Tempting Fate

by Kylie Hillman

  “I’m coming in with my hands up.” Think about your angel and she shall appear. “Don’t shoot—or throw anything at me.”

  My lips twitch when she giggles at what she thinks is a joke. It wouldn’t be so funny to her if she’d seen what I did to the bar back at the Compound. “I’m back here.”

  My angel comes into view. Blonde hair shining like a halo, her rocking body makes her simple get-up of jeans, tank, and open shirt look like a designer outfit. My pulse pounds in my ears, ready for the lecture that’s coming. Because of this, the smile on her face takes me by surprise. “I know where you are. The entire neighbourhood does. All the yelling you’re doing makes it very clear.”

  Shoving my busted hands into the front pockets of my pants, I shrug. “Got some shit going on. Need to get it out somehow.”

  “What’s pissing you off the most? Finding out you’re not the spoiled only child you thought you were? Discovering you’re too chicken-shit to go through with killing my dad now that you have my blessing? Or, knowing that I know what happened to your back?”

  Stalking forward, I grab her upper arm and try to march her out of the shed. “You need to fucking go. I’m not in the mood for this right now.”

  The little bitch digs her fingers into the pressure point that’s under my ear and just behind my jaw until I’m forced to stop. Never should’ve taught her how to do that. I’m pretty sure she only uses it on me. “Fuck. Let go.”

  “You first,” she counters, digging her fingers deeper. Lainey’s long fingernails threaten to cut into my skin. I release her arm, jerking my head away from her when she removes her talons.

  “That was bitchy.”

  “So was trying to throw me out of here. You’ve been stuck in your head for too long. It’s bullshit.” Lowering herself to the rock-hard floor with grace, she pats the cement in front of her. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me, so you might-as-well make yourself comfy.”

  Throwing my words from weeks ago back in my face, she sits there looking pretty fucking pleased with herself. Sinking to the ground next to her, I smirk when she scoots around on her ass until she’s facing me. Her knees are on either side of my hips when she pulls herself between my legs. Grabbing my hands, the crazy woman pulls me closer to her.

  “There. Perfect.” Running her thumb over my grazed knuckles, Lainey hits me with a full-watt smile. “Do you want to go first? Or me?”

  “Angel, that’s a dumb question. You can go first.” My right leg starts bouncing on the spot. My angelic smartass leans on it, and smirks.

  “Honestly, I understand why you’re being like this. If we go back to the not-so-distant past, you might remember that this isn’t our first time on this merry-go-round. I’m an expert with this—although it is good to be on the other side of it for once.”

  “Someone’s had her vitamin bitch today.” I’m two seconds from walking away from this conversation. She just needs to let it go for a while. Permanently, would be my bloody preference.

  Rolling her eyes at me, the smile slips from her face. “Mik, did I want to talk about what happened to me? No, I damn well did not. It hurts to remember. Only problem is, it hurts more to bury it. It’ll eat you alive, if you don’t let someone in.” Holding a finger to her lips, she purses them as if she’s thinking. “Hmmm, where have I heard those words before?”

  Every word Lainey says is correct. It’s just a bitter pill to swallow finding myself needing to hear it. Never in my life have I been the victim. I’ve always been the villain. The one who was inflicting the pain; never the one receiving it.

  “How much do you know?”

  Her blue eyes widen, filling with sympathy. The thumb on the hand that’s still holding mine starts to stroke harder. “I’m hoping that I’ve heard all of it. Because I don’t know if my heart can stand it if anything else has been done to you.”

  I’m the opposite. My hope is that she only knows the bare fucking essentials. She shouldn’t have to live with the knowledge of just how much of a maniac her fucking father is.

  “Tell me.”

  Ducking her head, Lainey looks at our joined hands. “I went to see Dad today. When I saw what was done to your back, I knew he had to be part of it. No one else would know that those words would hurt you. That’s where I went this morning.”

  My hand tightens around hers. “By yourself? Are you fucking crazy? You saw what’s carved into my fucking back. Do you think it’s a bloody joke?”

  “No,” Lainey answers in a hurry. “I took Benji with me.”

