Page 113 of Treacherous

Inhaling a deep calming breath, I slowly made my way through the crowd until I reached the table full of George'sassociatesat the far corner of the room.

JD was there.

So were Ellie and Reese.

Several other familiar faces looked up at me, but I didn’t care about them because my heart felt like it had deflated in my chest the minute I locked eyes on George's ulterior motive.

"Mom."

I looked hard at my pale-faced mother as she lolled against George's beefy shoulder. Her brown eyes were glazed over. Her skin was deathly pale and the veins in her arms were visible under her faintly bruised skin.

She stared straight through me like she was looking through a window.

"Mom," I said a little louder, ignoring the snide comments coming from JD and his dad, hoping to god she wasn’t too far gone this time.

Again nothing.

I stepped around the table, not giving a shit whose feet I stepped on, and knelt in front of her. "Mom, are you okay?" I rested my shaking hand on her boney knee and forced myself not to shake her. "Mom?"

"Noah, can I have a…." Ellie's voice drilled through my ears but I was having none of it.

"Don’t talk to me," I warned her. She'd sat back and allowed this to happen. She was as bad as her father.

"What did she take?" I asked coldly, forcing myself to push back the fear of seeing my mother in catatonic mode to the back of my mind. If I didn’t the fear would fucking choke me. "What did you give her?"

"She's fine," George chuckled darkly, clapping me hard on the back. "She's in better shape than you are – or at least than you'll be in by the time tonight's over."

A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck as I remained impassive. "What's she doing here?"

"Consider her presencearrière-pensée," JD growled from behind me.

"Or a strong incentive," George added before turning his attention to his guests. "Tonight we have a special engagement," he announced with a cruel smirk. "My best fighter against Mortico's,"

"A fight to the death," a deep gravelly voice said from behind me and every muscle in my body coiled tight. "You sure about this, kid?"

Teagan's face penetrated my mind and I found the strength to climb to my feet. Turning slowly, I faced the man I knew was Gerome Javi and smirked. "It's your funeral."

****

Teagan

"That bastard," I hissed as I stalked across the street and banged on the Carter's front door. I didn’t care if Kyle answered – I was too bloody furious.

The Carter's front door swung inwards and Logan's face smiled back at me. "Hey there, jail-bird," he teased. "How's the life-sentence going?"

"Where's Hope?" I demanded as I rushed inside.

"Out on a date with Jordan," Logan said, closing the door after me.

"I need your help," I told him in a no-nonsense tone of voice before pushing past him and making for the stairs.

Noah had given me the slip.

The dirty snake must have crept out when I was asleep – after many hours of against-the-rules-frolicking – because when I woke up my bed was empty and his car was gone. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Let Noah stay with those creeps and wreck his entire future?

I couldn’t. I physicallycouldn’tstand here and let that happen to him.

He was worth more than that.

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