Reckless Temptations (The Tempted Series Book 4) (17 page)

I owned the title of scumbag. Look it up in the dictionary, I bet Merriam-Webster had my picture next to the word.

“I’m clean, Lauren. I always wear a rubber,” I said, as I stared at her, fighting the urge to touch her. “Always,” I emphasized.

“Um, am I interrupting?” Adrianna asked, raising an eyebrow as she stood next to the passenger door of Lauren’s car.

Great.

“No, we’re done,” Lauren declared, turning around and climbing inside the car, slamming the door closed.

I turned around and saw Adrianna still standing next to the car, her hand poised on the handle as she stared at me.

“What?”

“If I find out you hurt Lauren, so help me God I’ll make my mother-in-law look like June Cleaver,” she threatened, pulling open the door.

“I’m sure you will,” I mumbled, stepping onto the sidewalk because I wouldn’t put it past Lauren not to run me over.

“There you are,” Anthony exclaimed, pointing his keyring toward his truck parked across the street and unlocking it.

Fuck my life.

“Come on, we’re taking a ride,” he declared.

Double fuck my life. Did he know? I watched Lauren’s car peel away from the curb.

Fuck, he definitely knew.

“I’ll take my bike,” I said.

“Nah, leave it here,” he said, crossing his arms against his chest.

“Some punk ass kids were just fucking around by my bike. I’m not leaving it here. Where are we going anyway?”

Please don’t say the beach. I don’t want to sleep with the fucking fishes.

“The Dog Pound,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re sweating,” he pointed out.

I reached up and swiped my hand across my brow.

Fuck, I was sweating.

At least he wasn’t going to whack me.

Not yet anyway.

I fucked up.

No surprise there.

The only difference this time, was that I felt bad about it. I’ve walked away from a lot of people in my life and never once looked back. Hell, my own family might as well think I’m dead for all I know. Still, I don’t feel any kind of way about that; it doesn’t make me feel guilty, just indifferent. But the way Lauren looked at me that bothered me. It was one thing to be angry; I expected that much, but I didn’t expect to see the hurt in her eyes.

I didn’t want to hurt her. I should’ve realized she wouldn’t just be angry like every other girl I’ve discarded. She wasn’t like any other girl. She wasn’t the rule, she was the fucking exception, and I was the asshole who thought rules were meant to be broken—to hell with the consequences. I realized I didn’t just break a rule, I broke Lauren’s ego, something that was already hanging on by a thread.

“Give us a minute, Riggs,” Jack said, pulling me away from my thoughts. I forgot I was sitting around a table with Jack, Blackie and Bianci, waiting for Bianci to spill the reason we were there to begin with.

“Yeah?” I asked, looking confused.

“You okay kid?” he questioned.

Yeah, I’m fine, just grew a conscience.

“Kid’s probably got the shits,” Anthony surmised, suppressing a grin. “Just found out his favorite woman will be in town for a few weeks,” he said, reaching over and squeezing my shoulder.

Then there was that.

We were waiting on Jack when we got here, apparently our Prez has a piece of ass tucked away, thinks it’s okay to keep us all waiting on him while he gets his dick sucked. Anyway, I guess Bianci felt the need to pass time with me and told me that mommy dearest was moving back to Brooklyn. I was tempted to ask him if that meant Lauren would be too but he didn’t give me the chance, sharing with me he and Adrianna had two houseguests until Maria found another apartment.

So I had two crazy women with the last name Bianci who wanted me dead. Three if you add Adrianna.

“You got yourself a woman?” Blackie asked.

“Fuck no,” I protested, pointing my thumb toward Bianci. “This fucks’ crazy mother is coming home.”

Dread churned in my belly. I needed to get away from this psychotic family before they found out I fucked their princess and they tried to hang me by the balls.

“Think you can put someone else on babysitting duty? Me and “Carmela Soprano” don’t exactly see eye to eye.”

“The only eye she sees of yours is the black one she gave you,” Jack added, laughing as he spoke.

Go on and laugh. It’s fucking funny. I’m a clown here to amuse you. Oh, my God! I’m starting to sound like Joe Pesce. I needed out.

Stat.

“Don’t stress it too much, kid. She’ll be too preoccupied to pay much attention to you,” Anthony insisted, glancing down at the table, a small smile worked his mouth.

Yeah, right.

“Adrianna’s pregnant,” he said.

Of course she is. Christ, they’re expanding a family. More people with the last name Bianci. The matriarch was going to be a real basket case now.

“Mama “Leone” is going to be a grandma? Fuck, if I thought she was crazy before, she’s going to be all sorts of bonkers now,” I muttered, before shaking my head and glancing toward Anthony. “Congrats on the kid,” I mumbled, before heading toward the bar.

I was retiring from life.

At least for today.

Yep, that’s my plan. Get drunk and get stupid.

“So, are we going to talk about it?” Adrianna asked, as we pulled up to the supermarket. We had left Luca with my mother and taken a couple of hours to have pedicures as well as doing some food shopping on the way home. Apparently, when you’re married those two things go hand in hand.

