My lips quirked up at the touch, then they flared into an outright grin when she muttered, “I thought our clubhouse was a shithole.”
Giulia had made it quite clear that she didn’t approve of the standards of cleanliness in the clubhouse. The clubwhores hated her for more than just the fact that she wasn’t afraid to break noses if required, and she had them actually cleaning for their supper now.
“Peggy sure as shit isn’t you when it comes to keeping the place clean,” Rex agreed, as he wandered into Butch’s office.
Her nose crinkled at the sight of the dust everywhere, and that was nothing compared to the furniture, which looked either like someone had been fucked to death on it, or just fucked or just stabbed… I really wasn’t sure myself. Red and white splattered on it in a way that made me pray it was excess paint from the walls and ceiling.
Wryly, I advised, “Don’t touch anything, or, alternatively, touch everything and I’ll disinfect you later.”
She snickered, then found a space at the corner of the desk she evidently wasn’t entirely disgusted by. She grabbed a tissue from the box on the side of the desk, and while those tissues might have been innocent enough, I really didn’t want to tell her that he probably used them to wrap his used condoms in. Well, I figured that was why. Maybe he didn’t give enough of a fuck to do even that.
Deciding not to tell Giulia about any of that particular thought process, I cleared my throat as I slumped in front of the desk when Rex had taken a seat. At my side, Link propped himself up by leaning against my chair, Steel sank onto the sofa, and Hawk trudged in only for Sin to tell him, “The bunkhouse is outside. Turn left at the front door, carry on walking, and you’ll see the building. Brakes is probably still asleep. If you wake him up, he’ll fuck you over in the morning.”
Hawk rolled his eyes. “Used to that with you bas—” He caught himself, quickly swiveling on his heels and hauling ass to get out of the office before he could get into any shit with us.
Once Sin closed the door behind him, Rex murmured, “I think Sin has something to say to you Giulia.”
I was surprised she hadn’t gone to slap him for what he’d put her through by being a shit guard, but if anything, at Rex’s words, her shoulders huddled up, and she folded her arms across her chest.
The defensive posture didn’t suit her.
I was used to her headbutting shit, not her hiding from a situation, but where Luke Lancaster was concerned?
She was still a little fucked in the head.
Take, for example, the fact she kept wanting me to chase her, pin her down, and fuck her—like I was taking her choice away.
I didn’t like it. Hated it, actually, but what the fuck was I supposed to do?
My job was to give her what she needed, and if that was how she was going to try to find control in a situation she couldn’t control, then that was what we’d do.
“Giulia, you have to believe me, I’d never have left if it wasn’t urgent.”
Scowling at that, I half sat up, prepared to smack the shit out of him for his bullshit, but Rex raised a hand. His eyes promised retribution if I didn’t control myself, and because I wasn’t used to seeing that, was pretty much used to him letting me do whatever the fuck I wanted, I froze in surprise.
“I got a text from my woman,” he rasped. “She’d been involved in an accident—”
“What fucking woman?” Steel groused, but I could hear his anger too. He always had my back, and in this, there was no difference.
“She’s mine, even if she doesn’t fucking know it yet,” he countered uneasily, hunching his shoulders much like Giulia had. “She texted me telling me she was in an accident and that she needed my help.
“When I got there, she was drunk out of her skull. At least, that’s what I thought at first, and I was fucking furious. But she was acting weird, had puked everywhere—” He shook his head. “It wasn’t right. Something was wrong, and when I tried to talk to her, it was like…” He blew out a breath. “She couldn’t move. Couldn’t function. She didn’t stink of booze, and I knew there was no way in fuck she’d have been able to send me those texts she had—”
“What’s your point?” I snarled, not appreciating his delay in apologizing to my woman.
“She was drugged.”
My mouth worked at that, but Giulia questioned, “She’d been raped?”
“No. I took her home, looked after her, and when she woke up and didn’t remember anything except for one thing…” His jaw clenched. “Well, you’d already dealt with the bastard, so I didn’t have much chance to get some vengeance.”
