Page 28 of Deadly North

God, looking at her now, I see more clearly than ever the lost little girl she was then. I want to go back and take the pain away from her. Or at least tell her now how sorry I am for everything she had to go through.

But the moment for that has already passed. Gigi sits up. Her face has slammed shut, and any vulnerability she showed me a few minutes ago disappears. “We should get back,” she says, reaching for her clothes.

“Sure.” It hurts that she’s pulling away. But something in me knows that calling her out on it will just make it worse, so I play it cool. We get dressed in silence, not talking again until we get back outside.

“This was bound to happen,” Gigi says as we climb into my truck. “Hanging around each other like this. Since we hate each other so much, that kind of tension had to go somewhere, right? Mistakes were made.”

“It won’t happen again,” I say, not wanting to believe it.

“Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen in the first place,” she suggests.

“You got it.”

She’s right, even though I don’t like it. Fucking my best friend’s sister is the bad idea to end all bad ideas. Fury would fucking shoot me if he knew. Like, actually shoot my ass dead. Well, actually, he might decide shooting was too good for me. Knowing Fury, he might prefer a more hands-on approach.

My head is all over the damn place as I drive Gigi back. I can’t think of anything to say, because what I want to say and what I think G wants to hear are two different things.

When we get back to the clubhouse, there’s the beginnings of a party brewing. Hardly anyone even notices when we slip in and I help G carry her stuff to her apartment. She all but slams the door in my face afterwards. That pisses me the hell off, but punching my fist through a wall ain’t gonna be a productive way of dealing with it. So instead, I go out to the bar and have Little Big Mama set me up with a beer and some shots. I suck the shots down until I start to feel kinda fuzzy, then set them aside and focus on the beer.

I’m feeling no pain by the time Gigi comes back out, wearing her denim cut-offs and a black, clingy cropped T-shirt that stretches tight across her perfect tits and shows her taut belly. Instead of her Frye boots, a pair of black kitten heels I’ve never seen before are on her feet.

What the fuck?Is she trying to drive me fucking crazy?

She saunters up to the bar and waves to Little Big Mama. “Can I get a Rum and Coke?”

“Sure thing, doll!” Mama turns around to make the drink.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I growl at Gigi in a low voice.

“What?” She blinks up at me innocently.

“If you want me to stay the hell away from you, this here ain’t the way to do it,” I say, waving my index finger up and down at her body.

“You’re a mature adult,” she retorts. “You’re perfectly capable of keeping your hands to yourself.”

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” I mutter. But it’s not true where Gigi is concerned, especially not now that I know what she feels like. What she tastes like.

I can’t imagine why the hell she’s decided to torture me like this, after she said she wants us both to forget anything ever happened between us. I can’t be this fucking close to her right now. I turn on my heel and stomp away, determined to keep the entire length of the main room between us for the rest of the night. But that means I have to watch from across the room as my club brothers come up and flirt with her one by one. Fury ain’t around right now, so they’re bolder than they would be otherwise. I watch as Gigi laughs it up with our Road Captain Reed Greenlee, flirting like I have never seen her do with anyone.

Across the room, I clench my bottle of beer and grind my teeth into powder.

Eventually, Gigi climbs down off her bar stool and heads back toward her apartment. I do my best not to follow her, but it only takes a minute before I’m slamming my empty beer bottle down on a table and heading after her.

I get to her door just as she’s reaching for the knob to go inside. “What the fuck was that all about?” I snarl.

Gigi turns and gives me an innocent look. “What are you talking about?”

“You were practically climbing into Reed’s lap back there.”

“What? I was justtalkingto him. God, Mack, what is?—”

“The hell you were.” I grab her hand and turn her to face me, pinning her against the door. “What are you playing at, G? You trying to drive me insane?”

At the contact of our skin, her eyes grow hooded. “You think I care what you think? You don’t own me.”

“I think you do care, yeah. And I think you’re trying to fuck with me.”

“I’m not.” She licks her lips, making them glisten. “But I’m glad to know it worked anyway.”

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