Chapter 16

Briar

The open sign is off in the clinic by the time I arrive, and Molly’s car is the only one left in the lot by the time I park across the street.

The man inside of me, the one I’ve always wanted to be but wasn’t destined to become wants her to find love, to make things work with the straight-laced vet. The devil in me, the one that strips her of every scrap of clothing each and every damn time I lay eyes on her, wants to make sure she’s safe, then burn the fucking clinic to the ground. The constant war inside of me is exhausting, draining me of the willpower I’ve collected over the last couple of months.

A flicker of movement draws my eyes to the second floor. They narrow immediately when I see the douche holding up a lighter. I’m close enough to see his lips moving as he scowls at the lighter. Fucker can’t light a damn cand—

The growl from my throat at the realization of what he’s doing rumbles in the empty cab of my truck. My blood heats, thickening in my veins when Molly steps up closer to him. Her mouth is teasing, eyes bright with mischief as she steps closer to him and places her hand over his mouth.

“Please don’t,” the devil in me hisses as she inches even closer.

My eyes dart from the window to the glove box. With quick movements, I hit the latch and pull out the glock, tucking it into the waistband of my jeans just in time to turn and see her pressing her lips to his.

Red.

It’s all I can see.

It’s the color of the only emotion I can manage right now.

The color of his blood when I shoot him between the eyes for touching my fucking girl.

I’m out of the truck and rushing to the front door of the clinic in seconds flat. Just before hitting the front steps, a quick decision carries me around to the back. He has to have another entrance, and even in my anger, I know kicking in the front door of the clinic while it’s still daylight outside is a very bad idea.

Images flash in my head as I stride around the building. Her coy smile. The glint in her eyes as she steps closer.

I stop in my tracks.

She closed the distance between the two of them.

She reached up and kissed him.

The knot in my throat is impossible to swallow.

She’s doing exactly what I urged her to do, exactly what I know in my heart she should do, the one single thing that will kill me if it comes to fruition.

I’m turning and back in my truck before I realize I’ve even moved. The key turns in the ignition, firing the Chevy to life. The gear shift is moved to drive, and it’s as if I’m having an out of body experience because it’s not my hands on the steering wheel or my foot on the gas pedal as I drive away from her. It can’t possibly be. I’d never leave her. I’d never drive away knowing she’s going to seduce him, give him what she’d wanted to give to me, what I turned down in the hallway last week.

Somehow through muscle memory and pure dumb fucking luck, I end up back at the clubhouse. Things don’t seem real until I’m sinking into one of the couches with a drink in my hand and a numbness in my throat that tells me it isn’t my first.

“Hitting it kinda early aren’t you?” TJ’s voice draws my attention, and I look over to find him with his eyes on my hand.

The bottle in my hand seems more appealing than the two fingers worth of whiskey in the other. I throw back the contents of the glass before dropping it heavily on the table in front of me.

“I saw Molly at the vet’s office today.” TJ is looking for an ass beating at the rate he’s going.

Ignoring him, I raise the bottle to my lips, drinking until I can’t breathe.

“She seems to like him, I mean likes working there.”

He’s needling me, trying to get a reaction out of me. The gun still in my waistband heats against my skin, urging me to make him shut the fuck up.

A woman, nothing like Molly, breaks my line of sight and glares in TJ’s direction. “Hey, baby.”

The filthy coo in her voice does nothing for me.

“You’re wasting your time,” TJ says behind her. “Briar doesn’t—”

“Hey, doll,” I slur, patting my lap for her to take a seat.

“Well then.” Surprise marks TJ’s voice as the brunette settles on my lap, but he looks almost angry when I grin over at him.

“I thought he didn’t—” TJ holds his hand up, cutting off Legs’s words before she can finish her sentence.

She’s sitting beside him on the sofa instead of in his lap, or on her knees at his feet like usual. Agitation tightens his shoulders as he glances between his girl, me and his damn phone.

“Can I suck your dick?” The huskiness of the girl’s voice does nothing for me. It’s too harsh, too used to be appealing. It doesn’t have the girlish lilt of Molly’s sweet voice.

The click of a camera catches my attention, but my eyes are slow to turn in the direction of the sound.

“What are you doing?” Glaring at TJ as he holds his phone in my direction, I nearly push the girl off of my lap.

“I’m documenting your return to manhood,” TJ says with a wide, devilish grin.

“I’m next,” Legs says, calling dibs like I’d even consider sticking my dick inside her.

If TJ’s newest plaything goes missing, it will raise suspicions. The new girl on my lap, however— “Hey, doll.” I look up at her, doing my best to ignore the way her sharp fingernails have made their way under the hem of my t-shirt. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“It’s my first time.” She shoots for a seductive purr, but the ease she manages when she offers up the information says she’s anything but a newbie to this game. “Wanna show me a good time?”

I ignore TJ’s snort of indignation. I know he doesn’t believe I’ll go through with it, but he needs to think again. Molly is off giving my gift away, and I’ll be damned if I don’t feed my devil tonight. The alternative isn’t something I want to even consider.

Taking another long swig from the bottle of whiskey, I let my eyes train on her slender neck. The monster inside of me twitches, coming to life slowly from over a decade of dormancy. I can do this. It’d be simple. I urge him to take over, but my cock is flaccid in my jeans. Even the girl grinding on my lap and offering herself up like a prized turkey on Thanksgiving isn’t enough to entice him fully to life.

“Want to fuck out here?” I pull my eyes from her neck to her over-painted face. “Or maybe we can go to your room?”

I take another swig before responding.

“Do you have any family?”

Her head tilts as if she’s confused with the odd question, but the last thing I need is her dad or asshole brother showing up on our doorstep looking for her.

“Only an aunt in Michigan,” she finally answers, smiling when my grin spreads.

“Perfect,” I mutter, letting my eyes drift closed as she wiggles harder on my lap.

Warmth washes over me as the whiskey finally takes hold. The half dozen or so voices around me meld into a single low drone as my mind slowly flashes through the events of the last couple of weeks. My cock thickens at the memory of Molly’s lips in the hallway and grows even more with her angry outburst in her bedroom the following morning. Pain crushes my soul with our conversation and my confession in the park. Witnessing the kiss she shared with someone other than me is the final nail in my coffin.

I might as well belt out my feelings for her to the entire clubhouse. The idea of what she’s doing right now is worse torture than anything Lynch or TJ could rain down on me with my confession. The pain from them would blessedly end eventually. The agony of keeping my mouth shut while she falls in love with another man isn’t something I can endure.

The lure of the woman on my lap entices me one last time, and as my eyes flutter open, I find her looking down at me with her bright red lip pinched between her teeth. She’s become aware of my erection, but even if it’s because of Molly it doesn’t mean I can’t feed my demon’s need with this woman’s body. He’s been woken up, and there’s only one way to lay him back to rest.