by J. L. Drake
The click of the vibrator made my stomach knot and my head swim.
She set the joint on the rim of her wine glass and pushed the tip of the lipstick into her mouth to moisten it.
I groaned with primal need. Everything inside of me ached and begged to be released. Heat burned its way to the surface to the point of pain.
She slipped the vibrator between her folds, and her head flopped back with a huff. Her free hand pulled at her nipple, and her chest rose and fell heavily.
“Mmm,” she moaned, and I joined her with a few pumps to my erection.
“Come here,” I ordered, but even my voice seemed strained.
She ignored me and kept going. She pushed, twisted, and pumped that little shit into her hole, and I started to get frustrated. She wasn’t listening, and I needed her to.
“Tess,” I warned when she got dangerously close to coming.
A layer of sweat glistened on her forehead, her cheeks were pink, and her breathing told me she was close.
“So close,” she hissed.
“Fuck that!” I jumped out of bed and grabbed her waist and tossed her on the mattress face down. I crawled over top of her ass and hiked up her nightgown. Holding her down with my body weight, I spread her legs and thrust.
She was so tight, so ready that she took me to the root. She was flat on the bed, and when she turned her head to the side to gasp for air, I saw the need in her eyes. Sex was our drug, one that we shared. She consumed me in every way, and that scared the shit out of me. But I was addicted and willing to fight to the end to keep her.
Grabbing both hands, I pulled them forward and held them as I molded to her curves. We were both slick, and I slid around easily to change direction.
I used my free hand to hold some of my weight. Using only my hips, I fucked her hard. Occasionally, I slowed and ran my fingers down the curve of her spine. Her skin heated under my touch, and she wiggled when I hit a sweet spot.
I allowed myself to smile, feel, and be raw in these moments. When we were together, nothing mattered.
“Trigger,” her knuckles were white as the anticipation built, “please.”
With my knees on either side of her hips and my hands on the headboard, I flicked my hips upward, and she jolted forward with a sexy cry.
She clawed helplessly at the tangled sheets. Her lungs fought for air. Her eyes squeezed shut.
My favorite part was when she first let go. Her insides clamped around me, and her back bowed as her orgasm ripped through her center and slingshotted me into mine.
I dropped down, and my head hit her back. I wrapped my arms around her midsection as I hung on. It was the only moment I was completely defenseless. Completely at her mercy.
***
Allen
“What, exactly, do you mean?” His forehead had broken out in a heavy sweat, and he squinted as he absorbed my words.
“I mean it’s time.”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
I slapped my hands together and smirked. “I don’t recall asking you.”
“He’ll kill me.”
“Him or me. Really, I think you’re getting the better end of the deal if he does.” I glanced back at my hungry weasels. “I’m done with you now.”
He slowly rose and looked out the window at the other guys.
“Time to go.” Zay popped his head in the door, holding my bag. He turned to my visitor. “You better not fuck this up.”
“Don’t have a choice, do I?”
“No,” we said in unison.
He muttered as he went for the door. Zay stepped in his path momentarily before he let him go.
“She’s pretty.” Zay turned his phone around so I could see. Tess was at the market looking through the wine section. Her hair was long, and her ass was stuck in the air.
“Yes, she’ll be a fine match for you.”
I tapped on my laptop and checked in. “Shall we?”
Zay hopped to his feet with my bag in hand. “You worried?”
“Scared of my own son? No.”
“Of him.” He nodded out the door.
“He knows what will come if he doesn’t do his part.”
Chapter Twenty
Tess
“Thanks.” I nodded at the doorman who handed me an all-access pass to hang around my neck. Trigger, Langley, Brick, and Rail all came to the event before the rest of us.
I was told to wait for the all-clear back at the house with Gus. He seemed to hover around me the entire morning. I have never seen him this way. He kept asking if I needed anything or if I wanted a drink. It didn’t take me long to see he was the one who needed one.
Even on the car ride there, he checked his phone a million times, and his fucked-up knee bounced out of control.
“Shit, Gus.” Big Joe shook his head across the limo from us. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the fucking mole.”
The entire car went silent.
“Poor taste,” Gus muttered as he stared out the window. He was right, though. It wasn’t the time to go there. We needed to get through today.
Jace covered his face and sighed. “I don’t think I have ever been this nervous over someone else fighting.”
“Trigger will win.” Cooper poured himself another brandy.
The dude was feeling no pain today. I guessed we all coped differently.
The guys hopped out, but when I reached for the door handle, Gus hauled me back in and locked the doors.
“What the hell?” I whirled around and looked for an exit plan.
Cooper looked panicked and called to the other guys.
“Tess!” He grabbed my hands so I would make eye contact. “I did something. Something bad.”
“Gus, if you’re the mole, you’re about to break my heart. You’re like a dad to Trigger and to me.” Why on earth I admitted that now was beyond me.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I love Trigger like he’s my kid, and you too.” He rubbed his face like he was weighing his decision. “I found her.” He paused so I could connect the dots.
“Who?”
