“I can’t do this here,” she told me, her voice trembling. I turned but she pushed her way through the crush of people until she was simply gone.
I blinked, trying to focus, to breathe, to fucking move.
If I wasn’t so disoriented, I would’ve noticed Coby behind me righting the table I’d knocked over. That Jared was calming Henry down from taking a swing at me. That Travis was in my ear, talking to me. But I didn’t see it, or hear any of it.
Without even realising how I’d gotten there, I was out the front of the bar, cold air whipping past my face as I searched for Grace. Catching a flash of gold, I headed for it. She was hailing a cab, standing near the long line of bodies that were waiting to get in the same bar I just left.
“Grace!” I shouted.
She spun around just as a cab pulled wildly to the kerb beside her.
“Holy shit,” someone in line muttered. “That’s Grace Paterson.”
Ignoring the people behind me as I made my way towards her, I yelled, “Grace, you can’t leave!”
I didn’t just mean the bar either, or even the city. I meant me. She couldn’t leave me. God, please, don’t fucking do this.
Grace shook her head at me, tears filling her eyes while some fucktard in the line beside us held up his phone and snapped a photo.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I growled.
“Hey!” the guy cried when I snatched the phone from his hand. I hit the trash icon on the screen deleting the photo. Then I threw it because I was becoming a pro at destroying other people’s phones. “Take another photo and I’ll rip your head off. Got it?”
“Casey!” Grace grabbed my arm, pulling me away from him. I stumbled when the world tilted. “You’re drunk,” she muttered.
From three drinks? That couldn’t be right but my head wouldn’t clear enough to work out why. I forced my eyes to her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because this is my fight. Mine!” she shouted, pounding a fist against her chest. “It’s not Henry’s, or John’s, or yours. It’s mine, and I’m not going to allow what happened to my father and to my family happen to you. Don’t you see how much you’ve already lost? Why would you think I’d put you through more of that?”
My vision began to fade. I was hanging on to consciousness by my fucking fingernails. “Don’t you get it, Grace? It’s too late,” I slurred and shook my head. Blinking again, I managed to meet her eyes, my heart shattered. “I lose you and it’s game over for me.”
“Casey.” Grace pressed her lips together, tears spilling down her face. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry. I love you, but I can’t do this.”
I reached for her but in a split second she was inside the cab and it was driving her away from me. Stepping up to the kerb, I managed to hold up my arm, hailing the next cab passing by. Sliding inside, all I remember mumbling was, “Follow that cab in front of us,” before I slipped into darkness.
My phone rang, the distinctive ringtone telling me it was work. I dragged my pounding head from beneath the pillow with a groan and felt around for it, not willing to risk opening my eyes.
When my fingers closed around it, I dragged it back underneath my pillow with me, answering with a grunt.
“Valentine,” my boss, Inspector Keith Burns, barked.
I replied with another grunt, wondering why he was so alert at whatever the fuck time it was in the morning. Was it even morning? Who even cared right now? I barely remembered leaving the bar last night when Mum and Dad’s anniversary party wound down and my boss had still been there, unsteady on his feet.
I startled at the soft murmur of a female voice beside me. My morning wood twitched happily, liking the sound, but my mind immediately questioned who the hell was in my bed. Was it even my bed?
I lifted the pillow. The familiarity of my own room stared back at me—white walls, navy sheets, and the framed print of Kate Beckinsale from Underworld, complete with fierce eyes and gun in hand, on my wall. The print had been a birthday gift from my sister-in-law Evie and was both sexy, powerful and kick fucking ass.
“I need you in the office, Detective,” Burns ordered in my ear. “I know it’s Sunday and your day off, but this is important, and when I say important, I mean real fucking important, so get your ass in here ASAP.”
It had to be if my boss was in the office on his day off too. I ended the call with another grunt. Tossing the phone, I scratched my balls with a long, drawn-out yawn and rolled out of bed.
“Wha…” came a mumble from somewhere beneath the covers. Getting to my feet, I turned, completely naked with my wood still saluting the morning, and waited for the woman in my bed to reveal herself. She didn’t disappoint. The sheets were shoved down sleepily, unearthing dusky olive skin, long tousled dark hair that reached the small of her back, and an extremely well toned ass. She paused for a moment before rolling over. The front was just as hot. My eyes travelled up her long legs, past a taut set of abs and halted to a jarring stop. A fresh, thick jagged scar marred her ribcage and on her torso sat a tattoo of a coiled, deadly snake, its red eyes waiting for the moment to strike. Beneath the snake in old English font read Black Viper MC.