by Jess Bryant
“Maybe just a hug?” Her eyes twinkled with laughter.
“Sky…”
Lincoln cut him off with an amused chuckle, “As much as I’d love to know who she isn’t allowed to hug, we have some important business to tend to.”
“Ford.” Skylar grinned and then shrugged when Colt growled at her, “What? He wanted to know?”
He glared at his cousins when they all chuckled. Well, all of them but Ford. He only looked slightly uncomfortable. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn a blush colored his cousin’s cheeks beneath that thick beard. The bulky ex-con blushing was too strange for words though so he ignored it and focused his attention on Ford’s twin.
“Business.” He met Lincoln’s gaze and shook his head, “We don’t have business anymore.”
“Well…” His cousin drawled, “That’s not entirely true.”
That got Colt’s full attention and he scowled, “What the hells that mean?”
“It means that we have some business we need to discuss with you before you walk away from the family.”
Remy stepped forward before Colt could say anything else, “He’s out. There’s nothing else to discuss. Whatever business you have, it’s with me now.”
“And me.” Skylar spoke up and if he hadn’t already jerked her closer he would have at the soft smile she exchanged with his older brother.
Another man probably would have been happy to see his girl getting along so well with his brother. And he was. Colt swore he was. But he was also a possessive bastard and he wanted to punch his oldest brother every time he remember Remy saying how amazing Skylar was and how he was half in love with her.
Colt had been surprised but relieved when Skylar so easily welcomed Remy into their lives. She’d been far more accepting than Jemma had been that was for sure. And he hadn’t breathed a word of Remy’s story to her. She’d simply decided for herself that whatever reason his older brother had for leaving that he was trying to make it up to them now that he was back. Whatever had happened while Colt was unconscious had bonded them and he wasn’t jealous of the soft way she looked at Remy. He swore he wasn’t.
“Sorry doll.” Lincoln smirked, “You’re here because you made yourself a part of this but you’re not a Bomar.”
“Not yet.” She shot back and Colt managed a grin despite his tension when his cousin’s eyebrows winged up in surprise.
It wasn’t something they’d talked about but that didn’t matter to Skylar. They both knew this was forever. And his girl wasn’t some retiring flower that was going to sit around and wait for him to ask. When she was ready, she’d drag his ass down the aisle and he’d go willingly whenever that was.
“You’re here because I’m allowing it.” Abel grumbled, “Be quiet and let the men talk or I’ll escort you out myself.”
Skylar bristled, “You’ll have to drag me out of here if you think I’m leaving Colt alone with you.”
“Think I won’t?”
“Try it. I dare you.”
“Stop!” Colt stepped in front of Skylar when Abel took a threatening step forward, “Touch her and I’ll fuckin’ kill you.”
His cousin glared at him but didn’t take another step forward. Lincoln was the oldest of their generation and had earned his spot as their leader. Because of that, he was widely regarded as the scariest fucker out of all of them. But within the family it was generally accepted that Abel was the biggest bastard. Lincoln’s heart might be cold but Abel’s was black.
He didn’t have a single doubt in his mind that Abel would manhandle Skylar if she continued to talk back to him. His cousin was just one more in a long line of Bomars that saw no difference in men and women when they saw red. And if Abel so much as laid a finger on her, Colt was going to lose his goddamned mind and start an all-out family brawl.
“Abe.” It was Noah that stepped in front of his older brother, “Leave the girl alone. She’s with Colt now and that makes her one of us.”
“Like hell it does. She’s not family. She shouldn’t be here.”
“Really?” Noah scoffed, “So I guess Nessa’s not family either, huh? You’d drag her out of here too?”
Abel’s left eye twitched, “That’s different.”
“No. It’s not. Nessa’s one of us and Skylar is too.” Noah told his brother before turning to face them again, “You’re one of us now. That means we protect you, same as we protect each other, but it also means you protect us. Whatever you hear, it stays between family.”
Skylar nodded immediately, “Of course.”