“His mother.”
Oh, shit. I looked over my shoulder at the guys waiting by the door. Cooper was the only one who wouldn’t take his eyes off the car. I motioned to him that everything was okay.
“Why were you looking for her?”
“No one can get through to Trigger. She was my last try.”
“Gus,” I fought for the right words, “do you really think it’s smart to bring her in at this time to fuck with his head?”
“What choice do I have? The fight starts in an hour.”
I leaned forward and took his hands. “Why are you really so nervous about this fight? What are you not telling me?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” I squared my shoulders to show I was ready.
“I watched that boy become something big, and never once did he get cocky. He fought, he won, he lived that life. But every punch, every blow, every victory pushed him into a dark place. He fucks with fate, doesn’t feel the fear, just rides full speed ahead. He’ll look at you differently, Tess, and it will hurt. That something you have between you two will fizzle out. He’ll flip off his humanity switch, and you’ll grow tired of waiting for him to return. That’s what you’ll feel.”
I could tell by his tone he had more to say.
“What about you? What will you feel?”
“I will lose my nephew, the club will have a ruthless leader, and my sons will lose their father.”
My head snapped back at that last statement.
“Come on, Tess.” He shrugged one shoulder. “He’s been more of a father to my boys than I have. They weren’t planned. Vib just needed an anchor to the club, and I’m weak when it comes to her. They need him. I need him, and I cannot believe I found my sister.”
“Hold on.” I felt twenty different things fire off at once. “I thought you were Allen’s brother?”
&n
bsp; “Nope.” He raised his head a little higher. “She is my sister. I hung out at the strip joint where she worked.”
“Ahh.” I couldn’t help but be freaked out by that.
“No,” he made a disgusted face, “it’s not like that at all, but she is only a half-sister.”
“Doesn’t make it better.”
He huffed, but the humor quickly faded. “I watched over her. I knew Allen was shitty from the moment he walked in, but my sister saw what you saw in Trigger. Tall, hot, brooding.” He rolled his eyes. “He pursued her until she gave in. He was relentless. I warned her he would fuck and chuck, and that’s exactly what happened. She really thought he’d come back after she told him she was pregnant. Instead, he ran, and that’s when she started to go down the rabbit hole. She was always on coke, but it was the speed that did her in. She couldn’t handle the baby. I was useless when it came to the kid. All I did was worry about her, and one day she came home without him. She packed up her stuff and left. I never saw her again.”
His eyes saddened, and he looked down at the floor, lost in his thoughts. “Took me a year to find him. Trigger was about one and half by then. Fucking cute little thing, big dark eyes and a mop of hair to match. Allen didn’t want me around at first. Took me a long time to show him I only wanted to be a part of the boy’s life. I was in and out of prison for a while, doing stupid shit. But I came back,” he whispered more to himself. “I always came back.”
I shook my head to try to shake the visions clear. “I had…wow. How did you find her? I mean, does she even want to see him?”
“Anyone can be found eventually. You just need to know who to ask.” He massaged his knee and winced. “She’s clean, at least she seems to be. I know I’m playin’ with fire here, but this whole thing…” He pointed to the windowless building. “I know it’s going to be something bad. Allen’s planning something. Nothing is ever what it seems with him.”
Fuck. I didn’t know what to think. His mother could throw him over the edge. What if Allen saw her? What would he do?
“Where is she?”
“She’s inside.”
“Does Brick know about this?”
“Brick knows some things about it, but he thinks she’s a friend of mine. That’s all. I might need you to run interference. Will you help me?”
Fuck!
“Yes.”
“Good.” He leaned forward, unlocked the door, and motioned for me to get out.
“This way.” Gus pointed down the hallway. As we got closer, the sound of the crowd grew louder, and my anxiety kicked in bigtime. It was a cocktail of nerves, fear, excitement, sadness, and, I couldn’t deny it, a little hope.
“Hey,” Gus stopped me at the door, “if anything happens tonight, please remind Trigger of Mr. Rabbit.”
“Huh?”
Gus pushed the door open, and there stood a woman with long black hair, dark eyes, and prefect teeth. There were signs of drug use, but she was extremely pretty, and she was the spitting image of Trigger.
“Hi.” She extended her hand and waited for me to do the same. “I’m Elizabeth Wise.”
“Tess.” I glanced at Rail, who was devouring a chocolate bar like it was a one-night stand. He stood there completely oblivious to what was happening around him.
Men.
“She’s a friend of Gus’s,” Brick chimed in from across the room. “Guess she was in town or something.”
Finally! I knew I could count on my best friend to feel the strangeness of the situation. He gave me a worried look as he pushed off the wall and headed for the door. “Tess, you should see if Trigger needs anything.”
“Oh.” Elizabeth eyed me a little more closely, and the corners of her mouth raised. “Are you and my son dating?”
Gus flinched bedside me, and Brick nearly tripped into Rail, who was still busy with the wrapper of the bar.
“What the fuck?” Brick blurted. “What the fuck did you guys do?”
