Page 301 of The Tempted

I’m going to come for you motherfucker.

Gonna give you all I got.

He turned around to face the screens and pulled a remote control from his pocket. He aimed it at the wall of televisions, bringing each of them to life. I peered at the screens with my good eye, slowly taking in each frame. I was thankful for all the red marks on my skin and the black eye because the blood drained from my body. The stash house was wired from the street to outside and back to the closets inside. Everything looked as it should. The time stamps all had the same date and time, every frame was perfectly adjusted to the footage we wanted them to see that day.

“Can you see what I see?” Wu sang.

My eyes scanned each frame slowly until they stopped and zeroed in on one, the one that showed Jack and me in the hallway.

Oh shit.

I cringed, closing my eyes as I lifted the ski mask and bared my face to the camera. Wu paused the frame, hit another button and brought the same image up on all the screens. He turned to me, his eyes meeting mine, and he smiled knowingly.

He had me.

“It’s time to send your club a message,” he informed me, as he looked over my shoulder at one of his boys.

He wasn’t blowing smoke. I had fucked myself and royally too. Sun Wu had everything he needed to wage a war between the two clubs. He had everything he needed to be a man of his word and make us all pay.

I had no doubt that he’d start with me.

Then it dawned on me—his words, his threats, they all of a sudden had meaning.

One last chance, one shot, to tell me the truth or you and yours will be the first I take.

Lauren.

Pea.

One reckless move would change my whole life, actually two. One that changed my life forever and another that would ruin it.

I heard the sound of a machine vibrating before something crashed against my skull and everything faded to black.

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