by J. L. Drake
The front desk assured me she could come straight up, and in only ten minutes, she arrived at the door and nearly knocked me over in greeting.
“Come,” I took her hand and pulled her out to the patio, “we have so much to talk about.”
“I really hope karma was watching when you did it.” Ven giggled as she took another shot after hearing my story.
“Why do you think I got away?” I raised an eyebrow and clicked my cup to hers. “She knew what we went through and knew what had to come.”
“I can’t believe her men followed you back to the hotel and tried to…”
The spare room door opened, and in came Trigger. He stopped short when he saw Venna sitting on the floor of the penthouse. I guessed he didn’t hear us. I noticed he had a tight grip on his phone.
“Hi,” she squeaked.
“Nice to see you again,” he greeted her kindly, which was almost a little scary.
He came over and eyed the paperwork that lay between us. “What are you doing?”
“You asked me before what happened and why I came here.” I pointed to the couch, and again to my surprise, he sat.
Ven looked at me for guidance, clearly wondering if she should leave. I shook my head. I wanted her to stay. She was a part of this now.
“So?” He leaned forward and eyed my outfit. I was still wearing the tank top and nothing else.
I reached for my purse and handed him the tiny vial of belladonna and let his eyes skim over the label.
“Deadly stuff. How did you get it?”
“A friend.”
His eyebrows rose, and he waited for me to explain further.
“Ven warned me that my mother was going to send some men to the club to get answers about Clark. I couldn’t let that happen again, so I hatched a plan to tell you that I was going to stay with Brick, when really I hitched a ride to Vegas.” He tilted his head to pop his neck.
Trigger eyed Venna, and she looked at me and swallowed hard.
“With who?”
Shit.
“Shantee.”
“Who?”
“She was the transsexual you helped save at the bar the other day when the men tried to hurt us.”
“Right. I first met her at the house, when you went back.” He licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. That was a hard memory for both of us.
“Then what?”
“I lured my mother to a spot where I knew I could carry out my plan.” I folded my legs under me and leaned my weight on one hand. “She showed, I said what I wanted, confessed to killing Clark, and that I knew about this.” I tossed him the ownership paperwork for the house and club. “Turns out Clark signed his shares of the house over to me a few years ago, to show his love for me or some shit. He had it worked out with the lawyer that if my mother died before he did, and he is legally still alive right now, or signed over the rest of the rights to me, that I would be the full owner of the house. Of course, that would never normally happen, but given some tasteless poison, I got her John Hancock. It was rather satisfying to watch her sign away her beloved career to the one person she loathed. I wasn’t about to wait for the paperwork to come through over her death. The signature will be faster.”
I smiled. Maybe Trigger could get the footage and I could bask in that moment over and over again.
“So, you’re working there now?” I could almost hear the hurt in his voice.
“Look,” I slowed the pace of the conversation so he would hear me out instead of jumping to conclusions, “normally, you couldn’t pay me enough to step foot in that house, but what I will do is appoint Venna the manager, and we run the place ourselves.” His eyes narrowed. “That place will forever haunt me, but it brings in a ton of money. The DR doesn’t have the Serpents contract anymore, so this will be a great source of income to hold us over until the drug deal comes through.”
Venna pulled out a folder and showed Trigger the annual income. “The house has made at least three hundred and sixty thousand consistently the past six years.” She moved her finger along a chart. “And as you can see, it’s growing.”
“You have my attention.”
“Dirty Demons could be Dirty Promises’s sister company, but,” I raised my hand, “I want to put twenty percent of the house yearly income into a fund for Lilly.” I lowered my voice. “My family killed her mother. It’s the least I can do.”
When I looked up, he was staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“What?”
“Every time I think I have you figured out, I don’t.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not…at all.” He shook his head in amazement, and I cleared my throat.
“Okay, kids,” Ven scooped the paperwork off the floor and stood. “I have a lot to prepare for, so I should be going.” She reached down and gave me a hug. “I can’t wait for the girls to hear about the new changes.”
I lifted my hand to stop her, but she beat me to it.
“I promise I won’t say a word until you give me the green light. But the first to go are those friggin’ house uniforms.”
“Agreed!”
She turned. “Bye, Trigger.”
He gave her a tight nod while he stared at me.
He waited for the door to close before he spoke. “What happened after you left the Tea House?”
“The cabby took me back to my hotel, but before I even got to the elevator, her two men joined me and stuck a gun in my side. They didn’t care what I had done to my mother. They’re nothing but hired muscle with no loyalty. They were just happy to get me alone, so they could have a piece of me. They forced me into my room, stripped me down, and…” I couldn’t go on; there was no point. “I fought hard, but there were two of them. Anyway, you came in just as they were about to…”
“We have a problem here, Tess.”
“Which is?”
He rubbed his beard as he thought. “You have to stop lying to me. What if I wasn’t there to stop them?”
“I would have been able to handle it.” That was a lie.