“I didn’t,” I started, but stopped. I didn’t want to toss Gus under the bus, not when he was legitimately trying to help.
“Brick,” Langley stuck his head in the door, “I need more tape.”
“Get some Gatorade,” Trigger ordered behind him.
Oh, shit. It was like a snowball gaining speed as it came toward us. Just as I turned to get the hell out of its path, Trigger walked in, and I froze to the spot.
“Hey.” He started to give me his lazy smile but stopped when he felt the mood. His eyes flickered over to his mother, and his brows pinched together. It would be impossible for him to remember her, but not impossible to see they were related. He was looking in a damn mirror, for shit’s sake.
“Do you know who I am?” she said softly.
“I do.”
“Good.” She let out a small breath.
“Is it?” he challenged.
“I get it, you’re mad at me—”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Why now? Why here?” She started to speak, but he squeezed my hip and urged me out the door before she could convince him to stay. “I will not feed more to those…” he hit the side of his head hard, “savages!”
Once outside, he pulled out his phone and headed in the opposite direction.
“Don’t go back in there.”
“I won’t,” I assured him and waited for him to leave before I went to find Brick to see just how bad this shit storm had become.
***
Trigger
The bottle called my name. It dangled from my fingers, but I knew better. I didn’t abuse drugs, but right now I could use a hit of something. I needed my head clear, but my mother showing up threw me off center in a major way.
Shit.
I snatched up my phone and texted Tess.
Trigger: Where are you?
Nothing.
I switched screens and called her.
Nothing.
Fuck.
I tried calling two more times before I turned and caught my cold, dark reflection in the mirror. My tortured soul stared back at me from the glass, and a dark aura hovered around me like a shadow. Was there ever going to be an end to all of this?
With all my might, I swung back and smashed the bottle into the mirror and watched as bits of clear and green glass sprayed into the air like blood.
My temper rose as I lunged at the door. I could not believe my mother was really here right now.
“Where is Tess?” I barked at Langley while he tried desperately to look over my shoulder at the mystery guest who had just flipped my world upside down fifteen minutes before my fucking fight.
Wrong room, Langley.
“Trigger, I didn’t mean to—”
I whirled around and jammed a finger in my uncle’s face. I wanted to snap his neck for what he did. For the second time in my life, he flinched at my reaction. My arm dropped, and I covered my face to calm myself. The first time was when he saw me covered in bruises after my first fight. I guessed he thought he had failed me as a protector, and to be truthful, he did. I never blamed him. I wasn’t his problem. He wasn’t the one who gave birth to me then tossed me aside, and he wasn’t the one who left the scars on my body. He was an uncle who dropped by to check on me occasionally. He was the one, however, who had become more of a father to me than my own ever had. He was the one who was there when he saw I was heading down an even darker path, and the one, after all, who suggested I kill my father.
“I had to do something,” he whispered and stepped back into line with the guys.
“We need to talk. Just give me a second.” I couldn’t do this here.
“What the hell is going on?” Langley snapped, clearly annoyed. “You disappear minutes before the fight, there’s some chick in there with you, and now you’ll be going in cold! Are you trying to kill me?”
I turned. “Where’s Tess?”
“And now you’re thinking about pussy?”
“You mean that blonde with the great rack?” the little shit who carried our stuf
f chimed in. “She’s talking to some guy by your room.”
I did a quick sweep of my guys and saw they were all here. Pushing past Rail, I raced down the hallway. People pressed into the wall to get out of my way.
“Trigger, wait,” Jace called out, a bunch of girls surrounding him. “These ladies want to meet you.”
Turning the corner, I came to a stop and saw her reading something on her phone. She must have sensed me, because she looked up.
I grabbed her by the waist and hauled her into the empty room, slamming the door in Langley’s pissed off face.
“Are you okay?” She touched my face as I stood over her, trapping her against the wall.
I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and fought my way through the darkness, using her scent to guide me.
“You’re scaring me a little, here,” she whispered. “Speak to me.”
I opened my eyes, and for the first time in my life, I felt something other than pain and emptiness.
“I love you, Tess.” I shook my head in disbelief that I could finally see it so clearly. “I love you so much that the idea of anyone hurting you, or even flirting with you, makes me want to snap every limb on their body very slowly. I’m sorry I didn’t see it before, but I need you to know I’m here now, and I want all of you.”
She blinked, and I was sure I threw her off course, but I didn’t care.
“You’ve already had me.” She kissed me in the dirty way she did. When we came up for air, I pressed my forehead to hers to catch my breath.
“But,” I paused, knowing this would set her back, “I need to fight now.”
She tensed, and I pulled back so she could see my face.
“I need you to trust me on this.”
“I do trust you, Trigger, but I’m with Gus. Something is not right here. Do you really think he’s going to just fight and be done?”
“No, I don’t. But I need to do this.”
“Tell me,” she blurted, and I knew exactly what she was referring to.
I held my arm next to hers, so her key lined up with my skeleton wrapped in chains. The angle allowed the key to fit the padlock.