“Nyx? Grab Link. I want to talk to him.”
Nyx shrugged but edged off the table. “Two minutes.”
I dipped my chin in understanding, then rocked back in my seat, my focus veering onto shit I didn’t really need to be thinking about.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Rachel’s voice penetrated my focus, and I let my gaze drift over the office that hadn’t changed in a long time and back to her. She was a damn sight prettier than this room, but I couldn’t gape at her without her glaring at me.
I’d have liked to be short with her, wanted to snap at her and ask her why she was interested when she didn’t give a fuck about the Sinners, but that was bullshit. She was made to be my Old Lady. Born to give a shit about this place. She was just resistant to the idea, and because I wasn’t ready for what we would be together, I was as hesitant as she was for the next step.
Knowing your future while you were still in the present was weird. It didn’t smooth shit over, didn’t help you along the way. If anything, it was an inconvenience. Rachel was my inconvenience and I was hers. Even if I’d kill for her, even if she’d kill for me…we weren’t ready for what we’d have.
Not yet.
“Link cares too much. He’s soft.”
She sighed. “He isn’t the weakest link anymore.”
I grunted, hating that she knew the history of this place as well as I did. “I know he isn’t.”
“You fuckers had to remind him of back then with his road name, didn’t you? I mean, God forbid you let sleeping dogs lie.”
“Sometimes, it’s not a bad thing to be reminded of your most major fuck ups. It keeps a man from wandering.”
“If you think that, then why all the concern?”
“Because Link is my brother, and I want to make sure she isn’t selling him down the river.”
“I can see the sense in that.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. “Your confidence in me makes me feel so good about myself.”
She narrowed her eyes, and I could almost predict the snark that was headed my way when a knock sounded at the door and Nyx trudged in, Link at his back.
“Yo, Rach.”
“Hey, Link.” She shot him a smile that he returned with a wink that had her smile deepening. Rachel had a soft spot for Link. Fuck, most of the women did.
“What’s up, Prez?” Link asked, arms folded across his chest when he came to a halt next to my woman. My woman, who was anointing my brothers with fucking smiles while all she gave me were goddamn glowers.
“Nothing’s wrong, Link, I just wanted to check in. Nyx said something about Lily Lancaster trying to bring the sheriff onto the family’s payroll?”
“I’ve been keeping Nyx in the loop, Rex,” Link reported warily. “Ain’t been keeping shit secret.”
“No. He hasn’t,” Nyx confirmed. “And most of the stuff I think is important has bled back to you. But shit’s been up and down since the attack and since the women came here.”
I grimaced, because that was true. “We ain’t had church since before Lancaster’s death.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Been working on fumes. Need to get shit back in line.”
Link shrugged. “Things ain’t out of control, Rex.”
“No. Not yet.” It didn’t take much for the shit to fall in an MC. So far, things had been okay because I kept everything running on a microlevel, but my attention had been divided between safeguarding Giulia, protecting the MC from the Lancasters, shoring up our business interests, both legitimate and illegitimate, and in between all that, trying to find Luke Lancaster’s captives. Hell, half the MC had been working with Mav and Storm to find the poor bitches whose circumstances would probably be in Link’s, Nyx’s, Steel’s, and Giulia’s nightmares for a lifetime.
“Stuff’s been up in the air,” Nyx replied, his statement as close to soothing as he could be. “We’ve had shit to do, but business hasn’t come to an end. All the storefronts are open and running, and we’ve a run scheduled next week that we ain’t going to postpone.”
I had to smile. “It’s okay, brothers. I don’t need you to make me feel better about the past few weeks. We’ve all been running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It’s time to get stuff back in line now.” Tightening my hands about the armrests on my chair, I stated, “What’s going on with the Lancaster girl, Link? Nyx says you’re heading off to see her whenever you can.”
Rachel teased, “Are you in love, Link?”
