Page 97 of Temptation
I wasn’t a short person, but this guy… he towered over me. But no matter the size, no matter the sheer ferocity with which he moved, his cheeks were sunken, and his eyes seemed to have lost all the light in them. There was no smile on his face, unlike Atlas’s, and I suddenly wanted to know what his damage was.
Every single one of us had one, but when he looked back at the girl with the high ponytail that had wandered away from us, I recognized the look. I carried the same one every time Skylar was in the room. The only difference was that mine wasn’t filled with desperate longing anymore.
The way he stared at her was painful, as if he both loved and hated her. When she turned around, those blue, striking eyes scanning every single one of us, he refused to look back at her, but instead looked at me.
“Storm Knoxx,” he introduced himself without shaking my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ash Crowell. We have quite a lot to discuss.”
My eyes widened at his name, and I looked back at a smirking Atlas, then at a serious Indigo, before looking back at Storm.
Storm motherfucking Knoxx. The president of Sons of Hades.
“Nice to meet you,” I muttered, just as Skylar snickered.
The girl that came in with them pushed between Indigo and Atlas, and while Atlas kept smirking, Indigo looked just about ready to rip her head off.
“Ophelia,” Indigo warned, but she paid him no attention. She stepped in front of Storm, her eyes scanning me from head to toe before she turned to Skylar. “Ophelia!”
“Shut up, Indigo,” she replied.
Storm fisted his hands, looking down at her, but she ignored him and his imposing presence and pushed next to me. I moved to the side to stop her from going to Skylar, and her clear-blue eyes connected with mine.
“I’ll say this once, and only once, darling,” she started and then leaned closer to my ear. “You don’t want to be in my way. You should ask Stormy.” She turned around to look at him. “He can tell you all about me and what a terrible person I am.”
While Storm oozed with dangerous energy, this girl… this girl was a predator. The worst of the worst. Even one minute in her presence sent goosebumps over my body, and not because she had a body most men would die for, but because the way she carried herself oozed violence.
“Who are you?” I asked, halfway expecting her to tell me to fuck off.
“Ophelia, darling. Ophelia Aster.” She smiled as the blood in my veins ran cold.
Fuck.
* * *
The vast spaceof the club suddenly felt small as more Sons of Hades started trickling in, setting up computers, workstations, and pulling in weapons I couldn’t even name… And I just stood there next to Indigo, waiting for one of them to talk to me.
“What’s going on, Indigo?” I asked. I wasn’t happy with being kept in the dark, and I guess now I knew how Sebastian always felt.
“Storm wants to talk to you, but he wants to set everything up first.”
“Set what up?”
“Our base,” Indigo answered, crossing his arms. “Santa Monica is too far away from Winworth, and he didn’t want to risk it, going back and forth between the two towns. Being here is much easier for all of us. This way we can protect you and your friends.”
“Indigo,” I warned. “I don’t want to be protected. I want to participate. I want to bury those motherfuckers.”
“I know you do, but we need a plan, Ash. You can’t just go in, guns blazing, without a proper plan. That’s why Storm wanted to talk to you. This is why she’s here as well.” He looked at Ophelia and I didn’t miss the way he stared at her.
“You don’t like her very much.”
“I don’t like her at all. I’m not sure that anybody does.”
“Yet, she’s still here.”
“She’s here because she can provide valuable information and nothing more. She’s here because she killed Nikolai Aster and Storm is still keeping her on his side. Why? I have no fucking idea. If it was up to me, I would’ve buried her already with a bullet in her head.”
“Why do I have a feeling that there’s much more to that story than you’re letting on?”
“Because there is.” He looked at me. “She’s the reason Storm ended up in the hospital. She’s the reason our clubhouse got attacked, and I’d be damned if I ever trusted her again. She’s here because I had no other choice but to let her come, because this club isn’t mine. But trust me, kid, you need to keep your guard up around her.”
