Page 139 of Tempting Fate

When I start to laugh, the cramping in my stomach returns. I clutch my middle and bend in half to alleviate the pain. Muttering her apologies, Bebe touches my shoulder like she’s going to commence her examination, then her hand drops away.

“Do you have your period?”

“No.”

“This amount of blood isn’t?—”

As I turn to look over my shoulder to see what she’s talking about, the stabbing ache becomes too much to handle. My adrenaline spikes. A wave of warmth washes over me, followed by an icy sweat. Goosebumps break out over my skin in the same instant as my vision snaps from technicolour to black. Light-headed and unable to see properly, the last thing I hear is Bebe shouting for Slash before the darkness becomes too dense to break through.

28

VENOM

“Brutus and the old-timers have been taken to Doc’s clinic,” Slash informs me. I don’t stop pacing from one side of his dining room to the other. I’m afraid that if I stop moving, the failure I’m running from will catch up with me, and I’ll never escape it. “I’ve sent Cub, Isaiah, and Sander to deal with the scene. Hunt’s too busted up to help much, but he’s doin’ what he can to find Toker.”

The second part of his information dump makes me stop dead in my tracks. “Why the fuck is Sander involved?”

“‘Cause we have no one else. The prospects and the few hangabouts we trust are helpin’ clean up the road where the Shamrocks were ambushed. They’re baggin’ anything they think will help us track down the cunts who did this… the Inadale chapter is still an hour away. I’m doin’ the best I can with what we’ve got.”

He’s not wrong.

We were hit from all sides tonight.

The faux loyalty test with Honey.

The bogus emergency call from the Wheatbelt chapter.

The attack on Lily.

It was the perfect storm. Well thought out. An obvious inside job, yet I can’t exactly start pointing the finger at anyone without proof. And, outside of having Joker hanging in the bunker and Honey locked in the freezer, we have nothing more than a dumb comment about voting with Brutus and a whole bunch of suppositions to take to the Shamrocks during church.

No one is going to believe us.

Not when someone attempted to take Brutus out tonight, as well.

Aware that I’m taking my frustration and worry out on Slash, I change the subject. “You think Toker’s still alive?”

“Cub said his bike is still there, but they haven’t found his body.” I close my eyes to block out the hopelessness clouding his gaze and sink down onto the dining chair next to his. “If anyone could pull a Houdini act in the middle of an ambush, it’s Toker. He’ll probably stagger into the clubhouse with a girl under each arm and some wild story about trippin’ over an orgy.”

“He wouldn’t leave Lily without…”

I trail off when a muted thud comes from the direction of the guest bedroom.

“Slash! Slash!” The panic in Bebe’s voice has us both on our feet before she’s shouted for her man a second time. “Come here.”

I beat him through the bedroom door.

When my footsteps grind to a halt, he makes it to the bed before me.

Through disbelieving eyes, I take in the blood on the covers, then I spot Lily slumped on the plush carpet with Bebe on her knees next to her as she tries to rouse my sweet thing. It hits me hard. My mouth turns into a desert. My head spins. Heart pounding, I watch my best friend pick up my woman and follow the instructions Bebe shouts at him.

While I stand by and watch uselessly…

He lays Lily on her side on the bed.

He holds her head while his redheaded fling checks her airways.

He pulls my woman’s arm straight and whispers to her when she cries out after Bebe injects her with something.

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