Lethal Temptations (Tempted #5)

by Janine Infante Bosco

  “Hey babe,” I said, rising to my feet, brushing the dirt from my knees. “I don’t have much time today but I didn’t want to miss a Saturday,” I explained. “I never ask much of you, figure I’ve taken enough from you but I need a favor and I don’t know who else to turn to.”

  I took a deep breath, pushing the hair out of my eyes as I stared at the roses. I don’t even know if she liked pink roses. I should probably switch it up, maybe next week I’ll get red… or purple, purple roses are different. They stand out, just like she always did.

  “I fucked up,” I said, mindlessly. “But that’s no surprise especially not for you. It’s different this time, this time I didn’t just fuck with my life but with someone else’s too. Someone I never wanted to hurt, someone who doesn’t deserve the pain I inflict…someone as pure as you were when I met you. I don’t know what the fuck it is with me. How a guy like me gravitates toward the innocent ones but I fucking find all of you,” I hissed.

  “I’ve never forgiven myself for taking something so perfect and destroying it, breaking it down until there was nothing left…I’ve never forgiven myself for what happened to you. It used to be your smile I was addicted too. It used to be your light that got me by. It used to be you.”

  I shook my head. “And now it’s her. It’s her smile that makes me forget what I did to you. It’s her light that makes me want to crawl out of the darkness I binge on trying to torture myself until I pay for my sins. You and I both know how this ends though. I’ll take and take until there is nothing left. I’ll break her like I broke you. But as similar as the two of you are, you are different. She’s young, hasn’t experienced much and doesn’t know how fucked the world really is. She’ll break easier than you did. She’ll hurt more than you did.”

  I paused, swiping my hands down my face as I ignored the vibration in my pocket signaling I had another text.

  “The thing is, I went to her today to end things, to apologize for what I did, for what I took and to smooth things over. I don’t want her out of my life but I need her to understand nothing can come from us because of what I am and who she is. I didn’t get to do that and now I’ve got this fucking urge burning inside of me to be better for her. So, that favor? You’ve been leaving me, fading away from me, you hardly visit me anymore and I can’t have that. I need you there, in my face, reminding me I’m not a man who can be fixed, that I’m a man who only knows destruction. I know I’ve got no right to ask a goddamn thing of you but please… please, find your way back if not for me, than for her. Do it for her. Don’t let me destroy another woman,” I pleaded with the slab of stone. “She’s young babe. She’s sweet as hell, not a bad bone in her body, a good girl with her whole life ahead of her,” I continued to plead Lacey’s case to my dead wife. “I need you back in my head. I need you in my dreams. I need you to remind me I can’t have her. I need to save her from me.”

  I took a step closer and laid my left hand on top of the stone.

  “I’ve got to head out but I’ll keep coming for you, babe. Week after week, bouquet after bouquet, until I’m gone.”

  I wasn’t naïve enough to say until we meet again because I’m sure wherever I wind up once I’m dead, Christine won’t be there to greet me. No, we had our time and as short as it was, when it was good it was real good but, when it was bad it was fucking bad. She was at peace now, away from me, away from the bad shit. She was in a good place. Not somewhere I’d end up going.

  I turned around, descended the hill and climbed into my truck. It didn’t start right away, in fact, it didn’t start up when I left Lacey either. Finally, it purred to life, the engine sounded a little louder than usual but whatever, I’d have Pipe have a look at it. Fucking cage. Give me my Harley and the road any day.

  I hauled ass to the compound before Jack’s panties got any more in a twist than they already were. He was worse than a woman, calling me off the hook…so fucking needy.

  I turned into the compound, spotting Jack standing with Anthony Bianci and who I think is his mother-in-law and immediately rolled my eyes. Every time Bianci showed his face he delivered another blow. I couldn’t wait to find out what fucking mess him or his retired gangster father-in-law got themselves into this time. Or maybe it had something to do with that motherfucker that forced me to sample the heroin. I couldn’t wait to put that prick in the ground.

