Page 83 of Vicious Temptation

I give her one chance, and she wastes it.

My fist connects with her jaw before she can react, jerking her head sideways as she staggers into Rafe’s car so hard it rocks on its suspension. She spits blood onto the pavement and grabs the dented door for balance, staring at me as if she genuinely can’t believe I hit her.

“Bitch!” she shouts, cupping her busted lip. “Rafe, you going to let her do that to me?”

I turn to him and tilt my head. “Are you?”

“Look, Remi, we’re friends⁠—”

“Negative.”

“I’ve just been out of town⁠—”

“Lie better.” Moving closer, my hand rests on my blade.

Rafe starts sliding along the side of his car, putting distance between us while keeping the hood at his back.

“I’m telling the truth,” he blurts. “I didn’t know they’d try anything that night. I swear.”

A chill runs through me.

“Who are they?” I demand. “My father was in that car.”

The woman with the bob spits blood onto the pavement as she pushes herself upright. “You’re a pussy, Rafe,” she snarls. “Letting this bitch press you like this.”

Valentina steps between us. She always has my back, but I don’t want her in the middle of this. Throwing punches in parking lots was me four years ago. V is somebody’s wife now, and all I can picture is Maksim finding out I dragged her into another mess.

He’d kill me.

Then another man comes to mind. What would Thiago think if he saw me right now? The fact that I even care pisses me off. I barely have time to process that realization when one of Rafe’s idiot friends lunges at me, swinging wildly in an attempt to sucker-punch me. I step out of the way on instinct.

Guess it doesn’t count as fighting if I’m defending myself.

She comes at me again, reaching for my hair, but that’s the wrong move. I drive a right hook into her face, then follow it with a left that knocks her off balance. I hit her twice more, fast enough that she doesn’t realize what happened until blood sprays from her mouth and she stumbles backward into the crowd.

My knuckles throb, but I ignore it and turn back toward Rafe, only to find Valentina on the ground, with the woman from earlier trapped in a filthy armbar. The bitch screams as Val cranks her wrist farther than it’s supposed to bend.

That moment of distraction is all Rafe needs.

He slams into me, knocking me onto my ass, then drives a brutal punch into the side of my abdomen while I’m still trying to recover.

Pain rips through my side. “Motherfucker⁠—”

Around us, Furia has descended into absolute chaos. People are throwing punches between parked cars, someone gets tossed across a hood, and I can hear Valentina cursing at somebody behind me.

“You hit me?” I rasp before driving my knuckles straight into Rafe’s windpipe. He chokes, folding forward as both hands fly to his throat, fighting to draw a breath.

I’ll never delude myself into thinking I’m stronger than the average man. That kind of arrogance gets people killed. I don’t need to overpower someone when I know where to hit and how much damage I’m willing to do to walk away.

I never imagined Rafe would be someone I might have to hurt this badly. We used to laugh and race together. Sometimes we’d end up eating greasy food at three in the morning, talking shit until someone finally decided to go home.

But whatever he knows about the attack, he kept it from me. He ignored every call afterward and left me wondering whether my father and I were almost killed because of him.

Rafe was never my friend.

I draw my blade and start toward him as he’s still hunched against his car, clutching his throat and struggling to breathe. Then the most aggravating fucking sound imaginable reaches the lot.

Sirens.