The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition

by Janine Infante Bosco

  I watched her from the living room, barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen—I couldn’t help but chuckle. Lauren didn’t share my amusement and dragged my ass into the kitchen, insisting I help her. She taught me how to make the perfect meatball and I now knew Maria Bianci’s secret ingredient. I wouldn’t hesitate to leak that shit if that woman should find the need to piss me off.

  Bones showed up as we were eating dinner and Lauren fixed him a plate. The three of us sat down like Three’s Company and ate, forgetting all about the reason Bones was there in the first place. Jack was calling Church in an hour and my ass was needed at the compound. It was time to face the music and tell him the truth of how I fucked up, how all this shit with the Chinese was my fault.

  I kissed Kitten goodbye and left with Bones. We were late walking into the Chapel, just as Jack slammed the gavel down.

  “Nice of you two idiots to join us,” he commented.

  “Leave them alone, man. These two fucks were getting it on in the back of the cage,” Wolf chimed in.

  “You two dicks acting out a little Brokeback Mountain?” Pipe questioned.

  “The fact that you even know what that is makes me wonder if that mail order bride of yours is just a cover,” I growled. “Wolf here, probably does it for you,” I turned to Wolf. “When you gonna make this bitch your old lady?”

  Jack chuckled from the head of the table as Pipe stood, about to kick my ass but Wolf held him back, keeping his man in line and all that.

  “All right, all right, enough. We have a lot of shit we need to cover and not a lot of time,” Jack announced. “We want to keep breathing, we need to settle this score with Wu. We were desperate to get back Reina and Blackie and fucked ourselves by taking their shit. There’s a reason we’ve been playing nice with the Red Dragons for all these years…them motherfuckers, they get down and dirty.”

  “Let them fuck with us, let them try, we can get down and dirty too,” Wolf argued.

  “I think you proved that point when you shot and killed those whores,” Jack cited, grounding out his cigarette in the ashtray in front of him.

  “God rest their souls,” Wolf muttered, making the sign of the cross.

  “You’re sick,” Bones declared, as he watched Wolf bow his head and pray for the souls of the whores who made a living cutting heroin.

  I wasn’t a church man but something told me they needed more than a prayer to cleanse their souls, but then again so did we.

  “Pipe, where we at with our finances?” Jack questioned.

  “Wait, we’re seriously going to pay these rat bastards?” Pipe asked, turning his attention toward Jack.

  “We pay them what we owe them because I don’t want them taking another one of my guys,” Jack said. “Now, I asked how our finances are and I expect an answer,” he barked.

  “We don’t got much to work with, most of the clubs money has been tied up in the guns, but hey, we got a shitload of guns now,” he informed.

  “What if we got another buyer?” Bones asked.

  “Not enough time,” Jack answered. “There’s no money coming in from our dealings with Victor either, not until I get my ass up there and figure out where we go from here. What about the Corrupt Bastards, they paid their debt?”

  “Yeah, they paid for the run we made up north with them—a whopping fifty grand. We’re right there boss,” Pipe said sarcastically. “I can pull about seventy-five grand from the garage but how we going to get the other half?”

  “I’ll take the rest of the money out of my house,” Jack declared, diverting his eyes to Wolf. “Tell the Chinese prince we’re coming for him, to set the fucking table,” he grunted.

  “I can’t let you do that,” I said, raising my eyes to meet Jacks. “We leave the clubs money alone and you don’t touch one red cent of the equity in your house,” I stated.

  “Not your call to make, Riggs,” Jack bit back.

  “Too bad,” I leaned back in the chair and glanced around the table at my brothers. “This is my fault, I’ll pay the debt.” I declared.

  “If you didn’t give us that intel we wouldn’t have had the drugs. It was pure luck we got Jimmy the way we did, if things went differently and we didn’t have the drugs to bargain with Reina and Blackie would both be dead,” Jack explained. “You did good, kid.”

