Page 161 of Making Choices

“I’m so sorry,” my best friend tells me when she catches up with me at the next stoplight. She tries to touch me again only to pull away when I flinch. Looking both ways, I decide that I’d rather take my chances with the slow-moving city traffic than deal with her sympathy. Nadia grabs my forearm to stop me from stepping off the kerb. “Fucking hell. Stop. He’s not worth it.”

“He is!” I scream. The heads of the other people waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green swivel toward me. I glare back at them until they look away. “He was.”

“Maybe it’s innocent? Maybe he’s helping her train for a fight or something?”

“Yeah, and pigs will fly, and angels will sing, and peace will descend on earth. You said it yourself, any woman with eyes and a pussy with a pulse—”

“I shouldn’t have shown you the post.”

“No.” I grab her hand and pull her close. My skin crawls as the need to bleed out the venom that’s pulsing through me builds to a fever-pitch. Gaze beseeching, apology lacing my tone, I declare, “I’m glad you did. Now, I can stop beating myself up about Slash and finally move on.”

“With Slash?”

“Unlikely... that man is as bad for my mental health as Zeke.”

“True.” As we cross the road, Nadia swings our arms. “So, tonight... we’re still going to the compound, aren’t we? He’s in town, you can make him regret his poor choices in person.”

I know she’s only trying to lighten the mood, yet a primal scream echoes around my mind.

The last person I want to see is Zeke.

Sadly, Slash is a close second, so hiding out at home is off the cards as well.

“God, no.” It takes everything I have to match my energy to Nadia’s when all I want to do is cut myself until the pain stops forever. “Even with the ban lifted, I’m not keen to party with any of them. Last time was awkward enough.”

“What if I told you that we don’t have to party with them?”

Rolling my eyes, I half-heartedly quip, “Unfortunately, a biker compound comes with bikers. It’s kinda the entire purpose of it.”

“We could bring our own party.”

“How?” I press the button on my door handle to unlock my car and climb in. Pulling on my seatbelt, I turn to her when she keeps staring at me with a wicked grin on her face. “I know that expression, you have a scheme in mind.”

“You know that guy from the finance department at the hospital?”

“Shep?”

“Yes, he asked me for your number.”

“He’s not exactly my type... I mean, the man’s name is Shepherd Hampton. He’s a douchebag with a douchebag name and a degree from the douchiest university in the country.”

“Yep, but that’s what you call a good, old-fashioned win-win. A double date. Shep’s the kind of douchebag that’ll rile up Venom’s demons and he has a friend who gives me the good D whenever I need it.”

“Definite TMI.”

“Better than a definite UTI,” she quips. I burst into laughter. She’s hopeless. After bopping me on the end of the nose with her fingertip, Nadia settles back in her seat and messes around on her phone. “There. It’s organised. They’re going to meet us for dinner, then we’re gonna hit the clubs with them until it’s time to head to the compound.”

“I didn’t agree to any of that.”

“Too bad, so sad. It’s done.”

We lapse into silence as I concentrate on navigating my way out of the packed city streets as peak hour traffic begins. It’s bumper to bumper, stop and start, with cars on all sides, and as I look around at the converging masses I twig that I’m without an escort for the first time in months. My skin prickles with awareness when I change lanes and the vehicle behind me does the same.

“Damn it.”

“What?’ Nadia asks.

Holding up a finger to silence her, I keep my eye on the 4x4 behind me as I decide to deviate from my usual route home at the last moment. The black SUV with the illegally tinted windows that’s been on my bumper since we left the CBD follows me when I abruptly indicate to change lanes a second time and veer onto the entrance ramp for the closest freeway. This kamikaze manoeuvre sets off a series of honks that the driver ignores.

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