Reckless Temptations (Tempted #4)(118)

Lacey Parrish. Jack’s daughter. His fucking nineteen-year-old daughter who wasn’t even legally allowed to order a fucking drink.

She’s not a fucking woman, just a little girl pretending to be one.

She was so innocent, so pure, so untouchable and untainted.

But I’m the filth that took her innocence, who touched her and tainted her.

I rolled the twenty-dollar bill and hunched over the counter dragging the bill across the powder of pills up my fucking nose.

One rip.

Another.

Three rips later, I licked my finger tips and swiped them across the counter top, before popping them into my mouth and sucking any residue of the pills from my skin.

No waste.

A true junkie.

I sniffled, wiping the excess powder from my nose before I turned around and unlocked the door and waited for the numbness to inebriate me as I stepped out of the bathroom, colliding with the soft body I once held in my arms.

I stared into her sad eyes, knowing I was the reason she looked broken, just a shell of the girl she was before I touched her. I ruined her, like I ruined Christine.

Everything I touch I destroy.

“How long are you going to pretend I don’t exist?” She finally asked, her voice just an octave above a whisper.

Pretend she doesn’t exist? She’s the only fucking thing that exists in my head. She’s the face I see when I wake, when I lay my head down and when I pass the fuck out from whatever poison I consume trying to forget that she does exist.

I shoved my hands into my pockets, taking a step closer to her, the scent of her worked its way through my raw nostrils, more intoxicating than any drug I could ever snort or shoot through my veins. I leaned closer, closing my eyes and got high off her.

“Until you disappear once and for all,” I said, opening my eyes and glaring at her.

Go away Lacey.

Smarten the fuck up.

Get out while you still can.

I pushed past her, leaving her alone in the hallway, knowing her eyes were full of tears that my words caused.

Cry.

Hate me.

I’m no good for you.

Run.

I ordered another shot, made it a double, and knocked it back. I placed the empty glass on the bar and from the corner of my eye I watched as she took her date’s hand and begged him to leave.

Thatta’ girl.

Get the fuck out of here.

“This one’s on the house,” the bartender offered, sliding me a refill.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“The bill is on the table,” someone said from behind me, causing me to glance over my shoulder and look at the kid holding Lacey’s hand.

Treat her good.

She didn’t look at me, keeping her back towards me as she followed him out the door and disappeared like I asked her too.

She should only know I’d spend the rest of the night thinking about her, that she’d never fucking disappear because she haunted me. All of her, the way her hands trembled as she undressed herself, the way I guided her hands to my body and the way I took hers. The tears she cried that night and the words I wounded her with.

That was just the first night where lines were crossed but, there were a shitload more incidents when I wreaked havoc on Lacey. But that night? That was the night I claimed her. In my dark world of self-destruction and mayhem, I selfishly took Lacey, branding her mine and I continue to brand her and mark her with my actions and my words.

Don’t think for one second that the few words I said to her tonight wasn’t a mark, purposely branded to her, scarring her, ruining her for any other man. Others piss on their territory, I destroy mine. For every track mark on my arms she has a matching one on her heart.

Lacey was mine.

She didn’t know it but any man who ever loves her will. She won’t be able to give them all of her because I’ve taken most of her and I’ll never give it back.

I can’t have her but no one else can either.

I’m a selfish motherfucker.

A greedy son-of-a-bitch.

I’m a junkie and when drugs no longer do it for me I’ll get high on pain and suffering.

My own.

Hers.

And all the faceless men that will one day try to take her from me.

I finished my drink, paid my tab and walked over to the nomads hanging around the pool table, a new group of brothers that patched into our charter of the Satan’s Knights. My eyes zeroed in on Stryker’s as his peered back at me questioningly, trying to figure me out. The poor bastard has no idea what he signed up for. None of them did. I said my goodbyes and made my way out of the bar, letting the cool breeze blow over me as I walked towards the parking lot.

I could feel the high starting to work me over as I strode to my bike and thought the drugs were finally kicking in but it wasn’t the manufactured shit that called to me.

It was her.

Her voice.

Her cries.

I closed my eyes as they consumed me, pulling me away from my surroundings and into a world where only she existed.

“Get off of me! Please! Someone help!”

So real.

I opened my eyes.

“Fucking bitch. Get the fuck back here!”

So fucking real.

My eyes drifted across the lot to where the sounds were coming from and the sobering image of my Lacey struggling to crawl out of a car, screaming into the dark parking lot for someone to help her.