Her eyes widened. “Luke Lancaster drugged your woman?”
“Who the fuck is this goddamn bitch?” Link snapped, evidently as agitated as the rest of us. That took a fucking lot, considering Link was beyond laid back.
“Tiffany Farquar.”
For a second, I knew we did nothing other than just gape at one another.
Then, when we’d processed that, Giulia asked again, “You’re sure he didn’t rape her?”
“No. She only remembered him touching her…” His face tightened with anger as he waved a hand at his chest. Didn’t take a genius to figure that one out either.
“Wait, so…” Steel sat up, his brow puckered as he slowly verbalized, “You mean to tell me that Lancaster drugged your woman to…feel her up?”
“No. He did it to get me away from Giulia. He must have known we were seeing each other, and he knew I’d leave my position to help her. Nothing else would have made me leave Giulia, Nyx. You have to believe that.”
“I thought you’d gone to the strip club,” Giulia muttered uncomfortably.
“No! Fuck, Giulia. As if I’d do that. I know I was getting a bit out of hand, drinking too much before—but I knew what you meant to Nyx. Fuck, I know it now. I’d never have let either of you down if it wasn’t urgent.”
“You could have fucking called,” I muttered, unwilling to totally relent.
“I was panicking,” he admitted.
I scowled at him, my dubiousness clear. “You? Panicking over snatch?”
“Is Giulia a snatch to you?”
“No,” I murmured slowly, and if anything could have resonated with me, it was that. If Sin felt that way about Lily’s friend, then fuck.
Hadn’t I just admitted to myself that if it boiled down to it, I’d save Giulia over Rex?
Jesus.
“You kept this fucking quiet,” Link pointed out gruffly. “Hell, I don’t think Lily even knows. If she did, I figure she’d have told me by now.”
“You always did keep too many secrets,” Rex observed pointedly, his brows high as he focused on Sin.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded, but Rex wasn’t having any of it.
He stated, “I sent him here because he deserved it. He left Giulia, left his post, let us down. There are many ‘should have dones’ in this scenario, but it’s time Sin comes home.”
Before I could say a word, Giulia murmured, “Sin?”
“Yeah?” he asked warily.
“Is she okay?”
“Yeah. He didn’t hurt her. I think his intention was to get straight to you.” He blew out a breath. “She’s pregnant.”
My mouth dropped open—and I wasn’t the only one. Rex looked stunned too.
“The kid’s mine,” he declared defensively.
Rex sniffed. “That wasn’t the part that stunned me,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “How far along?”
“Around two months.”
“You speak to her?” Link questioned.
“Fuck’s sake, I know she’s kept us a secret, and I know I did that too, but damn, I’m not lying about this—”
“You have to understand that this comes as a surprise to all of us,” Link pointed out diplomatically. “Far as many of us knew, you were—”
“Footloose and fancy free,” Giulia interrupted, her tone dryer than a bag full of salt, and that she could find some
amusement in this situation made my tension lower.
Sin snorted at her joke, and the others chuckled, me? I just reached forward, grabbed her hand, and tugged her onto my lap.
“You need to come home then for sure,” Giulia said softly, but her eyes were on me. I could see forgiveness in her gaze, and even though I got it, and even though I was glad he hadn’t just gone AWOL to watch a fucking show at the strip joint, I wasn’t totally happy.
He’d fucked up.
Majorly.
And so had Rex.
“Why is this the first time I’m hearing about any of this shit?” I grumbled.
“Because you’ve been focused elsewhere. We’ve had more important things to be dealing with,” he answered gruffly, but he was unapologetic. “But now’s the time to move on. If Giulia can accept that, then you need to as well.”
I huffed out a sigh.
Didn’t look like I had much of a goddamn choice, did it?
Sin
If you’d ever told me there’d come a day when I was happy to become a dad, I’d have told you to fuck off.
Kids and I didn’t gel.