Link’s brow puckered, and though I knew Rachel, Nyx, and myself were expecting a joke for a reply, he didn’t give us one. If anything, he stunned us all by admitting, “I don’t know what I feel for her. Just know that—”
When he broke off, Nyx prompted, “Know what, bro?”
Link’s eyes narrowed. “She wants her old man dead.”
“What? Why?” Rachel blurted out, getting involved in shit she claimed she wasn’t goddamn interested in…yeah. Right.
He pulled a face. “She has her reasons.”
“Reasons I need to know if she’s making you side with her over the MC,” I warned.
“Fuck that, Rex. You know I don’t work like that.”
“I know you’ve got too big a heart for our own good,” I retorted.
Link’s eyes narrowed even as he stood straighter. “The family’s a mess. One big fuck up. Makes our world look normal. Lily watched her father push her mother down the damn stairs—she actually died. Then, you’ve got that sick piece of shit Luke raping maids and making Lily watch, and…”
Rachel raised a hand. “Link’s right, Rex. This is an invasion of Lily’s privacy. That kind of past isn’t something—”
“I’m the Prez of the fucking Sinners, Rachel. If we have a threat to our security, then I need to know.”
“I’m your Road Captain. Nyx and I work together to make sure nothing happens to us. You think I’m going to jeopardize that?” Link shouted.
“I think if someone tells you a sob story you believe, you’ll do everything you can to help them.” My tone was softer now. “That ain’t a flaw, Link. It means you’re a good man. But we have to think of the club.”
“How about you bring Lily in, Link? It’s her story to share,” Rachel soothed, reaching over to grab Link’s hand and squeezing it when she pried it off his bicep…a bicep he’d been clenching so he could stop himself from decking me.
“Lily’s under armed guard twenty-four seven.”
“What the fuck is she? A presidential candidate?” Nyx groused.
I rolled my eyes, but hell if he wasn’t wrong. “How are you seeing her if she’s under lock and key all the time?”
“Lancaster’s away on business.” He scowled at me, his defiance amping up in a way that made me feel like I was his damn father rather than his Prez. What the fuck did they think they were? MC Romeo and Juliet? “She’s spending time at a friend’s, and that’s where we meet up.”
Nyx pursed his lips. “She’s a potential security breach, Link.”
He cut my Enforcer a look. “I know that. Knew it all along. That’s why I started shit up with her. Make sure she wasn’t a threat. She isn’t. She hates her family as much as we do.”
“Can’t blame her with that scum for a sibling.” Rachel sniffed. “Why was Lily trying to turn the sheriff if she hates her family, Link?”
“She’s got this idea into her head and she’s sticking to her guns.”
“What idea?” Nyx inquired.
“Luke was the golden boy. Could do no wrong in her father’s eyes by the sound of it. She wasn’t going to inherit anything other than what she’d received after her mom’s death.”
“Now that Luke’s dead, she’ll be in line to inherit it all.”
At Rachel’s statement, Link shook his head. “I don’t think so. If that was the case, then Lily wouldn’t be trying to manipulate him.”
“How’s she trying to do that? And is it freakin’ wise when her father’s a goddamn murderer?”
“Seems like she needs to improve the company she’s keeping then,” Link remarked drolly. “We’ve all got blood on our hands, Prez. You saying we’re not trustworthy?”
Because he wasn’t wrong, I sighed. “You know what I mean. We don’t mean her any harm, but her father probably does. Especially if he found out that she was actively working against him.”
“She wants to inherit it all.”
“So she’s greedy?” Nyx retorted.
“Says she has plans for the money.” Link shrugged. “I thought she was bullshitting at first, but she really means to kill her father. I can’t blame her for the stuff he’s put her through—”
“Saying it’s one thing, doing is another. You know that,” I pointed out.
