Bastards and Angels (Sinners Book 2)

by K. Renee

  “I love it. It’s perfect,” she whispers, still in awe of the drawing. He motions to the chair and she takes a seat. She looks nervous, so I sit next to her and grab her hand.

  “You know you don’t have to get this done,” I whisper against her hair.

  “I want to. It was my idea.” She gives me a beaming smile and I relax a little. I don’t like seeing her in pain, so the next few hours are going to be like fuckin’ torture.

  When I look back at the photo, I don’t see the tattoo on her skin. This photo is either a fake, or it’s from before we were together. She got the tattoo not long after we started to fuck on the regular. I slightly release my grip on her neck and her hands cup my face.

  “If this is ever going to work, we need to start trusting each other. You can’t assume that lawyer is going to know the truth. She only knows the facts in front of her. The photo tells the truth and we both know it. Calum knows when he put that on my skin. It was before I found out I was pregnant.” Her eyes soften, and I can’t help but crush my lips to hers. Her arms wrap around my waist, and I release her neck, pulling her body to mine.

  My balls still ache, and there is no way I’ll be getting it up after that shit she pulled.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper against her lips when I break our kiss.

  “I think I need to write this date and time down to remember it. You’ve never once said sorry to me.” She has a small grin on her face, and her arms tighten around my neck.

  “You’ll probably never get it again, either.” I bite her bottom lip and suck it into my mouth. “Let’s go show her the proof that you weren’t involved with those photos recently.” She nods and kisses me once more before she releases me.

  Walking out of the room, I feel everyone’s eyes on us. Some of the guys have smirks on their faces because they probably think I just got done fuckin’ her and the ones who saw me drag her ass out of the room know that whatever was the problem is now done. My arm is wrapped around her neck, and she doesn’t even look embarrassed. If anything, she looks ready to take on anyone.

  When we reach Mica, I can see the confusion written all over her face. She thought that the photo was going to get me away from Trix. “What’s going on?” she asks finally. I motion back to the room and, once she starts to walk over there, I motion for Prez to follow. He sets Blade on the ground, and Trix walks him over to lie him down on the couch. The kids are both tired, but I don’t trust them in my room alone until we figure out who tied her up.

  The door shuts behind Prez, and Mica turns to face us both. She looks shocked when she notices him in the room, too. “Why those pictures?” I ask. Her eyes dart between us before she slips her lawyer mask on. Her cool, calm and collected mask does nothing for me this time.

  “They were given to me. They prove that she’s lying to you, E.” I walk closer to her and I see the shift in her body. My eyes scan over her like they’ve done a million times before. She swallows and reaches out slightly to touch me. Moving away from her, I see her eyes change.

  “She isn’t lying to me. You made me think she was just to drive us apart.” She shakes her head no, and looks over my shoulder at Prez. “What you don’t know is that she has a tattoo on her thigh, the thigh that is shown in the photo. She’s had it most of the time we’ve been together. I watched her get it. It matches the one of on my arm.” Mica’s eyes scan over the tattoos on my arm. She knows how much they mean to me. I can see her mind working as she figures out why Trix has them on her, too.

  “No,” she whispers. Her eyes shoot up to mine and I just watch her. I don’t say anything more, and she doesn’t move from the spot she’s rooted to.

  “Why the photos?” Stavros barks out. He looks pissed, and I’m just glad I’m not on his bad side today.

  “I wanted her out of the picture,” Mica says, quietly. She looks over at me again, and I can see the hurt written all over her face. “I’ve loved you for so damn long, and you’ve never given me the time of day.” Her eyes focus on the floor and her next words kill me. “I’ve been invisible to you since the day you met her. She took you from me. I knew Tina never had you. Getting rid of that whore was the easy part. She never held your heart. But I saw the way you changed when you met that whore.” She shakes her head, and then raises her eyes to me.

  “She’s not good enough for you. I tried to make you see over the years that she was nothing. The problems you had together were attempts to get you away from her poisonous ways. She makes you something you don’t even recognize. You’re not you. You’re someone even I don’t recognize.”