Trigger glared at me. “Sure looked like you had the upper hand as they stripped your pants off.” He stopped himself and let out a heavy sigh. “No more lying.”
“Would you have let me leave?”
“No.”
“Well—”
“I would have, just not by yourself.”
I dropped my head forward and bit my tongue. He was right. Everything could have gone to shit very quickly.
“Okay, I’ll work on that.” I picked a piece of lint off my shirt. “But you have to work on your own demons too.”
He stood and pulled me to my feet. He didn’t say a word as he pulled me down on the bed and lay next to me. We both stared at the ceiling. The lights from the fireworks danced along the walls, and Frank Sinatra crooned off in the distance.
Ever so slowly, Trigger’s fingers inched over to entwine with mine, his grip becoming tighter. I held on, needing a lifeline of my own.
“Help me find my way back,” he whispered.
***
Allen
“What do you mean, the boys aren’t there?” I tossed my glass of gin across the room where it shattered into the flames of the fireplace. “That’s horse shit! Where could they be?”
“I don’t know, Father. A lot of the club members seem to be out this weekend, even Trigger.”
“Zay,” I rubbed my head with frustration, “I don’t know how much longer I can play this game.”
“At the risk of sending you over the edge, Joe isn’t at the door. He hasn’t been around all weekend either. I have a bad feeling.”
I ripped my collar from my neck and tossed it into the fire. It took a moment to catch, but when it did, it burned hard and fast.
“I can’t take another setback. We move in this week.”
“You sure?”
I grabbed the bottle of gin and hung up.
Just as I was about to go into the bedroom, I heard
a loud knock at the door.
“What?”
“Open the goddamn door.”
You have got to be shittin’ me.
I swung open the door, and there was the fuckin’ woman who had hosted my sperm for nine months and stuck me with that demon offspring.
“How the living fuck did you find me, Elizabeth?”
Her hand pulled back and slapped me straight across the face. “How could you kill him?” she screamed and went in for another hit, but I caught her arms and yanked them down and pushed her on the floor.
“He was dying of tit cancer, anyway. I just sped up the processes.”
She licked her bottom lip and pulled back her anger. Her legs were shaky, but she managed to hold herself with poise.
“Now,” I thumbed my sore cheek, “how the fuck did you find me?”
“You think like crap, you’ll eventually step in it.” She pushed by me and whirled around with a finger stuck in my face. “My brother told me what you did to our son, you sick son of a bitch. I know I don’t have much ground to stand on, but shit, Allen, what the hell are you up to now?”
I laughed and poured myself another glass. “I love that you think you can question me.”
“Don’t screw with me, Allen. Enough is enough.”
I sipped my drink and lazily flopped into my chair and flipped on the TV. “You’re, ah, blockin’ my view.”
She hit the TV button and it switched off.
“All it would take is one call, and our son would take you out.”
“He tried once and failed, remember?”
“He’s your blood!” Her hands went in the air, and her face grew red. She really was sexy when she got mad.
“Not by choice.”
“I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
I rose out of my seat and walked her backward toward the door.
“And I could kill you, but what’s the point when you already have one foot in the grave?”
Her face fell, and tears rimmed her eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means I know.”
“Know what?” She tried to stand a little straighter.
“Tick tock, Elizabeth.”
She hauled back her hand and slapped me in the face again. I saw it coming, but I loved a woman who liked to get rough.
“Have a good night, sweetheart.” I opened the door and watched her hurry to her car.
You can run, but the reaper is only one step behind.
Chapter
Nineteen
Trigger
I inched my fingers out for her, but the sheets were cool, confirming she was not within my reach. I blinked to clear the blur of the clock. 5:30 a.m.
My body hummed for hers. Sleep wasn’t in my future…in fact…I sat up and waited.
Nothing.
No demons screamed in my head or gnawed at my bones. I had actually slept a solid four hours. I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy the quiet and realized no headache pounded behind my eyes.
Well, shit, even the fog was gone.
My phone buzzed next to me, and I groaned while I checked the text.
Rail: Your mother is back and wants to talk.
Trigger: Send her home.
Rail: Can’t do it, boss.
I rubbed my head out of habit.
Trigger: Why is that?
Rail: She scares me. She’s the female version of you.
Trigger: That was an order.
Rail: Ahh, she’s mastered that look of yours and she makes my skin crawl. She wins.
Fuck me.
I answered the door and was greeted with two fresh cups of coffee. I tipped the man and headed out to the living room where I found it empty, then the sound of water caught my attention. I sat the coffees down and headed over. The glass doors slid open without a sound, and I saw her.
Her spine was perfectly straight, and her hair was pulled up into a messy bun as she leaned against the infinity wall. The lights of the city created a massive backdrop behind her. Slowly, her head turned as if she sensed me. I eased into the water and up behind her.
“Morning.”
She leaned her head back on my shoulder. “Not a bad view to wake up to.”
I kissed her neck and lightly drew her skin into my mouth.
“Sure is.” I felt her body react to mine. “Why are you wearing a suit when this is a private pool?”
