him away toward the stairs.
How wrong you are, princess.
How wrong you are.
The scraping of a barstool beside me wakes me from my reverie. My head jerks from the almost sleep I had fallen into—a drunken coma more like. Who knows what the damn time is, it’s probably almost morning by now. Fox pulls up a stool beside me as I turn to look at him. It’s taken at least an hour, probably longer, for anyone to come talk to me since my fight with Zero. I guess everyone was too chicken shit to be seen taking my side in all this crap.
Not that there’s sides, but I get it.
They have to support their president.
I fucked up—I know it.
All the brothers know Prinie’s a no-touch zone.
She’s off-limits, but I went there, not only as a brother in the club, the best friend of the president, but also the motherfucking vice president.
I’m unsure what this means for my position here at the club. Zero will probably want me gone, and I’m not sure I blame him. I broke the rules, I pay the price. But if there’s any consolation, I don’t want anything to do with Prinie. This mess I’m in, this is all on her, it’s all her fault. She’s the one with the axe to grind. The one with the fucking issues.
I’m happy to let her go and just move the fuck on.
Who am I kidding?
She’s ingrained in my psyche as much as death is.
Prinie’s another addiction.
Telling myself I can be rid of her is horse shit.
Don’t matter anyway, because Zero’s going to kick me out of the club, then that’ll be that.
No more Zero.
No more Prinie.
I’ll be out on my own where I can wallow in death, drown myself in blood.
“Your mind is ticking over at warp speed there, VP,” Fox interrupts my head from wandering off again.
Can’t you let a guy wallow in peace, old man?
Forcing out a grunt, I reach for the tequila again, but he swipes it first, bringing it to his turned-up lips.
Damn asshole!
“You want me to open up to you? Like all the other brothers do…. oh, wise one?”
Fox swipes his mouth with the back of his hand and shrugs. “I don’t see no one else wanting to come over here and talk to ya. Seems like you made a damned fool of yourself, boy.”
Snorting, I grab the bottle, throwing the contents back and taking a lot more than I should. This time the burn warms my throat.
Fox chuckles. “Look, Wraith, you’ve fucked up. You have broken the cardinal rule. Dammit, brother, I see you breaking rules all the fucking time but never the rules of this club. Not for fucking anything. If you had a thing with Prinie, it was for a reason. She’s not a one-time thing for you, no matter how hard you try and fight it.”
I slam the bottle down on the bar so hard the contents splash out the top. “You’re damn right she’s not a one-time thing. She shouldn’t have even been that.” I swipe my hand through my hair with a frustrated exhale. “Fuck! She… she’s worth more than I can ever give her.”
Fox reaches out gripping my shoulder. I let him. Somehow his touch is comforting. “You’re right. Prinie means everything… to all of us. So, she deserves only the best. To the rest of the club that’s certainly not the likes of you—” I let out a scoff interrupting him, but then he continues “But, if she let you in, then she’s found something in you that we don’t. Maybe it’s growing up around broken men. Maybe it’s because she’s lived a tormented life. Whatever the reason, she sees you, Wraith...” He takes a deep breath. “Don’t fuck her over because of that.”
She sees me.
Which is the scariest fucking thought I’ve ever had in my life.
What if she sees right through me?
What if she knows my deepest, darkest truth?
I don’t know how to keep my urges under control around her.
Problem is, I am falling for her.
But she can never find out.
Because it will surely be the death of us both.
PRINIE
I’ve never felt exhaustion like this before in my life. I was so worried about Rayne when she was taken, and I am still decompressing that the guys got her back in one piece. Not to mention my older brother, Zero, went after her and the whole club nearly got blown up in that stupid fucking oil refinery—including Wraith.
How can a man aggravate me beyond compare,