  I see the hate in her eyes now. This isn’t the girl I’ve known most of my life. She isn’t the same girl who is my best friend's little sister. Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I send a text to Tarak. Him and me need to talk. We need to talk about what’s going to happen to her.

  “I’ll keep an eye on her until you can talk to her brother,” Stavros says from behind me. I nod my head without looking back at him.

  “He’ll hate you if anything happens to me.” Her voice is broken and defeated. She knows how tight Tarak and I am, but she’s right. He won’t forgive me if something happens to her.

  Instead of answering her, I make my way out the door. I don’t bother looking back at her. I know the look she’ll give me. She’ll beg me for forgiveness and I’ll end up giving in.

  When I walk out of the room, my phone starts to ring. Looking down at the screen, I see his name, and I take a deep breath before I put it to my ear.

  “Hey, Tar,” I say reluctantly.

  “What’s up man?” He almost sounds like he’s bracing himself for something.

  “We need to talk. Can you stop by the clubhouse? I’d rather do it in person.” I hear him blow out a breath on the other end of the line.

  “It’s my sister, isn’t it?” he asks. His voice breaks, and I can hear shuffling in the background.

  “Yeah. She’s got some shit to explain,” I answer. I know it’s not enough to give him an idea of what's going on, but it also doesn’t keep him from not showing up.

  “Is she…” He trails off like he doesn’t even want to know the answer himself.

  “Don’t know. Just head down here, and we can talk about the shit I know about. Then, we can talk to her together.” He agrees quietly before he hangs up the phone. Pocketing my phone, I make my way over to where Trix is sitting with both kids. The guys are standing around the bar, waiting to hear the word.

  “Is she the one who killed her?” Trix asks on a hushed whisper. I wrap my arm around her, and she rests her head on my shoulder. Blade’s head is lying on Trix’s thigh, and Bexley crawls into my lap.

  “I don’t know. I need to talk to her, but I need to talk with Tarak first.” She nods her head against my arm. I love that Trix doesn’t ask me anything other than that. She trusts me to take care of everything, and I will. I’ll never let anything happen to them.

  “Do you think that Stavros and Harlyn will ever figure their shit out?” Her question doesn’t surprise me. It’s something I’ve wondered for a long time, but we don’t talk about her since she’s been gone. I witnessed the changes in Stavros when she came back, and the even more drastic changes when we found him. He isn’t the same man he was before, not that I blame him. I saw the difference in Trix when Dex brought her back from being held hostage. She changed in just a few short hours with that fucker and his lunatics.

  “I don’t know, babe. I sure hope so.” She sighs, and I put my hand on her thigh. “But I get why he’s out for blood since she’s left. I did the same thing when I lost you. I took it out on every fucker here, but then you were in his arms, and it was too fuckin’ hard to stand back and watch you two together.”

  She looks up at me and her eyes burn into me. “That’s why you went nomad.” I nod, but don’t say anything else. There is nothing else to say. It’s true. I ran because I couldn’t face the fact that she might not be it for me. Well, I take that back. She is it for me, but
I may not be it for her. “It broke my heart that you left without a word. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  I kiss the top of her head and look towards the front doors. “Because saying goodbye to you has never been an option for me.”

  She turns to me and gives me a watery grin. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.” Leaning over, she presses her mouth to mine and kisses me. My hand grabs the back of her head and I hold her mouth to mine.

  “Don’t get used to it.” She smiles against my lips and I can’t help but grin, too.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. I love the asshole you are.” I slip my tongue into her mouth, and kiss her without a care in the world. The only thing I care about right now is her and the kids. They are my end game. No matter what shit I’m dealt with in the future, I’ll be okay with them by my side.