  I parked my truck in its usual spot, happy to trade four wheels for two and climbed out, hitting the alarm as I started for the clubhouse. I kept my eyes trained on Jack as he brought his cellphone to his ear. I saw something flicker in his eyes as he turned to Bianci, confirming my suspicion that something was definitely up with the mob.

  Bianci turned around, eyes frantically moving around the perimeter of the lot before setting them on me.

  What the fuck?

  Then it happened.

  A deafening sound erupted from behind me, I turned to see what the fuck had just blown up and I was knocked flat on my back from the impact of the blast. I struggled to lift my head and spotted my truck hidden behind a cloud of black smoke and smothered in flames.

  I sat there for a moment watching as my truck burned to ash before I got to my feet, turning around I stalked toward the clubhouse and the men that stood there, staring in shock. Riggs stepped forward, patting me on the back sympathetically as he shook his head.

  “Well, fuck, that blows,” he said. “Literally, like your car just blew the fuck up.”

  Fucking Riggs.

  “Yeah, I caught that, thanks for pointing it out though,” I growled, turning my cold stare toward Jack. “Get him the fuck away from me,” I hissed, brushing the soot off my shoulders.

  Jack turned to Bianci.

  “Is this what I owe your visit to?”

  Anthony bit the inside of his cheek before turning his attention to Grace Pastore who took that as her cue to step around, bringing her and the Bulldog face to face.

  “The last time I visited with Victor he told me if there was any sort of danger, or I felt threatened that I should come here and see you. Now, I don’t know what kind of deal you and my husband have but when I told him what I overheard today he told me to get my ass here as fast as possible,” she said with a flustered sigh. “I went to the café this morning like Victor instructed me to, he wanted me to bring Jimmy our financials, papers and what have you regarding our home. Jimmy didn’t know I was there waiting for him, and I overheard him talking to one of his guys. He was going on and on about making you and your club pay for double crossing him. He said you would be his puppet, and he’d teach Vic a lesson once and for all, showing him who, and I quote ‘is the fucking boss,’” she said, before nodding toward the front door of the clubhouse. “Seems like the puppet master is ready to make moves.”

  I grabbed Jack’s cigarette out of his mouth and took a fucking drag because…my fucking truck just blew up and these assholes were making small talk about puppets and gangsters.

  He looked at me before turning to Anthony.

  “Any idea how he’d know what we had planned for him?”

  “No fucking idea,” he said, shaking his head. “We can’t get in touch with Vic either. She’s sent emails but no response. Might be in the hole.”

  Of course he was. Fucking gangsters.

  “Fine time for him to get locked in solitary,” Jack mumbled, turning to Grace. “Thanks for coming and clueing me in.”

  Oh, so we’re going to have a heart to heart right now? My fucking truck was dust but let’s make nice with Vic’s old lady.

  Fuck this.

  I brushed passed them, making my way inside the clubhouse and headed straight toward the bar, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from the shelf I guzzled that shit down. The door opened and Jack, Grace and Bianci filed through, going back and forth about Jimmy, Vic, summoning their inner Sherlock.

  “And he hasn’t knocked on your door?” Jack questioned.

  Anthony shook his head, crossing his arms against his chest. “I don’t thin
k he knows shit, I think he surmises something and maybe he knew Grace was listening and wanted to see if she’d run here. That’s why I took her, in case she was being followed,” he explained.

  I couldn’t fucking listen to these idiots anymore.

  “He blew up my fucking car, the bastard knows something is up,” I shouted. “And it’s not the drugs because that shit was pure,” I added disgustedly.

  I could vouch for the drugs. That was the purest heroin my veins ever fed off.

  The door opened to the compound and Pipe and Wolf strode in.

  “The fire is being contained. I called it into our friends over at the N.Y.P.D. and Jones is sending a blue and white over so it looks legit on paper,” Pipe announced. He was good like that, providing a cover when things went south for the club. And it was a good thing too because on top of everything else we didn’t need the fucking bomb squad sniffing around our shit.

