TIGER LILY- THE BRAVO BOYS [book two]

Chapter TWENTY THREE

River O'riley

.. one week later ..
.. THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON. .

"Hey, it's Amby! Leave a message, maybe I'll call you back!" Amberley's stupid voicemail recording chirps in my ear for the tenth time today and my blood runs hot with irritation at the repetitive loop I've been stuck in..

I call.. She doesn't answer..
So much for talking..

"Lyin' bitch." I grumble to myself, tucking my phone away as I reach the entry to the club..

The last week has been nothing but chaos, between moving Lilly and Lovey to the Central-Quay safehouse, scouring the Chinatown streets for information and trying to fulfil my Specter contracts, I'm worn..

Fucking exhausted.. I'm not a young man anymore.. I'm thirty fucking seven and I feel about fifty.
My body doesn't work like it used to, before the accident.. Nothing feels right, it's all stitched back together, but everything is out of place..

The constant drone of the pain makes me into an irritable asshole on the best of days and on my worst, dragging myself out of bed is only becoming increasingly difficult..

The prescription drugs make me too dumb to take and at a certain point don't even work anymore..

Nah.. The only thing that makes me feel any better is the sweet smile on my little girl's face..
Or when Lilly does that thing she does, with the magic in her fingers..

Fuck, I love that thing she does..

Except I can never actually ask her to do it..
I don't deserve to feel better, or to use her hands to do so..

So instead, I suffer..
I let my scars burn and my muscles ache and I live with it..
Because I am lucky..
Lucky to be alive to feel anything at all..
Unlike Qing Shan's mother.

The bouncer, JJ, a big smiley bear, built like a Kiwi rugby player grins at me as he pulls open the door.. "Ey, River, my man! Long time no see, where you been, bru?"

I give him a friendly salute.. "Everywhere and nowhere, Jay! Cherry in tonight?"

He nods, giving me suspicious eyes.. "Yuh, she's working room 6.."

I stop, turning back to grin at him.. "What about The Wolf?"

He puzzles, looking at me as though I've lost my mind.. "Uh-- I ain't seen him.. You looking for trouble or something?"

"No trouble! I'm feelin' lucky tonight, JJ!" The thud of a heavy bassline thumps through my wounded chest as I step into the club.. The place smells like a hundred different types of perfume, some sweet, some floral, some fruity.. The floor is scattered with scantily clad women shimmying around and half drunk soldiers spending their paychecks to see it..

"Hey Riv! What can I get you babe?" The hippy sweetheart who calls herself 'Juniper' smiles at me from the other side of the bar, where I put in my drink order and make a request for a private room.. Room 6..

Once settled inside a den that looks like satan's red-leathery insides, I only have to wait a couple of minutes before the doorknob jiggles..

"Heya big b--" Cherry wanders in, wearing less than something and a little more than nothing.. Candy red strappy silk is wrapped around her succulent curves, covering her sexiest secrets.. The glittery soft skin of her bare belly a hard sight to avoid.. "--River?! What the fuck dude?!"

She's a fox.. There's no two ways about it..

But she's also something more to me.. A friend.. A sister..
Cherry gets me..
And I need to talk to somebody who understands..