The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition

by Janine Infante Bosco

I wanted to go home, climb into bed and wait for tomorrow. I stepped out from the darkened hallway and scanned the bar for Daniela but she was nowhere in sight. I made my way back to Brandon who was exactly where I left him and playing on his phone.

  He lifted his head and smiled at me when I reached for his hand.

  “Can we get out of here?” I pleaded.

  “Sure,” he said instantly, reaching into his pocket for some cash. He glanced at the check, threw a few bills on the table and continued to hold my hand as he led me to the bar. He stood behind Blackie and called over his shoulder to the bartender.

  “The bill is on the table,” Brandon said.

  I saw Blackie twist in his stool and quickly I turned my back to him, unable to withstand another blow to my heart.

  Goodbye Blackie.

  I let Brandon escort me out of the bar into the parking lot and toward his car. He opened the car door for me, held it while I climbed in and then bent down so he was level with me. He lifted his hand to my cheek.

  “Anyone who lets you go is a fool,” he said, softly.

  I stared at him for a beat and then I was consumed by the need to feel something, anything other than pain and confusion. I wanted to erase Blackie from my mind and my heart and had no idea how to do that. But here was Brandon, and he wasn’t looking at me like I was nothing, like he wished I’d disappear.

  I reached for him, wrapping one arm around his neck as I leaned and pressed my lips against his. The instant our mouths touched and his tongue pried my lips apart I felt like I was having an out of body experience.

  He broke the kiss, closed my door and jogged around the car. Once he was inside he locked the doors and leaned over me again. I didn’t have a chance to ask him why or even object because his mouth crashed over mine.

  I became lost in my mind, comparing the way Brandon sloppily kissed me to the way Blackie expertly did. This wasn’t making anything better, just making me miss him more and feel cheap and worse than that, made me feel like I was going against my heart.

  I heard him drag the zipper of his jeans down and I quickly pushed my palms against his chest but he pressed himself against me and shoved his tongue deeper inside my mouth.

  I pushed again and this time his hands found my hips and pushed me back against the fabric of the seat. I felt the hardness of his dick against my leg and knew I was in trouble. I turned my head, pulling my mouth away from his.

  “Brandon, stop! I don’t want to do this,” I protested.

  “Yes you do,” he insisted as he ripped my shirt open. “I’ll make you forget that old fuck ever existed,” he growled as he dipped his head and his mouth closed over the lace that covered my nipple.

  I closed my eyes, forced myself not to cry and reached for the unlock button on the door.

  His hands moved to my jeans just as I opened the door and screamed.

  “Help!”

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Brandon growled, grabbing my legs as I tried to scramble out the door.

  “Get off of me! Please! Someone help!” I shouted as he dragged me back.

  “Fucking bitch. Get the fuck back here!”

  Tears streamed down my face as panic and fear set in.

  “Please!” I screamed into the dark parking lot.

  I let out a shrill cry as Brandon grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me backward. Then he released my hair, and I fell face down and half way out of the car.

  “What the fuck?” he sneered.

  “Motherfucker, you know what no means? Huh?” Blackie shouted.

  Blackie.

  My knight.

  The man that always rides to my rescue.

  I crawled out of the car, stumbling onto my feet and turned around as tears clouded my eyes and I watched as Blackie reared his fists back and attacked Brandon.

  “No, stop!” Brandon cried, his pants around his ankles as Blackie bloodied his face with one shot after another. “Shit, I’m sorry! Help!”

  I watched in horror as Blackie grabbed Brandon by his ears and threw him onto the ground, wedging a boot between his legs. Brandon wailed as blood poured from every crevice of his face.

  “Blackie!” I shouted.

  He was going to kill him.

  “C’mon motherfucker, cry for me. Cry like the bitch you are,” Blackie demanded as he pounded the back of Brandon’s skull against the asphalt.

  “CRY!” He shouted, lifting him by the ears and slamming his head against the ground again.