“Thanks.” Colt nodded his appreciation to the other man standing up for Skylar and then glared at Abel, “Don’t threaten her again.”
Skylar’s soft hands on him soothed the worst of his anger. Nobody was going to touch her. He would make sure of it. The fact that both of his brothers had stepped forward, flanking him and shielding Skylar from their cousins only made him even surer of his decision to be with her. He could protect her because he wouldn’t have to do it alone.
“Okay boys, put your dicks away. We all know mines bigger.” Lincoln strolled between them with his trademark smirk firmly in place, “We came to talk, not fight amongst ourselves. We’ve always had each other’s backs no matter if we like each other all that much or not. That’s why I called this meeting. There are three branches of Bomars in Old Settlers and we’re all represented here today.”
Colt shot Cash a questioning look but his twin’s face mirrored his own. He had no idea what Lincoln was talking about either. Remy scowled at their cousin and crossed his arms over his chest but he didn’t move from his defensive position between Abel and Skylar. And Skylar… she squeezed his hand and moved back to his side.
“We have a problem, something that affects all of us and we need to decide on a course of action.” Lincoln continued until Remy shook his head.
“Cash and Colt don’t need to be here. They’re out. What part of that are you not gettin’ Lincoln? They’re done with all of this. They only came here today to tell you that. You got your money from Sky. Abel has his champion for the family as long as I’m in the cage. We’re done here.”
“No. We’re not. Not yet.”
“Whatever happens next doesn’t involve them.” Remy snapped.
“How about you let them hear what I got to say and decide for themselves?” Lincoln’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “They’re not kids anymore Remington. They haven’t been for a long time. They may’ve needed you to speak for them once but they don’t now.”
At the use of his full name, Remy took a threatening step forward and Colt groaned. He couldn’t reach him in time. There was no way. Skylar was between them. But he didn’t have to because Cash was there, grabbing their older brother by the arm and tugging him to a stop before he could lash out at Lincoln for poking at old wounds.
“Hey. Be cool.” Cash shook his head sternly and then looked at Lincoln, “We’ll hear you out but don’t try to provoke him again or I won’t stop him from taking you apart.”
Lincoln snorted, smirk still firmly in place, “As if he could.”
Remy shook off Cash’s grasp but remained quiet. Colt swallowed his own smartass remark. If Remy wouldn’t say it, he’d keep his mouth shut but they all knew his brother could take Lincoln if he really wanted to. Lincoln was a badass, sure, but Remy was a trained killer after spending years in the army. If they came to blows, Remy would come out on top and even Lincoln had to know that.
Colt cleared his throat, “Say what you have to say and then we’re out. For good. No more jobs. No more fights. No more money. Got it?”
Lincoln gave a short nod, “That was the deal.”
“So what’s goin’ on that you wanted all of us together out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“We couldn’t meet at my place because we have a rat.” Lincoln scowled and then glared at Abel when their cousin snorted, “Fine. I have a rat.”
“What?” Cash raised a skeptical eyebrow and Colt underst
ood the look.
If he hadn’t already heard as much from his cousin, he would have been shocked too. Anybody with the stones to lie or steal from Lincoln was a stupid motherfucker. Whatever the person was getting, it wasn’t worth what he would lose in the end.
“Some punk little bitch has been double dealing and selling us out.” Lincoln glanced at Abel, “Somebody’s been talkin’, giving out information on when and where our jobs are goin’ down. Our last few marks have been hit by someone else before we got there. We’ve been keeping an eye on the situation, but it’s gotta be somebody on the crew. Nobody else knew about that last fight but us.”
Colt frowned at that. He remembered Lincoln coming into the shop and telling him that the invites were going out in person. They’d steered clear of electronics to keep from being tracked. He’d been distracted that night, by Skylar, and he hadn’t given it another thought but now, with all of the other shit that had gone down, he felt his anger begin to simmer just beneath the surface.
“You think the same person is responsible for the attacks on the shops?”
