Page 55 of Tempt Her

I turn and leave the three of them.

And for weeks…

We don’t talk.

Mateo and Luke work on Stacey’s houseand her, I assume. They go slower than ever, dragging out their time with her, and I fight not to care.

I focus on the rest of my crew and other jobs.

While I trust Mateo and Luke to do the job right, it makes me sick, tightening my chest every night while I struggle to sleep alone; I don’t trust what will happen next.

Luke knocks on my door every night, but I ignore him. I won’t let him in.

Mateo calls me, but I won’t answer. His voice is the first thing I remember when I almost died for the third time, and my heart can’t resist him. So I answer his texts. And only reply to work shit.

Tonight, Mateo’s blowing up my phone; worried about what our shared app says about my heart rate lately, butfuck it.

Seems we’re all gonna dance with the devil soon because the men I love are hell-bent on fucking his beautiful angel of a wife until it kills us.

* * *

I’maware I’m dreaming. Remembering. Standing on the park’s edge, I smile at the cute kids on the playground. I watch a little girl with long dark curls squeal with delight as she swooshes down a sliding board into the waiting arms of her blonde mother. She picks her up, laughing, spinning her around before encouraging her to do it again.

To feel love and ache in the same breath. To want to cry with joy and grief at the same time. To see someone so close and miss them so much.

To share blood with a child and them not even remember you.

It makes my chest thunder. Lightning strikes my lonely heart while the storm spins my bed down in spirals to my death. I’m drowning in sweat, pain, and regrets.

Maybe this time, I’ll finally let it win.

“Wake up.” A voice calls from above. “Sit up. Get off your back. You shouldn’t be sleeping flat.” Hands lift me, my eyelids lifting too.

“What are you doing?”

Mateo huffs, “Saving your life, as usual.”

He holds my sweaty naked shoulders while he grabs pillows with his free hand, cramming them behind me before letting me fall back, elevated like I’m supposed to sleep.

“You’re fucking pulse won’t go down,” he groans, “and your damn door was locked. We don’t do this shit. We don’t lock each other out.”

I snarl. “So what?”

“So quit this shit. You’re worried and pissed about Stacey. Done. What’s next?”

I close my eyes, feeling my heart rate finally slow. “I won’t repeat myself.”

Mateo sits on the edge of my bed. Usually, he’s in it. Or Luke. Or all three of us. Never do I bring a woman here.

Don’t get me wrong. I love women. I respect them. That’s why I don’t treat them differently than men. I’m tough on both.

I loved my grandmother. She was tough. Her husband abandoned her when she was pregnant with my mom, and my grandmother practically raised me too. She hated that her daughter had a Daddy complex and kept dating abusive dickheads. And I loved my young mom so much that I lost half my soul when she was killed.

So I can’t get close to a woman. It’s too painful. I worry; I’ll lose her too.

Mateo rests his elbows on his knees and studies the ground. The man’s always deep in thought. He informs me, “A lot has changed these few weeks.”

“Y’all got caught?”

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