  “WEEP MOTHERFUCKER!”

  There was blood everywhere.

  So much blood.

  “Open your fucking eyes. Look at me!” Blackie ordered, as a siren sounded from somewhere close by. I glanced around the parking lot and saw people running from the bar towards us.

  “Blackie, the cops are coming! Please stop!” I shrieked.

  Stryker and two of the other guys ran up beside him and tried to pull him off Brandon but Blackie wasn’t having it. There was nothing and no one that could stop him.

  “Blackie man, you need to get the fuck out of here. Let’s go,” Stryker called, turning his eyes onto me.

  “LOOK AT ME!” Blackie shouted.

  This is all your fault.

  Look what you did.

  I closed my eyes and let out a scream that vibrated through my ears.

  Make it stop.

  “You see this face? Remember it. I’m the one who fucking did this to you,” Blackie snarled, just as I opened my eyes and watched him slam the back of Brandon’s head against the ground.

  The moment Blackie released his hold on Brandon the world stopped for us.

  Two lost souls died.

  Two broken hearts stopped beating.

  And the higher power writing our story typed the two words you dread.

  The End.

  One of the cops grabbed Blackie’s arms and forced them behind his back as he lifted his eyes from Brandon’s body and stared at me, baring his soul to me.

  I love you.

  It was reflected in his sorrowful eyes.

  Along with every word scribed of the story of us.

  I felt the scream throughout my body but couldn’t hear it all I could hear was the officer read him his rights and confirm it was all over.

  Lovers forever.

  Blackie and Lacey.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  I can still hear her pleas for help and the image of her crawling out of the car only for that motherfucker to drag her back in— it consumes my mind. I close my eyes and I can see the tortured expression on her face as Brantley slapped cuffs on my wrists and read me my rights.

  I’ve experienced a lot of shit in my life, felt all sorts of fucked up things I wasn’t used to feeling…like sorrow, like remorse, but what I felt when I beat the fuck out of that kid was something entirely different. I wasn’t a man fighting for his club, or an outlaw looking to be a menace. I was a man fighting for his woman and in that instant I was capable of anything.

  There was no remorse for my actions.

  I’d do it all over again.

  And again.

  I swore I’d never touch her again, told myself I was no good for her, and she wasn’t safe because of me.

  I thought giving her up was the answer.

  But watching her with another man, seeing another motherfucker try to take what was mine, made me realize I was wrong.

  I might be a degenerate, a dangerous son of a bitch with a shitload of problems but I love Lacey and there’s not a thing on Earth I won’t do for her.

  Not a fucking thing.

  As long as she keeps needing me I’ll keep showing up.

  Shove me in a cell, handcuff me to a bench and throw away the key but I promise you, as long as I’m breathing…if she needs me I’ll find a way out. I’ll always find a way back to her.

  Always.

  And right now it’s killing me I’m locked up when I should be holding her, reassuring her she’s okay and this nightmare will go
away.

  She needs me.

  And I’m not there.

  I tried to pull my arm free, felt the metal of the handcuffs dig into my wrist as I screamed out in frustration.

  She needs me and there is no end in sight.

  No way out.

  No looking into her eyes and making it right.

  There’s nothing.

  I don’t know how many fucking times I called Blackie, but that fuck hasn’t answered not one goddamn call. I don’t need this shit, honest to God, I don’t. I’ve got a daughter on the brink of a mental breakdown, a war with the Chinese and a goddamn head that won’t be silenced.

  I don’t need to worry my vice president is off the grid on a mission to kill himself and I don’t need the suspicions my mind is feeding me about him and Lacey either. That shit needs to be put to bed.

  I needed to concentrate on Lacey, on getting her the help she needs and rallying the people in her life to become a support system because being mentally ill isn’t something that gets fixed instantly with a little pill. It’s a process to even be diagnosed and then when a doctor labels you bipolar they fuck with different medicines until they find one that helps control the chemical imbalance the brain is feeding off.