“Yeah.”
“Which means it’s the same guys that fucked me up.” He grit his teeth, “You think one of your guys was a part of that? Really? And you’re just now tellin’ me?”
Lincoln held his hands up innocently, “I didn’t know for sure.”
“But you do now?”
“Well…” His cousin hedged, “Not exactly, but I got a pretty good idea.”
“Who is it?” Remy growled, “I want the name.”
“Relax Remy. You’re not killin’ anybody today.” Lincoln shook his head and when Remy looked like he might argue he glared at him, “I don’t have a name. Not yet. But it’s one of the boys on the crew.”
“You’re sure?” Cash looked around at all of them and then shrugged, “Somebody’s got to say it. Are you sure it’s not one of us?”
“What the fuck did you say?” Abel snarled.
“You heard me.”
“We don’t turn on each other.” Abel took a dangerous step forward but Noah stepped in his path and Lincoln moved between them as well, stopping him before he could reach Cash.
“It’s an honest question Abe.” Lincoln sighed, “And it’s not like we didn’t discuss it amongst ourselves.”
Colt raised an eyebrow at that. They had? He wouldn’t have expected that but he supposed it had to be done. Just like Cash’s question had to be asked.
Sure Lincoln ran a crew that included some lowlifes but when push came to shove, the only people with any power in his ring were family. It was Auto’s garage. Royce and Bentley headed up teams that boosted the cars. Ford did the dirty work of pulling the cars apart with his own hands. But working with them, there were plenty of other men that knew enough to get them all in trouble.
Abel kept his family separate from that business but he was no cleaner. He ran the fights and between them his brothers covered any and every kind of sin that could be peddled to those that partook. Drugs, girls, guns, it didn’t matter to the Bible Bomars as long as it made money.
Their two branches crossed because most men that got involved in one side of the dirty life usually ended up dealing in the other too. Lincoln and Abel had an understanding that each business was their own but in the end, it was all Bomar territory. If somebody had information and was attempting to sabotage one of them, the dumb fuck was going after all of them and there was no way he would get out of it alive.
Selling out the fights was one thing. That would have been enough to earn a beating unto which recovery would have been long and difficult. But attacking one of their own like they had Colt, well that was going to get a much heavier response. They all knew it and whoever had done it, if they were really part of Lincoln’s crew, must have been desperate on top of stupid because he had to know it too.
“It’s not one of us. I’ve already made sure of that. I didn’t like checking on the family but everybody has alibis for the night of the attack.” Lincoln shrugged, “Which only leaves a handful of guys from the car crews. I’m narrowing it down. Keeping an eye on them. I’ll figure out who it is and when I find out, they’ll be dealt with. You can bet on that.”
They. Lincoln kept saying they. Did he think it was more than one person?
All of a sudden, something Colt hadn’t mentioned to Lincoln poked at his consciousness. The night of the attack he hadn’t known any of the men’s faces but there had been that one guy. The one in the mask had kept his face covered as if Colt would recognize him if he didn’t.
Was that because he was one of Lincoln’s men? Someone Colt had met before? And what was it the guys had called him? Shit, he couldn’t remember but he had a feeling it was something important, the missing piece that would help lead them to the man that was putting their entire family in danger.
“So what’s this got to do with Cash and Colt?” Remy spoke up.
“Colt was attacked because he’s a Bomar. He can scream from the rooftops that he’s clean now but it won’t keep him safe. Not until we find this fucker.”
“I’m not worried about me.” He pulled Skylar close and kissed the top of her head when she shivered.
“I know.” Lincoln almost looked apologetic when he glanced at Skylar and then at Cash, “I’m sorry you all got dragged into this. I know it’s not what you wanted. You want to be free of this life. I say good for you. But until we catch our rat, you need to be careful and protect the people you love.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Cash scowled.
“Keep them close.” Noah spoke up, “Same as I… we’ll do with Nessa.”
