Page 19 of Dark Seduction

I step away from the parts on the floor and make my way back downstairs to the ground floor of the building to check in the garage, but there's nothing but silence. I run my hands through my short hair in irritation.

Where the hell is she?

As I take a look around the area, hoping to see her walking down the sidewalk, my gaze eventually lands on the garage and a single light shining in the direction of her stall. A wave of relief washes over me as I break out into a run across the street towards the employee entrance at the rear end of the garage. There it is. V's bike, near the back door.

Questions pound through my imagination. What is he doing here?

I slip inside the open door. My footfalls the only noise that I hear until I make it into the garage bays. At first, I see nothing. A sigh of relief surprises me as it escapes my lips. I listen and peer around for a few minutes, and just as I am about to give up, and try calling V, I see movement.

There in the back of the car V had been working on earlier I find him. His naked torso is visible through the rear passenger window. I crane my neck, trying to see who he's with, but they’re hidden.

I guess he took moving on from Mack a bit more seriously than I did. With a shake of my head, I start to leave when I hear his partner’s voice. A cold chill shivering down my spine at the familiar feminine notes. A voice that I had heard before in the same tones.

V shifts, and the woman with him appears before him. He reaches forward and drags his hands through her raven hair, jerking it back. The car rocks harder as he pounds his body into hers.

Please don’t be her. We’d agreed to stay away from her. That it would be better for both of us to let her go.

V shifts again, as he hisses. “Fuck”.

The woman’s body shifts upwards, her neck arching under the pressure of V’s fisted hand in her hair. The silhouette of her face comes into clear view. Her silhouette. Mack.

My vision blurs as I watch them in the back of that car, and I stumble forward. I can hardly believe it; V, who told me that this shit with her was never going to happen again. Who threw out a bro code pact to move on, yet not even a day later, he’s already fucking her.

The rage builds up inside me as I watch them. V and Mack were intertwined in the back seat of the car, their clothes strewn across the floor of the garage around it.

I hear Mack's cries of pleasure. The creak of the car as they move is like a knife to my gut.

My blood boils, and I feel my fists clench at my side. I wanted nothing more than to remove V from the car and make him pay for what he’s doing, but then, he’s not the only one to blame. Clearly, Mack’s rules only applied to me. The painful realization that she, in fact, only wanted him is more painful than I could have ever imagined. Was our pact his way of getting me out of the way? Was this their plan all along?

I take a few steps closer, my heavy boots hitting the ground with a thud. V's head snaps up in surprise, and he quickly scrambles away from Mack.

“Shit,” I hear Mack hiss from inside the car. Her dark eyes are wide, her hair askew.

V exits the car. Hands raised in submission. “Burnt,” he blurts out as he bends, reaching down to grab his boxers, before slipping them on.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I spit at him, my fists still clenching at my sides. My rage takes over and before I can stop myself, I’m charging at him. I swing wide, but he ducks. He takes his first swing, his powerful arm arcing towards my jaw. I pivot and move out of the way just in time, but he's already ready with another punch, this time aiming for my stomach. It hits with a thud, I skitter backwards, groaning in pain.

“Is this what you wanted the entire time?” I hiss. “You wanted me out of the way.”

V opens his mouth, but snaps it shut. Confirming what I know to be true. It was never about her job, or her professionalism. It was about me. Getting me out of the way so they could continue on without me. The guilt in his face at being caught told me everything that I needed to know.

For a moment, I'm winded and unable to move, but then I surge forward in a desperate attempt to overpower him. I grab a hold of his shirt and land a punch to his face. He grunts in pain and stumbles back, momentarily stunned. I bolt forward, wrapping my hands around his waist, and thrust him into one of the toolboxes behind us. V cries out as I slam him against it again.

“Stop it,” Mack screams from behind us.

V recovers from my punch and takes another swing, this time hitting me in the ribs. I take the blow and stagger back, fighting through the pain. I lunge forward for another attack, but V jumps back and I stumble, giving him his opening. He shoves his hands down his chest, wrapping them around my face, and putting pressure on my eye sockets. Enough to get my attention, but not hard enough to cause damage. I squirm, groaning at the intrusion, before he is able to shove me back. My feet slide on the slick cement floor as I skid to a stop near their fucking love nest. Mack orders us both to stop, but I barely hear her. I'm too consumed with rage and desperation.

We circle each other, both of us breathing hard and eyes blazing. He raises a fist at my face, but I catch his arm and spin him around. I push him away from me. Blood trickles down from his busted lip. He sucks it in before spitting it on the ground next to him.

“The first chance you got to fuck her, you took it, didn’t you? Fuck, I bet you planned to meet up today. You just didn’t expect me to swing by.”

V’s reddened face grows dark. His brows furrow deeply. “We didn’t fucking plan this.” He grinds out between ragged, deep breaths.

“Likely fucking story.”

“Enough!” Mack screams as she slips from the car, gathering her own belongings and attempting to re-dress. “Stop this.” Mack's eyes flicker between V and Burnt until she finally responds, "This isn’t what it looks like." She clutches her shirt to her bare chest. “It was a mistake.”

V’s head snaps towards her. “A mistake?”

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