Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,113

car and drove around for a while until I found myself at Louie’s. Jamie’s old condo. I didn’t know why I'd ended up there. Maybe I just needed a friend. I sent a quick text to Stefan telling him where I was, then decided to send a text to Dean and Asher as well. That way I’d hear zero bitching later for running off on my own.

I numbly knocked on Louie’s door, ignoring the sting of my split and swollen knuckles. I’d been crying nonstop and had no doubt I looked like it. At the moment I couldn’t find it in me to care.

Louie opened the door, surprised to see me. He took one look at me and pulled me into his arms. After crying for so long, thinking I had no more tears left, another dam broke within me and I sobbed into his chest.

He scooped me up, carried me inside, and held me until I calmed down. Once I was able to speak without hiccuping, he quietly listened as I told him what had happened. We were sitting on his couch in his living room. I was curled up, hugging a decorative pillow, while he sat hunched over, feet planted on the ground with his elbows perched on his knees. He occupied himself by picking at the label of a beer bottle he had been drinking before I'd showed up.

“Are you going to offer me one of those?” I asked.

He smiled down at the bottle. “I think you need something stronger than this.”

“I think you’re right.”

He jumped to his feet and made his way into the kitchen. I heard cabinets opening and closing before he returned with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

“Didn’t you challenge me to a drinking duel?” He winked, handing me a glass. That was right. When we'd gone to lunch at Paco’s Tacos, he had called me a lush and I'd told him I could drink him under the table. In true Louie fashion, he'd taken that as a challenge.

“It wasn’t a challenge. I was stating a fact.”

His eyes filled with mirth as he filled our glasses. “Shall we find out?

CHAPTER 34

Sitting on the floor with our backs leaning against the couch, we laughed at each other. We'd attacked Louie’s unopened whiskey like a couple of true Irishmen. The bottle was down to its last inch of amber liquid and I was beyond buzzed. I'd passed that happy-giggling stage so quick, I hadn't even gotten a chance to enjoy it before I'd been in the I-can’t-feel-my-face drunk stage. I refused to let it show. I had a competition to win, after all. Sure, the world kept tilting, but as long as I kept reminding myself to stay sharp, I was able to reel a little bit of myself back to lucidity.

“Craziest place you’ve had sex?” he asked, slurring a little bit. This was the game we’d been playing. Well, it had started off as would you rather. The more we'd drunk, the harder it had become to think clearly and thus our game had turned into risqué questions.

My loopy smile fell. I had gone almost an hour without thinking about Jamie. Now here I was, my head consumed with thoughts of him. He'd hurt me but I still loved him. Crap! I vowed to never admit it. Stupid whiskey. “My father’s garage in Jamie’s car while being watched by a bunch of goons eating popcorn,” I answered, drone-like.

He grimaced, obviously recalling the time he'd caught us.

“Your best sexual experience?” I asked, taking a big gulp, finishing off the amber liquid in my glass.

He scrunched his nose as he refilled my glass, then topped off his. “I don’t think you want to know that,” he said. “It involves Jameson.”

I didn't think I blinked for a whole minute. My poor drunk brain was overloaded with dirty visuals and questions. Did they sleep together? “Now I’m dying to know.”

Louie studied me for a moment. His cheeks were flushed, and he had hooded eyes—the kind you got when you were past-the-point-of-no-return drunk. “Are you sure?”

Oh, you bet your perfectly tight ass I am. Bring on the hot mobster on hot mobster action. I played it cool by smiling. He took a sip of his whiskey before releasing a breath through parted lips, amping himself for what he was about to say, then turned back to me. “It was about a year ago. Jameson was going through a shitty time. I knew the best thing for him was