Except for one set. No, that set was on me, and it made the breath in the back of my throat hitch as I continued my dance.
It was an intoxicating feeling to be seen like that. To be admired. Even if it was from someone I’d rather see staring up at me from a body bag. There was still no denying the spark that burned hot between the King of Lovelen and me. Not when I could still feel where his hand had been earlier, the ghost of it on my thigh like a brand. Kaius Mordred was dangerous, magnetic, and far too tempting.
And I couldn’t afford to fall for the King of Lovelen.
The song began to wind down when Astoria stopped her to reach behind the bar. I blinked in confusion and looked over my shoulder at her. “What are you doing?”
She popped back up with a bottle of vodka and a matchbox in hand. “Let’s give ’em the grand finale, Ace.”
I opened my mouth to object, but she was already shoving the bottle into my hands. My head whipped to where Kaius had been standing all night, but he was suddenly nowhere to be found.
“Saturate the top of the bar, but don’t fall, and watch for Josie. She’ll be pouring final shots.”
My eyes flickered between the bottle and the glossy bar. I paused, then flipped the bottle upside down, letting the vodka spill across the wood as I walked. My feet weaved around Josie as she lined up small shots of Patrón in front of a group of waiting customers.
At the far end of the bar, I turned the bottle upright, heart hammering with giddy anticipation. Astoria was at the opposite end now, and I watched as she struck a single match. Her eyes twinkled with excitement as she dropped it. The flames hissed, dancing over the vodka trail as it crawled toward me. Cheers erupted as patrons took their shots just before the fire got to them.
I watched in awe as the flames slithered closer to me. And then I realized my toes were standing directly in the vodka, and if that flame hit them, I was going to get burned.
Shit.
“Jump,” a man’s voice called out to me.
I twisted, taking the outstretched hand, and leaping blindly toward him just as the blaze got to me, the heat licking up the back of my legs. I landed hard against the person, stumbling on my feet as I tried to find my bearings. The man’s hand anchored at my waist, keeping me from falling on my ass. I sucked in a shaky breath, my mind wandering to how close of a call that was before looking toward who had helped me, to find Nolan standing inches away from me, one hand firmly resting on my hip.
“Are you okay?” Nolan asked, a bright smile shining down at me. He chuckled once as a shadow loomed over the two of us. “Maybe keep the flames to second nights, Tor.”
“And where would the fun in that be?” Astoria called down to us.
“Fun? I don’t know what your idea of fun is, but mine doesn’t include scraping up a freshly crisped Acelynn off our bar top.” Nolan shook his head at the girl. “She seems like she would be hard to remove, like mold or some kind of flesh-eating bacteria.”
I stepped away from Nolan, hand swatting at his chest at his comment. “Hey, you both love having me around. If you didn’t, I would have been sent to that shady motel to fend for myself last night.”
“Eh.” Astoria shrugged at me as she bent at the knee to come closer to the two of us. “I needed to fix my record when it comes to who I have dragged through here. A stray turned permanent employee is a personal best for me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
kaius
Even over thechaos of last call at the Queen’s Table, I could hear Acelynn’s bright and melodic laugh cutting clean through the noise. She stood in front of Nolan, her smile wide as he said something that made Astoria roll her eyes and throw a crumpled napkin in his face.
My sister hopped down from the bar, grabbing a bottle of dark liquor from the top shelf and pouring three shots. She slid one to each of them before raising her own and launching into a toast that, knowing her, had some sort of sexual innuendo buried in it. The three of them clicked their glasses once before tapping them on the bar top and downing the liquor.
Acelynn’s face twisted in immediate regret, violent coughs breaking through her lips. Nolan reached out, patting her back lightly. Any other man in this place laying hands on my new fixation would have had me already halfway through breaking his jaw. But not Nolan. I didn’t need to worry about himpursuing her. Not when he had been hung up on my baby sister since we were teenagers. And he knew better than anyone what lines we were willing to cross.
We trusted each other with our lives. Always had. Always would. And we had made that very clear time and time again.
The blade bit into my palm as I dragged it across the skin. Precise but deep enough to scar, because this oath would be lifelong. A permanent reminder of the weight of it. I clenched my fist, letting the crimson pool drip into the rusted metal bowl at our feet. The light scent of rain surrounded us from the passing monsoon.
Across from me, Nolan stood silent. His face was unreadable. He had always looked this way when he was pissed, when he felt out of control.
“This is how we clean house. How we bury traitors, boys,” my father had said hours earlier when he decided it was finally mine and Nolan’s time to be more than just drug runners for the club. He always expected me to take on his role as president of the Knights of Lovelen and knew who I would choose as my second. This was an initiation, a test of loyalty for both Nolan and me.
“I told you he’d fold,” Nolan said through a clenched jaw, voice low.
I didn’t respond right away. My hands were still shaking, not from the pain, but from the rage that had coursed through me tonight. And it scared me that I was able to reach that point so easily. How I had been able to turn off my emotions like the flip of a light switch. I had turned into exactly the monster my father had raised me to be tonight.
The betrayal hadn’t sunk in fully. Liam. Our own. One of the sacred seven, as they liked to call the club leaders’ sons. The ones who would rule for them when they were just dust. We’d grown up together, bled for the cause of keeping peace betweenthe clubs, cracked bones in alleyways when one of us stepped out of line, but now none of that mattered.
