Me: Because your truth is fucked up, babe. Like, beyond fucked up. No one, and I mean no one, likes the Chopped judges. They’re assholes. I mean, they watch the dudes busting their guts for a measly ten grand, then literally piss on the dishes when they taste them.
Lily: You do know what ‘literally’ means, don’t you?
Me: Yup.
Lily: I think people would stop watching if one of the judges whipped out their dicks or dropped a squat and took a leak on one of the dishes.
Me: You think? I think it would make shit more interesting.
Lily: Lol. You would. As for me, I think the judges are paid to be mean. That doesn’t make them mean.
Me: Gah.
Lily: :P You don’t have to like it to know I’m right.
Me: You’re wrong, babe. They were born evil.
Lily: *snorts* Regular Hitlers. God, I wonder what you think of Simon Cowell.
Me: Don’t get me started.
Lily: I’m still getting over the fact you watch Chopped.
Me: I’m feeling stereotyped.
Lily: Feel it all you want. Do you even cook?
Me: Nope. Caught an episode once by accident and that was it. I was done for.
Lily: You’re crazy.
Me: Only just figuring that out?
Lily: That’s probably why I like you.
My brows quirked at that, and I was totally aware I was wearing a dopey ass grin.
Me: You like me, huh? As in, you LIKE like me?
Lily: Are we in high school?
Me: I’d PAY to see you in one of those private school uniforms. All plaid miniskirts and legs up to your armpits.
Lily: Perv.
Me: My fantasies are all nineteen and above.
Lily: You think I graduated a year late?
Me: Nope. Eighteen is too young.
Lily: Not according to the law.
Me: Fuck the law. Nineteen is when the corruption starts.
Lily: Lol. You say the weirdest shit. Explain.
Me: Eighteen is when you’re trying not to squirm when someone fucks you. Still hurts. Nineteen? You’ve done all the screwing around, been groped. Probably gagged on a dick a few times. You know the score. Ya get me?
Lily: Not sure anyone ‘gets’ you, Link. But I admit, I find that refreshing.
Me: That’s me. Better than a cold beer on a hot summer’s day.
Lily: Your ego is massive.
Me: I have the inches to back it up.
Lily: Good to know. :P
I grinned, for some stupid fucking reason, proud that she could banter with me like this. She looked like she had a stick shoved up her ass and fuck, I wasn’t averse to the idea of her having her butt stuffed with something, just not a stick.
Sticks were pointy.
Not fun.
Lily?
She was fun.
Hell, she was fucking fun. Like, I’d been shooting the shit with her ever since the morning I’d given her the burner cell. Rex wouldn’t have approved of the burner, fuck, I hadn’t even asked him if I should give it to her. I’d bought it out of my own money and why?
Because those texts she sent me?
I’d just known something was off, and it had been. I wasn’t sure how, but someone monitored her cellphone. Read her messages. And it didn’t take a fucking genius to figure out who.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree where Luke Lancaster was concerned, but Lily? She was an orange amid those apples. An orange I couldn’t wait to peel because, yeah, there was going to be some peeling going on. A lot of it if I had my way.
She sent a picture, and the sight of her wineglass, her legs crossed at the ankle revealing hot pink toenails, and the vista a pool that was glowing a bright blue, had me damn panting.
Hot pink?
I’d have thought she’d be a dusky pink. Something sedate. Something bland.
My lips quirked up.
Me: If I were you, I’d be in the pool drinking that.
Lily: If you were here, I’d do that.
Eyes widening at that come back, I felt my dick go from the semi just regular conversation with her caused, a semi that had made Tink think I was locked and loaded and primed for action, to a full-on erection.
That was the first time she’d said anything like that. Made any mention of the fact that she was into me in any small way.
Truth was, I found it incredible that I was into her.
She wasn’t my type at all.
I liked ‘em wild. Unrestrained. Free of inhibitions.
