Page 364 of The Tempted

Not even a thumbs up or an emoji.

She gave me a dose of my own medicine and she gave it good.

I chucked my phone across the room and gave up.

You can smell doom, it’s the stench of death, lurking at every corner. The Dog Pound was reeking of doom and I wasn’t the only one noticing it. We all kept our mouths shut because we had no idea what the fuck was going on. I might be new to the brotherhood but there was some kind of code being obstructed by our president and vice president.

The tension was mounting between Jack and Blackie and with my eyes on Wu, I knew it had nothing to do with the gun deal we had going on. They had something else brewing and whatever it was had Blackie hitting the bottle more than usual.

The man was still grieving his wife who died of an overdose, an overdose supplied on the product he was pushing before Jack became the head honcho of the Knights. Bones thinks Blackie’s guilt will be the death of him if he doesn’t get a handle on it.

I think he’s dead already, just waiting for the reaper to call him home.

I parked my bike next to Blackie’s, noticing it was the only one in the lot aside from the few cars. I hung my helmet off one handlebar and strode into the compound.

Bianci was off doing father-to-be crap and luckily for me I wasn’t invited to that sort of shit. After the night I text Lauren, I kept my distance and respected she wanted nothing to do with me. Which sucked, because with the afternoon to myself all I wanted to do was take a ride on my bike with her. I don’t know what the fuck was wrong with me. I guess it’s the game of temptation, wanting what you can’t have.

I stopped in my tracks when I heard a sob and turned around to see Jack’s daughter running down the stairs. She froze, mascara streaking her pretty face, as she buttoned up her shirt.

Well, now.

“Lacey,” I started.

“I was never here,” she sniffled, straightening her back as she stared at me.

I raised an eyebrow. Daddy’s little girl didn’t fall too far from the badass family tree.

“I was never here,” she repeated.

“Never saw you,” I agreed, biting the inside of my cheek. She waited a moment, assessing me to be sure she had my word, before grabbing her keys off the bar and jetting out of the Dog Pound.

I think it was safe to say she wasn’t visiting daddy looking for a handout.

I glanced toward the stairs and decided this afternoon just got a whole lot more interesting.

Who needs Kitten when you got a clubhouse full of demons?

I climbed the stairs, remembering the only bike in the lot was Blackie’s and made my way toward his room.

If I had any brains whatsoever, I would’ve turned the fuck around and minded my own business. But I was bored and stupid. I’ve been doing a lot of stupid shit lately. I needed to get that shit under control, but not until after I saw why Lacey was running down the stairs crying.

I opened the door to Blackie’s room and found him sitting on the foot of the bed with his head in his hands. He slowly lifted his face and the whites of his eyes were so red he looked like he had pink eye.

“Get out,” he seethed.

“You the reason Lacey just ran out of here crying?”

“What’s it to you?” he said, rising to his feet, stumbling a little as he did so. He was fucked up. No surprise there, but he wasn’t drunk. He crossed his arms against his bare chest and that’s when I noticed the fresh marks on his forearm.

I took a step closer, getting a better look at the bruises that marked his skin, and lifted my eyes back to his.

“You’re using?” I questioned.

He uncrossed his arms and reached behind him for his gun before aiming it at me.

“Get the fuck out of my room, Riggs,” he shouted, unlatching the safety.

The reaper was coming, and he was coming soon.

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