“True, but she means it.” He went on to explain their initial communication, how it had morphed, and what he’d learned that her father had shared with her. “The fact he knows about our dealings with the Five Points, and the fact that Lily says she’s pretty much a commodity in a business deal, makes me wonder if Lancaster has dealings with the Famiglia.”
My ears pricked at that. Hell, so did Nyx’s.
“You get in touch with Declan O’Donnelly, Nyx. See if that’s true.”
“Wouldn’t they have shared it with you if they thought that was the case?” Rachel reasoned. “Maybe he just has feelers out in police departments in the city?”
“True. But I’d like to know for sure.”
Nyx nodded. “On it.” He pulled out his phone and tapped a message, but I ignored him and switched my focus back to Link.
“You like this girl. Maybe you trust her when you shouldn’t. According to her, she wants to kill her damn father. I mean, it would make shit easier for us, but hell, that ain’t normal.” When he ground his teeth, I muttered, “Calm your horses, Link. Fuck’s sake. I want to meet her.”
“I already told you she’s under guard,” he snarled.
“And I don’t give a fuck. I want to meet her. Want to hear this straight from her because I know you, Link. You’re a bleeding heart to anything with a sweet pussy. Hell, Keira isn’t even putting out with you, and you take her side over Storm’s.”
Link’s mouth tightened. “Fuck you, Rex. I ain’t even had her sweet goddamn pussy. She’s a fucking virgin—”
“And you’re still hanging around her?” Nyx pretty much sputtered the words. “Holy fuck. You are. You haven’t screwed her yet, have you? Not even her ass.”
Link jerked his chin up. “No. I haven’t.”
“Jesus,” Rachel breathed, and her response just cemented everything.
Link was not interested in purity. He preferred dirty sluts who’d take anything he had to give them up the ass. A sweet country clubber virgin was not his style.
“Now I definitely want to talk to her. You bring her here, Link,” I ordered, aware I sounded like a hard ass, but I didn’t give a shit. Too much about this situation stank, and I needed to get to the bottom of it before Link went on the run next week.
If our dealings with the Five Points were compromised, and I was sending my boys into a stitch up? I needed to know.
If this Lancaster pussy was for real, she’d be able to tell us what we needed to know, maybe more.
“If I do, it will get back to her father.”
He was stony, and I got it, but I didn’t give a shit. There was more on the line than his dick being tied into knots over a woman with a sob story.
“Then it’ll get back to him. She sounds shrewd. She’ll either figure out a way to get here or she’ll spin it out and reel her father in.”
Link’s eyes flashed. “You treat her like shit and I’ll—”
Nyx leaped up and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Reel it in, Link. This is Rex. He ain’t gonna treat her like shit. You know that.”
And that Link cared enough to speak out against me told me just how far gone he was too.
What the fuck was going on?
Maybe pigs really had started goddamn flying if Link was falling for a fucking virgin.
Nine
Lily
Our pool house was territory I’d never dared enter. See, when someone’s brother told them to stay out of their room, most sisters would probably ignore the edict just to be a pain in the ass.
But my brother wasn’t like other siblings, and I’d avoided his place like it was Pandora’s box. Of course, only when he’d died, had I realized how the pool house actually was Pandora’s box. The second I’d gone in there was the second my eyes had been opened to the reality that was my family.
Of course, I’d already known to a certain extent.
My father raped me to punish me.
My brother raped the maids and made me watch.
I was the star of my own horror show, for God’s sake. This wasn’t Little House on the Prairie…but I’d been curious. With the fear of him gone, knowing he really was dead and buried, I’d wanted to see what his place looked like.
In my mind, I’d imagined blood on the walls, shackles drilled here and there. That first time, I’d almost been disappointed to find a regular living space. A nice lounge with the requisite massive flat screen and a comfy leather sofa complete with more game consoles than anyone could ever need. Followed by a simple bedroom, oak four-poster, navy blue comforter with green tartan pillowcases of all the damn things, plus a couple of dressers.
