Page 98 of Retaliation

“Why?” he asked, his voice low.

“He killed Jonathan,” she hissed, venom returning to her voice.

She was such a hypocrite. The realization sent acid down her throat, and she had to swallow hard against it. Here she was, still craving the blood of her brother’s murderer, when Scorpion was sitting next to the one that had killed his. If only Reaper had stayed away. She would have been content to let her anger simmer for the rest of her life.

Then he came back to the city, and it seemed like no matter where she turned, he was always there.

“He was in my room this morning,” she admitted, deciding to play open cards with Scorpion, but the Dodge came to a screeching stop, the wheels dragging the vehicle sideways in the road.

The force ripped the seatbelt into her stitches, and pain shot through her whole body as her head began to spin.

“He. Was. What?” Scorpion growled, and it excited

and frightened her at the same time.

“He didn’t hurt me,” she promised, trying to keep him calm, pain snaking through her abdomen. “I don’t think he wants to hurt me in his own twisted way.”

“I should go back. I should go back and pour gasoline down his fucking throat and set his sorry ass on fucking fire.”

Poison reached for him and placed her uninjured hand over his on the gearshift.

“He’s not worth it,” she whispered.

Taking a deep breath, Scorpion pulled the car back into his lane and seemed to try to focus on his breathing. Once it was even again, she sat back, releasing the pressure of the safety belt from her abdomen.

“Tell me everything,” he asked, and she could hear the battle of emotions in his voice.

So she told him everything. She told him about how they had grown up together, how he had killed Jonathan. How he had stayed away for more than a decade and how he had been showing up everywhere she had been since coming back to the city.

“He’s been stalking you?” Worry seeped through his stone-cold armor.

“He told me the night outside of the Lotus Lounge that he has been keeping tabs on me,” That night’s events played off in her mind like an old, distant movie scene and she just wanted to change the channel. “He knew things I had done while he wasn’t in the city.”

“Any chance of one of your crew members selling you out?”

“No!” she exclaimed, horror evident in her voice. The thought alone of one of her crew betraying her was too far-fetched. “My crew would never. Would you believe such a thing from any of your members?” she countered, and he considered her words before shaking his head.

“I’m sorry for questioning their loyalty.” It was his turn to dip his chin. “Things just aren’t adding up.”

His words hung in the air as they pulled up to his factory, and the reality of her current predicament set in with full force. Staring up at the red brick building, the realization that she would stay with Scorpion knocked the wind from her lungs.

“We needed to stop at my apartment to get my things,” she murmured, a mix of emotions making her heart race.

Scorpion pressed a remote button on his keychain as they rounded the back of the building, and a set of roll-up doors moved skyward.

“I already got some of your things,” he said with a smile that made it impossible for her to look away.

“How?”

“Your doorman let me in,” He smiled. “Hope you don’t mind? I didn’t break in this time.” Something like sorrow flickered across his face. “I got some things I thought you might need.”

A faint blush tinted his cheeks, and she stared mesmerized, her pain and worries about Reaper completely forgotten.

“Oh,” She didn’t know how to respond. “Thank you?”

They waited for the doors to lift, and Poison couldn’t believe her eyes as they moved to reveal the inside. As run down and abandoned as the factory’s first floor was, the back was the complete opposite.

The enormous garage was modern and filled with tools and machinery to one side, and the vast majority of the floor space was covered in bikes. In the middle of the floor, on a pedestal, surrounded by about five other bikes, stood her Ducati.

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