Page 29 of Tempting Fate

I was oblivious to the truth surrounding me.

Deliberately so.

Unaware that Alex was obsessed with control.

Ignorant of the situation between Alex and my twin.

Unknowing of the consequences that my dalliance with a member of an enemy organisation would set in motion.

While I spent the entire six weeks that we dated feeling bad for using him, Alex spent that time learning my weaknesses. He had a plan, my father’s approval, and an army at his back if I refused. And he set all three in motion on the night of mine and Sander’s eighteenth birthday.

Fooled by my vow to my dead mother that I would protect my brothers at all costs, Alex used my ignorance of the underworld, my misplaced guilt, and my overconfidence to snare me in his net.

If not for Sander’s twintuition, and Zeke and Slash’s quick thinking, I would’ve died on my eighteenth birthday. It’s only fitting that I repay the favour today and save Zeke from that same fate.

“Tell me what it’ll take?” I plead.

“Lily,” Alex croons the nickname he knows I hate him using. “You must understand that there’s only one way to salvage our relationship. I’ll need to bleed you, cleanse you, eradicate the stain he’s left on you—replace the filth he’s filled you with—with my own essence. Can you give me that?”

I shudder.

Alex’s insinuation is clear.

He wants to fuck me.

Viciously.

“Okay,” I whisper. Bile rises in my throat as my body has a physical reaction to the memories his words evoke. My heart pounds in my ears. My eyes burn. I blink and tears run free. Every hair on my body stands on end, my nerves jangle as my mind screams at me to change my mind. “Just let Zeke leave, and I’ll do whatever you want.”

Horror courses through me when the muted bang of a gunshot rings out.

“All new beginnings.” Alex smiles. “Come from an old beginning’s end.”

“But you said…” I trail off when I realise that I’m too late. Alex had no intention of making a deal with me. “He isn’t… Not Zeke.”

“Boss.” A tinny voice invades the bedroom. I look around, trying to discover where the intercom system is hidden. “We have a problem.”

“Stay put, angel.” Alex stands and places me on the bed. While he pulls on a pair of pants and a shirt, I hug my knees to my chest, rocking back and forth as my mind tries to reject the knowledge that Zeke is gone. “I’ll be right back.”

As I contemplate the future, I realise that there’s no way I will survive having Alex destroy my body again. I barely survived his brutality last time. Without the promise of Zeke’s freedom to shield me, without my first love full stop, I’d rather die anyhow. Slash will try to make me see how illogical that idea is, since my end would be the last thing Zeke would want. Nadia will never forgive me. Sander will blame himself.

It’s still the truth.

I am nothing without Zeke.

Lost in grief, I’m slow to react when Alex leers over me. He winds his fingers through my hair and yanks my head backward. Leaning down, he runs his tongue beneath my eye, licking the tears from my cheek. I feel the muzzle of a gun being pressed to the underside of my jaw.

I freeze.

Alex swipes his tongue over my other cheek.

“Are these for him?” I stay silent, unblinking as I will my tears to cease falling. Alex feeds on other’s pain, I won’t give him any more than I have to. “I suppose you’ll think it’s a win when I tell you that your biker trash shot Hugh and?—”

“Zeke’s alive?”

The hope-tinged disbelief in my voice is clear to my ears.

I know voicing my question was a mistake seconds before his backhand knocks my head to one side. He hit me with the hand holding the gun. My ear rings like a wind chime and the eyebrow that absorbed the blow splits. Prodding the cut with my fingers, I hiss at the sting.

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