  Thirty minutes later, the front doors open and I watch Tarak walk in. I feel Trix’s body tense up as her eyes watch him. She’s spent a lot of time with Tarak and me over the years that we’ve been together and, although they aren’t the best of friends, they have always been friendly. When I go to stand up, her hand doesn’t release mine. I look down at her, and she has a strange expression on her face. “What’s going to happen?” she asks quietly.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with everything,” I whisper in her ear before kissing the side of her neck. Bexley’s legs fall onto the couch cushion next to Trix. Walking over to Tarak, I take in his expression. He knows that shit for his sister is bad if I’m calling him in here. We don’t let shit like this go. She is a traitor in our eyes, and there is nothing that can save her now. But, being Tarak’s best friend, I’m going to let him know the truth before shit goes down.

  “Follow me,” I say before I turn on my heel and walk towards the game room. All the men are still by the bar, just waiting for someone to pass along the verdict. They are antsy to do something. Sure, we don’t take pride in hurting women, but sometimes you have to do what you have to in order to protect what’s yours.

  When he walks through the door, I shut it behind me and turn to face him. “What did she do?” he asks. His hands are fisted at his sides, and I know that he’s not going to take the news sitting down. He’s more likely to swing on me than anyone else I know. We’ve been through a lot over the years, and there is nothing I want more than to make this shit go away, but I can’t. I have to think about my club and my family.

  “She killed Tina.” He blows out the breath that he was holding and looks up at me.

  “What else? You wouldn’t have called if that were it. You’re glad that bitch is gone. I know that for a fact.” I nod my head, because he is right. I am glad that bitch is dead. I would have killed her myself if she didn’t leave my family alone.

  “She admitted to trying to get rid of my ol’ lady. She wanted her out of the picture, so she could have me. She’s been scheming against Trix for who the fuck knows how long. She was pissed when I took the fall for the murder, and she did everything she could to try and prove that Trix did it. Hell, I almost believed her bullshit.” He shakes his head, and looks towards his hands that are still clenching at his sides.

  “You’re going to let them kill her over that?” I shake my head no and I wait for him to say something else. “She’s like your damn family, E!”

  “She was. Not anymore. She helped someone get into the clubhouse. I found my ol’ lady tied up in my room. I’m doing what I have to in order to protect what’s mine. My girl put up a fight, so as soon as I find out who her partner is, I’m going to kill the motherfucker, too. They could have taken my kids, and there is nothing that is going to make me forget that shit. She knows exactly how I feel about Trix and the kids so, for her to do this, it's deliberate.”

  He shakes his head at me and grabs something out of his pocket. Before I can react, he swings on me. I take a right hook into the side of my face and fall to the ground. Getting up, I see that he has something in his hand that he hit me with. Fighting dirty is something I’ve never done. He comes at me again, and this time I hit him in the gut with a knee before I throw a punch into the side of his head.

  He falls to the ground and when I walk over to him, I can feel the side of my side starting to swell. “You’re my family, too, Tarak. Don’t throw that shit away because your sister is a traitor. She made her bed, and she knew exactly what the consequences were before she did that shit. You do, too.” He sits up on his arms and looks up at me from the ground.

  “Can I talk to her?” I nod my head and reach a hand down to help him up. If it were my sister on the chopping block, I would do the same damn shit that he did. I don’t blame him; he is protecting the only family he’s got left.

  I lead him towards the room that Prez is still in with her and open the door. I watch as he walks inside and he eyes Stavros. Even Tarak knows he’s no match for Stavros. No one around here is, especially when they hear about the shit he went through to save Harlyn’s life.

  He walks past Stavros and I shut the door, closing us into the room together. I stand beside Stavros and watch Tarak walk closer to his sister. When her eyes meet me, I can see the anger and hurt in them. She knew what she was doing when she tried to frame Trix, and helped someone get into the clubhouse to tie her up, so there is no saving her now. I sure as hell won’t.

  “What the fuck did you do?” Tarak yells at her. She flinches back from him, and then her eyes meet mine again. She scans my face and frowns when she comes to my jaw. I’m sure a bruise is already forming, but I’ll live.

  “He’s lying.” Of course those are the first words out of that bitch’s mouth. I grab the picture out of my back pocket and walk over to her and Tarak. I hold the photo up and her eyes widen. She didn’t think that I would keep the photo in question?

