“Made you what, sugar tits?”
She jerked at the nickname, then laughed a little again. Only this time, it was warmer. “I like that name.”
“Know you do.”
“It’s disrespectful, but I like it.”
I squeezed her. “No disrespect between you and me. Everything we do is with the other’s permission.”
“I know.”
“What did Luke make you do?”
“He’d cuff me to a chair and tell me that if I wasn’t looking at the maid he was hurting, if I looked away for a second, he’d slit her throat.”
“He did it, didn’t he?”
“I looked away. Once. Never again.”
Sometimes, there were answers to questions you wished you’d never asked and while that was the case here, now it was more than that. I wished I’d never asked, because Luke Lancaster was already dead. I’d already wished I could torture the bastard because of what he’d done to Giulia. Then with Ghost, Tatána, and Amara, I’d wanted to castrate him and make him eat his dick. Now? I wanted to rip out his veins and choke him with them.
I’d never been a religious man. Never believed in God or the Devil, no matter how hard Grandma tried to instill those values and morals in me, but now? Now I did. Now I wanted to believe that some demon was making Luke Lancaster suffer. That he was reaping the years of suffering he’d forced on others. Because if that wasn’t happening, then there was no justice. No justice at all.
I cupped the back of Lily’s head, gently played with her hair, and inquired, “Does your father still—”
“He stopped punishing me that way a while ago.”
Punishing?
Fuck.
“Why?”
“I have no idea.” She wriggled her shoulders. “Didn’t stop to ask him why, was just grateful he did.”
I squeezed her again. “Sorry. Stupid question.”
“Yes,” she said dryly. “It was. But it’s okay.” She bit her lip. “It might be to do with the man he selected for me.”
“Why?”
“My future husband—” Now, didn’t those words fill me with fucking rage. “—has bought me. Why would he want a frigid wife who’s terrified of sex? Maybe Father is giving me time to get over it.”
To get over it?
“It isn’t a hill to get over on a bike, babe.”
She snorted. “You don’t have to tell me that. I know. Anyway…I’m surprised you haven’t gone running for the hills.”
“Why would I?”
“It’s fucked up. Everything is fucked up.”
“Maybe. Makes sense though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Takes a lot of hate to want your father dead. Takes even more to want to kill him yourself. Now I understand why.”
“I wanted him dead because of what he did to my mom.” She shrugged. “The rest…”
“The rest what?”
She sighed. “The rest doesn’t compare. I’m alive. She isn’t.”
My eyes widened at that, but I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t say anything. I mean, that was the worst case of survivor’s guilt I’d ever heard, and in the past ten minutes, I’d heard some pretty fucked up stuff. Plus Mav was my goddamn brother. He was the King of the Land of Survivor’s Guilt.
I rubbed my chin over her hair, aware that the stubble caught on a few of the silk strands but that wasn’t going to stop me from comforting her or vice versa.
Fuck.
Whatever I’d expected, it wasn’t this whole clusterfuck, and my biggest concern of all? Not the other shit she’d said, not the crap about her cunt of a brother even if that was beyond horrendous, not what he’d done to her, or even the clusterfuck that was her father punishing her by raping her…it was why he’d stopped doing that.
I didn’t know Donavan Lancaster, didn’t want to know him either, but a man like that? He didn’t just stop doing something without there being a reason why, and giving Lily time wasn’t enough of a justification. Not for a man like that. So her reasoning had me staring up at the ceiling as the birds fucking twittered through the rising dawn like there was something to be happy about.
See, the world I lived in was fucked up, and the one Lily lived in was too, but they were two separate spheres. She came from a wealthy family. Not her fucking father’s, but her mom’s. And though my bank account was beyond stuffed, it wasn’t from stocks and shares and ownership of a goddamn railroad. It was from the illegal shit the MC did.
So, with that in mind, with the knowledge I had of my corrupt world, I knew virginity wasn’t important to the businessmen of Lily’s world.
