Page 50 of The Burnt Heart

“You heard her,” Jesse growled, his dark tone firing electricity through my spine.

Damn, that sounds way too good.

Thankfully, the Crimson Claws seemed to understand the urgency and abandoned their table. How was this girl the president of Crimson Claw? Their reputation was cutthroat killers, known from the mountains to the bay. This apple cheeked, tiny girl couldn’t be their president. Was this a game? Rubbing it in my face about being the heir to the Orazio legacy? I bristled. If that was the case, I would show her exactly who she was dealing with. I was born an Orazio, but I had earned my role. We herded them across the road, into the alleyway Jesse and I had been in moments ago. Jonah blocked the entry, and I saw a flicker of uncertainty coast over the girl’s features. Her emotions were entirely visible.

“Can you repeat what you said earlier?” Julien crossed his arms, trying to maneuver Kinsley behind him. She huffed a breath and refused his protection. “We know nothing about an explosion.”

“Cut the bullshit.” My tone was venomous. “I suppose you don’t know anything about a severed hand on my doorstep, either?”

Kinsley stumbled back into Julien’s hold, her face turning pasty white. Her eyes rolled back alarmingly in her skull as she bent over and hurled. The splatter half covering Julien’s leatherdress shoes. A strange outfit for a biker and even stranger reaction from a president of a hardened motorcycle club. Julien dragged Kinsley up, his hands under her armpits.

“Breathe,mon chèrie.”Julien rubbed circles on her back as she heaved in gusting breaths. “She doesn’t like gore.”

My eyebrows punched together, unable to comprehend what was happening. None of this made sense.

“I’m Adelaide Orazio. My family runs the crime in this city. Recently, I’ve been targeted. Someone tried to kill me twice and left a–” I refrained from mentioning the hand when Kinsley retched again. No one could fake this level of acting. Julien looked forlornly at the vomit coating his shoes. The stench of it made my nose wrinkle. “Coincidentally, all of this came about when Crimson Claw were noticed hanging around the city. I don’t know what fight you are trying to start but trust me when I say I’ll finish it.”

Kinsley winced, her shapely lips turning down in a cartoonish grimace.

“Crimson Claw had nothing to do with it. We’ve got our own problems to sort out. Starting a turf war is not one of them.” She cradled her stomach tenderly. Julien dipped his head, humming in agreement.

“What can we do to prove we had no involvement?”

Jesse scratched his head from beside me. I didn’t trust them, but I didn’t believe them capable of the calculated attacks on me. Kinsley sniffled. Only Julien’s tight, protective hold kept her from crumpling to the ground.

“I want you out of my city.” I raised my eyebrows. “And I don’t want to see another Crimson bike on my streets. Get it? You want to head up the coast, you go around.” It would add another hour to their journey, but Kinsley didn’t even seem bothered. She popped a little shrug, nodding like a bobble head.

“Can you give me until the end of the day?” her voice rasped like the bile had scorched it on the way up. The strange filmy eyes blinked hopefully. Something shifted behind the innocence. Her gaze seemed to intensify, like there was the weight of several other eyes looking at me through her. “I truthfully am only here to meet someone.”

I shivered, wanting an end to this bonkers interaction. The girl was tiny, but my body reacted like I was looking at a predator. As if there was something inside of her that should scare me more than I realized.

“You have until midnight tonight.” Her relief was instantaneous.

“Thank you.” She pressed her hands together, Julien’s arms wrapped around her waist. “You do not know how important this is.”

I let them pass, wondering if I was making a mistake. Because if they weren’t the ones who attacked me, who was? Who else could have the ego to think they would get away with attacking the Orazios? Kinsley stumbled as she reached the mouth of the alleyway and when she turned to look at me, her eyes glinted with that heavy, searing weight again.

“Adelaide, you should know your future. It’s not a weakness to reconcile. It’s inevitable.”

I didn’t reply, watching Julien guide her across the street, muttering in her ear like he was scolding her. Jesse skulked in closer to me, grinning widely.

“It’s inevitable.” He swept his hands between us.

“Don’t start.” I waggled a finger at him with a sigh. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to find out who was behind these attacks. Watching the diminutive back of the Crimson Claw president, I was sure they spoke the truth.

Weird, confusing truth.

So, who was after me? Had they tried using Crimson Claw as a front? That kind of calculation made my stomach clench, but I had to indulge the possibility.

Before it was too late.

25

Jesse

“Still can’t believe you got a hand job,” I groused as we wandered into Lara’s apartment building. The attendant at the reception desk smothered a frustrated glare as I approached. Our arrival was not unnoticed by the two guards leaning against the walls. One of them picked up his phone immediately.

Tattletale.

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