  “Mica, you were trying to tell me that Trix was stepping out on me. You showed me this picture from before her and I were together just to get me pissed off enough that I would leave her. You don’t think she’s good enough for me, so you killed my ex-wife just so you could frame Trix.” I take a step back and Tarak’s eyes land on me. He doesn’t say anything, but I can read him like a damn book. He’s pissed that I’m calling her out on her bullshit.

  “Who did you help get in the clubhouse to tie her up?” I growl. She turns her head away from me, and looks over at the wall, ignoring my question. I wait a second before I ask her again. “Who the fuck helped you, Mica?” I demand. She flinches at my tone, and I see the look on her face. She isn’t scared of me, not at all. When she looks at Tarak, I can see the disappointment written on his face.

  Walking over to her, I put the photo in my back pocket and grab her face. Tarak comes towards me, but Stavros stops him. “Don’t get in between this unless you want the same fate as your sister.” Stavros’s threat gets Mica to look at me.

  “Give me a name. So help me God, if someone hurts any of them, you’ll wish you never met me.” My face is an inch from hers. I can see the sweat starting to bead on her skin and feel the way she’s starting to shake. My fingers are gripping her jaw hard enough to leave bruises, but I don’t give a fuck at the moment. The only thing I want to know is who I’m going to kill for touching what’s mine.

  A slight knock on the door brings my head away from Mica’s. When I turn to look at the door, I see Trix standing there, looking unsure. Her eyes widen when they take me in. A hand comes into the side of my face, and I grab the bitch by the throat causing her hands to grip my forearms instead. “Please,” she begs as I cut off her air supply. She starts to gasp, and I feel a hand on my back. When I turn to look at Trix, I can still see the uncertainty on her face.

  “I need you to go,” I say through gritted teeth. I won’t let her see this.

  “No.” Trix’s voice is strong and lets me know she won’t back down.

  “I won’t let you see this. Go!” I demand. She shakes her head at me, and then puts her hand on my arm that’s holding Mica by the throat.

  “I
need to ask her something.” I stare at Trix for a moment before I release my grip on Mica’s throat. Mica gasps for air, and she falls to the ground at my feet. Trix’s eyes never leave mine and she is seriously testing my patience right now.

  “Hurry the fuck up. I need answers and she sure as hell won’t tell you want you want to know.” Trix pushes me out of the way and I wrap an arm around her. I won’t let her get too close to Mica. She thinks she can talk to her, but there is no way that Mica will say anything to her. Mica hates Trix more than I ever imagined.

  “Are you the one who had that man attack me?” Her voice wavers a bit with her question. I know she’s still shook up about that, and I’ve been too preoccupied to talk to her about it. Fuck.

  “You’re fucking lucky that Romeo was still hung up on you, following you around like a lost puppy dog when you left him for E. He’s just as pussy whipped over your whore ass as E is. It’s fucking pathetic,” Mica sneers at Trix. Trix starts to move forward, but I hold her back against my body.

  “You sent someone after my ol’ lady while I was in jail?” My mind is racing with a million fuckin’ questions. Why the fuck would she do that? “Because I took the fall, you sent someone after her?” I can feel my heart rate increase, and my hands are itching to get back around her neck.

  “She doesn’t deserve you, E! Why the fuck can’t you see that? You and I were always together. It was supposed to be me and you, just like when we were growing up.” She launches herself at us, but Tarak grabs her, pulling her back and pushes her into the wall.

  “You seriously sent someone to hurt her?” Tarak gets in her face, and I have a feeling that he won’t go easy on her. He once dated a girl who was sexually assaulted. It happened while they were together and, ever since then, he’s closed himself off from relationships afterwards. “What the fuck was your plan, Mica? For that fucker to kill her or just rape her?”

  I feel Trix flinch in my arms, and I hold her tighter to my body. My lips go closer to her ear and before I can say anything, she turns to look at me over her shoulder. Our faces are an inch apart. “What if he was successful? Or, I didn’t drop the kids off with Harlyn…” She trails off and a tear starts to slide down her cheek, so I wipe it away.