Page 9 of Ink & Reina

I screwed my face up as I swallowed the vodka down. Scorpion set the bottle aside a moment later. “Nasty fucking stab wound,” Thor, the club’s enforcer, commented. “Better be glad he didn’t hit anything vital, though he was close. Hate to bury you, kid. I like you.”

I rolled my eyes at Thor, but his lightheartedness helped some. Thor was the club clown, but when the man was pissed about something, he was a goddamn beast—someone to fucking fear. “Alright. Gonna numb the area as best as I can, but I need to get this stitched ASAP, so there will most likely be some discomfort,” Medic warned me.

“All good,” I told him. “I can handle it.” And I could. I hadn’t been raised a bitch. I could handle pain.

I didn’t flinch as he began to inject a numbing agent around my wound. But just as he’d warned me, I felt the first few pricks of his needle as he began to stitch me up before the numbing medicine he’d injected began to take effect.

“You going to be good at home?” Johnny asked me after a few moments of silence.

I grunted in answer. Probably not, but I’d deal.

“He’ll be here until that heals more,” Blink spoke up, finality ringing in his voice. There would be no arguing with him. “Jordan fucked with one of ours. We’ll be ready if he decides to do more dumb shit.”

Johnny frowned in confusion, obviously not understanding what Blink meant considering I wasn’t wearing a cut. But no one explained anything to him. I sure as fuck wasn’t. It wasn’t up to me how much an outsider knew, and even though they’d allowed Johnny into the clubhouse, he was still one hundred percent an outsider.

Thankfully, Johnny was smart enough to not question the men in the room. “What do you want me to tell Reina?” Johnny asked me.

“Just let her know I still need space,” I told him. It wasn’t exactly a lie. I was still furious with her.

Johnny nodded his head in understanding. He knew I hadn’t spoken to her since she’d accepted Jordan’s offer of a date. “I’ll have my phone off for a few days. Donotlet her come looking for me, you hear me? And do your best to keep Jordan away from her while I heal enough to hide this from her.”

Johnny clenched his jaw. “Hard to do. Mom hit one of her manic episodes, and she’s supporting Reina one hundred percent.” I didn’t ask what the fuck he was talking about. Wasn’t my business. “Mom is volatile when she’s not getting her way. I’m stuck in a sticky as fuck situation.”

I looked up at Sabotage, wondering if there was something they could do to make Jordan go away. He shook his head at me. “Nothing we can do, brother. Cops are watching Jordan like a hawk right now. Already checked.” I sighed in agitation. That meant Jordan was in bad shit, and they were just waiting to close in on his ass. “Just got to wait for now and hope for the fucking best.”

I hated waiting because I hadzerofucking patience, especially when someone I cared about was in danger.

Chapter Five

Ink

Graduation was nearing. Weeks had passed since Jordan began to date Reina, sinking his toxic claws into her so deeply that she failed to see the bullshit he was spewing her way. All I could do was stand aside and wait for him to inevitably hurt her so I could do my best to put her back together again.

Johnny wasn’t so patient. The two siblings, who had once been each other’s rocks, now clashed heads so much, they could barely stand to be in the same room together.

After my eighteenth birthday, I’d moved into the clubhouse with the entire club’s vote on it. It was either that or become homeless since my foster parents made it clear they wouldn’t be housing me any longer, and homelessness wasn’t something I was keen on experiencing.

But to the club, I was family, and they protected family. The moment Blink heard I’d been kicked out, he called a club vote, and I was moved in.

Simple as that.

And this was also the one place I knew Jordan wouldneverstep foot near. He knew better. The SCMC already didn’t fucking like him as it was, but him stabbing me? That was the proverbial icing on the cake. If he stepped foot on these grounds, he was a dead man walking.

Reina dropped onto the couch beside me and handed me a cup of sweet tea, smiling sweetly at me. I sighed. It was so hard to be agitated with her when she aimed that smile of hers at me.

Jordan hadn’t snuffed out her lightyet, but I knew it was coming. And she would never be the same sweet girl I loved. Even after her light came back—ifit came back—she would never be the same.

“I feel like we never see each other anymore, Ink,” she grumbled, frowning at me.

I shrugged at her. “Not really my fault, Reina,” I gently reminded her. Her frown deepened, and she looked away from me. “You’re caught up in Jordan. I get that,” I lied.

Truth was, I didn’t get it. I didn’t fucking understand it at all.

Jordan had something up his sleeve. I knew it with every fiber of my being. He was being too sweet with her, working at too slow of a pace to get what he wanted from her. As far as I knew, they hadn’t even slept together yet, which was completely out of the norm for Jordan.

Something was up; I just didn’t knowwhat. And it had me on edge.

“I wish you and Johnny would come around to the fact that Jordan and I are together,” Reina mumbled.

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