Page 47 of Screamer
“I’d stake my life on it.”
Creep nods.
“In the meantime,” Journey begins. “Is there anything we can do to help with Saint’s funeral?”
“At the moment, no,” Shuffle responds. “If that changes, I’ll let you know.”
“Please do,” Crow says.
Church is called to an end, and each man funnels out of the room. Each man but Shuffle and me.
“She slept in your bed last night, didn’t she?” he asks me, his eyes narrow.
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
He hesitates for a brief moment before shaking his head. “No. Know this, Screamer. I meant what I said about gutting you if you hurt her.”
“I know.”
“Then I wish you luck.”
“What?”
He chuckles darkly. “You’re the one who’s going to tell her about her new situation with having a guard. She’s not going to like that.”
He walks away from me, and I swear I hear him whistling gleefully as he does. I inhale deeply and mentally prepare myself for the conversation I have to have. She might be mad at first, but she’ll understand.
Right?
Wrong.
Roxie was definitely angry and didnotunderstand.
CHAPTER 23
ROXIE
Never gonna happen.
Two months later…
“I’m fine.”
Rae’s shout reaches me from across the room and over the music. I glance in her direction and see her trying to pull her empty glass from Mark’s hands. He’s running the bar tonight, and Rae is, well, doing the same thing she’s been doing since Saint’s funeral… getting wasted.
I don’t blame her. Saint was her entire world. She lived and breathed for him, and he for her. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. Fuck, Screamer and I have only been together for a month, sort of, and losing him would break me in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Rae and Saint hadyears.
“Hey, Rae,” I say when I reach her side. “Why don’t we go sit down?”
She slaps my hands away. “I don’t wanna sit. I wanna drink.”
Which is why I’m here. Shuffle asked me to return to the LTMC clubhouse to help with her because none of them knewwhat to do. The truth is, there’s nothing anyone can do but listen and be there when she crashes. Because shewillcrash.
There will come a day when Rae wakes up sober, and her loss will shatter her all over again. For now, though, she’s content to drink her pain away, and I’m content to let her… to a degree.
“I know you do,” I say gently. “I’m not asking you to stop drinking.”
“Oh.” She pouts. “Tell him that then,” she said, pointing at Mark.
