𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐲

Chapter 17

— Chapter 17 —
Whispers

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N O A H

I clenched my jaw as my gaze landed on a familiar brunette on the dance floor.

Angela.

What the hell is she doing here?

Dancing with her friends to the club's bass-heavy music, she had what looked like a martini in one hand and her other on the chest of the man she was dancing with. She didn't know that I was here tonight—the surprise that flashed on her face when her gaze found mine made that fact clear.

Taking her hand off his chest, she hesitantly moved her focus away from me and adjusted the red, skin-tight dress she had on.

I hadn't answered any of her calls all day. Of course she'd found some other way to entertain herself. Angela was never really the type to sleep alone.

So Marcus's words held water after all.

Of all places... why Crave? Did she know about the street racing? Was that why she was here?

No. It's Angela.

Stop overthinking.

"Relationship issues?" Tats smirked beside me, following my gaze to her. He took a sip of the alcohol in his glass as I replied.

Tats was a few inches shorter than me, with a lean build and silver spikes pierced at the bridge of his nose, the ends of his brows, and along the bottom of his earlobes. But what really made him stand out were the tattoos spanning every inch of his skin—like some kind of mural, painting different pictures over every limb. There were tattoos over his face, too, but perhaps the most intimidating were the sclera tattoos that had turned the milky-white of his eyeballs into an empty shade of black. He definitely wasn't the type of guy you'd take home to your catholic mother.

"I didn't come here to talk about my personal business," I said. Stepping away from the bannister, I put my hands in my pockets and landed a flat look on him. "So—just to be perfectly clear—you don't know a damn thing? So... what? I came here for nothing?"

"Like I said," he pointed out. "I just know what my bikers told me—exactly what Marcus told you. I don't know why you're so surprised. If whoever's behind the races is keeping you in the dark, of course they'd do the same fucking thing to me. Every idiot in Boston knows the two of us are in league with each other."

I frowned. "Your bikers are the only lead on this. One of them knows more than they're letting on. They're playing you."

"You don't think I know that?" He shrugged, furrowing his brows briefly. "Look, I'll figure out who it is, and I'll deal with it, alright? If I find out anything else, you'll be the first person I call."

"The sooner, the better," I said. "They've already put someone in the hospital while we've been standing here sucking our fucking thumbs. And if they've already got Stray Dogs racing behind my back, I have no doubt they've got Mayhem members too."

"So you're telling me to watch myself?"

"I'm telling you to take it seriously," I answered. "You're smart, Tats. I trust you to figure shit out."