And ever since I’d teamed up with Nyx on his quest to rid the country of as many pedophiles in as many painful ways as possible, the desire to have children had been dampened even further.
It was probably why, however, Faudreaux got to me more than most now.
My woman had my baby in her belly.
The thought still blew my mind.
Her small voice on the phone, the way she had to psych herself up to tell me…it all fucked with my head.
We’d had a weird relationship. Secretive, closed off, but close nonetheless. We’d shared a lot in the time we’d been dating, and while some of it was DNA, not all of it was.
There’d been times when we’d just been. I’d bought a fucking hammock for us, for Christ’s sake, because I knew she loved my yard, and I liked seeing her happy.
I knew she took that godawful coconut milk in her coffee, and that bedhead actually looked good on her.
I knew she loved Sponge Bob, even though she’d never admit to it—it was always on my ‘Recently Played’ list on Netflix, and I sure as fuck didn’t watch it—and I knew she was lost, uncertain of which way the future was going to take her.
Funny how fate had a way of taking control of things for you.
I already knew from her texts and the quick call we’d had earlier, before we’d snapped up Faudreaux, that today hadn’t worked out that great. She was supposed to help the captives the club had saved, and apparently, it hadn’t gone well. Tomorrow was another day, though, and she hadn’t sounded upset about them rejecting her help. If anything, I’d sensed some resolve about her.
Like she knew she was needed, and even if they didn’t want that help, they were going to fucking get it.
Just the thought made my lips twitch, because she was so goddamn obstinate, and she didn’t even see it.
A scream shattered my thoughts—as a truly haunting scream should do—and I cut a look at Giulia, who was standing there, watching Nyx at work.
I wasn’t sure why he was letting her watch. Had no idea why she was here.
He said she had anger issues.
I mean, I knew that. Jesus, didn’t take someone with a fucking degree to figure that out. Christ. But still, she was standing there, trembling.
Link hovered nearby like he was there to shield her if shit got too bad, but any regular person would shiver at the sight of what their man was capable of.
I mean, there was knowing someone was insane, and then there was seeing it with your own fucking eyes.
Personally, I was used to it.
And I got it.
I wasn’t one of the old-school brothers like Steel, Link, and Rex were. But I’d been around long enough to know what fucked with Nyx’s head. We were brothers, and even if I’d let him down, that wouldn’t change. Sure, he’d be pissy with me for a while, but we went too far back.
I’d run from home to New Jersey because my ma had told me my dad was a Sinner, and whether or not he was, she’d never told me his name, and I hadn’t given a shit. I’d just wanted to get away, so I’d gone to West Orange. Bear had heard my story, hadn’t turned me away, and I’d patched in as a Prospect when I was sixteen years old. I’d never have enlisted if things hadn’t derailed and I needed to get out of the country. Fast.
I tugged at my cut, one of the few things I valued, and knew that I’d take it off for Tiff. That was what she meant to me. I wondered if Nyx felt the same way for Giulia, and if he was about to have his heart broken because he’d revealed too much, too soon. They’d barely been together before he was letting her see this, and that wasn’t smart.
Not in my opinion anyway.
I leaned back against the wall as Nyx sliced and diced Faudreaux. The images Nyx had taken from his safe were on the floor around us in shreds, no part visible anymore. That was how tiny the pieces were, and he was making Faudreaux eat them.
The bastard was sobbing with each gulp, but Nyx had pulled some fucked up shit with the guy’s dick. He’d created a tourniquet around it, and every time Faudreaux bitched, he yanked that tourniquet a little tighter.
Absentmindedly wondering if his dick would fall off, if that was even possible, I watched as Giulia flinched when the pedo fucker let out a particularly high-pitched scream.
Nyx had gone around behind him, and fuck only knew what he was doing to the naked piece of shit.
Rex pulled a face at the noise, but returned his focus to his phone. Link just looked stoic—like this wasn’t how he wanted to be spending his night, but for Nyx, he’d have his back. Steel was the only one with his back to the cunt. He had his eyes wandering around the warehouse we were using, making sure no bastard came in.