Lily? Well, hell, she was the exact opposite of that. She was pretty much a walking mummy. Tied up in inhibitions, forced to conform to someone else’s will. And while a part of me wondered why she put up with it, another part got it.
Her brother had bought four women and held them captive in a shack in the middle of nowhere. He’d caged them. Done only the fuck knew what to them when he visited them. Had let them shit and piss in a corner and had still done whatever he wanted to them…
Yeah.
Her brother had done all that.
Her father had killed her mother.
Escaping from a messed up situation wasn’t always easy. Take Keira, Storm’s Old Lady. I loved her like she was my sister, and when one of the clubwhores had told her Storm had been fucking around on her from the start? She’d moved out and moved on. Broke my brother’s stupid prick of a heart in the process, but she’d taken action.
Lily couldn’t do that.
Maybe a week ago, I’d have sneered at that. Said that, of course, she had a choice. Of course, she could run. She was rich, wasn’t she? She could easily slip out and make a life of her own. I’d even think she was sticking around just for the money, for the lifestyle it could bring. But now I knew different.
Irony being, of course, that a part of her was sticking around for the money. But I got that too. It was the principle. However, also, she could argue until she was blue in the damn face and I knew, point blank, that she wasn’t just there for the money. She was there because she couldn’t get out. Because she was trapped. So damn trapped that the only way out that she could see was to kill her father.
And that?
Messed up.
Which was my jam.
I liked chaos. I liked that it took you to the edges of your control, made you do shit you’d never usually do. And while most wouldn’t be turned on at the idea of boning someone with murder literally on their mind—and yeah, I knew what the definition of ‘literally’ was—I wasn’t most people.
Me: I’d take you up on that if you didn’t have eyes on you.
Lily: Really?
Me: Really.
Lily: I can’t believe I’m asking this, but if I figured something out…
My lips curved in a grin and I sat up, my dick on red alert now that potential pussy was on the table.
Me: ‘Something out’ how?
Lily: If I visited a friend’s place. She lives in a pool house. She’d probably let me borrow it.
Thank fuck for friends like that.
Me: You tell me when and where, I’ll be there.
Lily: Okay.
Well, that response wasn’t as excited as I’d have liked, but I could deal. Wasn’t like you could show a lot of emotion through a text message. Emojis could only do so much—
Lily: Link?
Me: Yeah?
Lily: I should probably tell you something.
Me: All ears, babe.
Lily: Did you know you’re the first guy to call me ‘babe?’
A laugh escaped me.
Me: Good to know, BABE. But I don’t think that’s what you wanted to tell me, was it?
Lily: No.
I didn’t reply to that, just waited for her to get whatever it was she wanted to share off her chest. She did this sometimes, and I understood her reticence.
It took a good five minutes of me twiddling my fucking thumbs and ignoring a text from Rex to head to his office for her to tap out a
message.
Lily: I haven’t actually done what we’re talking about before.
Me: Hook up?
That didn’t surprise me. Not with her Nazi of a father and sick fuck of a brother. She had more eyes on her than the Mona fucking Lisa.
Lily: Well, that, and what happens when you hook up.
For a second, I wasn’t sure if I was reading that right. Because there was no way in fuck Lily was telling me she was a goddamn virgin, right?
I knew she’d gone to college, knew she preferred her life there over her current one as she had more freedom. But seriously? Was she for real right now?
Lily: Link?
I blinked a few times, then grimaced at a flurry of texts from Rex which told me I needed to get my ass in gear.
Me: Yeah, babe. It’s all good.
Sucking in a breath, I came to a decision.
I didn’t take virgins. That was like the one rule I had.
But Lily?
She was worth breaking that rule over because, fuck, if I hadn’t laughed more in these last few days than I had in a while, and the clubhouse made a morgue look cheerful at the moment. There was jack shit to be smiling about, but Lily had helped cheer me up. And that Blackadder shit? Fucking epic. And watching it with her? Double fucking epic.
