Page 43 of Bolt's Flame

“Fiona, wait—this isn’t—” he slurred, but the words barely registered through the now white-hot rage pulsing in my veins.

I clenched my fists, feeling the betrayal twist like a knife in my chest. I trusted him and thought he was different. But this? Seeing him with Jenny told me I had been an idiot.

A dumb, fanciful idiot.

“Don’t,” I spat, my voice shaking with fury. “Don’t you dare try to explain this.”

I could barely breathe, the tears burning behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not in front of him. Not in front ofher.

“What I’m seeing is explanation enough,” I hissed, my voice breaking as I took a step back. “Stay away from me...faraway from me.”

I turned on my heel, my heart breaking apart, as I stormed out of the room, my vision blurred with angry tears. Behind me, I heard Bolt’s voice, still groggy and confused, calling after me, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I couldn’t stand to be near him, to see him with her.

How could he?

My mind was spinning, my chest tight with the weight of it all. I barely made it down the hall when I ran smack into someone. I stumbled back, blinking up through the haze of tears, and saw my dad standing there, his eyes narrowing as he took in my tear-streaked face.

“What the hell happened?” he growled, his voice low but very dangerous, already in kill mode.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, I shook my head, fresh tears spilling down my cheeks. He didn’t need me to explain. Heknew.

Without another word, Dad turned and stormed toward Bolt’s room, his boots thudding heavily on the floor. My heart seized in my chest, and before I could stop him, I heard him yell.

“Bolt! You son of a bitch!”

I froze, panic running through me as I watched my dad barrel into Bolt’s room. The sound of something crashing inside made my stomach drop, and I rushed after him, my feet moving before my brain could catch up.

When I reached the doorway, my breath hitched. Dad had Bolt pinned against the wall, his hand around his neck, ready to kill him. Bolt, still half-dazed, was struggling to catch up with what was happening, but his hands were up, trying to keep the situation from escalating.

Bolt hung there, looking lost, his chest rising and falling as he struggled against dad. I watched him, and damn, there was a part of me that felt bad for him. He looked... broken. Confused. But none of it mattered if he had gotten drunk and slept with her. Whether he remembered it didn’t make a difference to me.

It was over.

Without another word, I turned and walked out and away from Bolt. I hurried down the hall to get help. I may be done with Bolt, but that didn’t mean I wanted my dad to kill him.

WHAT THE HELLjust happened?

I tried to focus and my mind scrambled to replay the last half-hour.

My head had been pounding like a motherfucker and that’s what woke me up.

The blinding ache behind my eyes throbbed with every beat of my pulse, and the world around me felt like it was moving in slow motion. I blinked, trying to clear the fog, but everything was hazy, like I was trapped in some kind of dream I couldn’t wake up from.

The room was spinning, and my body felt heavy, like it was weighed down by concrete. I tried to focus, to remember what had happened, but everything was a blur.

I’d been on the stakeout. Dragon Fire... we’d been waiting for hours and followed them. After that? We got back to the clubhouse. I remembered feeling the tension in my shoulders, the pounding headache from staring at the road for too long. I’d grabbed something for the pain... pills. It was the stuff Devil kept behind the bar. Just something to knock the edge off.

But after that?

Nothing.

I groaned, my eyes finally managing to focus on the room around me. My room. The bed. The sheets twisted beneath me. And then... the figure beside me. A woman—Fiona? Blonde hair. What the fuck?

Jenny?

My mind raced, trying to make sense of it, but nothing was lining up. I blinked, staring at her, trying to figure out how the hell she ended up in my bed. My body felt paralyzed. I didn’t remember anything after those pills.

No conversation, no touch, no nothing.