Page 10 of Grave Curse

“You said a woman’s not worth getting to know through dating. Then you said that when a manyou don’t even fucking knowlooks at me, all he sees is pussy he can buy. Is it because of Audrey?” I asked suddenly, so angry my hands balled into fists. It hurt my injured hand, but that only made me ball it up tighter. I wanted the pain.Neededit. It distracted me from the outright agony in my chest as at last,at last, Tyr revealed how deeply he loathed me. “You know what my mother was. She was a fucking smack whore your uncle H created, so you assume I’m like that too, right? Like mother like daughter?”

“Shut up,” he growled. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“That’sexactlywhat you said.” God, this hurt. I knew he hated me for making him kill for the first time, and for being a drag on his life thanks to Hades constantly using me against him. Iknewthat. But to know he had so little respect for me that he assumed all men saw me as a nameless fuck-doll that could be bought was a stab in the heart I didn’t see coming. “Well, let me tell you something, Mr. Grab-A-Random-Bitch-to-Fuck, not every man is as dead on the inside as you. Some men still have souls. Some men still have common decency. Some men even give a damn about getting to know the whole woman—likefinding out what her favorite foods are, what makes her laugh or cry, what she likes to do in her downtime, and you know what? She wants to do the same with him. Not everyone is as fucked up as you are.”

“I saidshut up.”

Without warning, he grabbed me by the shoulders, yanked me to him and stopped my mouth with his.

What.

Just… what.

This day couldn’t get any crazier. It started with me almost killing someone, then almost having a head-on collision, then slicing my hand open, and now this.

Tyr’s kiss was undoubtedly the one thing that would finally do me in.

The rough abrasion of his super-short beard held enough friction against my skin to melt my brain. The searing heat of his lips shocked me into stillness, like he was living lava encapsulated in a thin layer of human flesh. He was hot enough to burn away my working theory that he was made of ice, with an ice-cold stone as his heart. I hated knowing how hot—literallyhot—he was. Now all I could do was wonder what it would feel like to be burned alive by him.

Before I could decide what to do—push him away, slap him, or fling my arms around his neck and never let go—he broke contact to glare pure death at me.

“Don’t push me, Gingersnap.” He spoke just above a whisper, and the sound was so menacing I couldn’t stifle a shiver. “You won’t like how I push back.”

With that, he turned and left the bathroom, then his office, leaving me standing there like a statue while wondering if I’d just been kissed, or punished, or both.

I had a feeling I was going to find out.

Chapter Three

Obey Hades Or Else

Tyr

“It’s the end of another riding season, which means Route 66 October Biker Rally.” Seated to my left, Ajax pushed up the aviator sunglasses he always wore. He was my lieutenant and head of the club’s enforcers, and even on his worst day he was still Chicago’s biggest badass. Talking about things like parties and rallies made him look like he was suffering from a bad case of hemorrhoids. “Titan Colgrave, our president’s grandfather, founded this rally sixty years ago, and historically it’s one of the biggest biker blowouts on the calendar. We thought Hades might not host it this year since we’re at war, but last week his team put out all the info online about how to sign up for camping and RV space on the rally grounds, and all the dates and times for all the shit they claim they’ve got planned. Question is, do we even attend?”

“As far as I’m concerned, the question is whether or not the rally is just being used as a cover for Hades to bring in a mass of warm bodies to attack us.” Romeo, Vice President and Chief of Security of the Gravediggers, shook his dark head, his mouth a grim line. “We didn’t even think H was going to do the rally this year since his camp didn’t release any info on it until yesterday. Usually that shit goes out some time in August so people can make plans for it, but here we are heading into the third week in October, and they’re just now publishing the Route 66 Rally announcements. Either they’re too distracted by the war between our two clubs to be on top of their game, or the rally’s just going to be used as a cover to grow their numbers right under our noses.”

“They’re not the only club that has reserves they can call in.” I lifted my chin at Zee, my new lieutenant and the man in charge of Gravedigger membership. He was my new lieutenant because my old one turned out to be a dirty fucking traitor and wound up in the morgue for his troubles. “And hell, yeah, we’re going to be attending, and we’re going to do it with every chapter we’ve got. Zee, send the word to all our chapters, from Indianapolis to Thunder Bay—prepare for either a rally or a final battle, but both are going to be one helluva party.”

Zee’s smile was razor sharp. “Got it, boss.”

I looked to my second in command. “What else have we got?”

“Nothing alarming to report on that dust-up over at Thirsty’s Bar.” I watched Romeo’s attention bounce from his ever-present phone that held all his secrets, to the wall of screens in front of him. We used to have church meetings in the front room of the Clubhouse, or what used to be the former bank’s lobby. Not anymore. Since war had broken out with Hades, we’d moved to the soundproof vaults we’d modified to be our siege HQ. Our church meetings now took place in the room my brothers had dubbed the Situation Room, complete with eight screens showing every inch of the Gravedigger compound on the southern wall, and eight screens showing Hades’s compound and various other properties—including the large camping ground where the Route 66 Rally was always held—on the opposing wall. “According to the bar’s owner and his wife—”

“Glenn and Dora Rollie, parents of Sinbad, our newest patched-in member,” I supplied, making a “keep going” gesture.

“Glenn was there the entire night and saw the incident unfold. Two thirty-something guys came in wanting to play pool, but all the tables were occupied. The two assholes then became belligerent with some college-aged boys who’d been peacefully playing pool for the past hour before these dickheads turned up. Come to find out, the boys were on their university’s judoteam and they wasted no time in dropping the troublemakers. Then they politely paid for the damages, bought a round for the house, and went back to playing pool while the troublemakers were tossed out on their asses by none other than Glenn Rollie himself.”

“Their mamas taught those boys right.” From his wheelchair on the opposite end of the table, Ashtray nodded sagely. Even sitting down, he was a bear of a man with a full beard and a wild tangle of dark hair peppered with streaks of gray. “Pay for whatever you broke, then smooth ruffled feathers with a shit-ton of beer. Well done, kids.”

“Ash, you’ve busted up more bars than you can count.” Zee looked over at the older man with a raised brow. “How many of them did you pay restitution to?”

“Since most of them called LEO on me, I usually gave them my best middle-finger salute, which was more than they deserved, the fuckers.”

“Being polite and paying for busted-up shit isn’t Hades’s usual MO.” To my left, Ajax tilted his bald head my way. Ever since Ajax’s best friend, Slash, turned out to be a goddamn dirty traitor, Ajax had been going out of his way to make sure everyone knew he was playing for my team and not Hades’s. It sucked that he was struggling, but the most I could do was show him my complete faith until he figured out that every single one of his brothers still believed in him. “But you know what they say, boss—better safe than sorry. I can run background checks on everyone involved in the Thirsty’s incident if you want.”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Romeo wanted to know, staring at him. “My team and I have got that angle covered, Ajax.”

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