  My little girl has a long fucking road ahead of her and as her father and the man responsible for this shit that’s become her life, so did I, which means Blackie needs to step the fuck up and handle the club.

  “Jack?” Reina called, pulling me away from the mess inside my mind and forcing me to focus on the beauty sprawled across my chest.

  She lifted her head and my hands instantly went for her hair, threading it through the sea of gold.

  “Hmm?”

  “You all good?” she questioned, running her hands over my chest as she straddled me.

  “I’m good, Sunshine. You make it all better,” I assured as my hands gripped her hips. Reina shut my maker down better than any medication ever could. She took me away from the darkness and reminded me I had life to live and no time to fall into a trap that was created on hypotheticals.

  She talked me through the war inside my head and when all else failed, my Sunshine would sing, soothing my soul with her voice and quieting the demon possessing me.

  Life was good with Reina in it.

  “She will be okay,” Reina whispered, as she caressed my cheek. I reached up, cradled her face in my hands and brought her mouth down to mine. I’m a fucking lucky man.

  “When you going to marry me?” I growled against her mouth.

  Her lips curved, and she pulled back slightly to look into my eyes.

  “Anxious to make me Property of Parrish?” she teased, pressing another kiss to my lips.

  Sunshine was my second chance.

  A man like me gets a second chance he hangs onto it with everything he’s got.

  “You’ve been Property of Parrish, since I first fucking laid eyes on you,” I reminded her. “Time the whole world knows it.”

  She laughed, dropping the sheet she had tucked under her arms and granted me the sweetest view. I was about to flip her onto her back and take her another time when I heard the doorbell ring.

  I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand.

  “That can’t be good,” Reina murmured, sliding off me. We both threw the covers off us and climbed out of bed. I pulled on my jeans, she threw on a t-shirt and we moved towards the stairs, following the sounds of a fist beating down my fucking door.

  “It’s probably Blackie all fucked up,” I seethed, hurrying down the stairs.

  “I thought he was getting clean?” Reina said behind me.

  “Yeah, me too,” I grunted as I reached the front door and pulled it open. Stryker turned around, his expression grim as he rubbed his hands over his short hair.

  “We got a big problem,” he said, stepping to the side and revealing my daughter.

  “Oh my God,” Reina gasped from behind me, pushing me aside to grab a hold of Lacey. My disheveled little girl stared back at me blankly as black make-up streaked her beautiful face and she clutched Stryker’s leather jacket around her trembling body.

  “What the fuck happened?” I roared, grabbing a hold of Stryker’s shirt and pushed him up against the wall. “Why is she with you?”

  “Jack!” Reina shouted, wrapping her arm around Lacey’s shoulders and bringing her against her. “Get it under control,” she ordered, eyeballing the broken girl in her arms and ushered her into the house.

  I released my grip on Stryker.

  “Start fucking talking,” I demanded.

  “Look, I don’t know all the details but she left a bar with some guy, the next minute someone comes into the bar screaming there’s a fight in the parking lot. By the time me and the guys got outside, Blackie was beating the fuck out of the guy Lacey was with,” he recounted.

  I narrowed my eyes at Stryker, trying to comprehend everything he was saying as he continued to talk.

  “Bulldog, it’s bad…real fucking bad. Blackie went fucking nuts and rightfully so the little fuck was going to rape her.”

  Everything stopped.

  I stepped backward and pinned Stryker with a glare.

  “What did you just say?”

  “He didn’t get a chance too, man,” Stryker proceeded, cocking his head to the side as he peered back at me. “Did you hear me? Blackie got to him before he could hurt her. Jack, he saved her,” he insisted.

  I fell in love with Blackie but you don’t have to get all bent out of shape about it because he doesn’t feel the same way.

  “Where is he?” I demanded.

  “The cops came and arrested him,” he said as I brushed past him and into the house, looking for Lacey.

  “Lace?” I called, following the sounds of her sobs and found her in the living room, pacing back and forth in front of Reina.

