The only reason I didn’t bend her over my bike and make something of this was her goddamn cell ringing.
She tensed at the sound and I figured she recognized the tone. Her tension wasn’t the good kind either. She froze against me, her nails digging into my scalp in a less than perfect way now, and I pulled back, whispering, “What is it, babe?”
“My father.” Her voice was hoarse.
“We expected this,” I rumbled.
“Did we?” she whispered.
“You had to know he’d call, babe. Even if it was for help.”
“I don’t want to answer.”
I shrugged. “Then don’t.”
She clenched her eyes shut, displaying a vulnerability I wasn’t altogether used to seeing in her. But I guessed it made sense. For all these years she’d worn a mask, and now that he was gone, she was safe, and I’d vowed to protect her, it figured that she’d let the mask slip. Now, she was regretting that. Regretting it because whatever she thought he’d say, she knew it had to be bad.
She bit her bottom lip so hard that it started to turn purple, and just when I thought she was going to make herself bleed, she released her hold on me and quickly grabbed her cell.
She eyed it like it was an alien gadget, and when I felt certain she was going to toss it on the ground and stomp on it, she connected the call and put it on speaker.
“Father?”
Her voice was different. Fuck. Talk about a mask! Hell, it was like a different Lily. She sounded so formal, so disinterested and apathetic.
“Lilian, I don’t have much time,” he ground out. “I need you to go into my bedroom and access the safe.”
“I’m not at home,” she said woodenly. “But I will be later.”
“Did they bar you from the house?”
I frowned at that and his concern. Was it self-aimed or for his daughter?
“Why would they?”
“When they pulled the illegal search.” We both shared a confused look. Illegal search? Hadn’t her guards told him about us going in and removing Luke’s computer? “Don’t worry, my lawyers are working on it. But in the interim,” he stated, not letting her get a word in edgewise. “I need you to go home as soon as you can and use the code 07-12-67 to access the safe behind the Picasso above my dresser.” He blew out a breath, and in the background, I could hear the sound of a loud speaker that was, unmistakably, in an airport. “When you retrieve the documents, go to my lawyer in Manhattan. The details are all in there.” Another burst of sound in the background had him muttering, “Shit, I have to go. I’ll be in touch.”
He cut the call without even waiting for her to say another word, and she blinked at me, a little dead-eyed even as she whispered, “What the hell is his game?”
“We can reschedule the appointment here?” I suggested, worried by the look in her eyes. I’d have to admit, I was curious as hell about what was inside his safe that made him call her like this.
“No. I want my tattoo,” she ground out. “Whatever he wants can wait.” She straightened up, her nose in the air. “I don’t care.”
“No, but it might be interesting to see what he’s hiding. He evidently doesn’t think you’re involved with his arrest warrant.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. He knows I’m smart. You don’t get the grades I did in school and college without being intelligent, but because I’m a girl, he always discounted it. Well, joke’s on him.” She tightened her mouth. “I want my tattoo.”
I raised a hand. “Okay, babe. We’ll get it,” I told her soothingly, because I felt like she was on the brink of losing control and that was the last thing I wanted.
Seeing her reaction to her father’s call made me wonder how long she’d been so on the edge, and it made me hug her that bit tighter as I hauled her into my side as we walked into Indiana Ink.
“Yo, Link,” Indiana greeted the second we were inside, and I grinned at her, squeezed Lily a little, and raised my free hand.
“Hey, Indy, how’s you?”
She waggled her eyebrows. “I’m good. Real good. This your lady?”
I dragged ‘my lady’ over to the desk and leaned against it as I smiled at her. “This is Lily.”
“Never thought I’d see the day Link would get himself an Old Lady.” She beamed at Lily. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”
Lily’s smile was more polite than anything else. “And I you.”
Indiana shot me a look that had me holding back a laugh. I thought it was cute as fuck when Lily ended up sounding like she’d come out of an Edgar Allen Poe book, but that was me.
“So, aside from the ‘property of’ tat, you want anything else?”
“‘Property of?’” Lily repeated.
“That’s what the tattoo has to say,” I told her softly.
“You could have warned the girl,” Indy chided. “I mean, dude.”