A bathroom, a small kitchen, an office area that looked mostly unused, and French doors that opened onto the pool.
Simple.
Expensive, sure, but simple.
No virgin’s blood collected in bottles on the countertops in the kitchen. No whips and chains on the floor.
Just a regular home.
Even while I’d been surprised, I’d known it was a lie. No way could the evil that was Luke not have spread into his living space. So I’d gone looking. Even then, I hadn’t really known what I was looking for, but I’d been snooping for something until I’d hit a pay dirt so dark, I knew Link and the men who’d helped him recover Luke’s captives would never get over what they’d found.
God help me, I’d never get over what I’d found either.
A webcam stream.
A webcam I was going to use in the vain hope I could do something to tarnish my brother’s name. As a Lancaster, Luke’s memory was protected. Revered, almost. But if I could throw some mud on it, then anything that was endangering Giulia Fontaine’s safety was suddenly derailed.
At least, that was my thinking.
And it was why I was entering the belly of the beast once more.
As I slipped behind Luke’s desk, eying the expensive piece of equipment like the monster it was, I blew out a breath and tapped in his passcode, something I’d learned from watching him log into his phone, preparing myself for what I was about to uncover.
42—our apartment number in Manhattan. Luke’s most favorite of our homes.
33—the floor we lived on in.
41—the street of our building.
With the computer unlocked, I eyed the desktop. It was a chaos of folders and screenshots that had landed there, and I found the file that had started it all.
‘Heaven Can Wait.’
As a folder name, it had been weird enough to make me click on it, then the link that took me to a web page was the start of a nightmare sequence I’d never forget. I’d used the coordinates of the webcam to guide Link to the property, but I bypassed it today, not wanting to see where those poor women had been held captive, and instead snooped around the folder. I was certain there’d be information on the rest of the computer, but in here, I felt sure there’d be something incriminating.
Well, more incriminating than everything I’d already uncovered, of course. But it wasn’t like I could release this to the cops, not when I was trying to court my dad into believing I was on his side in this war against the MC. I was only useful if I was playing both sides against each other, and my dad had enough friends to cover this up before it m
ade more than a splash in the cesspit that was his pool of influence.
For a second, I thought about the day he trusted me. The day he put me into his will. The day when I got him drunk, seduced him into following me, when I’d push him down the fucking stairs and laugh over his broken body.
The notion made the hairs at the back of my neck stick up on end.
Fuck.
I wanted that.
So badly.
And not just at some random point in the future.
I wanted it today. Now.
Anger washed through me, but there was no point in feeling like that. I needed to make shit happen. So I got on with stuff. Even if the picture of him lying at the foot of the stairs was at the back of my mind all the while, I rummaged around the folders on Luke’s computer. Then, I winced when I saw a folder full of .mp4 files.
Videos.
I closed my eyes as I reached up and rubbed them.
Whatever those videos contained was not going to be nice, and if I watched them, there was no guarantee that it would achieve anything other than making me want to vomit and tear out my eyes for the rest of my life.
But…those women had endured what had been done to them. My brother was no longer alive to punish, and my father was intent on castigating an innocent woman, ripping through an MC in the process to get to her.
Now, I knew MCs weren’t good news. I knew the Sinners were involved in shit that made them the opposite of decent people, but, and it was a big but, Link was a brother. Link who had only ever given me pleasure, even though I’d offered myself up on a plate. Link who seemed to cherish my innocence, even though I was anything but. He was a brother to those men for a reason.
To me the term ‘good’ didn’t come with a black or white definition. Just like the term ‘bad’ didn’t. But I knew what evil was. I’d lived with it all my life. Link wasn’t evil. And anyone he considered family by choice wasn’t evil either. I just knew it.
Like he knew I was thinking of him, my burner cell buzzed, and I pulled it out of the slot in my yoga pants to eye the screen so I could see part of his message without opening it.
Forgotten & Found: A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Boxset Page 47