Reaper's Fire
Page 27

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she said, eyes wide.
Neither could I, actually.
Talia screeched again, stomping on my foot to break free, determined to punish Tinker. I loved a good catfight as much as the next guy, but this was getting out of hand. Diving for my fake girlfriend, I caught her and swung her up and over my shoulder, hissing and spitting. “Let me go!”
Tinker stared at us, chest heaving, eyes wide.
“This was a horrible mistake,” she said quickly, and I could see she meant every word. “I’m sorry, Talia. I’ll never talk to him again.”
“You’ll never talk again after I cut out your lying tongue, whore!”
“Shut up!” I bellowed, the room going silent. Breathing deep, I took a minute to control my anger. I wanted to throw Talia through the window. Instead I’d have to make peace with the crazy bitch, which meant banging her until she forgot what’d pissed her off in the first place. Hard as my dick was, her snatch wasn’t the one it wanted.
And Tinker? At this rate I’d never see her again. Christ, what the fuck was I thinking?
“I’m out,” Tinker said breathlessly, making for the door.
“That’s right, slut. Run away!” Talia hissed. “You may act like a stuck-up bitch, but we all know the truth about you!”
“Shut the fuck up!” I growled, smacking her ass. Wasn’t hard enough to really hurt, but definitely hard enough to catch her attention. Considering that she’d clawed up my neck and was doing her damnedest to pull out a chunk of my hair, I didn’t feel bad about it at all. Talia lurched, knocking me off-balance. I caught a glimpse of Tinker slipping out the door, pushing past Talia’s crony, Sadie, who was lingering in the doorway. Great. Apparently Talia had a spy in the building. Just what I needed, because obviously life wasn’t shitty enough already.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I snarled at the little rat, and Sadie took off running. I’d have to deal with that one sooner rather than later. Or maybe not, because much as I hated this little game, it wasn’t over. Not yet. Everything boiled down to Marsh, and how fast we figured out his secrets.
“Let me go,” Talia snarled, slapping at my back again. Instead I carried her into the bedroom, throwing her down with a rattling thump onto the secondhand bed. It knocked the breath out of her and she stilled. Finally. I pinned her down before she had a chance to recover, hands high over her head, legs trapped under mine.
Talia narrowed her eyes. I narrowed mine right back, wondering if she had any clue how easy it would be to strangle her. She was alone in an apartment with a very pissed-off biker. A biker one hell of a lot bigger than her. I’d played the pussy for weeks, but now she’d attacked Tinker.
This was a game changer.
“Let me up.”
“Not until you calm down,” I said, allowing some of the anger to show in my voice. “We’re gonna talk this shit out.”
“What’s to talk about? You were cheating on me!”
And here we go . . .
“We aren’t exclusive,” I reminded her. “You’ve been sleeping around the whole time we’ve been together.”
Her eyes widened.
“You knew that?” she whispered. Jesus Christ.
“Yeah, the used condoms sort of gave it away. Oh, and the way you were always texting other guys, even when we were together. Don’t leave your fuckin’ phone on the table while you pee if you want to keep shit like that quiet. Damned thing buzzes every twenty seconds. I only fought with Mike because you set me up to look bad at the clubhouse.”
The rage drained out of her eyes, replaced with uncertainty and maybe a hint of fear. Nice. About time, too.
“So you did this to get back at me.”
“Not really,” I said bluntly. “We aren’t a couple. We’re just two people who fuck sometimes.”
“What if I want more than that?” she asked softly. For an instant I wondered if I’d read her wrong—did she actually care about me? Maybe, I decided. Hell, she looked almost vulnerable. I could use this. Until now she’d had the upper hand in this little arrangement.
Time for a change.
“I just got out of a relationship,” I said, the words slow and crisp. “We’ve been having fun and that’s about as far as I want to go with it, at least for now. You want more, try showing me you have more to offer.”
Talia seemed to shrivel in on herself. Water pooled in her eyes, and for a second I thought she might cry. Then she pushed out her chin, setting her jaw and glaring up at me.
“I don’t want you fucking that bitch Tinker Garrett,” she said. “It’s her or me. You think you can handle that?”
Took everything I had not to roll my eyes, but I managed to pull it off.
“Like I give a shit about Tinker,” I said. “I invited her to dinner because I felt sorry for her.”
“You try to screw everyone you feel sorry for?” she asked, her voice hardening.
I shrugged. “We were watching a movie. It got cold so I grabbed some of the blanket and then she went for my cock. I’m only human. But think about it, Talia—Tinker’s at least fifteen years older than you and probably a good twenty pounds heavier. You really think I’d pick her over you?”
Fuck yeah, I would. She had curves and class and she didn’t throw temper tantrums like a fuckin’ two-year-old.
“Thirty pounds,” Talia sneered, and I knew I had her. God, the woman was so damned full of herself. When this shit ended, the boys back home owed me free beer for a year, I decided—I’d earned it. “You should see her sex tape. It’s hilarious—she looks like a fat whale.”
I stilled.
“Sex tape?” I asked, playing dumb. Talia laughed.
“Stupid bitch got caught fucking a stripper at a party,” she said, eyes dancing. “Someone caught a video of it. I couldn’t stop laughing the first time I saw the thing.”
“Is it online?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably. There’s a billion other ones out there, too, so how would you know unless it went viral? Not that it would—she’s nothing special.”
The image of Tinker, naked, riding cock, took over my imagination. Would she be totally bare, tits swinging and ass shaking? Or maybe she’d been wearing a skirt, hiking it up and going to town just like that.