  Despite her weight, my leg bounces while I battle my need to grab her and shake some sense into her thick head. “Is that supposed to fucking make me feel better? Benji has his own reasons to hate Beast. You put a loose cannon in your car so you could visit a fucking powder keg.”

  My anger shakes her faith in her hair-brained scheme. With a white face and a trembling bottom lip, she lifts her head and faces me. “I’m sorry.”

  I blink, shocked out of my rage. That’s two words that rarely pass her pretty, plump, pink lips. “It didn’t go well. Dad lost it, but we got answers in the end.”

  “What the fuck did he do?” My anger starts to grow again, picturing Beast laying hands on her. Fuck, he might’ve tried to follow through with his threat. Running my eyes over what I can see of her body, my anxiety dies a little. I can’t see any marks on her. Shifting closer to me, my woman puts her arms around my neck and lays her head on my shoulder. At her touch, the part of me that’s been amped up starts to settle. It’s always been this way. My animal side tries to take over and she tames him to a level we can both live with.

  “He punched Benji in the face.”

  My bullshit detector is set off by her tone.

  “And?”

  Taking one hand off my neck. Lainey twirls a lock of her hair around her finger. “And, we argued. He didn’t deny anything; his face gave it away anyway so I knew. Then, he said that Joel’s not his kid. Benji punched him and we left.”

  My arms have been holding us upright since she practically climbed into my lap, however, I’m sick of not being able to see her face. It’s the best way to tell if she’s telling the truth. With one hand under her ass, I lift her, rearranging our positions until she’s straddling my lap. Grabbing her hands, I peel them off my neck and force her to look at me. Twin red splotches colour her cheeks, and I see through her lowered lashes to the truth she’s trying to hide from me.

  “Did Beast lay hands on you.” Instantly, Lainey tries to duck her head. Lifting her chin, I raise her head until I can stare right into the bright blue orbs that are trying to bullshit me. “He did, didn’t he?”

  “He shook me by the shoulders, that’s all.”

  With one hand, I push against the rough cement until I’m standing with my woman in my arms. She shrieks, not anticipating my move, then wraps her arms and legs around me. I carry her to Dad’s workbench, and heedless of the pain it causes in my busted hand, I sweep Dad’s shit to the floor and sit her on it. Using a gentleness that I’m not feeling, I peel her shirt off her shoulders. The straps of her tank top cover some of the redness so I pull them down her arms.

  Two handprints, one on either side of her neck, stand out in stark contrast against her light olive skin tone. They’re going to bruise; that’s fucking clear. The knot of burning rage that I’ve been carrying around in my gut like a rock since that night increases in size. It’s so big now that it’s no longer fucking rock-sized. It’s a fucking boulder, and it holds every ounce of revenge that I’m going to bring down on that traitorous bastard’s head. I vowed long ago that no-one would hurt my woman again. Every person who’s hurt her so far—Connor, Wizard, Sherri, Brendan—have been dealt with by one of our hands. Everyone except Thomas Taylor and Beast; their turn is coming. Very fucking soon.

  Ignoring that pleading look on Lainey’s face, I pull free of the constricting embrace she tries to use to stop me from moving. Stalking to the steel locker on the other side of the shed
, I reach on top of it and pull down the metal box that contains my favourite handgun. It’s always been my weapon of choice—the one that I pull out when a job is personal. Opening the box, I check the clip, then jam it back into place. I shove my gun down the back of my jeans, then pull my T-shirt and my cut over it. Lainey slides off the workbench and hugs me from behind. “What are you going to do?”

  “What I should have done months ago.” Twisting in her arms, I read her expression to gauge her thoughts. I can’t find any signs that she’s changed her mind or that she’s going to try to stop me. “I told you a long time ago. If anyone hurts my woman. I hurt them. So far, I’ve kept that promise—bar fucking Brendan—since you beat me to it.”

  Nodding, Lainey’s eyes take on a calculating sheen. “I want to come.”

  “No.”

