Page 38 of Tempting Fate

A damning silence grows within the vehicle until it’s too heavy to ignore.

Even so, I bite back the questions on the tip of my tongue while I wait for her to regain control of herself. There’s nothing Lily hates more than feeling weak, and I have a nasty feeling that Alex’s escape will haunt her more than anything else that happened tonight.

We need to find him.

Finish him.

A few minutes later, when the shaking stops, I chuck a finger under her chin and force her to meet my eyes. “How bad was it?”

Her blue gaze fills with tears, but Lily blinks them away. “Not as bad as?—”

“Shit, Venom, she’s got a gun.” Slash announces as he climbs into the seat behind us.

Lily laughs when he gingerly plucks the forgotten handgun from her grip. It sounds as genuine as we can expect in the circumstances, although the nonchalant shrug she offers Slash when he softly scuffs his palm over the top of her head is obviously fake.

“I used it to shoot Alex a couple times after I handcuffed him to his bed.”

My best friend shakes his head at us, slowly breaking into a grin that dies as her unspoken accusation hangs between the three of us.

Lily handcuffed him.

She shot him.

We let him get away.

“That’s my woman. Tough as fuckin’ nails.” I kiss her hard, trying to distract her from the reality of our fuck up, only to pull away when she winces. My thoughtlessness has made her split lip bleed. I can taste her blood on my tongue as I say, “Damn… I’m sorry, metukà shelì.”

The expression that invades Lily’s battered features tells me that her reaction wasn’t just caused by the kiss. Ghosts of her trauma stare back at me from her brilliant blue eyes. She curls in on herself, shaking her head to ward off the question she knows I’m going to ask next.

“Did he?” When Lily averts her gaze, looking anywhere but at me, I lift my eyebrows. “Lily…”

She shakes her head faster. “No… not… exactly.”

A growl rumbles in my chest at the implications contained within her halting revelation. I try to keep my reaction from escaping, but it’s impossible. The knowledge that he has violated her again sits like a boulder in my gut.

I failed her.

And, if Lily hates her own perceived weakness, then it must be said that I hate knowing that I put her in a position to feel weak.

The fiasco at the clubhouse should never have happened.

How the fuck were we able to be ambushed on our own turf?

“I’m sorry, I should’ve?—”

“Stop,” Lily tells me, laying a finger across my lips. “It’s not your fault.”

As someone with a torch approaches our van, illuminating the interior, Lily’s expression morphs into concern. For a moment, I’m confused at her reaction, unable to decipher the reason for the change in her, then she brushes her fingertips over the bruise at my temple.

“What happened to you?”

I’m about to explain the diversion that was put in place at the compound when we’re interrupted. Brutus shoves his head inside the van. He glares at Slash, then at me, before surprise invades his stern features when he spies Lily sitting on my lap.

“Not a fan of bein’ kept in the bloody dark,” he announces in his gravelly voice. “This is my club. I should?—”

I cut him off before he can settle into his whining. “There’s a whole host of things I’m not a fan of right now… startin’ with your behaviour back at the compound. Wanna explain why you tried to stop Cub from accessin’ her tracker? Woulda thought you’d do anythin’ to get your daughter back?”

Lily’s spine stiffens when I mention the tracker. I wrap my fingers around the alien charm hanging from the necklace I gave her when she first got her learner’s permit, offering her a wordless response to the question she’s about to ask. Although I can feel her irritation at my sneakiness, she turns her wrath on her father. “Is that true? If I find out you’ve tried to?—”

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