White Heat (Lost Kings MC #5) (5 page)

“Jeez, Mara, that was awfully sweet of him,” I say.

Ross chuckles. “Yeah, if I’d known that, I would have ordered the Hennessy X.O.”

While we’re walking out, the girls bring up my wedding again.

“Did you set an actual date yet?” Sophie asks.

“Not really.”

We did. But I don’t feel like telling Sophie.

“Will Rock wear his cut to your wedding or do you think you can get him in a suit?” she asks and I don’t care for the snide tone I detect in her voice.

“Why? Are you planning to try and fuck him again?” I snap.
Whoops
. Almost made it through the evening without losing my temper.

I said it low enough that we’re not causing a scene. Yet. But everyone in our party heard my question. No one seems to know what to say or do.

“Uncomfortable,” Ross mutters, looking around for the valet.

“What are you talking about, Hope?”

“Are you really going to go the innocent route, Sophie?”

Lilly slips an arm between us. “Girls—”

“I’m fine, Lilly.” I’m not though. I’m seething. I want Sophie to fucking admit what she did and apologize or show remorse. Something besides standing there staring at me like I’m the one who did something wrong. I want reassurance that the last ten years of our friendship weren’t a massive waste of time. “Don’t you have anything to say, Sophie?”

Mara also gets between us. “Girls, why don’t we discuss this somewhere else?” She lowers her voice. “You know where half of the Empire County bar association
isn’t
having dinner. We can go back to—”

“No. There’s nothing to discuss.”

“I wondered when he’d get around to telling you,” Sophie finally says.

Lilly gasps. So, at least she didn’t know. Mara rocks back on her heels. I raise an eyebrow, waiting for Sophie to continue.

“What do you want me to say, Hope? I’m so fucking sorry. I’ve tried a million times to come clean with you, but I didn’t know what to say. You saw me that night. I barely remember what happened.”

“You’re going with the drunk defense?”

“She
was
in rough shape that night.” Ross wanders back from the valet and into our conversation.

I whirl on him. “Did you know?”

“Know what? Rock told me to go get her. That she was acting like a fool. She was babbling a lot of nonsense when I found her.”

“I’d like to blame it on the alcohol,” Sophie says. Then she dares to look me in the eye. “But I’ve always kind of liked Rock.”

Lilly and Mara both gasp and stare Sophie down.

Whoa. Okay. For some reason, that’s the
last
thing I expected her to say. Noting the glares from our friends, she rushes to explain. “I’d normally never, ever do anything about it. You deserve the best, Hope, and it’s been so hard…and Johnny and I had this fight. I don’t know. It was stupid.”

Well, that was a lot to absorb.

“If it makes you feel any better, he never hesitated. He couldn’t push me off him fast enough. We were all alone. He could have…and no one would—”

“Enough!” My stomach rolls as I envision what must have happened. Wrath’s description of Sophie climbing Rock must have been pretty accurate. The ugly thought that’s been bothering me all day tumbles out of my mouth. “Did you ever come onto Clay?”

The flash of distaste across her face punches me in the gut. “No, Hope. Never. Clay wasn’t my type.”

“Jesus Christ, shut up, Sophie,” Ross mumbles.

Both of us ignore him.  A deadly sort of calm washes over me. “But Rock
is
your type?”

“Yes.” My face must betray the violence welling up inside, because she takes a step back and stutters. “No. I don’t mean it that way.”

“Why’d you even bother setting us up?”

“I just thought he’d pull you out of your funk. I never thought you’d consider marrying him.”

“Wait, what?”

“Hope. Be serious. I figured with the type of girls he’s used to…being around all those strippers… he’d go back to that eventually.”

I can’t suck in enough oxygen to deal with her mountain of crap. “You don’t know a fucking thing about him. Or us.”

“Hope.” She reaches out to take my hand, but I snatch it away, shoving her back a few steps in the process.

“Don’t you dare touch me. I can’t even. I don’t even know what to say to you right now.”

Out of the corner of my eye I notice the valet pulling up with my car.

“Hope, please. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t face you after what I did. I realized how wrong I was when you were in the hospital. He was so…broken at the thought of losing you and I felt even worse about what I’d done. The guilt’s been making me crazy.”

“Coming clean with me might have helped,” I snap. “Not being a backstabbing bitch would have also worked.” I take a few steps away from our group. Everyone’s uncomfortable and we’re definitely making a scene now. I’ll have to add “embarrassing me to death” to Sophie’s list of crimes after this.

“Please, Hope. I’d undo it if I could. What do you want me to do?”

I glance back at my friend. Former friend? All I feel is one more loss.

She’s right about one thing. What’s done can’t be undone.

“Don’t come to our wedding.”

And then I go home.

CHAPTER THREE

I’m so flustered after that scene with Sophie, I have to pull over when I get on the highway. My hands are shaking so bad. I ball them into fists and a little part of me wishes I’d popped Sophie in her slutty face.

God, that was awkward.

I don’t know how to fix it.

And honestly I shouldn’t have to be the one to fix it.

I’m stopped on the shoulder for so long, that a state trooper pulls up behind me.

“Fantastic.”

“Miss, do you need help?” he calls out.

“No, sir.” I roll my window down all the way and wait for him to approach with my hands on the steering wheel.

“Everything all right, young lady?”

“Yes, officer. I, uh, just had a fight with my friend and I needed to pull over to cool off before driving home.” Seriously? Don’t I always warn my clients not to volunteer too much information to the police? What’s wrong with me?