  “It’s all my fault! He’s going to go to jail because of me!”

  Can’t order me to protect her one minute and not the next, can’t give me her life, tell me it’s precious then expect me not to put her high on my list of priorities.

  “Lacey,” I shouted. “Baby, look at me,” I demanded, as I watched helplessly as she unraveled, and we swapped roles. I was the person on the receiving end of a manic breakdown and she was the one with no control.

  “Dad?” she questioned, turning around abruptly to stare at me. “Oh, thank God! You have to take me to the police station!” She ordered, grabbing my shoulders as I stood there unsure how to help her.

  “Why aren’t you getting dressed? Did you hear me? You have to take me to the cops, I have to tell them what happened so they can release him.”

  “Lacey,” I croaked, my heart breaking as I watched her lose her battle with her maker

  “No! You’re not listening! He saved me,” she cried. “He saved me, again!” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Brandon would’ve raped me, Dad. Do you understand? Rape! Blackie stopped him and now we have to help him. I have to help him!”

  I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her, looking over her shoulder at Reina.

  “Call your doctor,” I ground out, knowing Reina might have better luck reaching her doctor than I would have reaching mine at this hour.

  She nodded, starting for the stairs to retrieve her phone.

  “Grab my clothes,” I called after her, pulling back from Lacey, I brushed the hair away from her face with the back of my hand and wiped the mascara that ran down her cheek. “Dry your eyes,” I said, blowing out a breath. “Blackie wouldn’t want you crying.”

  I never thought I’d be pleading Blackie’s case to my daughter.

  Never.

  “I’m going to go down to the station and get it all straightened out,” I promised, already working out what I needed to do in my head. I looked over at Stryker. “Get Pipe on the phone, he needs to meet me at the station,” I told him, in case a judge took pity on our vice president and granted him bail Pipe would need to get our finances in order
.

  “Okay, well let’s go,” Lacey said, pulling out of my arms.

  “You’re not coming,” I told her as Reina bounded down the stairs with my boots, jacket and shirt in her hand.

  “The hell I’m not!” She protested walking towards the door. Stryker was quick to block her exit as I pulled my shirt over my head. “The cops need to hear my side I was the one attacked, I’m the one who can make it better,” she cried, digging her index finger into her chest. “Me! I have to make it better.”

  “Listen to me! You need to let me get down there and handle this my way. If there comes a time when I need you to talk to the police then I’ll have one of the guys bring you down to the station but for the love of God, Lacey I need you to stay put!”

  “Lacey, come on, let your father do his thing,” Reina comforted, taking Lacey’s hands. “He wants Blackie out just as much as you do,”

  “No he doesn’t,” she argued, staring back at her. “He couldn’t, possibly.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself in check and watched on as Reina brought Lacey back into the living room.

  “She’s showing signs of PTSD you might want to take her to the hospital,” Stryker suggested, forcing me to turn to him.

  “What do you know about that?”

  “A fuck of a lot, I was discharged from the Army two years ago,” he replied. “She should talk to somebody.”

  “We got it under control,” I ground out. “Now, get your ass over to the compound and rally up the boys. I want Bones here first thing watching out for them. Do we know what precinct arrested him?”

  He froze for a second, shrugging his shoulders and twisted his neck from side to side before he answered me.

  “The one, two, two,” he replied, pulling open the door.

  I shoved my boots on, not bothering with the laces and charged out the door with Stryker on my back. I had the boys meet me down at the police station. Pipe had the bail bondsman on speed dial and Wolf…that crazy fuck, went and pulled the clubs lawyer from his house and dragged him to the station in his pajamas. Riggs wasn’t answering his phone so, I had Bones go over to my house and watch over my girls.

  The police love fucking with us, stringing us along and with Brantley heading the case we got nowhere real fast. They were keeping Blackie locked up in a holding cell until he was arraigned but since it was the weekend that wouldn’t be until Monday.