Pain & Punishment: the duplicity trilogy by Bella Faust

Author:Bella Faust [Faust, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Daemon Blonde Publishing
Published: 2022-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LILY

“Got a minute to talk?” Zeke places a cup of coffee on the workbench behind me, then squats next to me to check out the progress I’ve made with the vintage Harley frame I’m restoring in my free time. Once he’s done inspecting my work, he runs his finger along one of the welds. “Did you use the number 7 Lincoln rods like I said?”

“Yeah. Even quenched the weld in warm water.”

“Can tell,” he muses. “This’s definitely your best work.”

The same awkwardness that came between us at the hospital, and again during the tense journey back to the compound after I asked him about the disharmony between Hunter and my dad takes over the shed. Since the only response I received to my sassy suggestion to swap his truth for my dirty journal entries was a sharp head shake, I know he hasn’t tracked me down out here to discuss my father.

It’s time for the talk.

About us. Our relationship. His lies. My reaction to them.

All night, I tossed and turned as I struggled to shut off my whirling mind long enough to sleep. If Zeke had come to bed, I would’ve demanded to discuss it. Now, faced with the opportunity, I think I prefer to live in ignorance. The past two days have been bad enough without delving in the problems in our relationship.

I run my finger over the first weld I made using his technique. “Thanks.”

When Zeke doesn’t say anything further, I lift myself from the concrete floor. Sensing his gaze running over the back of my head as I grab my coffee is enough to put me on edge. Sander’s suggestion that I hear Zeke out seemed like the right path to take back at the hospital. Now, I would give anything to avoid his excuses and the anger they’ll bring.

Some space and time would be nice to get my head right.

Unfortunately, both are in short supply when the MC is in lockdown.

Grateful for the hot mug of coffee, I take a long sip, then use it to hide to hide the lower half of my face from Zeke’s probing eyes. When the quiet stretches into a heavy blanket filled with our unspoken problems, I break it with small talk. “What’s everyone up to inside?”

Zeke comically screws up his nose. “Toker’s made a bucket bong and he’s trying to work out how to inhale the smoke while being held upside like he’s doing a keg stand. The boys are taking bets on how long it’ll be before he passes out. Sander and Cub have locked himself in Cub’s room with Nads.” Pausing, he scans my face, then adds. “Brutus is holed up in the chapel with Bear, Joker, and a bunch of old timers. My Dad has hijacked the den with Angelis, Duke, and Gabriel. Pretty sure both sides are plotting against the other while Hunter schemes against the lot of them.”

Happy to have read his reason for coming out here wrong, I encourage him to expand on his worries.

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