Page 66 of Trigger Happy Ending

“I’m not talking about shelters.”

Her gaze flicks towards me quickly before dropping back to the pavement.

“I mean …” My voice drops to a hushed whisper. “I know people who can make problems disappear. Permanently.”

She takes a second, letting what I’ve offered sink in. I’m walking a very fine and dangerous line.

“Ride or die.” She smirks.

She thinks I’m joking. I roll my eyes and stop walking, facing her. “I’m serious, Cherry.”

“Angel, no.” She looks away, her smirk vanishing as quickly as it appeared. “Derek’s not some low-level idiot. He’s the President of a motorcycle club. They don’t fuck around. I sent him to prison. Prison, Angel. He’s not the forgiving type. I need to get the fuck out of this city before he finds me.”

I freeze. “He’s what?”

“He’s the President of the Raptors MC. They’re a motorcycle gang here on the East Coast. Trust me, they are bad dudes.”

My jaw drops, but I very quickly close it, swallowing hard.

No. Fucking. Way.

Her abusive, piece of shit ex-boyfriend is the very man I stabbed in the thigh with a knife yesterday. I could have ended Cherry’s nightmare right then. If only I’d known.

Does she know he’s out of prison?

“I’ve never heard of them,” I lie, clearing my throat. “They sound lame.”

Cherry continues to talk, explaining how Derek has eyes everywhere, how his club runs half the state from their shitty warehouses and trap houses outside the city. The killing calm creeps over me as she shares how she barely escaped him. I have a visceral reaction when she describes the assaults, both physically and sexually. The abuse she’s suffered at the hands of this monster summons the demon inside me. My vision tunnels, hearing turns fuzzy, and my body tingles.

I had him within my reach.

I could have ended him.

So easily, it’s laughable.

After hearing the pain and torture Derek put Cherry through, I should have buried my blade so deep in his neck, it severed his spinal cord. Trust me when I say he has been added to my kill list.

But it’ll have to wait until the assignment is over.

I remind myself Cherry doesn’t need an assassin right now, she needs a friend. And this is the first time in my tragic life that I’ve ever been one. Against my better judgement, I shove the impulse to kill Derek aside, burying it with the other dangerous urges that live inside me.

Because, although I want out of this life, I’m still a killer. And the beast needs to be fed.

Plus, there’s nothing that gives me more pleasure than killing a man who deserves it.

“You thirsty?” Cherry asks.

“Sure.” I scan the markets. “What do you feel like?”

“I’m done here. Let’s go to a big-girl bar and get a big-girl drink.”

Chapter 28

Raine

Idon’t know why Cherry gravitates to the most dangerous bars in New York City, but she does. This one isn’t too bad when I consider some of the hole-in-the-walls she’s taken me after a shift.

Still, it’s sleaze central.