Page 19 of When Sinners Dare

Stopping doesn’t mean shit to either of us. We’re both attacking and nothing’s stopping anything until one of us hits the deck and stays down. A punch lands heavy in my guts, and I feel the stitches split. Doesn’t stop me going back at him tenfold, though, and then crazy starts bedding in. Can’t stop it. Don’t want to, either.

I’m not sure what goes on in those next few minutes, but I guess I come back round to sane when strong hands start pulling me backwards. I glare at Rick on the floor, and struggle with whoever the fuck is trying to contain me.

“Cool the fuck down,” a man’s voice shouts. He pats my chest from behind, keeping his hold fierce on me. “Come down, man. Cool off. It’s done.” Isn’t fucking done. That asshole is still moving and he dared fucking touch a woman like that?

I keep scowling as I’m pulled behind the desk and watch as he keeps groaning and moaning. And then I’m shoved hard into the back corridor as the main door’s buzzer sounds.

“Go get us some coffee, Kai,” Viper’s voice says, calmly.

What the fuck?

Richie’s all over me like a rash suddenly, shoving me some more and pushing me back towards the storeroom. She grabs my face, flicking it back and forth to look at me. “You with us yet?” she asks. I’m still scowling at the damn door, about ready to go back out there and finish what that dick started. “Kai, you need to come right down and focus. Donaldson is here. Your parole officer?” I frown and look down at her, trying to focus on her if nothing else. She smiles at me. About the first time she ever has. “That was some hero mode you just went into.” I snarl and look back at the door again. “Viper will deal with it; just cool down so it looks like you weren’t involved. Yeah? Pace or something.” My face comes back to look at her. “You know, back and forth. That’s what guys do when they get stupid.”

Stupid?

“Well, not stupid because that was anything but stupid. Although, kind of was. You totally lost it out there. Like, what the actual fuck, dude? Didn’t they teach you about learning to control your goddamn temper inside? This is not behaving like a good boy. That shit’s gonna send you straight back to the wall.”

“Who the fuck is that guy?” snarls out of me.

“Rick’s an ex. We were dating and-” I turn to the racks and punch one, rubbing my hands over my face and hair straight after. An ex? Asshole needs to learn some damn manners around women.

I start pacing. Maybe it will help cool me down. Less than a goddamn week and I’ve already been in two fights, been stabbed, and I’m concealing an unlicensed weapon. “Fuck.”

The back door opens, and Blade walks in from wherever the hell he’s been.

“It’s okay. Viper will deal with it,” Richie continues. “But Donaldson’s gonna want to see you, and you need to act like you weren’t even there. You just came out and found Viper standing over Rick. Yeah?”

“What?”

“They were fighting. You weren’t. In fact, just let Viper lead it and stay quiet.”

“You want me to lie?”

“Yeah. We protect our own here and nothing hit that pretty face, so you’ll be fine. What the hell is that?” I must look confused, because she comes over and lifts my Tee up to look at where my stitches are. Blood’s leaking out of the stab wound. “Well, shit. That’s not gonna work. Blade, give Kai your top.” She shifts the Tee until it’s over my head, and Blade strips down his black Tee to hand it over.

By the time I’m shrugging into it, Richie’s back from a side rack with tape and gauze in her hand. She straps a pad in place and reaches to rub my shoulders, like a mother trying to calm a screaming toddler down, and then turns herself back for the coffee machine.

Three cups get poured, and she opens the door into the main corridor again, shoving a cup at me. “You cool?” Not a fucking hope. My still vibrating frame should tell her that. “Well, act it. Come on.” Steadying my breathing, I follow her up the corridor. “Hold on.” She hooks a right into the office and does something with the surveillance system, popping a plug and crashing it, before carrying on into reception.

Rick’s long gone when we get in there, and I watch Richie hand a cup of coffee over to Donaldson and Viper.

“So yeah, we get these kind of dicks in here all the time,” Viper says to him. “They try coming for the cash or the goods out back, you know? Anything for a fix.” So Viper’s lying for me? Great start to my new, decent life. Donaldson nods and looks at me, blowing across his coffee. “Lucky I’ve got a few other guys here now. These assholes always try it on when a woman’s on reception, and while Richie’s a bitch, even she can’t take on the likes of that scum.”

“Hey!” Richie says, all sweetness and light.

“Let’s get out back to the office,” Viper says. “I’ve got that paperwork finished.”

Donaldson stands and comes over to me, eyeing up my face and then my hands. “Those hands look like you’ve been fighting, Kai.”

I look him straight on, trying to keep the snarl off my face. “Racks fell over in the back. Knocked into me.”

“Into your knuckles?”

“Yeah. Delivery guy stacked too many boxes on the top, and I needed to hold it off him. Quick like.”

He looks at each one of us in turn, and then shakes his head and follows Viper into the back. “Alright. Come on then, Kai. Let’s get this first one done. I’ll come and see your place after the meeting.”

I turn to follow them both and find Richie in my way. She puts her hand on my chest and mouths a ‘thank you,’ before letting me go on in.

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