“I can’t keep Jem locked up for God only knows how long. She has a job. Responsibilities. She’s pregnant for fuck’s sake. We’ve got doctor’s appointments and shit! She’s not gonna…”
“She’ll be protected by all of us.” Lincoln cut him off. “We’ll keep an eye on her. On all of you.”
Colt frowned at that, “You’re gonna put a guard on the girls?”
He didn’t like the sound of that. He could protect Skylar. She was his. His brothers would help him. He didn’t want his cousins following her around. He didn’t want them anywhere near her.
His first, knee-jerk reaction was to say no way. She wasn’t a part of this, of any of this, but he knew that wasn’t true anymore. She’d stepped into his world and that meant she was in just as much danger as he was. Because Lincoln was right, being clean now didn’t absolve him of anything, particularly not in the eyes of whoever had attacked him. They’d still come after him and they could still use Skylar to hurt him.
He couldn’t let that happen. He had to keep her safe. It was the one thing he’d always tried to do, even when he hadn’t let himself even think of being with her. Now that he’d had her in his arms and in his bed, now that he knew his today was better than any someday with her, he couldn’t lose her and that meant he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
Even let Ford or one of his other cousins keep an eye on her if need be. Okay, probably not Ford. He wasn’t letting Skylar near that particular cousin. She was probably just teasing him about her crush on the quiet, older Bomar boy but either way, he wasn’t risking a situation where he’d have to kill his cousin for looking at her too closely.
“Damn straight. Anytime you can’t be with them, one of us will be. They go nowhere alone until this is over.”
“Now, wait just a second.” Skylar spoke up, shooting daggers at every man in the room, “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Sky…”
“No, Colt. I’m serious. I don’t want one of your cousins following me around like a damn puppy.” She snorted and then pointed at Lincoln, “In case you haven’t noticed, these guys didn’t attack your women. They’ve attacked your businesses and your men. They’re not after us. They’re after you, ya morons.”
“She’s got a mouth on her, don’t she?” Abel sneered.
“Yeah, she does.” Skylar chirped back at him
before he could hush her, “She’s also got a brain and she thinks that having a Bomar babysitter 24/7 is just asking for trouble.”
“Yeah, well nobody asked what you think.” Abel growled.
“She has a point.” Noah shrugged when his older brother glared at him, “What? She does. These guys haven’t gone after the girls.”
“Yet.” Lincoln corrected, “They haven’t gone after the girls yet but there’s no guarantee they won’t and I’m not taking chances with them.” He met Skylar’s gaze and when she was looking at him he shook his head, “You’re getting a guard, doll-face. Get over it.”
Skylar harrumphed, “And if I say no?”
“You’re still getting one.” Colt turned her to face him and tilted her head back until he could meet her eyes, “You’re going to do this and keep yourself safe for me. We protect each other, remember?”
She frowned but didn’t argue and the tightness that had begun to permeate his chest again eased. He’d fight with her on this if he had too. She had wanted to be part of his life, had stepped into this dark and dangerous world and refused to walk away from him. He was getting out, was out, but he would always be a Bomar and as long as that meant there was a threat to her, he would use his family to protect her. It was their fault she was in danger. It was the least they could do.
“Okay.” She finally nodded.
“Thank you.” He brushed his lips across her forehead and hugged her close. “Thank you.”
“God I hope Jemma agrees that easily.” Cash snorted.
Skylar pulled back from his embrace, “I’ll talk to her. She’ll be fine. Promise.”
Cash gave her an indulgent smile and Colt listened as his cousins talked through the specifics of who would be expected to play bodyguard. It wasn’t ideal. He knew that. This wasn’t the way he’d wanted it all to go down. But considering just how rarely in his life he’d gotten what he wanted, he couldn’t say that he was surprised.
He’d gotten Skylar though, and that was all that mattered. She was his. She was here, with him. She had seen the darkest, ugliest parts of him and his world and she had accepted him. She loved him. And he was going to keep her safe or die trying.