Me: Tell me where and when, I’ll be there.
Lily: Okay. x
My lips curved at that small ‘x.’
Was this what I’d been reduced to?
Because it amused me, I replied: x.
Was this how people dated now? Fuck me. Life with Tinder might seem easy, but it was even easier to have a stable of bitches around. Of course, that was why Keira’s heart was fucking broken and Storm was walking around like he’d been kicked in the balls because she’d moved out.
I rubbed my chin at the thought, then got to my feet and made my way down to Rex’s office.
“Fuck, you finally decided to show up?”
Because I was in a relatively good mood thanks to Lily, even if the idea of popping her cherry took some of the vibes away from shit, I took a deep bow. “At your service.”
Rex scowled at me then he pinched the bridge of his nose, blew out a breath, and grumbled, “God grant me strength.”
That had me smirking at him. “Dude, he abandoned us a long time ago.”
“Maybe.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “What the fuck took you so long?”
“Was on the phone.”
“That’s your excuse?” The glower deepened.
I shrugged. “It was with Lily Lancaster.”
At that, the Prez stilled, then arched a brow at me. “Why you talking to her?”
“Like her.” I shrugged again. “She’s funny.”
“She’s funny,” he repeated blandly. “Funny?”
“Yeah. You know. Har-har? Surprising me too.”
“She’s the fucking enemy.”
I snorted. “Nope. Not even close. I told you, she wants her dad dead.”
“And only you would think she was dating material. Fuck me, I can just imagine how that conversation went down. Her gagging on your dick, and in between you letting her up for air and her telling you that she wants to murder her dad.” He rolled his eyes. “And they say romance is dead.”
Though I smirked at him, I admitted, “Ain’t boned her yet. All her holes are Link-free.”
He pulled a face. “You’re fucking gross sometimes.”
“Proud of it.” I folded my arms across my chest. “You pull me away for a reason?”
“Yeah. One of the women wants to talk to you.” He waggled his phone then tossed it at me. “Stone sent me a message.”
Uneasy, I caught the phone and stared at it.
Stone: Ghost would like to speak with Link. It’d be a kindness. She’s not doing too well.
“How are they doing?”
“First time you asked me that,” Rex pointed out, his head tilting to the side as he leaned back in his desk chair.
While he went by the label ‘Prez,’ it wasn’t like he was a fucking royal. The decision for him to be our leader was democratic. Well, as democratic as it could be. If he started doing bad shit, pulling stuff we didn’t agree with, we’d lynch him and set someone else, probably Storm, in charge. Which, holy fuck, was the last thing any of us needed. Especially Storm right now. Keira was fucking with his head in a way I was sure she didn’t recognize.
Still, that was neither here nor there.
Point was, Rex wasn’t royal, but the way he sat there behind his desk, leaning back into his seat, head relaxing against the rest, he looked like he was the king of all he surveyed. While that might have pissed another guy off, I appreciated it.
Rex was a strong leader, and the Sinners were a rowdy, motley crew of bastards who needed someone to keep their asses in line.
Not that we always obeyed. Me in particular.
“Link?”
I tossed him his phone back. “What?”
“You heard me. You ain’t asked after them.”
You didn’t need to ask. Whispers went around the clubhouse faster than the Clap. I heard how they were doing and knew it wasn’t going well.
Stone had almost lost Amara twice, but she’d pulled her back. Tatána wasn’t eating and had tried to slit her fucking wrists, and then Ghost? She was weak—dying weak—from some kind of infection she had that the antibiotics weren’t curing.
I tightened my mouth as I headed over to the tray of drinks and poured myself a couple of fingers of tequila. Sinking back a gulp, I let the burn cleanse me. Not that it got far. Too much of me was filthy, and what I’d seen that night?
It was gonna scar me for a goddamn lifetime.
“How’s Giulia? Ain’t seen her around.”
