Burn (16 page)

             
“You’re insatiable,” he said into my ear. “Always taste so good.”

             
“You don’t taste so bad yourself,” I smiled.

             
He kissed my shoulder and ran his hand up and down my arm. I closed my eyes to the soft feel of him. How could such a scary man possess such a soft and tender side? I knew I was one of the very few people who got the chance to see this part of him.

             
“By the way,” he muttered, right before I fell asleep, “why the fuck is Logan goin’ on and on about you being an escort?”

             
I grinned and shook my head. That guy was such a moron.

Eleven

Why was he doing this?

              It was evening and I was on the back of Remy’s bike following the rest of the Jackals to one of their bars. This whole set up smelled funny. Remy had been adamant I come with him to the party. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked me to go with him. I’d tell him no and he’d never push.

             
Until now.

             
It was right before I’d climbed on that I heard Fritz bitch and moan as he always did. “Time to play nice with the fucking enemies,” he spat on the ground as he threw on his helmet, tucking his mammoth long hair behind his back. “Don’t know why we don’t just jump them and murder the fuckers. It’s time to get our town back, for fuck’s sake. They’ve not only stolen our businesses, but our fucking pussy too! Tired of the same bitches hanging around here.”

             
“Shut up, Fritz,” Remy retorted. “You talk that way around them and we’re in for it. Last thing we need is a fight because of your crazy ass mouth.”

             
My face masked the panic I was feeling on the inside. Why the hell was he taking me to one of his peace gathering parties with the Scorpions? They’d been throwing them frequently as of lately as a means to keep the two gangs chilled. Darcy went on that once they were drunk they all got along like old school buds. It’d been the perfect way to ease tensions and attempt to put the past under the bridge. So what did I have to do with this?

             
The large bar we pulled into was old as hell, one of the first to open in town. It’d been later bought out by a Jackal and refurbished top to bottom. Upon walking inside, the bar was directly in your line of vision. The room itself, purposely vintage old with blood red walls and hardwood floors, was broken into several areas. There was a short walk up some steps into the seating area where timber squared tables were set up. Just beside the staircase was a dance floor, and it was crowded with Scorpions and women, drinking and dancing and doing other… interesting movements I would certainly not consider dance moves.

             
There was a corridor beside the bar area that extended to several other large rooms, and I could see Scorpions flowing in and out of these rooms looking dishevelled and barely zipped up at the pants. You didn’t have to be of above average intelligence to know what went on inside them.

             
Prez, who I immediately learned was not of the faithful type, gripped a woman that went walking by around the arm. He brought her roughly to his chest and said something into her ear I couldn’t hear. The girl, who couldn’t have been older than eighteen, widened her eyes in fear and nodded quickly at him. Still gripping her arm, he steered her down the corridor and into a room.

             
Remy leaned into my side. “Find a table up there and I’ll get us something to drink.”

             
He walked off to the bar and I squeezed past a throng of people. I climbed the few steps and, when I reached the top, wanted nothing more than to turn back around. Women were crowded around a few men in the very back, pressing themselves provocatively against them. My stomach turned in nausea, and I was glad as hell there was a free table at the front.

             
I took a seat and stared down at my knotted fingers for all of three seconds before my eyes brushed the entire room again. I wanted to throw my hands up in the air, scream all kinds of insults, and shake every damn person here! This was just overboard. And to think I’d felt the clubhouse parties were rowdy – this was something altogether different.

             
So this is what the Scorpions do,
I glumly thought.
This is the kind of shit I dodged. Thank fuck.

             
I could never,
ever
have participated in any of this. It wasn’t the objectification of every women here that made me queasy, it was their easy submission to every man that walked by.

             
Ugh. Why, Remy? Why did you bring me here?

             
I scanned the bar in search of him. To my horror, he wasn’t there. He’d just told me to wait so he could grab us some drinks.

             
Trembling, I stood up and continued to search for him. He wouldn’t. No, no, not Remy. He wouldn’t be in one of those rooms. There was only one reason he would be. Oh, fuck. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring me here and then abandon me to root some chick.
You’re thinking the worst of him, chill the fuck out.
Well, it was hard to chill the fuck out when he’d been sex deprived for how many damn months now?

             
I recoiled from abrupt hands touching me. I searched for a Jackal and relief swept me when I saw Logan locking arms around a woman’s waist, dancing with her.

             
“Where’s Remy?” I breathlessly asked after weaving through countless bodies.

             
Logan looked around non-committedly, his lower half more concerned with the woman rubbing against it. “Dunno. Did you try the bar?”

             
I gave him an annoyed look. “Of course I tried the bar, you dumbass.”

             
More hands touched me. “Fuck off!” I screamed, shoving them away.

             
“Better watch out,” grinned Logan, green eyes gleaming at the men around us. “This is Remy’s girl. Don’t wanna be touchin’ that, alright?”

             
Instantly those hands vanished. Well, glad to know there were perks to being “Remy’s girl.”