  “Why not? I’m not going to stop you. I just don’t think you should be on your own after you do it. You hate him. Hell, I hate him. He’s not the man I thought he was. But, you didn’t always, and that’s going to play in your head.” Fuck. I swear she can see inside my brain sometimes. With two sentences, my woman’s worked out why I couldn’t make myself grab my gun and go earlier. I needed that final push—that last piece of irrefutable evidence that Beast is as evil as I believe and I got it—in the form of his handprints on my woman. “Let me come with you. Let me be the one you lean on for once.”

  When she puts it like—fuck, when she looks at me like that—how can I say no? “Do you understand what the fuck you’re signing up for? You want to come with me and what? Watch me murder your dad?”

  Lainey draws in a sharp breath and turns green. Realization dawns. I watch her throat work as she swallows, then runs her tongue over her teeth. “Do you understand what you’re about to do? You’re about to look your godfather in the eye and shoot him dead. The only people who are going to be damaged from this are us if we don’t stick together. He wants to die. You want revenge, and I want to know exactly how it happens. I don’t want to find myself looking at your hands touching our children and wondering how you killed their pop. I told him that you were coming for him and that it wouldn’t affect us. He didn’t—”

  None of her words register after she says that Beast wants to die. My hands curl around her upper arms and drag her closer. “What do you fucking mean? He wants to die?”

  “He said he has early-onset dementia. That he’s not sticking around long enough for it to take him down. Dad’s too much of a coward to kill himself so he’s using you to commit suicide.”

  My hands tighten around her arms. Seeing her face contort, I make myself let Lainey go before I lose my shit and hurt her. My tone is heated, my volume increasing with each word I utter. “This just gets better and better. You find out about my back when I didn’t bloody well want you to know. Dad tells me that I have a little fucking brother. A brother who I’ve spent the last seven years thinking of as the little brother of the woman I’m in love with. And to top off this epically fucked-up day, I discover that the cunt who carved me up is goading me so I’ll kill him. Putting a fucking bullet in his head is giving him what he wants and fucking me over at the same time. There’s no satisfaction in shooting a cockhead who wants to die.”

  Pushing past Lainey, I kick some of the shit I swept off the workbench out of my way. Grabbing the steel box that held my handgun, I smash it against the workbench. It refuses to break so with a howl that bounces off the walls and hurts my ears, I throw it against the floor. Dad’s power tools surround the frame of the project bike he was working on before he got too sick to continue. I pick up the rivet gun and chuck it against the skeleton of the Harley. Bending, I grab the next closest tool and send it spiralling into the wall.

  “Mik. Stop it.” Lainey screams at me over the clanging of the tools I’m tossing around as they hit first the bike frame, then either the wall or the cement floor. The terror I can hear in her voice sends a chill down my spine. I’ve never wanted to be responsible for her fear, yet here I am, scaring the shit out of her and unable to stop. My broken hand is starting to throb with an agonising intensity. I shake it out, hissing when the pain doesn’t dissipate. Lifting my leg, I aim a vicious kick at the Harley frame. It’s heavier than expected so I lash out at it again. When it tilts over and crashes to the ground, I swing around to find something else to take my rage out on. The second my back is turned, a blonde streak attacks me, jumping onto my back and wrapping urgent arms around my neck. With strong legs hooked over my hips, Lainey lowers her head and croons in my ear. “Mik. Stop it. Calm down.”

  Clenching my teeth so hard that they complain, I bunch my fists at my side and try to heed her instructions. My breathing is erratic, my chest expanding and contracting with speed while I pant like the savage animal I feel like I just might be sometimes. As I calm, shaking overtakes me—my adrenaline rush deserting me like the hope I had for payback did minutes ago.

  “That’s it. Slow down your breathing.” The only person who hasn’t left me—so far—clings to my back. Planting a kiss on my jaw, Lainey sucks my earlobe into her mouth and nibbles with her teeth. Kissing her way from my ear to my jaw, she whispers, “I love you so much. Scars and all. Exactly the same way that you love me. Fuck my father. Let him waste away until he’s a shell of himself. He’s going to die a lonely old man. But, you. Mik. You have all of us around you, wanting to help, loving you so much that it’s killing us to see you in pain. Let me in. Let me help you.”

