Reckless Temptations (The Tempted Series Book 4) (27 page)

“I like you, Lauren, think you’re great for Riggs,” he stated.

Wow.

Cue the violins.

Someone tell the poor guy we were just friends having a kid.

“Think you’ll keep him on his toes and that’s what he needs,” Bones continued. “He’s going to do the right thing and he’ll be a good dad too, just have patience with him,” he affirmed. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring him back to you,” he said.

His words were meant to ease me but instead they instilled fear in me. What if he was wrong? If there was one thing I learned being Anthony Bianci’s sister, it’s that a man who plays on the other side of the law is a gambling man. You can’t win every hand and one day you’ll be forced to fold.

Bones started for the door and I stared at the patch on his back. The reaper stared back at me, warning me everyone folds eventually.

Hey Reaper.

Two words.

One finger.

And then Bones turned around as I held up my middle finger.

“Uh…that wasn’t meant for you,” I stammered, dropping my finger. Shit!

“Right,” he said, cocking his head as he stared at me perplexed. “God she’s perfect for him,” he mumbled, turning around.

This time when I lifted my finger I gave it to Bones and not the Reaper.

I wasn’t perfect for Riggs.

No, not at all.

Hope.

Fuck you hope.

I don’t want you.

I locked the door, grabbed my bat and went back to the couch. Then I did what any good catholic girl did and prayed with my baseball bat tucked under my arm.

Because I was Anthony Bianci’s sister.

Because I was having Riggs’ baby.

Because everyone folds.

Because I was fucking pregnant and crazy.

I blinked against the darkness, unable to see. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the bag over my head or the fact that one eye was swollen shut and the other was bleeding. My head was pounding and the left side felt like it was on fire.

I’m going to come out of this.

And when I do, I’m going hunting.

I’m going to torture and kill every fucking Dragon I can find.

I’m going to beat the fuck out of them until they’re pissing blood.

I knew the moment I mentioned the Dragons’ stash house to the Knights I was playing with fire. I was so sure that setting Jimmy up to take the fall would be key in saving our asses.

It would’ve worked too if I hadn’t fucked up, but it’s my fault I’m lying here beaten and bloody.

Jack wasn’t kidding when he told Wu I was the best in the surveillance business.

I was.

I wired every fucking inch of Wu’s building and in the process I set myself up for my own fate. I’m the one who signed my death certificate the moment I took the mask off in the hallway of the stash house. I saw the footage with my own eyes. I was naked when I woke up from the blow to the head, handcuffed to a pipe and at the mercy of the Red Dragons. Wu played the video back for me and he played it over and over again, each time he did he struck me with a whip.

They maneuvered me into the back of a van, covering my head with a canvas bag as they drove me to wherever it was these fuckers thought they would kill me.

I may have made a mistake and been reckless but I wasn’t going down without a fight.

I’d go “Jackie Chan” on their asses.

Jack was right about something else.

We all need heart, it’s what keeps us from being reckless, keeps us breathing.

I needed to breathe.

For Kitten and for Pea.

I only wish I had found my heart before my mistake.

The van came to a sharp stop causing me to roll around the floor of the truck.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed, as my welted body ached in pain.

This is it.

Time to fight.

I’m a motherfucking Knight, only Satan can drag my ass to hell.

Someone jumped into the back of the van with me, grabbing my arms and dragged them, tied at the wrists, across the floor.

“I will kill you, after I kill the woman who bore your pathetic ass,” I hissed.

He shouted something in Chinese and then another voice replied in, surprise, surprise… Chinese! I was never eating Lo Mein again.

The van took off, speeding, and I felt the air wash over my naked body, figuring the door to the van was open. They shouted some more bullshit I didn’t understand and then I heard the familiar sound of gunfire.

Music to my ears.

Then my body was thrown from the van.

What a fucking way to go.

“Shit. Riggs!” I heard Bones’ voice over the gunshots starting to die down and the distinct sound of tires screeching against the pavement.

“Holy shit,” Pipe, yelled.

Someone grabbed my body, forcing me to sit up and pulled the bag from my head. I brought my hands up to my face, trying to shield the sunlight that threatened to blind me with my tied hands.

“What happened?” Jack demanded.

“Bulldog, look,” Wolf said, turning my head slightly.

“What?” I asked. “Shit, I have a hole in my head don’t I? Someone untie me!” I shouted, trying to feel for the hole, my hands stilled when I touched my hair—it felt off.

I lifted my eyes to Jack as he crouched down in front of me.

“Who did this to you?” He asked calmly.

“Wu,” I replied. “He knows we took the drugs it’s on camera,” I hissed.

He lifted his eyes to my head again.

“Jack why is my hair missing?” I asked hastily, looking around at my brothers. “Someone tell me what the fuck is going on,” I demanded, before I reached for the pocket knife on Jack’s belt and flipped the blade open. I lifted it to my head and with the eye I could open I tried to see the image reflected in the knife.

Someone decided to give my fine self a new do, and by that, I mean a fucking chop job.

I looked like one of those rappers that shaves his mama’s name onto his head.

Bones held my head, turning it slightly to the right, so I could see what they were gawking at.

There was something I couldn’t make out faded into the hairstyle, something legible if you had two working eyes.

“What’s it say?” I demanded.