I guess you learn something new.

I would never get married anyway. I took a vow of celibacy and decided the new dream I would chase was restoring my hymen.

“No,” I said, grabbing the wagon because Anthony gave me strict orders she wasn’t allowed to push anything or hold anything that weighed more than a lemon. These two had a long nine months ahead of them.

Lucky for me, I got front row seats to the “she’s having my baby show,” since my mother and I were staying with them until we found an apartment, or I got my shit together, whichever came first.

I was right about my mother jumping at the chance to be around her grandchildren. After my brother shared his news with us, I told him and Adrianna I was a nursing school drop out with an eviction notice on my door. They insisted we stay with them until we found some place else, some place close to them.

Now, here we are, food shopping with wet toes and Adrianna trying to get the goods on me and Riggs.

“I heard him, you know,” she started.

“Forget what you heard,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I’ve forgotten,” I added.

Because what is one more lie on top of the thousands sitting on my shoulders already?

“I won’t tell your brother if that’s what you’re afraid of,” she coaxed.

I thought about her words for a minute. I wasn’t holding back the twisted tale of how Kitten and Tiger got it on one night in an alley like a bunch of…well, alley cats. See what I did there? Cute right?

Did I mention I hate my life?

Take the fucking detour, he said.

I did.

It was a dead end.

Focus, Lauren.

I wasn’t holding back the alley cat story because I was afraid of my brother finding out. He’d kill Riggs, and as fun as that might be to watch, the only one who would put that dope in the ground was me.

I was becoming very angry lately. Like, I might need help.

“I slept with him, okay?” I blurted.

Psychiatric help too.

She rolled her eyes as she picked out tomatoes.

“I know, I heard the whole “I wear a rubber thing,”” she exasperated.

“Yeah, he’s a real catch,” I said sarcastically.

Adrianna dropped the bag of tomatoes into the cart and lifted my chin with her finger.

“You fell for him, didn’t you?”

“What? No? I may be going through a quarter-life crisis but I’m not that stupid,” I said.

“You’re not twenty-five,” she pointed out.

“I always wanted to be older than I was,” I stated and sighed heavily. “Look, I liked him a lot, that’s it. I thought he liked me too, but I was wrong. All he wanted was to get laid. Which is fine, because hey, we all need to get laid every once in a while, right? I suppose I should thank him because I’m good now for like a year until the urge strikes again and I do something else incredibly stupid,” I said, ignoring the lady picking out a bunch of bananas, staring at me like I just confessed to murdering someone.

I turned my gaze to banana lady and hissed.

You know what she could do with those bananas?

“What are you looking at? I’m having a crisis,” I sneered.

Adrianna moved behind me and took the wagon from me, pushing it out of the produce aisle before I told banana lady to split.

Ha!

Banana split.

I burst out laughing.

“Oh, my God,” Adrianna whispered, pausing mid-stride.

“What?” I asked, my laughter dying as I bumped into her.

“When did this happen between the two of you?”

“Like a month ago,” I said, as I glanced at the fish counter. The smell got to me, making me nauseous, so I pinched my nose and guided Adrianna down a different aisle.

“Wait here, I have to go pick up my pre-natal vitamins,” she said.

I shrugged my shoulders and took a seat on an Olive Oil display, waiting for it to cave on top of me because why not? I dropped my head into my hands and waited for my stomach to settle.

By the time Adrianna returned the nausea had passed, and I rose to my feet. She dropped a few more things into the wagon and stared at me.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t think I ate today,” I added, pushing the wagon into a clerk because I wasn’t paying attention.

“Watch it!” the guy hissed, rubbing his side.

Actor, I didn’t even hit him that hard.

“Well if you weren’t taking up the whole aisle I wouldn’t have hit you!” I hissed.

“I’m stocking the shelves!” He argued.

“Hormonal and crazy,” Adrianna whispered beside me.

“Aww, A, it’s okay you’re supposed to be, you’re pregnant,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders, diverting my eyes back to the clerk standing with his hands on his hips.

Road blocker.

“Move,” I ordered.

“Yeah, and what’s your excuse?” Adrianna asked beside me.

I turned to her in surprise and then let my eyes follow her finger as she pointed to the wagon. I leaned over and looked at the pregnancy test next to the tomatoes.

Oh, my God.

Getting drunk and stupid isn’t very fun when you’re by yourself. Blackie and Jack took off after the meeting with Bianci, leaving Pipe and Wolf in charge of our gun deal with Sun Wu. The guns were ready to go and tomorrow we were delivering them to “Jackie Chan.” I took my tequila upstairs to my room, deciding that I’d watch Rush Hour until I passed out.

I settled onto my bed and grabbed my laptop to free-stream the movie and remembered Sun Wu’s apartment. I bet that shit is more entertaining than watching a movie I’d seen a billion times. My fingers worked the keys on the keyboard, bringing up the surveillance footage of the apartment he had me wire.