“Have you been drinking?”

“No, sir. I never drink when I’m driving.”
Shut up, Hope!

He chuckles and leans in, I assume to try to smell any alcohol on me. “Are you okay to drive now?”

“Yes. I’m just going to call my fiancé so he can meet me.”

“Sounds like a good idea. I’ll wait behind you until you take off. This is a dangerous place to be stopped.”

“Sorry, officer.”

I don’t end up calling Rock after all. I just want to get home to see him. I’m afraid if I call him, I’ll end up bursting into tears and it will take me even longer to get into his arms.

He meets me at the front door of the clubhouse anyway.

“How’d you know it was me?” I tease, but my voice comes out strained.

“Got radar when it comes to you, Baby Doll.”

I fling myself against him. As soon as he wraps his arms around me my mind settles. “What’s the matter?” he murmurs against my ear.

I pull away so I can see his face. “Sophie showed up.”

“Shit. How’d that go?”

“Bad. It was so awkward. I held it together during dinner, but then we caused a huge scene downstairs outside the restaurant. Half the lawyers and politicians in Empire probably overheard us. She admitted it. Apologized. Asked how she could fix it. But I didn’t have an answer.” I leave out the uglier bits of our fight, especially the part about how she always liked Rock, because on my way home, some of her words hit their target.

“I’m so sorry, baby. I—”

“Rock, it’s fine. I understand why you didn’t want to tell me.”

He nods once, but I can tell it’s still weighing on him. “Don’t turn this into a bigger deal than it is. You and I are fine. Sophie and me, not so much.”

One corner of his mouth turns up and I can see the comforting reply forming on his tongue when Trinity’s voice interrupts.

“I’m glad you’re back, Hope. I have a few things I want to go over with you.” She doesn’t pick her head up once as she rounds the corner and nestles into the sofa while flipping through a huge white binder. Seems she was busy while I was away. I raise an eyebrow at Rock, making him laugh.

“I’m afraid to ask,” I whisper.

“I heard you asked her this morning? She’s been waiting for you since she got home.”

“Oh boy.” 

Curling my hand around Rock’s I pull him over to the couch and sit him down. If I have to suffer through this wedding planning stuff, so does he. “Hey, Trin, let me go change. I’ll be right back.”

She pats Rock’s arm like she knows exactly why I sat him there.

If we end up in the bedroom together, we won’t come back downstairs anytime soon.

“I’m not sure I like you two conspiring together,” Rock grumbles.

When I return, Trinity’s chattering away and Rock looks like he wants to run away. I stifle my laughter and squeeze in between them. She’s not seeking any opinions from me though. It’s more like she wants to run things by me, which is fine. Honestly, if I didn’t think she’d kill me, I’d drag Rock down to City Hall, marry him tomorrow and skip all this.

Z joins us by propping half his butt on the arm of the couch. He’s tense, as if he’s ready to run the second Trinity turns her maid-of-honor-zilla eyes on him.

My phone stirs, and I yank it out of my pocket.

“Think it’s Sophie?” Rock asks.

“Maybe.” My face
squinches
into a frown as the unfamiliar alert of a video text blinks back at me. “Weird,” I mumble. There’s no chance to figure out how to play it, before it starts.

And I just stare.

The angle is terrible. The screen is fuzzy. But I’d recognize those rippling muscles and the inked forearms no matter what. I also recognize Rock’s office at Crystal Ball.

What I
don’t
recognize is the backside of the girl my fiancé is nailing over his desk. The image of the hands I’ve held and kissed hundreds of times, curled around some strange girl’s waist, holding her down while he fucks her, burns my eyes. Their pornographic moans and grunts fill the air.

I can’t breathe.

Hot and cold prickles over my skin.

My stomach lurches.

“Hope?”

I’m going to be sick.

The phone clatters to the floor as I jump up and run to the bathroom. Pity the drop didn’t break my phone.

The sounds of my fiancé fucking someone else follow me all the way down the hall.

“What the ever-loving fuck?” I’m not shouting, but I’m damn fucking close. Z snatches the phone out of my hand just as Wrath and Murphy walk in the front door.

Wrath lifts his chin at me. “What’s wrong, brother?”

I can’t even put it into words.

Trinity unfolds herself from the couch and gently taps my arm. “I’ll go make sure she’s okay.” She practically runs out of the room.

I need to go check on Hope myself, but I’m frozen. Two questions won’t stop pounding through my head.

One. How do I have a sex tape floating around and didn’t even know it?

Two. Who the fuck would send it to Hope?

Z gives the guys a rundown. As if more people need to know about this.

“Bro, you’re safe. It ain’t recent.” He taps the phone. “No anchor tat.”

Wrath glares at him. “It’s disturbing how well you know his body.”

I wrestle the phone out of his hands. “I know it’s not recent, you dick.”

“Shit. That’s cold. She okay?” Murphy asks.

“I don’t know.”

“She
saw
it?” Wrath asks. “Jesus Christ, where is she?”

I’m shaking with so much rage, I can’t even answer. As I stalk down the hallway, I take a number of deep breaths to calm myself so I can take care of my girl.

My hand presses against the bathroom door, swinging it open just enough to hear the girls’ muffled voices.

“It’s never going to end, is it?” Hope asks.

Trinity mumbles something back, then someone runs water. “Here wash your face.”

“Ugh. I need to brush my teeth. I feel disgusting.”

“Barfing will do that to ya,” Trinity teases. Hope actually laughs and I’m able to relax a notch.