“No, it’s okay, I just didn’t understand.” Lily bit her lip. “I’d like a fox tattoo.” Her eyes connected with mine and, instantly, I knew we were both thinking back to the other day when I’d called her a dirty fox.
Her cheeks pinkened, but her grin was anything but sheepish. I smirked at her, then at Indy as I hauled my arm over Lily’s shoulders, so fucking proud of her right then that I could have goddamn burst.
Indy, not getting the reference, merely shrugged. “Like a real fox? Or some kind of Japanese one? There are some super cool graphic foxes, but I have to warn you, the lines might blur over time.”
“Can you show me examples?”
“Of course. Better still, I’ll draw you something.” Her hand snapped out, and like it was connected to her, a pencil was suddenly between her fingers. As I gazed down at the paper she was drawing on, my brows rose as I saw the state of her desk. There was paper everywhere, and her diary was wide open. I didn’t mean to snoop, but the second my eyes glanced over a name in the books, I felt my jaw pretty much gape open.
MAVERICK.
In caps.
Maverick? My Maverick? The Maverick who never left the fucking compound? Who hadn’t left the clubhouse until Ghost had come to us?
Even as I wanted to choke on that, curiosity making me wonder why the fuck he’d want to come here, the scratching of Indy’s pencil grabbed my attention, and I saw she was already on a second example of the fox she could style for Lily. Because Nyx’s sister’s imagination was pretty much blooming into being, before I lost her totally, I informed her, “Did Douchebag David tell you that I wanted a tattoo too?”
Indy cocked a brow, but that was all I needed to know I’d grabbed her attention as well. Her pencil stopped, then she eyed me warily. “David called in sick this morning. Hence the state of the desk. But…really?” The word came out over six or so syllables.
“Yeah. Really.”
“Long time since you wanted a tattoo.” She used the eraser to scratch her chin. “Nyx started another trend, I see.”
“You know Nyx?” Lily asked, her surprise clear.
“He’s my brother. Blood brother,” Indy tacked on. “Not the MC’s kind.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Really? You’re not alike at all.”
“I have some Native American in me.” To me, she questioned, “Any preference? Location?”
“Over my shoulders.”
“Spanning your back?” She whistled. “Gonna be a big one.”
“That’s how I’m feeling.”
“You two are talking cryptically,” Lily complained. “What’s going on? Is it such a big deal that Link wants a tattoo?”
“That he’s asking for it now, at the same time you are, yeah.” Indy grinned at both of us. “You’ll see.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s no secret.”
“Not gonna be one for long when someone sees your fucking back,” Indy replied with a snort. Then she rubbed her hands together. “Right, let me do my shit, come up with some concepts, and we’ll get things sorted.”
And that was exactly wh
at she did.
Thirteen
Lily
My tattoo stung, but it felt good too. I’d actually liked the burn, even if it had felt really damn sore by the end, but I’d kind of managed to zen out, and ultimately, I’d been super happy with the little fox on my inner wrist. The ‘Property of Link’ part was done in a modern script, and though it was no bigger than a credit card, it felt bigger to me.
Like a brand.
Only, I didn’t mind. That tiny tattoo gave me more protection than billions in the bank ever had.
I’d admit to feeling a lot safer once I climbed on the back of Link’s bike, and when I thought about what I’d seen unfold when Link had climbed onto the bed Indy had patted for him to get onto earlier? I felt even more secure.
Surrounded by guards all my life, and followed around like I had professional stalkers, nothing made me feel like this except for my ink and Link’s, which declared that I belonged to him as much as he belonged to me.
I hadn’t expected that, and when I’d gaped at the rockabilly font, the LILY and a Japanese fox Indiana had styled for me, he’d just squeezed my hand and muttered, “No going back.”
And I got that.
I really did.
Even now, with the wind in my hair, the scent of gas in my nose, and all the stimuli that came from being on the back of his bike, I was still bowled over by what had just happened.
Throw in my dad’s call?
I was really feeling the pinch.
But I wanted this over with today. I wanted to know what he thought was so all-important before I destroyed my phone and never gave him the opportunity to talk to me again.
