Page 425 of The Tempted

“We’re sure it was Wu?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“Yeah, they didn’t even try to hide their identity, sending their message loud and clear,” Wolf said as he lit up a cigarette. “Those fucking Dragons, man,” he took a puff, turning toward Jack. “Give me the green light, make them watch as I fuck all their mothers,” he offered.

“Christ, Wolf,” Bones snarled. “What the fuck did their mothers do to you?”

“Them bitches brought those fucks into the world,” he insisted.

Wolf was a maniac.

I loved him.

Jack walked over to Pop and I decided to follow him, my eyes zeroed in on the kid on the ground, no more than eighteen years old.

“You’re going to be fine, boy,” Pop assured the kid wailing in pain, as he lifted his eyes to Jack.

“Christ,” Jack muttered, running his fingers through his hair.

“He won’t help you now son,” Pop said through gritted teeth. “Hope you know what you’re doing because these bastards aren’t playing games.”-

“You okay?” Jack asked.

“Going to take a lot more than a bunch of amateurs to take me down, but this kid here? He didn’t deserve to get stuck in the crosshairs of whatever it is you have going on with the Chinese. He didn’t sign up for that, and quite frankly neither did I,” he glanced over his shoulder at the building behind him. “Got a fine mess here to clean up.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Jack vowed.

“Yeah, you will,” Pop announced as the paramedics pushed him aside to work on the kid. “Don’t feel like revisiting history son, did my time, buried enough innocent lives to last a lifetime.” He rose to his feet, brushing the dirt from his pants and stepped closer to Jack.

“You need to get a handle on these bastards before they draw more blood,” he demanded.

“I said, I’ll take care of it,” Jack seethed.

“Pop, you should go to the hospital, get yourself checked out,” I suggested, noticing the blood on the old man’s neck. “Were you hit?”

Pop turned around, lifting his hand to his neck, bringing it back to stare at the blood on his fingers before he turned to Jack.

“Just a nick,” he declared, holding Jack’s stare for a moment before turning back to the paramedics. “I’m riding with him,” he told them as they lifted the kid onto the stretcher.

I watched as they ran the stretcher to the back of the ambulance, one paramedic applying pressure to the wound as the other opened the ambulance doors. They lifted the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and Pop climbed up, taking a seat on the bench beside the kid. The paramedic closed the door before running around to the driver’s side. The sirens sounded, and lights flashed as they peeled away from the scene of the crime.

That kid would be fine.

But Pops was right.

More blood would be shed.

More innocent lives were at stake and would pay the price for what we did.

I was the one behind the plan. Wu knew I had orchestrated this whole thing—there was no doubt he had let me go because the motherfucker had a bigger plan for me. I get it. I’d do the same fucking thing. I’d let the bastard suffer, make him wonder when I was coming, and then I’d make him watch helplessly as I took everything he cared about.

I got it.

It’s exactly what I would do.

I put myself in the enemies’ shoes, calculating what my next move would be if I was him and Lauren’s face flashed before my eyes.

“Riggs,” Jack said, pulling me away from my Kitten’s innocent face and I turned to him, blinking as I tried to mask the fear in my eyes.

“Yeah,” I rasped.

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