“Two hundred and fifty,” Bones whispered.

Wolf turned my head around, inspecting it for anymore messages before glancing back toward Jack.

“They fucking carved a price tag to his head,” he ground out.

That was a bit dramatic even for Wolf.

I ran my hands over my fucked up hair and scowled.

Jack straightened up, running his hands over his face before he turned to Pipe.

“The Dragons tried to slay a Knight, Prez, you know what that means don’t you?” Pipe questioned.

“It means the fucking Chinese resurrected a war with us,” Jack ground out. “It means, get your fucking saddle ready because we’re going to ride ‘til our hands are covered in Dragon blood,” he vowed, fixing his eyes on me. “Means Riggs is going to show them who the fuck breathes fire. You with me, brother?” He asked.

“I’m with you,” I said, numbly.

He cupped my chin, forcing me to look at him.

“Heart,” he hissed, before dropping my chin and turning toward Bones. “Get him cleaned up and a goddamn cut,” he ordered, before he turned to Pipe.

“I’m hungry,” Jack said. “You hungry Pipe?”

Fine time for them to be talking about food while Bones hoisted my naked ass off the dirt road. I had a motherfucking price tag on my head and they were talking about their stomachs. Join an MC—it’ll be fun—still waiting for the fun part.

“Starving,” Pipe replied.

“Let me guess…you’re in the mood for a little General Tso’s chicken?” Wolf questioned, as he stepped into stride alongside them.

“Ay,” Pipe agreed. “With a side of Wu,” he added.

Time to hunt.

Once in the cage, Bones pulled his cut off and threw it onto my lap.

“Put it on,” he ordered, turning the key in the ignition as the rest of the Knights straddled their bikes and peeled away from the scene of my drop off.

I looked down at his cut, wincing as I put it on.

“You don’t happen to have a pair of pants lying around here somewhere, do you?” I asked.

He said nothing, keeping his eyes on the road as I glanced down at myself, my dick flailing around every time we went over a bump. Luckily for me, Bones and I have been close friends for years. So close as boys that we used to measure our dicks against the wall. If we didn’t have that kinda friendship, this shit might’ve been awkward.

Boys who turned into men.

My brother.

The one person I trusted more than anyone.

I glanced over at him, noting his knuckles whitening as they gripped the steering wheel and how his jaw clenched as he worked his neck from side to side.

“I took my mask off,” I said, breaking the silence between us. “When Wolf was still upstairs in the apartment I turned around and lifted the ski mask from my face,” I explained.

“Why you telling me this?”

“Because Wu let me go,” I said running my hand over the hair missing from my head. “You and I both know he only let me go to deliver a message. He’ll be back, The Dragons aren’t going to let me get away with that shit,” I said, turning and glancing out the window.

“We’ll handle it,” he barked. “That chink fuck can try to do whatever he wants…we’ll shut the motherfucker down,” he added.

I nodded in agreement because he needed me to but I was realistic, there was a fucking price tag on my head, literally, and I needed to accept that shit. I’d fight alongside my club, fight to the death of me, but I needed to prepare myself in case I was fighting a losing battle.

“Need you to take care of something for me,” I began, turning my eyes back toward him.

“What?”

“If this don’t end my way, I need you to get my parents to give my money to Lauren,” I said. His eyes turned to mine in a flash, anger reflecting in them at my request.

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he seethed, turning his eyes back to the road.

“Right, but if anything ever should. Even if it has nothing to do with the Chinese, and ten years from now I get hit by a truck, I need to know you’ll get her the money so she can take care of Pea.”

“Do your parents even know about Pea?”

“No, and I don’t want a fucking thing from them while I’m breathing but if something happens to me, then my kid deserves that money,” I said, as we pulled into the Dog Pound lot. I glanced out the window and saw Bianci standing outside, next to my bike.

Shit.

I sighed and looked back at Bones.

“Can you do that for me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he hissed. “For Pea,” he said through clenched teeth, before he pointed his index finger at me. “Don’t fucking talk like that again, like you’re going to get clipped and leave that kid fatherless,” he ordered.

Pea was worming his or her way into everyone’s life.

I shoved his finger out of my face and rolled my eyes.

“I’m not going anywhere, asshole. It will take a lot more than a pack of ninjas to take this guy down,” I declared, reaching for the door handle and climbing my naked ass out of the van.

I squared my shoulders back, head held high as my dick flapped in the wind and strode toward the compound like the badass I am.

My demeanor dissolved when I saw my precious Harley covered in red fucking paint and Bianci standing next to it with a sponge.

“Step away from the bike!” I demanded, my one good eye assessing the damage before I looked back at Bianci, staring daggers at him like the one eyed bandit. Just call me Cyclopes.
“What did you do to my Bike?”

“What the hell happened to you?” He growled, ignoring my question, and me for that matter, as he turned to Jack. “What the fuck?”

“None of your business Bianci,” Jack growled.

“The fuck it isn’t,” he pressed, diverting his eyes back briefly, taking in all the glory that is me.

“Go home, Bianci,” Jack demanded. “Your ass don’t belong here, this is club business, something you’re not about. Now, I’ll only say this one more time—go the fuck home to your wife and be the fucking upstanding citizen people fought hard for your ass to be,” Jack ordered, turning around and eyeing the rest of us.