  “Your truck is toast, man,” Wolf said, narrowing his eyes at me. “And you almost were too, so who’s going to clue the rest of us in on what the fuck is going on here?” He asked as he pinned Jack with a scrutinizing stare.

  Pipe glared at Bianci. “This got some shit to do with Pastore?”

  I saw Jack’s eyes darken and took it as a sign he was wallowing in his own shit. Now, wouldn’t be the time to tell him told you so, but fuck, I warned him this shit would land on the Satan’s Knights doorstep. Albeit I didn’t bank on my truck being the first casualty. But he wanted to keep this shit on the low and now the club was staring at him like he was betraying them.

  Jack turned to Pipe and Wolf, opened his mouth to explain but then he paused, spinning around and pierced me with a look.

  “When you left my house this morning where did you go?” He asked with his jaw clenched and his fists tightly wound at his sides.

  Was he fucking kidding me right now?

  I took another swig from the bottle before stepping around the bar and crossing my arms against my chest and leveled him with a stare.

  “I dropped your woman off at the church around the block from her house like a good little gopher,” I growled.

  “His woman?” Pipe asked, incredulously. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “And after that?” Jack coaxed.

  Lacey’s face flashed in front of my eyes and for a split second I could still feel her in my arms, swaying as she leaned her head against my chest. I could still taste her and smell her shampoo as I pressed my nose into her hair.

  “Where did you go?” He demanded, his voice growing louder, more impatient.

  “Nowhere,” I lied, watching as he tried to read me. Poor bastard probably thought I was high, drunk even. You see, I could read Jack, get inside his head before he even knew he was on the verge of a breakdown but that shit worked both ways.

  Sometimes.

  Jack could read me when I was high, when I was drunk, my eyes gave away my pain, they gave away the torment but no one knew what to make of me when I was straight because I rarely ever was. But now? I was straight as a pin, aside, from the hangover and the two shots of whiskey I just downed.

  Go on and try Bulldog.

  You won’t get me this time.

  I promise.

  I turned my head, keeping the secret of where I was and who I was with to myself.

  “I came here afterwards,” I said, shoving my hands in my pockets before turning back to him. “What the fuck does that matter, anyway?”

  “Because you had Reina in the fucking car with you and just like you could’ve been killed, she could’ve been too,” he shouted. “Now one more time, did you go anywhere after you dropped her off?”

  “You really want to go there? Because she took my fucking car and went to your house last night so who’s to say your girl didn’t plant the motherfucking bomb or set it up so whoever planted it had a chance to?” I hollered.

  Deflect, man.

  Turn the fucking tables.

  “Whoa, hold up,” Bianci intervened. “What if that was the plan?” He questioned, narrowing his eyes as he worked the scenario in his head before he diverted his gaze back to mine. “Reina took Blackie’s car, went to your house?” Jack nodded in agreement. “Jimmy have any idea Reina exists in your life?”

  Jack turned his attention back toward me.

  “What happened when he came here yesterday?”

  “I made her drop to her fucking knees and pretend to give me head,” I seethed, shrugging my shoulders as if it was no big fucking deal.

  “Mother of God,” Grace exclaimed, closing her eyes in disgust.

  Right lady, because your mob boss husband was a saint. He probably had three side pieces she didn’t even know about.

  I rolled my eyes and looked back at Jack. “Made it so Jimmy thought she was just a piece of pussy nobody cared about then I dismissed her.”

  “What if he wants you to think she’s the one setting you up?” Bianci asked.

  “We could sit here and play the guessing game all day long but until that motherfucker makes another move all we’re doing is running in circles,” I ground out.

  A gunshot fired, smoke puffed from the barrel of the gun Wolf pointed it toward the ceiling. “About out of patience, Prez, so you might want to start fucking talking to the rest of us,” he said, eerily calm.

