I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to survive without Beast.
Not now that I’d learned to live with him.
My cell was buzzing in my purse, and I pulled it out thinking perhaps it was Jenna. We’d reconciled in her apartment the day before, and I’d promised to come by for dinner over the next couple of days. She was still hurt by my actions, but she understood why I’d wanted to see my mom so badly. Why it was so important that I got to know her. It was the job at the hospital that she couldn’t get her mind around, and in truth, neither could I.
I’d worked for so long and for so hard to get that job, but upon getting it I realized that I didn’t want it. And now…now I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn’t too concerned though. I may have lost everything, but I’d also gained everything that mattered to me too.
I didn’t recognize the number on my phone, and I frowned as I answered it.
“Hello?” I couldn’t hear the voice on the other end and I covered my other ear with my hand as I darted away from the party to find a quiet spot. “Hello? Sorry, it’s so noisy here. Can you say that again please?”
“I said, is your new man celebrating killing my brothers?” Lorenzo’s voice cut through the noise and found its way into my heart.
“Lorenzo,” I stammered, looking around me, suddenly terrified that he was there.
“My place, twenty minutes, Belle.”
I looked back at the party, the fire dancing across everyone’s happy faces. I didn’t want to worry anyone with this, but I needed their help. I needed Beast, and my eyes frantically searched the darkness for him.
“Come alone, or Jenna is dead,” Lorenzo said, and though I’d found Beast finally, I knew I couldn’t go to him. I couldn’t risk her life.
I stepped further into the shadows, away from Beast, away from his family. I was alone in this. I had to be. I knew what Mateo and Carlos were capable of, and after getting to know Lorenzo, I feared that he would be much worse.
“Okay,” I said quietly into the phone.
“Good girl,” he replied, and hung up.
I dropped my cell back into my purse and walked into the clubhouse, heading straight to Beast’s room. I picked up the small handgun and knife that I knew he kept under his mattress. I’d seen them there when I’d been nursing him back to health and had changed his bedding, and now I slipped them into my purse and left, heading toward the front door.
“Belle?” Laney called my name and I looked back at her, forcing myself to smile. “Where you off to?”
“Just getting some fresh air,” I said like an idiot, because it was the only thing I could think of.
Laney looked back to where I’d just come from with a frown. “Okay,” she said, her gaze searching mine. “I uh, I got us some vodka, and some gin,” she said, giving the two bottles in her hand a little shake. “Boys drink beer. Us women deserve something a little nicer, don’t you think?”
I forced another smile. “Yes, absolutely. I’ll be right back if you can get me a gin ready.”
I turned and left without waiting for her to reply. There were a few men out front watching the bikes. They were bikers as far as I could see, but they weren’t allowed into the party. It made no sense to me, in all honesty, but I didn’t question it. I had no idea how I was going to get to Lorenzo’s from there. I had no car, thanks to my mom, and Beast had the keys to his truck in his pocket. I’d refused to go on the back of his bike tonight—one thing at a time, I’d told him, and he’d promised me he’d get me on the back of it tomorrow.
A promise, I realized now with dread in the pit of my stomach, that he might not be able to fulfil thanks to Lorenzo. I couldn’t help but wonder, as I started walking toward town, how Lorenzo had known his brothers had been killed. He’d told me he didn’t have anything to do with them, that they hadn’t spoken in years, so how could he know? The problem twisted itself in my gut, maybe because it was easier to focus on that than it was to focus on the fact that I was going to be at the center of his fierce temper when I finally got there.
All the years that I’d known Lorenzo from a distance, he’d seemed such a nice man. Calm, cool, collected. A businessman with a good head on his shoulders and strong family values. Yet after that night at the Crest where he’d forced himself into my mouth, I knew there was a much darker side to him, and he’d proved himself with every meeting since. He had a wicked temper and a dark and calculating side to him. That part of him I was terrified of. Maybe even more than I had been of his brothers.
I walked for fifteen minutes and was about to call Lorenzo back and beg him to give me more time to get there when a smooth black car pulled up beside me. I remembered the car and knew instantly that it was him. The windows were tinted but when the locks unclicked, and I got in without question.
“Looking pretty tonight, Belle,” he said, his accent sounding thicker as he pulled away and started to drive again.
“Where’s Jenna?”
“Do you remember the last time we were in this car together?”
“Where is she?” I looked across at him, hating him in that moment more than I’d hated Mateo.
“Do you remember the fun we had?” he teased, his hand going to my thigh and stroking up it. I batted his hand away.
“Get off of me!” I snapped, and he laughed manically. He seemed almost unhinged.
“Calm yourself down. It’s not like we haven’t done this before anyway, what’s one more time for old times’ sake?” His hand slid higher, pushing my skirt further up my legs, and I pushed it back down and attempted to pry his fingers off of me but he gripped me tight enough to make me whimper.
