Page 60 of Trick or Treat

“Hey, guys,” she greeted a little breathlessly, adding a small wave as an afterthought.

“Hey, darlin’.” Race turned from where he was sitting on a stool, leaning on the bar. “You here to see Trick?”

“Yes.” She nodded once. “Is he in his room? I need to talk to him for just a minute.” She knew where his room was from the first time they’d been together.

“Yeah, I believe he is.” Race looked over her shoulder and frowned. She turned around to find the guy with Tuck waving his arms at Race. His arms dropped immediately and he plastered on a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Hey, Linds, why don’t you come over here and have a drink with me and Jackson? I’m sure Trick’ll be out in just a little bit.” Tuck pulled out the chair next to him and patted the seat.

“Thanks, but I have something I need to say to him and I just want to do it before I chicken out.” She turned and headed down the hall. Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw Jackson shoot out of his chair and vaguely wondered what that was all about.

Lindsey worried her bottom lip the whole way, her nerves getting the better of her. Maybe she should have asked for a shot of something at the bar before she set off to find Trick. Her heart was pounding in her chest, scared to death to talk to him. She didn’t know if he could ever forgive her or if he would even listen to her. She found his room easy enough and was getting ready to knock on the door, when she noticed it was cracked open. She pushed it the rest of the way open and stopped abruptly in the doorway, frozen like a deer caught in the headlights.

Her breath caught in her chest and her heart tripped so violently, she didn’t know how it didn’t explode. She almost wished it would. Please God, was she dreaming? If so, someone needed to wake her up right fucking now. There was no way she was seeing Trick and another guy fucking a woman in his bed. Trick was on bottom, the woman’s head thrown back, resting on the shoulder of the man who was fucking her from behind.

She must have made some kind of noise because all three people turned her way. The blissful expression on the woman’s face was something Lindsey would never forget. The man fucking her from behind held tightly to her hips, equally enjoying what they were doing. It was the look of shock and guilt on Trick’s face that had her clutching her chest and turning to escape.

“Lindsey!” Trick shouted as she bolted from his room and hurried to the front door. She had to get out of here before she completely fell apart and embarrassed herself further. God, she’d been such a fool!

“I knew this was a big mistake. I knew it!” She cleared the hall and entered the bar area once again. Looking around, she realized Jackson knew Trick wasn’t alone. This was confirmed when he stood and made to move toward her. “I’m sorry you walked in on that.” That’s why he’d been waving his arms at Race. He was trying to get him to be quiet about where Trick was at.

She held up her hand. “Don’t. Just don’t.” She spotted a bottle of Jack on the bar and made a bee line toward it. She picked it up and tipped it back. When she pulled the bottle away, she didn’t even feel the burn in her throat anymore. All she could feel was a deep burning around her heart. Maybe if she drank a lot more, she could get to the point where she just felt numb.

Of all the luck,Trick’s had to be the worst. Why, of all nights, did Lindsey show up right at this minute?

“Lindsey!” he shouted after her, trying to get her to stop. Yeah, like she’d want to stand in his room and wait for him to pull his dick out of another woman so they could talk.

“Shit!” He had to hurry before she got away. “Off! Off! Off!” He tapped Tori’s leg. She wasn’t moving fast enough because Tulsa was still buried balls deep in her ass. He reached for his phone on the nightstand and called Jed. “Don’t let Lindsey leave!” he shouted.

“You really think it’s a good idea to talk to her when she just saw you balls deep in another woman?” Tulsa asked.

“Probably not, but she came here for a reason.” Lindsey coming here tonight had to mean something, right? If she came here looking for him even after seeing the scratch marks on his back, it had to mean she was at least willing to talk to him. Even if it was a very slim chance of getting his foot in the door, he’d work with it. First, he had to stop her from leaving.

What felt like an eternity later as he waited for the two of them to get off him, he was finally able to get out of bed and grab his jeans. He pulled the condom off his quickly deflating dick and tossed it on the nightstand, making a mental note to throw it away later. He stumbled around as he yanked his jeans on, nearly landing on his ass. He got them half zipped and thought ‘fuck it’ and didn’t bother with the button. He snagged a shirt off the floor, not sure if it was his or Tulsa’s, and hurried to catch up with Lindsey.

What was he going to say when he caught up to her? What was she even doing here? He’d been doing what she asked by staying away from her. It’d been damn near impossible, but he’d done it for her. Fuck. If he lived to be a hundred, he’d never forget the look of pure pain that swept across her face or the feel of something in his gut tearing.

He’d gotten as far as the end of the hallway before he stopped. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw her standing at the bar talking to Race and Jed. His relief quickly turned to concern as she tossed back shots of Jack straight from the bottle. He frowned as he realized he’d never seen her drink like that. Was she trying to kill herself?

“Maybe you should slow down there, Lindsey,” Race suggested.

Jed tried to reach across the bar to take the bottle away from her and she jerked it tight to her chest and stepped away.

“How about you try it with a little soda?” Race tried to persuade her. “You’ve already taken some really hard hits from the bottle already. Let’s try not to give you alcohol poisoning right out of the gate.”

Lindsey handed the bottle to Jed and took the seat on the barstool next to Race. She waited for Jed to mix her a drink, tasted it and smiled. “Thank you. This is good.”

Jackson and Tuck, upon seeing Lindsey upset and plowing through a bottle of whisky, had moved from their table to be closer in case she tried to make a run for it in her drunken state. Jackson nodded at Trick as he and Tuck took a seat at the table closest to the door. He appreciated his brothers looking out for him. He might not technically be with Lindsey right now, but Jackson was aware of his feelings for her.

She was swinging her feet, her flip-flops about to fall off. What the hell was she doing traipsing around town in flip-flops in December?

“Oh,” she sat up straight. “How much do I owe you for all this?”

“Nothin’, darlin’. It’s on the house.” Race chuckled.

She reached over and patted his arm. “You’re such a nice man, Race. And you’re really hot when you smile.” Trick’s scowl was fierce as he aimed it at the man. For fuck’s sake, how much had she had to drink before he caught up with her?

Their prez chuckled and Jed snorted, probably thinking if she only knew how deadly Race could be, she might be rethinking that.

---