Page 13 of Making Choices

She runs her tongue over her bottom lip.

My cock thickens as I ready myself for the pretty doctor to make the first move, only to find myself disappointed when Bebe gives herself a quick shake, drops my hand, and rushes out of Fret’s room without a farewell.

“Well, then,” I muse out loud after I’ve shut the door behind her and plonked my arse in the seat next to Fret’s bed. “Looks like it’s just you and me tonight, brother. Here’s hopin’ neither of us snores.”

Joke aside, it hurts to look at Fret. His face is puffy and bruised. The bandages over his chest and stomach are thick and blood flecked. One of his legs is held in a sling attached to the ceiling while the other has a pillow tucked under it. Worse than that is his arms. They lay at his sides, wrapped in surgical dressing with Velcro casts at his wrists, at an unnaturally straight angle that drives home how well-targeted the attack on him was.

Whoever took him from the compound knew exactly where to hit him.

Which only makes the suspicions Venom shared with me more likely.

The Shamrocks have a rat.

Or two.

Maybe three.

They’ve already gotten Cherub hurt on my watch.

Now Fret has been tortured too.

Who will they come for next… and will I be able to stop them?

2

LILY

The compound is eerily calm as I check out the bar to see if Zeke is ready to come to bed with me. My dad’s older brother, Cassius, sits with Hades in the corner. Slash’s father, Angelis, has commandeered the table next to them. He’s got his head dipped low as he talks to my boss, Gabriel, and my maternal uncle, Duke. Some of the old-timers are quietly playing pool and the cut sluts are circling them like vultures to ensure they have a warm bed to spend the night in, even as the sounds of the younger kids and their mothers can be heard in the den.

The man I’m looking for is nowhere to be seen.

Rather than continue searching for Zeke when it’s likely that he’s in the middle of club business, I decide to go and clear the air with Gabriel. He has every right to be angry with me for leaving his office without telling him that my escort wasn’t coming yesterday. It’ll rankle my independent spirit, but I know I need to cop his censure on the chin. It was a stupid move to leave by myself, one that I knew, deep down, was wrong at the time. All I can hope is that he’ll see where I was coming from—even if I’m forced to admit that my own gut had warned me not to follow the instructions in the text that was purportedly from Charlie.

“Little Cherub,” he greets me in his usual way when I approach the table. “Why don’t you have a seat?” Gabriel nudges the chair next to him with his foot. “Keep us old men company while we try to work our way through the shit fight that’s just hit us.”

“Thanks.” I settle in the seat, then force myself to meet his eyes. “I wanted to apologise about yesterday.”

Gabriel holds up a hand to silence me while Uncle Duke scoots closer to wrap an arm around my shoulders. My boss frowns as he tells me, “If anyone has to apologise, little Cherub, it’s me. I should’ve realised those clients were a diversion… definitely should’ve picked up that our phone and internet reception had been jammed.”

“What?”

“Hasn’t Venom told you yet?” Angelis asks, then he sighs. “Mr. Civil Suit and his handsy son are connected to the—”

“I believe we’re operatin’ on a need-to-know basis with that information,” Uncle Duke interjects. He cuts a look toward Hades at the table to our right, who nods his agreement. Seeing Zeke’s dad coolly agree tells me that this decree comes directly from his son. “What Gabriel is tryna say is that we dropped the fuckin’ ball yesterday and we hope you’ll forgive us.”

“Of course,” I vow as firmly as I can. “None of this was club-related, so while I appreciate your apologies, they’re not needed. Alex is my problem.”

“You’re… a… Shamrock,” Hades wheezes. When I meet the watery gaze of my father-in-law-to-be, he winks. “Makes him… our… problem.”

The terse conversation I had with Sander at the hospital when I shared my thoughts on Alex and the Shamrocks spins around in my head, but I bite my tongue. My brother reacted angrily to my belief that the club isn’t going to be enough to stop Alex. I can only imagine the lecture I’ll receive from the leaders of the MC if I repeated my thoughts.

They’re liable to blow up at me.

I’m not in any state for another argument tonight.

Not after the bombshell about Nadia.

Not in the face of the tension between me and Zeke.

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