“I’m not to blame. This time. Ask Damien what happened here,” I reply flatly, because I can guess what went down. But my best friend will tell me himself. No more excuses.
“Oh, I guess we have a lot to ask him, and your fiancée too.” He nods behind me, and I follow his gaze.
Fuck, I completely forgot about Amelia.
“You have to tell him, Damien. It can’t go on like this. It’s going to…” she speaks to Damien in a soft but steady voice as he lies on the stretcher, ready to be transported.
“No. For fuck’s sake, stay out of it, Lia. This has nothing to do with you. Just because you were Phil’s girlfriend doesn’t mean you have the right to stick your nose into everything. Get your own shit together first and stop acting like a damn mother hen,” he snaps at her aggressively. Startled by his harsh reaction, she recoils.
What the hell is going on here?
“That’s enough, Dam,” I cut in and step in front of Amelia. She immediately takes a step back, which seriously pisses me off.
“Ced will go with you and then we’re going to talk. I want to know what is going on here.”
Damien’s guilty gaze flickers to Lia, who is standing behind me looking lost and sad, before his eyes shift back to me and that emptiness returns.
My stomach tightens again as I see him lying there, so desperate and broken.
“No, you really don’t,” he murmurs as the paramedics wheel him toward the ambulance. I watch him go, unable to make sense of what has thrown him so far off course. But Amelia can.
Slowly, I turn to face my fiancée, who is hugging herself and staring at me with wide eyes.
“You and me, Goldilocks. We’re going to have a talk.”
No. No. No.
Why is my life nothing but one big disaster right now? Why does God or the universe hate me so much that it keeps putting me in these situations again and again?
My heart pounds in my chest, my head throbs, and every inch of my body aches from the impact. Still, I meet Nicolas’s piercing gaze. I swallow hard as he approaches, dark and imposing in full leather, and I try to ignore the flutter in my chest when he gently takes my hand and leads me with him. Not rough. Not harsh. Just firm, but surprisingly gentle.
I can’t look away. Phil always had a magnetic pull when he wore his biker gear, but Nicolas is on a whole different level.
His hair is tousled, a black scarf peeking from the open collar of his jacket. God, he looks like a dark assassin. And I know how he feels, how his body feels, how his lips feel.
A hot shiver runs through me and my skin tingles, which is the last thing I need right now. My mind is already overwhelmed, my thoughts a mess.
I feel eyes on my back, those vultures watching us as we walk toward the two motorcycles and stop in front of them. One is Nicolas’s, sleek and black, the other I think belongs to Cedric. It’s bright green, a sharp contrast to the dark one.
Fascinated, I step toward the black bike, letting my fingertips glide lightly over the smooth paint.What would it feel like to ride it?
A strange excitement stirs in me, but a small cough snaps me back to reality. I blink and look up, meeting Nicolas’s sparkling eyes. He seems a little amused, probably because of how mesmerized I was.
“Do you like it?” he asks, and the sound of his deep, rough voice sends another shiver down my spine.
“Yes… yeah, I do. But I guess that’s not why I’m here, is it?”
I didn’t really mean to say that, but apparently, I’ve decided to just get it over with.
“No, it’s not. What happened back there? And I don’t just mean Robins. You know what’s going on with Damien, don’t you?”
He takes a step forward. I instinctively step back and bump into the seat of his bike.
Too close. He’s far too close.
His eyes lock onto mine and I literally have no way out.
“I… I have an idea. But I can’t tell you. Damien needs to be the one to do that,” I say quietly, my eyes fixed on my fingers nervously tangled together.
