Page 18 of Dark & Deceitful

Shoulders deflating, Angel’s chin drops to his chest as he nods just once. His almost black eyes latch on to mine. “I got you, gorgeous. Anytime. Yeah?”

Lifting onto my tippy toes, I press my body against Angel’s and lean up enough to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best.”

An innocent smile curves at the corner of Angel’s mouth as pink suffuses his brown cheeks. Without asking him to, he slides out of the way of the door and lets me pass.

“Give him hell!” Till cheers at my retreating back as I join Sunshine in the hall.

I flash her a thumbs-up over my shoulder. “Where is he?” I address my favorite guy. “This had damn well better be important.”

Without answering my question, Sunshine’s gentle hand presses to the small of my back. Its supportive heat radiates through my cardigan as he escorts me through the bar and out front, where Dark leans against his Harley, illuminated by a streetlamp.

The air’s crisp. Steam plumes from my lips as I rub my arms up and down, wondering why in the hell we need to have this conversation outside when my nipples have already turned into painful rocks.

“Be nice,” Sunshine warns his son before he leans down, drops a simple kiss on my temple, and disappears back inside, where he can drink, stay warm, and doesn’t have to look his son in the face. Lucky him.

“What do you want, Dark?” I inquire when he doesn’t break the silence, though his eyes do. They say everything. He rakes my form from head to toe. His slow, shivery gaze drinks its fill. This is another reason I hate being around him. This is what Dark does. He gives zero fucks. He stares if he wants to stare. He shows up unannounced and unwanted and lives his life, however it works for him. Who cares how I feel… How Abby feels.

He’s an asshole.

When I open my mouth to tell him just that, a grin kicks up at the corner of his perfect lips. “I miss you.”

My expression twists into a hideous scowl. “Fuck right off.”

Dark throws his head back, and his hardy laugh booms into the night. “God, you’re fuckin’ perfect.”

Please excuse me while I roll my eyes. “What do you want?” I snip.

“Like right now? Or?—”

“You know what I mean,” I cut in. “Why are you here?”

“Ah. Yes. That.” Dark’s fingers tap a staccato beat on this thigh, like he’s nervous, or there’s a song playing in his head he can’t quite shake.

“Yes. That.” I gesture for him to get on with it. Because at this rate, I’ll turn into a popsicle in T-minus ten minutes.

His chin lifts toward the store. “Do you wanna go inside to talk?”

Hell, to the no. “I want you to tell me why you’re here so I can go back inside and you can go home, where you belong. Stop stalling.”

Dark nods once and gets on with it. “I got a call tonight from someone in the club. You know I can’t say who, but they didn’t want to run this through Cell.”

“Okay. And?” That still doesn’t explain what that has to do with me.

“They have a job.”

“Annnd?” Impatiently tapping my foot on the sidewalk, I rub my palms up and down my arms for warmth as my fingers prickle from the cold.

“It’s for you.”

I figured as much, or why else would he be here?

“Annnd?” I stare at him pointedly, needing him to reach the point now, not in fifteen years.

“It’s for three weeks, maybe longer.”

Sheesh, could he be any more evasive?

“What’s the job, Dark? Spit it out. I’m fucking freezing here.” To prove my point, I blow smoke into the cool air like a dragon.

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