Page 520 of The Tempted

The guy holding Reina by the hair, released her and cocked his gun.

“There is this old saying, maybe you’ve heard it,” Jimmy began, as he circled us with his arm outstretched recording himself as he did. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” he arched his eyebrows and smiled at the camera. “I’m no one’s fool,” he declared, looking away from the camera he turned to face me. “You told me she was a whore. You said you take chance a piece on her sweet cunt, right?” he questioned. “Answer the question! Look into the camera when you do.”

“Yes,” I lied through my teeth.

“But you haven’t sampled her have you?” he asked, turning around to Reina, trailing his fingertip along her collarbone. “But you’re going to now and do you know why, pretty girl? Do you know why he will rape you?”

Rape?

Fuck no.

I’m a lot of things, a man who committed a lot of sins, but I was no rapist.

Let him pull the trigger.

Fuck it all.

I would not touch her.

“Because you’re not a fool,” Reina replied.

“I’m not touching her you sick fuck,” I shouted over her. “Shoot me up, do what you got to do but I won’t fucking touch her.”

Jimmy laughed, ignoring me as he played back his video, scrutinizing it. Reina’s eyes found mine, pleading with me to make it stop, to put an end to this torture.

I had nothing.

Fucking helpless.

At the mercy of drugs.

At the mercy of a mobster.

I was not my own man.

I was not worthy of my cut or my patch.

Satan’s Knight?

No, I was Jimmy’s bitch.

“It will be okay,” I told her.

“Leather and Lace,” she breathed. “When we get out of here will you tell me what it means?”

I stared at her silently.

No, I wouldn’t.

Not for the obvious reasons, not because she was Jack’s daughter but because in that moment, with death looming over me, Leather and Lace became sacred. It was a dream, something foreign to a man who is only granted nightmares, and I wanted to hang onto the dream a little longer. I wanted to hang on to the idea I could change, maybe be a better man, and as much of a stretch as it was I wanted to hang on to the idea I could be better for her. I wanted to believe I could be the guy she needed, to give her what she deserved and repay her for all the ways she heals me. Even if it’s temporary.

“Yeah,” I lied, because we weren’t getting out of here and I could hang onto Leather and Lace until I drew my final breath.

“No, that was all wrong, let’s try it again,” Jimmy said.

“Trust me,” I whispered faintly, resigning to my fate.

I drew in a deep breath, closing my eyes briefly, expecting to see Christine’s face but it wasn’t her haunting me, pulling me into the darkness. It was my angel; it was Lacey’s beautiful face begging me to follow her light.

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