“Move,” I growl. “Now.”
“Watch it, Ghost,” Tank warns behind me, voice clipped.
“No chance, Haunt-Me-Not,” Ria fires back, eyes glinting with challenge, her curls somehow bigger than a moment ago. I’ll straighten them if she keeps acting like this. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. Take the loss. Let her rest. She doesn’t need your biker drama clogging up her recovery. She needs space. And she needs healing.”
Her words hit like a gut punch. I don’t even mask the flinch. They sting because they’re true.
I swallow hard, trying to cage the monster clawing in my chest, then take a breath. The kind that shakes something loose in your ribs. Then another.
“Fine,” I grit out. “Today. She has today.”
“That’s what you think, Spookzilla,” she mutters under her breath.
I round on her, eyes narrowed. “Keep pushing, Frodo. See how far you get.”
Tank growls behind me, but Ria just smirks. That fucking smirk sends a shudder through me, but I don’t say another word. Just swing my leg over my bike, kick it alive, and ride away with my heart in shreds and my soul dying every second.
I barge into Bones’ office without a second thought. He sighs, drags a hand down his face, and looks up at the ceiling like he’s asking for patience from the heavens. Tough luck. I’ve got shit to talk to him about before I go back out.
“Jinx retrieval still set for next Friday?” I ask as I step inside.
“Yeah.” He watches me like he’s already bracing for bullshit. “I can send Fang with Mindfuck if you’re not up for it.”
“Can’t.” I drop into the chair across from him. “Fang doesn’t have time to comb through the intel. He won’t be ready.”
“You sure?”
I nod. “Yeah. I’m sure.” I rake a hand through my hair. It feels like there’s barbed wire inside my lungs. “It wasn’t Adora who planted the drugs in my saddlebag.”
He goes still.
“What?”
“Things are a lot more fucked up than what we thought. I need to look deeper into what actually happened. But first, I bring Jinx in.”
That fucker tortured Temperance in unspeakable ways. Unfortunately for him, and whether Temperance likes it or not, she’s Bones’ woman. Which means Jinx’s ending was never going to be pretty.
Bones leans back slowly, face hardening. “Dom. You could barely handle talking to her father. You spiraled into a bender for a month after that. You still can’t talk to anyone about what happened inside. It took me dragging you halfway to an alcohol infused grave to get it out of you.”
I fold my arms, jaw tight. “I know.”
I run my tongue over my lower lip, thinking about the pile of shit I’m about to dive into.
“But I have to do this. I’ve been avoiding the past for too long. Time to dig it out.”
He studies me. I can see the war in his eyes.
“Just be careful,” he says quietly.
“Always.” I flash him a crooked smirk so forced my teeth ache.
He leans forward, forearms on the desk. “Good. Now tell me what the fuck that stunt with Adora was. When we talked about you taking her, we agreed you’d keep her for a day. Maybe two. Get your pound of flesh, then kill her. Clean. No chance of getting in too deep. What the fuck happened to that plan?”
“It went to shit.” I shrug.
“And?”
“And it’s a good thing it did.” I meet his eyes, jaw tight. “She was just as much a victim as I was. More, actually. I’ll give you all the shitty details later.”
