Cruel Temptation (Underground Kings 1)

It wasn’t good when my instincts woke me up.

Okay, one more look at Quinn, and this time it would be the last. I couldn’t help it; I really didn’t want to leave her. Having sex with her when she didn’t have a memory of me, I thought it would be devastating, but the passion between had been so intense that it made me feel like it was the first time too.

Regardless, I wanted my Quinn back. All of her. Not just bits and pieces. The doctor said to give it time, but I was an impatient man, and I wanted my damn peace with Quinn. Right here, right now. I bent over and grabbed my pants off the floor and jumped a few times to get the material around my thighs. I fasted the button and made sure I was tucked in before zipping up. I didn’t bother with a shirt.

I slipped out the door and locked it behind me. If Quinn woke up, I’d be in so much trouble for locking her inside, but it was for her safety. Something was wrong, and I’d be damned if she wasn’t secured.

“Something wake you up too?” Sebastian whispered as he rubbed his eyes, stepping out of his bedroom in sweatpants.

“Yeah, I don’t know what it is,” I said.

“What the fuck? Why are we awake?” Owen grouched as he yawned, then lifted his arm like a monkey and scratched his armpit. “Stupid gut feelings.”

“Hey,” Heaven greeted us with a smile, freshly showered, and eating a damn bagel.

“Oh, fuck off.” Owen snatched Heaven’s breakfast out of his hand and tore off a piece of the bread, chomping on it savagely.

“That was mine,” Heaven pouted like a child.

“No one should be that happy in the morning,” Owen pointed toward the youngest of the group, and it reminded me of Quinn, and how she hated to wake up without coffee and food.

“Where’s Grayson?” I asked and followed the hall, my gut leading the way.

“Sleeping, probably. The man could sleep through a tornado,” Sebastian said.

“I’m here.”

We all turned to see him dragging his feet down the hall toward us. He almost looked like he was sleepwalking. “It’s too early for a pack meeting. Can’t we just ignore whatever is happening and go back to sleep?”

“No. I don’t know what’s going on. Did anyone check on Brian?” I had been lacking in the ‘kill Brian’ department ever since Quinn came into my life again.

“He was chained and starving last time I check on him but I did give him water. We don’t want him to die just yet,” Owen said, taking another bite of Heaven’s bagel. “I say let’s go check on him, and maybe I’ll give him the rest of this bagel.”

“It’s my fucking breakfast. If anyone should get it, it should be me.” Heaven tried to grab his food back, but Owen was taller and kept it out of his reach. He laughed, spitting crumbs everywhere. “Ha, sucks to suck, fucker,” Owen taunted.

Heaven shoved Owen in the chest, and I didn’t have time for this, so I made my way down the hall, leaving the men behind me. Sebastian and Grayson flanked my sides, and the closer we got to the elevator, the foreboding feeling I felt only got stronger. Something was wrong. I pressed the button of the elevator, and I shared a look with the men next to me to prepare themselves.

We were driven by instinct. It was how we were able to maintain and keep this gig we created. We were good at listening to our surroundings, going with our feelings, and often, it ended up in a damn good payday.

I stepped inside the elevator, and I stared out the doors to see Owen and Heaven finally hurrying toward us. The elevator ride was quiet minus Owen’s huffs. When we came to the basement, and I saw the hallway when the doors parted, the air thickened with evil. It was so dark I could almost taste it.

It was bitter, sour, and left a bad aftertaste.

“This isn’t good,” Heaven stated the obvious as we all stepped off the elevator. Motion sensors usually lit up the hall, but it remained dark. “Not good at all.”

I bolted into a sprint and ran to the door that led to Brian’s room and found the door open. It wasn’t just anything that woke me up; it was caution; it was the need to protect Quinn. I stepped inside and turned the flashlight on my phone on, since the lights weren’t working, and pointed it at the two-way mirror glass.

And my urge to kill hit me again, wakening up inside when I saw a message painted on the wall. I ran toward the door that entered the room where we held Brian and pushed it open, the room smelling of iron.

My fingers swiped through the liquid, and I rubbed it between my fingers. It was cold, slick, and when I brought it to my nose, I knew it could only be one thing.

Blood.

“Jaxon.”

I turned my head over my shoulder to see the guys pointing at the wall, their faces grim. Pointing the light in the direction of the message, my stomach tightened, and my heart stopped beating, and I felt like I was about to pass out.

“Good luck finding me before I slit her throat.”