Page 179 of Fury

“But they could be?”

“You’re so concerned about them, huh?” his voice snapped back, a shadow passing over his features. “You hang out with them now?”

“No, actually, I don’t.”

His eyes flared. “Just long enough to get laid?”

“Yeah, long enough to get laid. But, more importantly, to support my friends like Alicia and Grace who’ve been very good to me. Finger, everything’s changed, we’ve changed—”

He swung his head to the side and pushed up from the table. The mugs shook, coffee spilled. We both stared at the puddles of dark liquid. In a flash of movement, he bent over me, a warm hand cuffing my neck. My pulse pounded under his grip.

“This hasn’t changed for me, Sunshine. This hasn’t changed, and we are not over,” he said. A Mission Statement. Finger’s Declaration of Us.

His raspy voice uttering his ridiculous nickname for me blazed through my veins; a whisper of an ancient intimacy sending a skitter of hot iron barbs around my throat, spiking my skin, burning deep.

“We’ve been over for years, Finger.”

“All the reasons to be apart are done with—Med, your marriage. Why shouldn’t we be together?”

I stiffened. There was one reason. One.

His grip eased, his fingers sliding down my throat. “We’re alone, Lenore. We don’t have to be.”

“I’m not alone.”

His lips quirked. “I wasn’t alone last night either.”

His words jammed in my chest like rotten garbage leaking toxins, infecting me. “I’m sure you weren’t.”

“None of that makes a damn bit of difference, both of us killing time. But I won’t let time kill us any longer.” His voice was firm, even. “You’re a part of me, the very best part, and we belong together. If all it is with Tricky is getting laid, dump him. You got me now.”

Finger released me and strode off, his heavy footfalls booming through my small house, the creaky wood floors groaning under his turbulent battering. The screen door whined, slammed, and I flinched. His bike’s engine ripped the air and thundered away.

I sank back into my chair, wrapping my arms around myself. But it did no good.

The shaking wouldn’t stop.

50

“Where’s Tania?” I asked Butler.

I’d made it back to the One-Eyed Jacks. I wanted to be gone within the hour.

Butler glared at me. “She’s with her brother,” he replied.

Before I’d left this morning to go see Lenore, I’d woken up Tania and told her to go check on her brother in his holding cell and make sure he was ready to ride home by the time I got back. I assured her I wouldn’t be getting rid of Catch, but he had to learn to keep his dick in check. We both agreed that it seemed Catch had real feelings for Nina, that she wasn’t just some joyride. Before we’d gotten to that conversation, though, she’d shot up in the bed when I told her I was going into town for a couple hours. She’d known where I was headed, that there was no way I wouldn’t go see her.

She grabbed my arm as I shoved my boots on, stopping me. “Please, be kind to her.”

“Tania, all I’ve ever wanted was the best for her.”

“I know,” she’d whispered.

I’d stayed up most of the night trying to figure out what I’d say, what I’d do. All I knew was I had to see her. Judge my reaction to her, judge hers. Feel it.

Oh, I’d felt all right. And I knew.

My blood knew. My skin knew. My heartbeat knew.

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