“You fucking underestimate Max, and you get burned—” He stops talking and growls with pain. The morphine is wearing off.
“You should ask him to take you to the hospital,” I say, refilling a syringe with another dose.
“And you should go fuck… yourself.” He licks his lips and begins to wheeze. “What makes you think I’d do anything you say.”
“Because you’ll die if you don’t.”
He’ll die anyway.
I’d just prefer he didn’t do it under my watch while his president lingers in the shadows with a gun strapped to his hip.
“Fuck you, King,” he growls.
Ignoring him, I push the syringe full of morphine into his veins to send him to sleep. His eyes glass over, his lids grow heavy, and within seconds, he’s out.
“Good night, princess,” I whisper.
As I stand, the door opens, and Lily walks in. I quickly avert my eyes and make sure I don’t make eye contact with her. It’s safer not to because I’m tired and worn out, and I just don’t trust my body’s reaction around her anymore.
Not to mention, I don’t trust her.
“How’s he doing?” she asks.
“Just went back to sleep.”
“He was awake?”
“Yeah, and we had ourselves some pleasant conversation. Apparently, Mr. McChatty here isn’t a fan of the Kings.”
“There’s a lot of that going around.”
If I weren’t so pissed at her, I would smile at her sarcasm.
“I can stay with him if you need a break,” she says.
Without warning, I think about how she felt in my arms.
Then I think about her smell. And about the silkiness of her skin against mine, and how exquisite it felt, and my annoyance returns. It’s just my luck to get kidnapped by a rival club and be held in captivity with the only woman in the world who I want to touch me. Because that’s the truth of it. I want her to touch me, and I sure as hell want to put my hands on her. And now that I know how she feels in my arms, goddammit, I can’t help but want more.
But it’s not happening again.
Even if I have to cut my damn hands off.
“Everything okay, Doc?” she asks.
I hate the soft tones of her voice.
“You mean apart from being held captive by a madman? Sure, everything is peachy keen.”
“I know things are a little crazy—”
“A little crazy? You make it sound like we’re in a kid’s adventure book.”
She draws in a deep breath because apparently, I irritate her. “I was just trying to say that I know the situation is insane, but if we work together instead of against each other, then it might make things a little easier on the both of us.”
I have no intention of doing such a stupid thing. “If you think I’m working with you in anything, then you’re crazier than your old man.”
“Why are you being such a jerk?”
“Why are you acting like none of this insanity is happening around us?”
“I’m not… I am simply trying to make the most of a really shitty situation,” she snaps, and I have to stop myself from wondering how her plump pink lips would taste. “You could do us a favor and try it too.”
“Reality check, sweetheart… there’s no making the most out of this situation.”
“Max says—”
“Your father is a fucking psychopath,” I yell.
“He’s not my father,” she yells back.
Confused, I glare at her.
“Wait, Max isn’t your father?”
“Well, technically, yes, but he stopped being my father a long time ago.”
I hate that she’s not forthcoming. If you make me work for information, I’m going to think you’re hiding something.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that not everything is how it looks, Doc. Have you heard me refer to him as father or call him Dad? No, because he’s not… not to me anyway. He’s Max. President of the Inferno. And I’m only here because he manipulated me into coming back to help Sunshine deliver her baby. I don’t want to be here, but when I tried to leave, he stopped me.”
So I was right. Lily wants to be here as much as I do.
Or so she says.
I don’t trust her intentions, so I press her further.
“How did he stop you?”
“How he always does… with force.” She walks toward the door. “A word of advice… resisting is going to be a waste of energy. Do what he asks, and we both might get out of this alive.” She disappears through the door, and I rake a hand over my scalp.
If she’s acting, then she’s doing a damn good job. She almost has me convinced she doesn’t want to be here.
But not quite.
She’s good, I’ll give her that.
Letting out a long groan, I sit in the chair beside a sleeping Odin and put my face in my hands.
I’m fucking exhausted and its messing with me.
I have to get out of here.
And I have to do it tonight.