Page 142 of Tempting Fate

“Don’t give a fuck.”

Whatever Doc spies in my face makes him blanch. “Rest of ’em have been taken back to the compound… he decided to stay. You’ll find him in the back room.”

“Alone?”

“Yeah.”

I storm off. My strides eat up the length of the dimly lit hallway. I pass by two rooms filled with the caged animals that have been kept overnight for observation in the veterinary practice the Shamrocks own. It acts as a front for Doc’s less legitimate operation, allowing him the façade needed to act as our chief physician without leaving a paper trail.

Just before I reach my destination, Doc pops his head around the corner. “Tread carefully. He’s upset. A little fragile if I dare use that word to describe him. I had to give him a mild sedative.”

“Guilt will do that,” I snap. “Can only hope the drugs will loosen his lyin’ tongue.”

“Should I call a referee?” Doc shouts after me as I drop out of sight. Hidden around the corner, I take hold of my phone, open up the app I’ll need, and push the device into the front pocket of my cut. “’Cause I’m not gettin’ between you two if you tee off.”

“Do as you please.” I boot open the door and grin at Brutus’ shocked expression. “I’ll be gone before they get here.”

“The fuck you doin’ here?” Brutus demands.

Lily’s father looks like shit. Diminished. Propped up in a hospital bed with his back against the wall. He’s got a leg cast, the limb elevated by three pillows. Gravel rash peeks out either side of the bandage wrapped around his upper arm. There’s a drip in the back of his hand. His reading glasses slip down his nose as he scans my expression. The book he’s holding drops to the floor when he twists to face me.

“Told Doc I wanna be left alone. Now, fuck off. Anythin’ you need can wait ’til tomorrow.”

After bending down to retrieve the knife I keep strapped to my shin, I pounce on him before he can inhale another breath. Arm jammed over his throat, my full weight on him, I pin him to the wall. Brutus struggles, but can’t find enough purchase to push me away.

I press the point of the blade to his heart. “Alex got his hands on Lily tonight.”

“No,” he chokes out. Genuine shock washes over his face. “He told me he’d back off her.”

With a steady hand, I slit the front of the spotted gown he’s wearing to expose his torso. He stiffens at the blatant threat in my actions. “Who told you Alex would leave her alone… Joseph fuckin’ Kingsley? Did he promise his little psycho would stay away from Lily if you remained on board with his plan to use the Shamrocks to sell a new drug and unwillin’ women for his father-in-law’s mob? Did you sell out your daughter to climb into bed with the Maddison clan?”

Although Hunter and Cub could never confirm this was the direction Brutus wanted to take the club, in spite of the long-standing constitution that forbade us from dealing hard drugs or pursuing the skin trade, all signs point in that direction. One look at Brutus’s face provides all the confirmation I need to recognise that we’ve been on the right track the entire time. He was prepared to join forces with the corrupt politician and his evil father-in-law, the boss of the Maddison Clan.

At any cost.

“It’s not like that. The club needs money. Got more patches than ever… more chapters than we can handle. I needed to find a way to keep the cash flowin’,” he babbles, hardly pausing for a breath as he confesses his sins.

With glazed eyes and a slur in his voice, it’s clear he’s telling the truth. There’s enough guilt radiating from him to sink the entire Australian navy. What I don’t understand is why he thinks we need more money. The guns make us bank. We grow, cultivate, and harvest the weed we sell, so the up-front costs there are minimal. Cub and Hunter launder the dirty money through our legitimate businesses, then Slash quadruples it on the stock market.

The Shamrocks are loaded.

We, individually, have more money than any of us could spend in one lifetime.

Brutus rambles some more. “Joseph’s idea made sense. Just needed the votes… needed you outta the way.”

“And Lily? You were fine with her becomin’ collateral? Alex brutalised her… Fuck! He almost killed her again tonight.”

“I thought she’d be happy with him.” In the face of his bullshit excuse, I tip my weight forward, and the blade digs into his sternum. Blood runs free, and a tiny ray of satisfaction heats the empty cavern in my chest where my heart used to beat. “He said Alex was out of the clan. That Cherub wouldn’t be touched again.”

“Yeah, well, he lied. Your daughter’s current state is livin’ proof of that. Face battered. Body broken. Bleeding. Losin’ a baby in Slash’s guest room because you sold her out to make a deal with the devil for some extra cash.”

“A baby.” Brutus seems to move forward to drive the tip of the knife a little deeper into his flesh. Keen interest pushes some of the cloudiness the sedation has caused out of his eyes. “I have a grandchild?”

“No more. Your bullshit killed it.”

His gaze suddenly takes on a sheen of sorrow. Most people wouldn’t see the calculation teetering at the edges, but I do. He’s setting me up. Playing to my emotions. Readying himself to stab me in the heart with a well-placed verbal counterpunch.

I’ve watched him do it a million times.

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