Page 1

Chapter One

Tainted Saints

Kennedy

“He’d eat the ass out of a skunk if it smiled at him right. Hell, he might even give it a little tickle while he performs if it hits the right octave when it giggles.” Rigs grumped, her painted pout dipping down with disdain before she puffed a long strand of her fine, blonde hair away from her face and finally tore her gaze from Kingston Crowe.

I heard her whining, but I wasn’t fully paying attention. The bass was flooding through the floorboards, drowning out most of the room until everything but her annoying voice sounded like a dull buzz. I could feel the song thundering in my chest, but it wasn’t the music that had distracted me. I’d been struck by a thick wall of cologne.

The only thing I could compare it to was when I walked past that one store at the mall with the ‘college boy’ shorts and tropical decorations.

All I could taste was ‘fuck boy,’ no matter how hard I scraped my tongue against my upper teeth and wallowed spit in my mouth.

My gaze narrowed on the tall, lanky source of the offending smell and I glared as I clapped a hand over my mouth.

Royal Crowe.

It wasn’t a surprise to see him, considering it was his welcome home bash, the Tainted Saints were throwing. He’d been off at college earning an art degree. Though, if you asked his father, the club VP, he’d tell you it took the fool four years to get a mechanic’s certificate.

The hand at my mouth didn’t help anything, a dull ache was starting at the back of my head.

“What the fuck? Did he bathe in it?” I hissed under my breath, as Royal’s brother, Kingston moved in beside him.

“What are you staring at, Kennedy?” Rigs’s tone turned sharp, and those big, blue eyes that all the guys went crazy over turned into jealous slits.

Ugh.

As if anyone were ever given a chance to forget her obsession with Kingston.

Was she serious right now?

“Keep your eyes to yourself,” she hissed.

Did this bar fly really think I was eyeing her dream guy?

I coughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, shoving her back as she tried to step into my space for further confrontation.

Her intimidating anything was a comical notion. She was barely five foot two and maybe a hundred and ten pounds if she was packing a purse. She was pretty, and petite, but her mood was like a coin being flipped. You might get sunshine, or you might get soured milk.

“I don’t have time for drama with any of you Soiled Sweethearts,” I sneered, as I slipped past Nala and dipped into the kitchen.

“‘Soiled Swe—' You know that’s now what we’re called! We’re Tainted Sweethearts…” Rigs trailed off, saving her breath as she trotted after me. Her heels clicked a desperate tune across the tiled kitchen floor as she tried to keep up with my long-legged pace.

If I hit another one of the over-eager groupies that flocked around my dad’s club, I’d never hear the end of it. From him, or the guys. So, I rolled my eyes and kept moving. When I focused again, Preach Willis was coming in the backdoor of the Tavern.

“Your nephew just arrived.” I called, causing him to turn his head toward me, though his hand was still extended across the door he’d been holding open. His eyes widened with enough alarm to make me check the wall for shadows. Rigs’s elbow was high and her head canted.

It was obvious she was removing her earrings, but I really didn’t expect her to leap up onto my back when I slowed to confront her. Though she was small, her weight slammed into me awkwardly, sending us both tumbling into the opposite wall.

The shock of her boldness bled into amusement, and I latched onto the arm she hooked over my shoulder and brought it up to my mouth, where I sank my teeth as deeply as I could. While she wailed, I jerked forward and slammed us both into the wall again, aiming the back of my dome for her painted face.

I wasn’t raised to be a barmaid or a Tainted Sweetheart. I grew up with a club enforcer for a brother and the president as a father.

What the fuck was she thinking?

As quickly as the thought registered in my head, it flew out of my mouth.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked between rounds of laughter, once Preach hauled me off of her.