  The jig was up. The club wanted answers. I didn’t blame them.

  “I’ll give you your answers,” Jack bit out. “But right now I’m putting this club on lockdown,” he declared, glancing around the room. “Go get your families, anyone you give a damn about and bring them here,” he ordered, turning to Bianci. “That includes you, go get your wife and son,” pointing toward Grace he continued, “And get her other daughter too,” he instructed before turning back to us. “I repeat—anyone you give a damn about.”

  I watched as he grabbed his helmet off the bar and started for the door. “Church in an hour,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Where are you going?” I called as he opened the door and I followed him before he even uttered his answer.

  “To get Reina and Lacey,” he replied.

  “You go get Reina, I’ll get Lacey,” I countered, falling into step beside him.

  He raised an eyebrow, questioning me and I forced out a sigh in response.

  “We going to sit here and argue about this or we going to get the women in your life to safety? Because I tell you brother, something happens to either of them on your watch, you ain’t going to be able to deal with that. Trust me, that shit will be the death of you,” I said.

  And fuck, I wasn’t going to sit back and let anything happen to Lace.

  I slipped my arms into my cut, checked to see if my gun was loaded before shoving it into the back of my jeans. My eyes met Jack’s, and I swallowed roughly.

  “I got your girl,” I assured him.

  I got my Lace.

  I didn’t wait for him to agree or disagree. I would get her to safety, and no one would stand in my way.

  Not Jimmy Gold.

  Not even Jack Parrish.

  “Thank you,” he said as we straddled our bikes, revved our engines, and kicked our bikes into gear.

  No thanks necessary.

  I might not be able to save her from myself but I damn well could go on protecting her like I always did.

  Like she was my Lace.

  Chapter Six

  “Lacey! Blackie is here,” my mother called as I finished applying my lipstick, giving myself a final once over in the mirror. My eyes were heavily lined with black liner and I had three coats of mascara on, making my dark eyes look bigger and almost black.

  Very dramatic for a fifteen-year-old.

  Just the look I was going for.

  I stared back at the image reflected in the mirror, a smug smile formed across my mouth. Fifteen, my ass. With all this make-up I could easily pass for twenty, hell, I’d take eighteen, barely legal but still of age.

  “Lacey!”

  “I’m coming!”
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  I rolled my eyes, smacked my lips together before shrugging on the vintage leather jacket. My dad was serving time for a weapons charge. I didn’t get to visit all that often, this would be my first visit. If it was up to my mom I wouldn’t see him until he was released but where there is a will, there’s a way. I found the jacket in the attic on a hunt to find our old family photo albums. It was hers, from a million years ago, well, not really a million, more like fifteen. It was one of the few things left from a time when Connie and Jack were a couple when my mother was Property of Parrish.

  It worked for my mom.

  She snatched the president.

  I ran my fingers over the leather, turning around in the mirror to check how I looked, noting it fit like a glove, like it was made for me.

  Like mother, like daughter.

  Here’s to hoping the jacket had the same effect for me and aided in nabbing the vice president of the Satan’s Knights…Dominic “Blackie” Petra.

  I’ve had a crush on Blackie since I was just a child. At ten years old I both fell in love for the first time and had my heart broken all by Blackie. He smiled at me and I knew love at first sight existed. Then he married his high school sweetheart and broke my heart.

  I like to think I got over Blackie and grew up since then. I mean after all I’m fifteen years old now. I wasn’t some kid with a crush and Blackie wasn’t the same person I fell in love with at ten years old. He’s sad all the time. He never smiles anymore. Not that I blame him. Blackie’s wife Christine, overdosed and died. I’m not supposed to know that, but I overheard my mom and dad talking about it. He blames himself for her death and it’s the reason he doesn’t smile anymore.

  Not for me or for anyone.

  He used to have a killer smile. It was his smile that hooked me. Boys my age didn’t smile the way Blackie did. He smiled confidently at me while boys my age smiled nervously, like they had no idea what to do around a girl.