  “You want to know why Wu came after me,” I asked, as I turned around and looked at him. “Why he didn’t put a bag over Pipe’s head, or put a price tag on Wolf? Because I’m the one that fucked up.”

  I watched as Jack narrowed his eyes in confusion and the table grew silent.

  “When you gave me the green light I switched the camera feed on Wu’s stash house and replaced the live feed with the recordings of the day before. So when we got there and Wu checked his cameras he wouldn’t see shit.”

  “Smart man,” Jack commented warily.

  “Yeah, except I missed a frame, one frame out of a forty-five. I had no idea, even after he took me I didn’t know why he did, and then he showed me,” I pulled my hat from my head, displaying my new haircut to my club. “The frame I missed was the camera in the hallway. I may be good-looking but I’m not very photogenic,” I turned back to Jack. “When we were calling out for Wolf I turned toward the camera and lifted my mask. That’s how Wu knew it was us…knew it was me,” I confessed.

  “Shit,” Pipe mumbled, swiping his hand over his face.

  “It was a slip up Riggs, doesn’t mean this shit should lie on your shoulders. We were racing against the clock and anyone of us could’ve made a mistake,” Jack began. “We could vote on it but it’d be a waste of time.”

  “Appreciate that boss but I’ve got the money and I want to be the one who pays,” I insisted.

  “You got a quarter of a million dollars just hanging around?” Pipe questioned.

  “Ever hear of Montgomery Oil?” I asked the club, glancing over at Bones who shook his head.

  I never wanted the club to know where I came from, mainly because if they knew the truth they probably wouldn’t have patched me in. I was the heir to a fortune, a spoiled brat who turned his back on his family and their millions to be a fucking criminal. It was the shit FX movies were made of. To be fair though, my family wasn’t worth my piss, they didn’t give a damn about me. I was just a dick that would carry their name and hopefully produce more dicks for them. Long live the Montgomery’s and all their glory. Bullshit.

  My mother reached out to me a couple of times after I left, only because my old man cut her off. It didn’t matter that they were divorced, that she had been re-married three times since their divorce, Robert Montgomery owned that bitch with a fat checking account. She jumped at his command. When he told her to reign me back in or he’d cut her flow of money, she tried her damnedest to be the doting, loving mother she never was when I needed one. Fuck her too.

  I didn’t need them or their money.

  Montgomery was a name inked to a piece of paper.

  Riggs was a name I chose for myself and the Satan’s Knights was the name of the family I chose.

  I may not need them or want them but I took what was mine to take. What I fucking earned. Twenty-one years I gave them fuckers, being the son they pawned on babysitters and hired help. I deserved every dollar of that trust fund.

  They could keep their fucking empire.

  I was sitting at the table of a different kind of empire.

  One where family mattered.

  “What about it?” Jack asked.

  I lifted my hips, pulling my wallet out from my back pocket and took out my license, throwing it onto the table.

  Pipe reached out and lifted it up to his eyes.

  “Fucking ay!” He hissed, handing it over to Jack. “Got ourselves a rich one, don’t reckon ever having one of those before,” he mused.

  Jack looked at me for a moment, meeting my stare before his eyes dropped to the name on my license.

  “I’ve got the money,” I repeated, causing him to lift his eyes t
o me. “Give me a day to pull it all out and then set up the meet with Wu.”

  “You realize that you might be pissing away your daddy’s hard earned cash, don’t you? Ain’t no guarantee meeting Wu’s demands will make him go away,” Jack enlightened. “The last time the Knights and the Dragons were at war there was a whole lot of bloodshed across these streets and all the money in the world wouldn’t have made it disappear.”

  “I’ve been pissing on my father since I walked away from him,” I declared, slapping my palm against the wooden table. “It’s the least I can do, man.”

  Jack stared at me long and hard. He could tell me to take my money and shove it up my ass but tomorrow morning I’d go to Wu myself and pay the clubs debt off, with or without them behind me. His words rang in my ears, the promise of more shit heading our way because of my mistake, and I realized I would do whatever I had to, to keep this shit at bay.