This was Sinners’ territory, a Sinners owned warehouse, but still, with the squealing this fucker was making, we needed to be watchful. Even though the chapter used this place with this purpose in mind, caution was always warranted when you were torturing someone.
Giulia took a step forward, shakily moving toward Link. Nyx hadn’t let her see the pictures, and I couldn’t blame him. Though Mav had confirmed Faudreaux deserved to die, Nyx had quickly glanced at one because he didn’t believe in trying a man without proof, and what he’d seen had made him go straight to level one on the map of torture—the tourniquet.
Dick territory.
That was when you knew what he’d seen was really bad.
She muttered something to Link, and he quirked a brow at her but handed her something.
She moved toward Faudreaux, who, seeing her and evidently believing she was the weakest link, took the opportunity to plead, “Please! Help me! Stop this—I didn’t do anything—”
“Guys like you never do anything, do you?” she rasped, her voice low. Her words haunted. “You just take. You don’t care who you hurt, what you leave behind.” She bowed her head as she stared at the scraps on the floor. In between them all were some old-fashioned pieces of film. The sepia brown foil could be spied between all the flecks of photos. She bent down, picked up a piece, and remarked, “Do you know cellulose is highly flammable?”
I tensed at that, and with my experience with explosives, I knew where she was going with that question. Rhetorical it fucking wasn’t.
Her tone was wooden, kind of. At first listen. Then you heard the fucking layers behind it.
Jesus, she was just as bad as Nyx.
Loathing and disgust throbbed through every word, seething at such a level that she sounded almost toneless.
I cast Rex a look, wondering if he was going to put a stop to this, but he’d peered up with interest now.
Sick fuck.
Hell, we all were.
The irony being, of course, that as a Sinner, I’d killed more when I was in Iraq than I had running for the club. And the few deaths I’d helped perpetrate as a Sinner was with Nyx and the crew as we helped Nyx avenge his sister.
I pe
ered around the warehouse, wondering if it would withstand a blaze, but I didn’t have much time to think.
She stepped closer to him, managing to move around puddles of blood, piss, and vomit, then she grabbed the tourniquet, tightened it until his mouth opened in a scream, and shoved the film into his mouth.
He tried to spit it out, but Nyx had made an appearance by now. He’d grabbed some duct tape, and he rolled it around the bastard’s head, from chin up to his crown, keeping his mouth locked tight forever while ensuring the cellulose stuck out, quivering with each move he made.
When it was done, he turned to Giulia, and asked, “You know it might explode?”
A whine escaped Faudreaux, who promptly pissed himself.
Again.
“I think that’s what the fucker deserves, don’t you?”
“You sure?” Nyx inquired, his tone conversational. Like he was asking her if she was ready to get a dog or something. Maybe asking if she wanted Italian or Mexican for dinner.
Not, ya know, asking if she was okay with setting fire to someone.
She shrugged her shoulders as she stared at him. “He served time?”
Rex cleared his throat. “Two stints. The first for possessing child porn. The second was for child rape.”
She tensed, and I knew that’d just signed his death warrant.
But then, I’d signed that the first time I’d settled on him as my act of contrition for Nyx.
“Some fuckers just need to burn for their sins,” she muttered, then she raised the lighter up high, let it hit Faudreaux’s eye level, and flicked it so the flame burned.
As Faudreaux began to struggle, she let the flame touch the cellulose.
The next thing I knew, Nyx had shouldered her out the way and was hauling her out of the warehouse toward the door.
The rest of us didn’t stick around either.
When we hauled ass outside, Rex huffed. “I’ll get Butch onto the sheriff. Make sure he knows to keep his blind eye turned away from this Podunk shit pile.”
And as he pulled up the call, the rest of us wandered over to our bikes to the happy soundtrack of a man burning to death.
When my mind turned onto the kid in my woman’s belly, only one thought crossed my mind—it was a good day to be alive, because that sick fuck in there? He was incapable of hurting another kid, thanks to us.
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 65