“Gotta make you work for it,” she teased.
I kissed her shoulder, along her neck, and up to her jaw. My hand sprawled low across her stomach, and I felt it tighten when my finger dipped into her suit.
“Trigger?”
“Mm,” was all I offered. I was starved for her taste.
“What were you doing in the spare room last night?”
“Priest.”
She stilled. “What?”
I didn’t stop. My free hand flexed on her hip while I ground against her perky, tight ass.
“You wanted to know if I still wanted you,” I answered as I continued to devour her neck.
“You were going to marry me last night?”
Both thumbs hooked under the sides of her bikini bottoms and ripped the seam apart. I tore the scraps away and freed myself.
I need to be in her.
“Yes,” I whispered as I slid inside her slowly so I could savor every inch of her snug hold on me.
Her back bowed as she sucked in a sharp breath.
“Don’t ever question my desire for you, Tess.” My arms wrapped around her midsection as she took the last two inches of me. My knees bent, and I circled my hips to hit her in all the right spots.
She reached over her head and fisted my hair. I pulled the tie with my teeth, and her top fell down to expose her breasts.
Fuck me, she was beautiful.
I moved in and out, painfully slow, to get her feisty side to show itself. I circled her nipple with my thumb and nipped at her neck with a growl.
“Trigger,” she huffed, “you play dirty.”
“Says the sexy woman dressed in the pool.”
She laughed. “It was a bathing suit.”
“I hated it.”
“Clearly.” She shot forward when I flicked my hips. “More.” She tried to pull away, but I slammed her to me. “Trigger!”
“Tess,” I growled. “Flip.”
She suddenly twisted, wrapped herself around my waist, and grabbed my head in her hands. Her eyes searched mine before she pulled my hair back. “Fuck me.” She pronounced each word carefully. A wild need flashed deep within her eyes, and I wanted every single drop of it. I slammed her mouth to mine, and my hands palmed her ass. Her sleek skin felt like silk against mine. It was maddening to keep control.
She pulled back, leaned on the ledge, and lifted her legs to hike over my shoulders. I didn’t waste any time and grabbed her hips to slam back in. Back where I belonged.
“Yes!” She dropped her arms over her head and held onto the bar to arch her back in that sexy, mouth-watering curve.
The water lapped around us. Her breasts matched the rhythm, and I swore I grew harder just before she squeezed and bucked through her orgasm. Nothing sexier than when Tess gave in. Her cheeks got pink, her breasts swelled, and her screams took me to a place that was pure bliss. I never thought such a place existed until I met her.
As much as I wanted to keep going, I couldn’t control myself. I dove off and joined in the wild ride.
If I could have stopped time and lived in the high of my orgasm with Tess, Nolan would never leave.
“I need a shower.” Tess kissed my cheek and hurried into the bathroom, and I headed out to the living room with my phone to my ear and waited for him to answer.
“Who was that?” Tess came out in leather pants and heels just as I ended the call. I handed the warm coffee to her. “Thanks.”
“Cray. He was confirming everything was cleaned up.”
“How do you do that?”
“Money.” I sent off a quick tex
t. “And expendables if we need them.”
“That’s kinda messed up, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. It was part of the MC world. The men knew all this shit before they joined.
Tess stood to remove her phone from her back pocket.
“Oh,” she glanced over at me, “I need to take this.” She slipped into the bedroom, and I followed but waited by the door to see who it was.
She sat on the bed and answered. Denton’s face popped up on the screen.
“Hi, Tess!” He waved.
“Hey, buddy, how’s it going there?”
“Good, lots of places to hide, although the grass is itchy, but I saw a goat yesterday, and it chased Fin down to the house. Oh, my God, Tess, you should have seen it. It was so fuckin’ funny.” He burst out laughing, and Tess joined in. “Mike had to pick him up because it was going to climb him like a tree.”
“I’m sorry I missed that.” She smiled, and I felt her warmth from where I stood. “How’s everyone else?”
“Good.” He lowered his voice. “I think Fin has a crush on Olivia.”
“She’s three, isn’t she?” Tess asked, amused.
He shrugged. “Age is just a number, baby.”
I fought back a smirk.
“Mark’s boys fuckin’ bite.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, ah, I mean Mark’s boys bite. Savannah says I have to watch my language, especially around the boys.” His face scrunched up. “I wish Uncle Trig was here to give them his scary face.”
“It’s all an act,” she said playfully. “Just nail one in the shoulder when their dad’s back is turned. A little fear never hurt anyone.”
Ha!
“I might do that.”
“Don’t tell Trigger I said that, though.”
“Too late.” He pointed at me in the doorway.
Tess laughed when she saw me. “Oops.”
“Uncle Trig,” he called out, and I moved closer, “when can we come home?”
A ping of sadness hit my gut. Gus’s death played on all of us, and the past few months had been pretty rough.
“Not yet, but soon.”
Denton’s face fell, but he shrugged. “At least I get to play paintball here. You know who’s just as scary as you?”