slowly lifting my sore leg up and over. “How could you do such a thing?”
    “How could I do such a thing?” She leans over and slaps the tap. Water crashes against the white porcelain, spraying me with cold drops. “I love him.”
    I flinch and turn my head to look at her. She stares at the clear liquid as it begins to steam and fill the bath.
    “How can you love a monster?”
    Bending low, she pushes the metal plug into place before pinning me with a smug smirk as she angles her head. “How can you ?”
    How can I? “Jai is not a monster.”
    “Oh, sweetheart .” She pushes a button on the side of the bath, and bubbles begin to churn out. “I disagree.”
    Laura chains one end of the cuffs around a freshly mounted hook on the wall and demands I give her my hand. Doing as I’m told, I offer her my right wrist, and she chains me into place. Sighing, I lower myself into the bubbly bath, hissing when the scorching water touches all of my sensitive places.
    “Jai isn’t a monster,” I say, feeling the need to defend him. “Not like Skull is.”
    “Whether you kill one person or one hundred people, the end result is the same.”
    She hooks her fingers under the string of her thong and drags it down her legs, exposing her bare genitals. I look away. Since when is it acceptable for two grown women to bathe together?
    Laura dips her toes into the water and sucks air between her teeth. I shuffle to the end of the bath, not wanting to be too