  “Fine,” he said finally.

  “Get the money,” he tore his eyes from me and looked at Wolf. “Get that meeting set up.”

  “You got it, boss,” Wolf agreed.

  “Good,” I said. “What happens next?”

  “We wait,” Jack said. “This club needs to make as much money as possible to fund our asses when Wu comes calling again, and mark my words that bitch will call,” he continued. “We’re going to need all the ammo and all the allies we can get,” he added. “With Blackie still in the hospital, I will reach out to the Corrupt Bastards myself and see if we can work something out with them. They’ve carried us before, if the deal is sweet enough they’ll do it again. I’m heading up to see Vic next week, finish up this shit with Gold and feel him out for who’s got the power now. If his organization has any life left I’ll make sure they’re in our pocket, ready to roll when the storm blows through.”

  “Look around, Jack, this club ain’t ready for a war. We’ve barely got a pulse right now,” Pipe cautioned. “Our vice president is on a methadone drip trying to get clean. We need more men, another charter or something. The only reason we’re still standing is because Bianci and Val’s kid pitched in with the Gold situation.”

  “You think I don’t know that? You think I’m fucking blind?” Jack roared. “But I ain’t bowing down to no Dragon and neither is this club,” he spat. “So protect your interests, hold tight to those you love and make it count because we’re living on borrowed time.”

  Those were his final words before he adjourned our meeting, final words that had a whole lot of meaning. One of the prospects had fixed up my bike, and I didn’t need Bones to drive me back home.

  Home. What a joke.

  My home was here at the Dog Pound, away from Lauren.

  Where it should be.

  If Jack was right, and he usually was, every moment I spent making it count was another moment I put her and Pea at risk. Jimmy took Reina partially because she meant something to Jack. That sick fuck tried to grab Jack’s daughter and would have if Blackie hadn’t of sacrificed himself.

  An enemy didn’t care about the people that mattered most in your life, it wasn’t about them, they were just a pawn they took to make you suffer. I understood the concept, there was no greater torture than being helpless as someone you cared about suffered for your sins. I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing to one of my own enemies.

  Make it count.

  Borrowed time.

  Jack’s words repeated over and over in my head but they didn’t stop me from going home to Kitten. His words should’ve been a wake-up call, a warning, but all they did was push me closer to finding my heart. The thing that keeps me breathing.

  It was late by the time I got home and all the lights were out. Lauren was sound asleep in our bed with a book resting on her chest. I walked around the bed, glancing down at her feet curled under her and saw the socks she wore. I felt something squeeze inside of me and I brought my hand up to my chest trying to rub it away.

  I carefully took the book from her chest and closed it, turning it over to see what she was reading.

  What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

  My lips curved slightly as I placed the book on top of the nightstand and my eyes wandered to her stomach.

  Still no sign of Pea.

  Still a chance for that kid to be spared the hell my life would inflict on him or her.

  Then I looked at Lauren and remembered I promised her I’d stick around. She’d hate me if I left but she’d hate me more if something happened to her or the baby.

  I turned around and walked out of the bedroom, deciding that I couldn’t walk away just yet and knowing with every fiber of my being I was doing the wrong thing. I kicked off my boots and told myself sleeping on the couch was at least putting distance between us but before I could lie down, Lauren padded into the living room.

  “What’re you doing?” She asked softly.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you, go back to sleep, Kitten,” I said huskily.

  “Okay, then come with me,” she replied, holding out her hand as she cocked her head to the side and stared at me.

  My hand moved up to my chest again, rubbing away that ache as I stood up and walked over to her. She pressed her lips to mine quickly before turning around and taking me to bed.