They wanted their wives to be good at sucking cock, not innocent and naïve between the sheets. Only a certain kind of ‘businessman,’ and I said that loosely, would be interested in a virgin for a wife… And there was the fact that Lancaster knew about our dealings with the Five Points. Plus the fact that he’d stopped punishing her that way…well, it had to be because he was frightened of whoever he was intending on marrying her off to. And who would someone like him be scared of? The bastard, with all his power and influence?
The Famiglia.
That had to be it.
Sure, there was a whole lot of guesswork and supposition there, but it was plausible. No one except for the competition and the cops would know about our runs for the Irish Mob, and even though he had the cops in his pocket, I highly doubted he was involved with the task forces that would be monitoring our business.
And the Famiglia were evil bastards. Everyone knew that.
A wave of protectiveness flooded through me the more I thought about it. Thought about the why and the how. More importantly, the when. That was what scared the living shit out of me.
“Why me?” Of all the things I could have asked, I wasn’t sure why that was the first question to pop out. Still, I wanted an answer.
She tensed. “You mean, why did I tell you all that?”
“No. Why do you want me to be your first?” For some fucked up reason, that mattered to me. I wanted to know her answer. Needed to know it.
“You know when I told you where Luke was keeping the women?”
Gruffly, I said, “Yeah.” That moment was probably written in my DNA now. That whole fucking night was.
“I was terrified. It was the first step toward changing my life. Toward…” She released a breath. “Luke’s death made him vulnerable for the first time ever. Not only because Luke and he made tormenting me a hobby, but because he was mourning. He grieved the sick bastard, and he’s willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to make someone pay for his passing.
“That meant I had a window of opportunity, but I was still terrified. Still scared that I was going to mess up beyond repair. And I was one hundred percent aware that I only had so much leeway for error.
“You didn’t know me, you just knew that I’d asked your bartender to spike my security’s drinks, but you calmed me down. You helped me breathe.” She peeked up at me. “That meant more than you know. Then…after everything else? Why wouldn’t I want you?”
“You know I’m not a good man.”
“I know how to measure ‘good,’ Link,” she rasped. “‘Good’ comes in different shapes and sizes. I’m not stupid. I’ve read up on the MC. I know you do stuff you shouldn’t. I know there are rumors. You said you’ve killed someone…or someones. But you make me feel safe. You did that night.” She burrowed her face into my throat again, and chose that moment to mumble, “Helps you’re pretty too.”
Even as she wrecked me, she made me smile. “Pretty?” I scoffed. “I’m a dude.”
“Dudes can be pretty,” she teased, and I was glad to hear that note in her voice because, for the first time in my life, my mind, heart, and soul were at war.
I wanted her.
More than I had before.
I wanted her to attain her goal…wanted to help her do it.
More than I had before.
I wanted her to be mine.<
br />
More than I had before.
She was a survivor, a fighter, and she wanted vengeance, and I was the link in the chain who would bring all those parts together to give her what she desired.
Maybe she’d seen that that night. Maybe she’d recognized someone who would connect the dots for her. Well, I’d do more than connect the damn dots. I’d resented Luke Lancaster’s death. He hadn’t died with enough pain, with enough torment. Now, however, I had Donavan Lancaster in my sight and in this instance, the sins of the son would be reaped on the father.
And the father?
The second he’d touched the woman who lay in my arms?
He’d been a dead man walking.
Eight
Rex
“What’s this?”
Link peered at the letter I shoved at him, then he frowned. “Looks like a letter.” His focus returned to his meal, and he hunched his shoulders as he shoveled in some of the casserole Giulia had spent all day cooking.
The scent of rosemary and thyme had perfumed the clubhouse since this morning, and while it wasn’t exactly the image I wanted for the Sinners, I wasn’t about to complain. Not when the meal I’d just eaten was better than some of the stuff I’d had in high class restaurants.
“Yeah. It does. Because it is. Why am I getting letters from some Podunk town in Cincinnati?”