             
I tried the bar next, just to be certain, but there was nothing. Anger surfaced in me. He fucking wouldn’t. Oh, even if he didn’t, I would have some choice words for his random abandonment of me in seedy-sex-central. This was just so un-fucking-like him! He was always protective of me. He wouldn’t have gone pussy hunting.

             
He wasn’t like that.

             
He wasn’t!

             
Fritz hooted from my peripheral. I looked at the two women dangling off of him and suppressed a shudder. The man’s hygiene was questionable. His hair was greasy, his beard uneven, and his nails were black from oil and dirt. He practically lived in the entertainment room on the couch – had a big stain on it in the shape of his ass as proof – where he smoked and drank whiskey all day long, mouthing people off and dribbling on and on about starting a war with the Scorpions. You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to touch him and yet these women were taking him on for… for
free.

             
I should have gone back to my table and patiently waited for him. I should have, but dammit I couldn’t. So used to being fucked over by those I least expected, I wanted to make sure I could eliminate him from that fear. If there was one thing I knew, it was that people were capable of anything, and some of them were damn good liars.

             
My heart thumped wildly as I ploughed down the corridor. It was like Prom all over again, except I was ready – and almost certain – to walk in on Remy doing the unthinkable. I was long desensitized by sex after opening three doors and being greeted with images I would have to burn my brain to forget. I was especially sickened to find Prez buried in the legs of a woman who, much to my dismay, wasn’t even the eighteen year old he’d taken. I pitied Dayna.

             
Then it happened.

             
By the fourth door, all air escaped me. I froze and blinked hard to make sure this was real. To make sure I wasn’t in some sick and twisted nightmare.

             
Just one girl. One very beautiful girl was kissing him and then making her way down below the waist as he sat with his eyes shut and face upwards. His mouth was slightly opened and his tongue lapped his bottom lip as the woman began undoing his belt.

             
Jaxon.

             
Had someone stabbed me? Because I sure as fuck felt like it. I couldn’t even look away, and that was all I wanted to do. Just look away, close the door and move on.
Walk away, walk away…
My feet were rooted, unwilling to budge, an invisible pull forcing me to watch on.

             
As if sensing me, he opened his eyes and looked right at me. The second our eyes met, my binds were cut. It took me hardly a second to turn around and run. I slammed into chests, squeezed through people, shoved women out of my way, and then harsh hands grabbed at my shoulders. Dazedly, I looked up at a face I would have gladly scratched the eyes out of.

             
Finley held my shoulders painfully. “You okay there? You look like you’ve seen something you didn’t like.” The wicked look in his eye told me he knew exactly what I’d seen.

             
“Let go of me,” I demanded.

             
“Why? Isn’t this what you wanted to be part of?”

             
“Let go of me!” I repeated harsher this time.

             
He did and I turned away and ran again, feeling prickles down my spine at his laughter behind me. I didn’t stop moving until I was outside the bar and standing in the parking lot.

             
I was floating, staring disbelievingly all around me, waiting for my nightmare to end. My vision blurred and I nearly fell over right there on the spot. Shock tumbled through my body and it felt like an electric current burning my senses and had me staring at the busy street in fascination. I remember thinking,
I just want to die.

             
How could I have been so stupid?! How could I have hoped to entertain the thought that he was still holding on to me somehow? That he couldn’t just move on, not after everything he’d said to me all those months ago? While I’d felt guilty kissing Remy every damn time, he was out fucking women.

             
“I want you to check the footage again because that shit isn’t makin’ sense.” The familiar voice pulled me away from my thoughts. I turned to it and found Remy standing beside his bike, talking on his phone.

             
No woman around. No lust in his eyes. My ever patient, faithful Remy.

             
And I fucking hated him.

             
I stormed in his direction. When he saw me, he hung up the phone immediately, confused at my anger as I gripped his vest in both my hands.

             
“You left me in there!” I screamed, tears flowing down my face. “You left me without a fucking word!”
And it was your fault I walked in on him. Your fault I had to find you and found him instead!

             
“Calm down, calm down,” he repeated, softly grabbing at my fisted hands. “I didn’t mean to leave you. I got a call while I was waitin’ on drinks, Birdy. Went out here to take care of shit–”

             
“You should have told me!” I interrupted icily.

             
“I didn’t think I’d take long.”

             
“There’s no excuse, Remy! You left me in that orgy infested gutter!”

             
“Fuck, I’m sorry.” He apologized again and brought me into his chest, stroking my back as he laid kisses on my head. I sobbed into his chest, feeling as though he knew what was wrong, as if he was trying to make it all better.

             
I fully sank into him. His arms were what kept me upright, and he held me to him for a time that seemed to stretch on and on. My tears slowed and my breathing evened out. Lost in the feel of his relaxing sway with my cheek against his chest, I finally opened my eyes. My heart tightened at what I saw.

             
Jaxon was standing beside the entrance door, still as the night, watching me. I saw his chest expand as our eyes locked.

             
No.

             
I would not torture myself like this. He ruined me. I closed my eyes, ridding him away, wanting nothing to do with him. After a few minutes passed, I opened them again.