  My knees give out. I drop to the ground and it’s only Lainey’s quick thinking that stops me from face planting. Her legs hit the ground, and she braces me with a strength I didn’t know she had. I feel her body shaking as she tries her hardest to control the remainder of my descent. Pushing me with firm hands until I’m settled on my ass, she puts her legs around me and hugs me from behind. We sit like this in silence for fuck knows how long. My head’s a mess; every way I look at it, I can’t see a way to fuck Beast over like he has me. What Lainey said—let him fade away on his own—seems to be the only plan that brings me peace.

  “Mik,” Lainey’s warm breath blows over my neck when she speaks. It makes me shiver. “Can I touch you?”

  She doesn’t say what she wants to touch, but, it’s pretty fucking clear what she means. I haven’t felt her hands on me in months and I bloody miss them. My skin yearns for her touch, to feel her fingers clutch me to her like I’m the epicentre of her fucking universe. Closing my eyes, I nod once, then wait to see how she reacts. A kiss on the back of the head is all I get in response.

  Her hands are sure as she pulls off my cut. Without hesitation, my woman lifts my T-shirt over my head. It takes every ounce of resolve I have to let Lainey pull the material free from my arms, however, I grit my teeth and swallow my objections. It’s now or never. The scars aren’t something I can get rid of—I’ve already checked. Now, it’s up to her whether she can deal with seeing her death on my back for the rest of my life.

  I’m exposed; every single secret laid bare. It’s not only my external scars she’s looking at. My fucked-up mental state is being examined as well. Lainey says nothing. Doesn’t touch me. Fuck, I can’t even hear her breathing. I stay stock-still, except for my lips. They’re moving as I recite a silent prayer that she’s not going to run. My heart has stopped—it won’t beat again until I know how this is going down. My body jolts when her lips make contact with my left shoulder blade. The memory of the knife slicing through my skin is still vivid so I know that she’s kissing me right where the first cut was made. Her touch steals my breath and I haven’t got it back when she moves and kisses the scar next to it. My fingers find the denim of my jeans, bunching it as my hands curl into fists. My woman doesn’t speak—she simply moves from each letter to the next, taking away my fear that she’s going to leave me with each kiss she places on my ruined skin.

  Pulling away from me when she’s kissed the “L” that’s carved just above my right hip, I expect her to say something. Maintaining the hush that’s filled the at
mosphere she moves until she’s facing me. Tears stream down her face, leaving wet trails that drip from her chin. Her eyes are red and filled with pain. Straddling my lap, she hugs me to her. With her hands running circles over my shoulder blades, Lainey finally breaks the silence. “I’m so sorry that he did this to you. It’s not fair. You deserved so much better from him. You’ve never done anything to him that warranted this much hate. He’s just an evil man who likes to hurt people.”

  My angel answers the questions that’ve been circling my head since Beast had me pinned down so he could deliver his message. What the fuck did I do for him to feel that he was within his rights to hurt me? Nothing. I didn’t do a fucking thing to him. Not. A. Thing.

  That thought is the one that breaks the dam bank. Warm liquid leaks from my eyes and runs down my cheeks. I try to stop my tears but they won’t listen to me. Lainey takes one look at my face, her own sorrow picking up pace to match mine, and pulls me to her. With my face buried in her neck, I let out my grief without shame or apology.

  She was right. It fucking hurts to remember.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MADDI

  Mik and I walk into the bar hand-in-hand. Dozens of people are busily working to put the area back into shape, and every single one of them turn to face us. I smile, testing their reaction to the man at my side. The response is immediate. Every single person stares at Mik with compassion, proving that word’s spread about what my crazy father did to him. Squeezing his hand, I monitor his expression to make sure he’s not going to flip out again because more people know. Solemn hazel eyes meet mine pleading for me to rescue him. Pushing onto my toes, I lay a kiss on his cheek and announce loudly. “Why don’t you go and get some sleep.”

  The warning that’s woven into my words is heeded by everyone. They all duck their heads and get back to work. Mik lets out a sharp breath and strides through the bar in the direction of the bedrooms. Nobody pays him any attention; however, I don’t think our bedroom door is shut before they all converge on me with rapid fire questions.