Page 92 of Tempting Fate

He digs into the pocket of his tracksuit pants, pulling out a bright-green USB. He waves it at me, his eyebrows rising toward his hairline when he gets a good look at the bruises left on my face by the boot of one of Joseph’s rent-a-cops. “Plus, I had this pushed under the door of my hotel room when I was playin’. The shit on it has me thinkin’ that it might be time to publicly come clean about my little problem, pun intended.”

“Charlie just called again. Crystal managed to get us a private waiting room,” Lily announces from the doorway to the clubhouse. She spies her brother and darts over to him as fast as she can with sore ribs and a bunch of bruises all over her. Sander flinches when he sees her battered face, a ghost of the expression he wore the night we found Alex raping her flits across his features.

“What happened to Fret,” Sander asks again.

All colour drains from his cheeks when Lily quietly tells him, “Fret was abducted, tortured, and shot. He’s in surgery now.”

Sander is stricken by this news.

Apparently, her self-appointed guard, Cub, is hot on her heels. He trots over to his best friend and pulls him in for a hug that ends with a slap on the back. Spying the USB, Cub asks him, “Is that the package you texted me about?”

“Yeah. It’s full of old photos of us partyin’… plus videos of me, and you, and Fret partakin’ in a little pick-me-up.”

“What?” Lily’s question is sharp. She glares at Cub. “You were using too?”

“Uh, Anna, lil sis.” Sander hauls his sister close and enfolds her in a hug. I give him a small, tight smile when our eyes meet over the top of her head. “Think the least of our problems right now is who was usin’ what when we were kids.” When his sister scoffs, he rolls his eyes. “Is anyone gonna tell me what happened to her face? Because we know she’ll dance around the truth for days.”

“Alex.” My tone is terse as I elaborate. “He had Hugh St. James abduct her yesterday.”

“What? No fuckin’ way.”

“Let’s load up and head to the hospital,” Brutus shouts over his son. He ignores the way Sander reels back at my explanation of the cause of his twin’s injuries, instead directing his attention to me and Slash. My president flicks his fingers like we’re beneath him as he says, “You two lead the way. I’m gonna be with my kids in the van. The rest of the brothers will follow us.”

Sander holds his twin out from his body so he can properly look her over. “Tell me that motherfucker is finally dead?”

“Nope.” I pop the last syllable. “We thought we’d been sanctioned to introduce him to the reaper… turns out Daddy Dearest had other plans.”

“Like what?”

“Like allowing Alex to poison the club with lies about me and?—”

“Nadia?” Sander’s question is posed as a forgone conclusion. “She was in the photos as well.”

“Yeah,” I tell him reluctantly. “Lily knows. So does the club.”

“Fuck. I’m gonna have to warn her.”

“Why?”

He shrugs, shooting a look toward his ex-girlfriend. “I feel responsible.”

“Think you’ve got that backwards,” Lily snipes.

“Nah. There’s more to that story than anyone knows,” Sander tells her.

Stepping away from me, he loops an arm around his sister and pulls her into his side. When he presses a kiss to my sweet thing’s forehead, my eyes lock with hers. I regard her with an unblinking gaze, uncertain how to react to her after her revelation that our relationship feels “irreparable” to her, irritated that I haven’t been able to sit her down and explain the full truth.

After a drawn-out moment, Lily breaks our stare-down.

She offers me the ghost of a smile.

Her brother catches the interaction and rolls his eyes. “Seriously? You two had a fallin’ out over my shit?”

Lily pulls away from him, and with a deliberate and slow action, she glances at Nadia, then back at her twin. “No. We had a falling out over Zeke’s lies. You just happen to be involved in most of them.”

“Bloody hell,” Sander quips. “Mountain out of a molehill, Cherub… mountain meet molehill.”

When Lily tries to launch into a defence of her reaction, I reach over and pinch her mouth shut between my index finger and thumb. The stitches in her top lip pull, but the split doesn’t bleed.

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