  It was painfully obvious that I couldn’t say no to Kitten and more importantly I didn’t want to, so I yielded Jack’s advice and made it count.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  We met Sun Wu at Pop’s shooting range the following day to give him back the money for the drugs we stole. I underestimated Jack, maybe because that shit Wu spewed when he took me was stuck on repeat in my head. I assumed he would try to forge a new truce between the clubs. Jack didn’t do anything like that, he gave that motherfucker his money and assured him he’d be waiting for him. He didn’t back down from the inevitable threat but welcomed it instead. He was a sick fuck.

  Three months had come and gone without one word from Wu. Three months, living life, looking over our shoulder waiting for the bloody war to begin. But it never did, the Red Dragons didn’t strike and so we kept on breathing, waiting for the moment when the air would be robbed from our lungs.

  The club was in a bad place financially and worse; we were weak when it came to our man power, making us vulnerable. Blackie had been released from the hospital and joined a state funded methadone program, which only substituted one high for another. He needed to get himself checked into a rehab but refused, mainly because of the impending war with the Chinese but also because he had a death wish. Every day out of rehab, was another day he suffered, and that man loved living life waiting for it to end. He promised Jack he’d go to rehab when this shit died down. Nobody knew when that would be and we all feared he’d succumb to his demons before that.

  Jack busied himself with tying up any loose ends with Jimmy Gold, that crazy fuck was getting his ass carted to Otisville once the hospital cleared him for discharge. Over the last few months he and Bianci made a couple of trips up to see Victor Pastore. Aside from sealing Jimmy’s fate, Jack was trying to get in with another family. Victor’s organization was dead on the streets and he turned most of his interests over to another local mob boss, Rocco Spinelli and his crew. With our Chinese deal off the table, Jack was looking for a new buyer and Rocco was the top of list.

  Pipe was expanding the garage, he hired a few new guys who specialized in custom bikes, hoping to generate more business for the club. Wolf went off the grid for days at a time, going on runs, hoping to sway nomads that didn’t belong to a charter to come sit at our table. So far the poor bastard hadn’t recruited one. Can’t blame them though, it’s like signing up for the military after our countries had been attacked but there’s no fucking purple heart to be won here.

  Bones hasn’t had much going on other than his mission in life to annoy the fuck out of me. After the whole thing came to light, and I explained to Jack and the rest of the club it was my fault this shit went south, I tried to put distance between me and Kitten. I wasn�
�t doing it because I was freaking out about being tied down or even because we were having a kid; I was doing it because for the first time in my life I didn’t feel like being selfish. For the first time I had people in my life that were worth a damn and deserved better than I could give them. But every time I thought I could do it, thought I could turn my back on them and sacrifice my promise to Kitten so she and Pea could have a life without fear…Bones was there reminding me I was more than capable of taking care of what was mine. Own it became two words I contemplated tattooing to my body.

  It’s not a hard thing to do, owning my responsibilities, it’s something I’m happy to do. You would be too if you had Lauren every night waiting in your bed, ice cold feet and all, she was my favorite person.

  At nineteen weeks pregnant, she was the prettiest, sexiest creature I had ever laid eyes on. About six weeks ago, Pea decided he or she didn’t want to go unnoticed anymore and Lauren’s belly started to round. Each week since, it seemed to get bigger and bigger, all signs that our kid was growing and gearing up to make his big debut. Kitten was almost at the half-way mark and everything was smooth sailing. I hadn’t missed another doctor’s appointment since that first one when I fucked up. Our refrigerator now proudly displayed grainy black and white pictures of Pea, a souvenir from every visit.

  Jack walked up beside me, handing me a beer and tipped his head toward Lauren.

  “When are you two going to do one of these things?” he asked, studying a pink and blue napkin in his hands before shaking his head. It was quite comical that the Bulldog was at a gender reveal party. Fuck, if we’re being honest it’s pretty crazy that either of us were here. If someone would’ve told me six months ago I would be sitting in Bianci’s house, with his mother ten feet away, waiting for his kid to pull the tape off a box and let us all know if they were having a boy or a girl…well, I’d tell them they were fucking bat shit crazy.

  Yet, here I was.

  And Jack was standing next to me guzzling a beer.