He jerked his head up at that. “Cincinnati?” He grabbed the envelope from my grasp and tore into it. As he read through the contents, he grinned at me. “I found her.”
“Who? Didn’t realize someone was lost.” I scowled at him, not appreciating being out of the loop.
How the fuck was I supposed to keep an eye on things if I was in the dark about shit?
He waved a hand. “Ghost gave me a mission. Find her sister—she’s in the system. Tell her that Ghost is alive.” Then he muttered, “Thought I was going to have to ride there, but figured with shit up in the air, it’d be best if I made a few calls at first. They stuck.” He fist pumped the air. “Yes!”
“She asked you to do that?” My brow puckered once more. When I’d gone into the bunkhouse to see if Giulia was managing with all the stuff she had to do without Stone on hand, the women had flinched and turned their backs on me, like that was the only way they could escape me. Link was lighter hearted than most, but he wasn’t a fucking teddy bear.
“Yeah.” He shrugged again. “This is the best news. It’s going to cheer her up.”
Well, it wasn’t like it couldn’t. Fuck, that bunkhouse was the most depressing place in the whole goddamn world. People in prisons in Thailand were happier than those poor three women.
I swear to fuck, if I could have been the one to slay Luke Lancaster, the piece of shit, I’d have made him truly fucking suffer. Of course, that was in hindsight. But from where I was standing, hindsight was the worst fucking place to be. Especially when you knew you’d come close to true evil, and that evil piece of crap hadn’t suffered for his sins.
“How did you find her?”
Link beamed his cheerful grin my way as he leaned up to tap his nose. “I have my ways.”
I rolled my eyes because he wasn’t lying, but he didn’t have to be such a schmuck about it. Link had a knack for finding shit. Be it car parts or, apparently, lost kids, give him something to hunt, and he was better than a fucking bloodhound.
Heavy steps sounded behind me, so when a hand clamped down on my shoulder, I wasn’t altogether surprised. I turned around, saw it was Nyx, and tipped my chin up. “What’s wrong?”
“Rachel’s here.”
I hated that my immediate reaction to that news was to check my fucking hair in the mirror. God help me. That little bit of tail had me all worked up. Always had and probably always would.
“She say why?” was all I said, because as far as I knew, this wasn’t a scheduled appointment and Rachel was very careful to keep things on schedule. Always. That was because she felt the livewire that burned between us and was in complete goddamn denial over it.
Still, the MC had paid her way through law school, and now she repped us almost exclusively. Far as I knew, her practice had three clients, and we took up almost seventy percent of her work alone. I allowed her the other two clients because they were charities. We’d invested in her, just as we’d invested in Stone. That wasn’t something my daddy had done. It was something I’d implemented.
Bear had thought a woman’s place was in the kitchen and in bed. Sometimes on the back of a hog. Me? I didn’t feel that way. Sure, clubwhores had their place, and when they were warming my cock, I was mighty appreciative, but women weren’t just holes. Back when I’d taken over, of course I’d been one of the few to believe that.
But wasting home grown talent, people who were dedicated to the club as much as the brothers, was fucking foolish.
Stone was a class A healer. Rachel was a shark in the courtroom, and every year spared one of the men from serving life sentences for the myriad shit we pulled. They weren’t the only ones I’d helped over my time as Prez. I was putting a few of the kids who didn’t want to become brothers through community college. By the time I was ready to be in my casket, I’d have the MC sorted for life with a team of all kinds of trades loyal to my people.
Plumbers, electricians, lawyers, doctors…I was working on a few cops too, but that was harder. Most kids round here were raised to hate the lawmen, not respect them. Normally, I’d be happy about that, but having a pig close to hand would help us out in times like the ones we were going through now with Giulia.
“Says it’s to do with the case.”
Those two words might as well be capitalized.
Rachel was working on lots of cases for us, but The Case? It was to do with the Lancaster bullshit.
“She need Giulia around for the conversation? I can get someone else to sit with the women.”