Rex scowled. “She’s been helping the women.”
“Legit?” My estimation of her soared.
“Legit.” He grunted. “What’s going on with you, man?”
I cut him a look. “You weren’t there.”
Three words, and they said it all.
The irritation on his face lessened some, and he exhaled roughly. “No. I wasn’t.”
“Be glad you weren’t,” I stated grimly, eying the amber liquid in my glass and swirling it around so it licked the edges. “Never seen nothing like it, and hope to fuck I never see shit like it again.”
“Brother, you doing okay?”
I tipped up my chin. “I’m alive and I wasn’t caged like a dog. I’m doing fine.”
His mouth tightened. “You going to have a problem with seeing Ghost?” His scowl made a quick reappearance. “Why the fuck is she called that?”
“Gave her the nickname.” I shrugged. “Dunno why she’s still using it.”
Rex shook his head. “Only you’d give a woman a nickname like that.”
“Had to be there to get it.”
My arched brow had him rolling his eyes. “You going to see Ghost?”
“If she’s asked me to go visit, I will. Don’t know why she has, but I’ll go all the same.”
“Good.” A breath whistled between his teeth. “We need them to live, Link.”
Lips pursing at that, I took a deeper gulp of tequila because I knew what he was saying without actually saying the words.
We couldn’t lose three women, dispose of their bodies, not without something coming back on us.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Good. We need to think about burying the other one too.” His tone darkened, and I knew he was shifting the topic to something that pissed him off. “How do you think Lancaster knows about our ties with the Five Points? If his daughter is right, then the sheriff is on our side which means our backhanders are true.”
“There are lots of backhanders that ease the way. Someone might have split.”
“Then they need ferreting out. Fucking weak links, hate them.”
I dipped my chin. “Nyx and I can do that.”
Rex scraped a hand over his chin. “Would prefer to lea
ve him here with Giulia, but I think it needs the pair of you.”
“I agree. You know we’re effective together.”
He snorted. “One’s the jackhammer and the other’s the scalpel.”
Snickering, I muttered, “You talk out of your ass.”
“But I do it so finely.” He smirked at me. “Get in touch with Declan. See if you can deal with things alone. If not, drag Nyx into it.” He rubbed his eyes. “We need a council meeting. Shit’s been up in the air over the last few days, need to get things back on an even keel. We can discuss where we need you to go then.”
“When?”
“Day after tomorrow? It’s late now, and Storm’s already fucking drunk. Won’t get any sense out of the prick.”
“Didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?” Rex was still scowling.
“He went to Keira’s place.” My lips twisted in a smile. “She changed the locks.”
Brows lifting and mouth parting, Rex couldn’t have looked more shocked if he tried. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. I heard this from her. Got to assume that’s why he’s tanked at…” Looked at my watch. “Six PM.”
“He said shit to me. The fucker’s derailing. Things were much calmer when Keira and he were together. Can’t you do something to get them back together again?”
I snorted. “Do I look like fucking Cupid?”
“Maybe. Glitter comes out of your ass sometimes.”
“I never shove glitter up there.”
“Only butt plugs. I know.” He covered his face with his hand. “Why does any conversation with you always revolve around the ass?”
“In my defense, you’re the one who brought it up this time,” I said wryly, earning myself a chuckle from my brother.
“You turned me. You made me asscentric.”
“Best way to be,” I retorted, after taking another slurp of the tequila in my hand. “But to get shit back on track, Keira’s pissed with Storm, and only Storm is going to change that.”
“Dumbfuck. Some bitches you just don’t mess around with.”
“Seems he’s figured that out too goddamn late.” I pursed my lips, genuinely irritated by the situation.
In the run up to Keira leaving, I’d been telling him to get his head out of his ass. He’d been partying hard, getting home late. You couldn’t do that shit when you had a kid and an Old Lady at home—not unless you wanted to be like our parents, and they hadn’t exactly been role models.
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 40