Cruel Temptation (Underground Kings 1)

Blood that wasn’t mine, which never bothered me. I’ve bathed myself in a man’s blood before, but it didn’t scare me like this. I was haunted. My hands violently quaked, and I laced my fingers and pressed my palms together to stop the tremors.

All I could do was wait.

I had never been good at waiting.

Prison did not teach me patience. It only made me hungrier for what I really wanted.

“Jaxon!”

I saw Sebastian, Heaven, Grayson, and to my surprise, Owen. They jogged toward me, and Heaven’s eyes looked me over to see just how serious this was. The guys looked tired, and Heaven had new bruises along his knuckles. Owen looked like hell, which made sense. He had been paralyzed for twenty-four hours.

“What the hell happened, Jaxon?

” Sebastian sat down next to me and took in my haggard state. My pants were torn, blood and dirt mixed on my skin to form a paste, and I couldn’t stop shaking my leg. My anxiety was through the roof.

“You look like shit,” Owen grunted. “Is the pretty thing, okay?” Owen stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and stared down at his scuffed boots. He had his mouth tilted to the side in a puckered frown, a face he made when he knew he had been in the wrong. “I’m sorry.” He didn’t say why, but men like us hardly did. If we said sorry, we knew what it was for, but we were too damn proud to say the words.

“Thanks,” I acknowledged, hung my head. “I don’t know what happened. We were standing there. She said ‘yes’ to marrying me, and then she was falling. She fell right out of my reach. I could have caught her. It was my job to keep her safe, and I failed.” I hit my chest. “Now, she’s probably fighting for her damn life.” I tried to straighten my back to stretch out the cramp, but I couldn’t move. It hurt too much.

“She’ll be alright. She’s a tough, cookie,” Ingrid said, trailing along with Louis.

“You told her?”

“She came out of the room when we were leaving, so I said something,” Heaven shrugged. “Did you know they are bumping uglies? Gross, right?” Heaven kept his voice low, but Ingrid still came around and smacked him on the back of the head. “Ouch.” He rubbed the spot, then sat down in the chair on the other side of me, crossing his arms.

I ignored Heaven and thought about Quinn. “She said she would marry me,” I repeated. It sounded like a faraway dream, a wish that would have burnt out with the shooting star flying across the sky. “And then she was gone.” I kept thinking about it over and over, obsessing about the exact moment she fell. Did I have time to catch her? Why did she fall? What else could I have done? We shouldn’t have been standing so close to the fucking ledge. It was blinded by happiness and everything that was Quinn, her eyes, her smile, her lips that were still swollen from the primal kiss we shared on Strawberry Rock.

My love for her was a weakness in that moment, or I would have protected her better.

“She is going to be fine, Jaxon,” Grayson stated and sat down in the chair across me. “That girl is a firecracker. She isn’t going to let a fall hurt her.”

“You didn’t see this fall,” I said, thinking about the moment Quinn knew she might die. It was going to give me nightmares. I pressed my palms against my eyes and leaned my elbows against my thighs. “You didn’t see it.” I felt like I couldn’t say the words enough. I couldn’t hammer home how terrible or scary it was. They had to be there.

Grayson patted me on the shoulder, and we all got comfortable as we waited.

Yes! I’ll marry you.

The words saved me from misery, but misery loved my company too much to let me save her.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Quinn

I didn’t do it.

You must believe me! Quinn! I didn’t do it.

I woke up with a gasp, my nightmare fleeting into the back of my mind. I couldn’t remember it now. The memory. It was right there. The voice. The one pleading out to me that he didn’t do it. I knew that voice.

Where was I?

What happened?

I winced when I moved my neck. Ow. I tilted my head back and saw a machine. It beeped, and a rush of oxygen flowed through my nose, I saw the plastic tube and my brows pinched together as my fingers lifted the tube up. Gently, I laid it back down. Then, I noticed the gown I wore. It was scratchy, light green, and extremely uncomfortable. I was cold too. The blanket was too thin, and the TV was on, but the sound was off. The blinds were drawn, but I could tell it was dark out from how black the room was.

There was a faint light coming from the corner from a cheap lamp with a yellow bulb. A man sat in a chair asleep. I couldn’t see his face, but his jaw was sharp. I groaned when I tried to sit up, and my left hand felt heavy. There was a cast on it, and my leg was elevated in another white cast.

I coughed, and when I reached for the pitcher of water, my casted hand hit the pink container, and it spilled everywhere.