He shook his head. “No. Just you and me. Anyway, Maverick’s with her.”
For a second, I wasn’t sure what the fuck to think. Mostly, I was thinking it was a goddamn miracle that Maverick had left the clubhouse to go as far as a bunkhouse to be in a sickroom of all places. But also… “That doesn’t bode well, does it? That Rachel doesn’t want her around?”
We shared a look. “I dunno what to think anymore. She wouldn’t say shit without you present, so hustle the fuck on. I need to know what’s going on with my woman.”
I’d have rolled my eyes at his impatience, but I understood it. Giulia wasn’t my woman, but she was a biker brat whether she hated her father or not, and I gave a shit about her on a whole other level because Nyx? As her Old Man? Fuck. I’d never seen him like this before.
There’d always been a kind of mania about Nyx. Not that he was insane which, technically, I guessed he was. But a frenetic kind of energy that made him volatile and quick to stir. Giulia, even with all this shit they were going through, did something to him. For him. I didn’t know what, didn’t need to know, was just grateful for this new baseline that was Nyx’s current status quo.
“Let’s go,” I said grimly, and the pair of us stalked off, boots clomping against the ground as we passed through the kitchen into the hall and out toward my office.
I saw Hawk, Giulia’s brother and a Prospect, sweeping up a pile of leaves in the hall and shook my head at the sight. “Do I need to ask why?”
“Practical joke,” he muttered.
“On who?” I grumbled.
“Me.”
“Oh.” My lips twitched and I shrugged. “Them’s the cards that fall.”
He didn’t lift his head to agree or disagree, just huffed and carried on clearing shit up. Literally. Not that he’d figured that out yet.
As we carried on past him, I kept my ear cocked until I heard it, and grinned at Nyx who, despite the fact Rachel was waiting on us, had also slowed his pace and kept on listening for Hawk’s, “Motherfuckers! Who the fuck even does that?”
Snorting even though the hall would be stinking of dog shit for the next
few hours, I remarked, “That never grows old. What did Hawk do to earn that particular punishment?”
Nyx shrugged. “Miserable cunt.”
Like those two words explained it all.
I sighed. “Details?”
“Nothing too bad. Just needs some happy pills. Trust me, I’d have told you if he wasn’t cut out to be a brother.” He gave me a look. “He’s wasted in the clubhouse though.”
“Why? Where should I put him?”
“With me.”
I arched a brow. “You’d be willing to deal with him?”
“My brother-in-law, ain’t he?” He was scowling as he said it.
“Good with security?”
“Giulia said he did some bounty hunting for a while.”
“Really?” I pictured Nyx’s brother-in-law then shook my head. “Too pretty to be a bounty hunter.”
That had Nyx snorting. “Well, whether he’s pretty or not, he was good at it.” He shrugged. “At least, as far as Giulia would have it.”
“And she’s not exactly the queen of compliments,” I stated dryly, which had his lips twitching in a smirk.
“Where I’m concerned, she is.”
“Yeah, well, you’re the one putting her in a good mood, so I expect no less.”
“That I can make her smile at all at the moment is a fucking miracle.”
“Miracle dick,” I inserted with a laugh. “Your superpower. But then, with all that fucking hardware in it, it’s a miracle it doesn’t have an engine.”
Nyx snickered as he pushed open the door, and I quieted as I saw Rachel sitting in front of the desk, reading something on her phone.
It wasn’t the sexiest description in the world, but when I thought of Rachel, I always thought of her as being neat. Yeah, see? Not sexy. But she did it so well. All her gear was designer, all tailored, all streamlined and elegant. When I stood next to her, I looked like a filthy fucking biker, and she looked like she was one of the one percent. Ironically enough, I was the one who was rich as Croesus, and Rachel had started off as trailer trash, only making it out of there because her momma had fucked a brother, gotten pregnant, and Axel had been too doggone kind to tell her to get the hell out.
Link: SATAN’S SINNERS’ MC: TWO Page 18