When we made it to my house, the guards let me in without question. Why wouldn’t they? Far as they knew, I was still Donavan’s daughter, even if I’d cut myself off from him.
When Paul appeared the second I climbed off Link’s bike, I raised a hand. “I don’t want to know, Paul.”
“Your father—”
“Isn’t her problem anymore,” Link growled. “She’s with me.”
Paul’s mouth worked. “I have my orders,” he eventually managed to sputter.
“Yeah? Well, I’ve got mine too,” I retorted, and I grabbed Link’s hand and hauled him with me. I didn’t like the way he was eying Paul, and while I didn’t doubt Link and my ex-guard could really get into it, I didn’t want any blood spilled.
Paul frowned at me, and I muttered, “With my father hopefully going to jail, we won’t be needing your company’s services.”
“Fuck that,” Paul muttered, his gaze on Link. “I’ve been your guard for years, Miss Lily. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
Despite myself, I was touched. I thought I’d always just been an open checkbook to my guards.
“I am safe,” I countered. “Very safe.”
He looked at me, then Link, and shook his head, dubious at best.
“I don’t have time for this, Paul. I need to do something.”
He shoved his hands into his jacket pocket and I tensed, half expecting him to pull out a weapon, but instead he retrieved a card.
I jolted in surprise when he shoved it at me, muttering, “If ever you need a hand.”
Link growled under his breath again. “She’s safe.”
“You’re a Sinner,” Paul spat. “There’s no safety there.”
I tightened my hand around Link’s. “I want to get this over with,” I stated. “Please don’t start something.”
Link grunted, but his eyes stayed on Paul as we moved forward. Before we reached the door, I turned back to look at my guard and mouthed, “Thank you.”
The second we were inside, I tugged Link to a halt and said, “I don’t need this,” and gave him the card.
It was a ceremonial gesture, one I figured he’d appreciate. He stared down at the card, then up at me, and frowned. I could see the desire in him, the urge riding him to grab the card and tear it in two. But he didn’t.
He blew out a breath. “It kills me, but…if anything happens to me, I’d like to know you’re safe.”
I just gaped at him, taken aback and overwhelmed and completely astonished by the notion that he was—
Fuck. He did love me.
He loved me.
I couldn’t question it, not when he was willing to put pride and ego aside for me. My brother, my father, no one I knew would have thought of protecting me in that way, but Link? He did.
I licked my lips. “I love you, Link.”
He raised our joined hands to his lips and said, “Love you too, sugar tits.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smirking at him, and a laugh escaped me, astonishing me because I didn’t want to be here. At all. Yet here he was, making me laugh, even though I felt the burden of what my father was asking of me like Atlas with the world on his shoulders.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had stored within his lockbox, and I didn’t want to know, even if I really wanted to know too.
After all, what better way to make sure he was screwed if I had more evidence on him that would put him away from me for a lifetime?
“Where’s his room?” he demanded, breaking into my thoughts while proving we were on the same page.
“This way.”
As I guided him toward my father’s quarters, every now and then, Link would come to a halt to gawk at something.
I couldn’t blame him. Not all of the house had been decorated by the atrocious decorator my father had boned, and some of it was quite lovely, especially the ceiling wide chandelier in the lounge that was made out of thousands of tiny glass balls that looked like stars when they were illuminated and, during the day, were like a blanket of color that warmed the lounge through whenever the sunlight hit it. Aela O’Neill, the artist who’d created the masterpiece, was an exceptional genius.
“This place is fucking incredible,” he rasped when, after a while, we made it to my father’s room.
“Some of it needs demolishing. Just wait until you see the breakfast room,” I muttered, even as I moved over to the Picasso and pulled it aside to reveal a safe.
It wasn’t the first safe I’d seen of my father’s, but it was the first time I’d be opening it.
And with my mother’s birthday no less.
Bastard.
Absolute bastard.
God, I hated him.
I wanted to ask him how he dared use her birthday when he was the reason for her death, but I wanted nothing to do with him. Nothing. At. All.
My mouth was set in firm lines as I opened up the safe, and when I found nothing more than legalese and documents inside, I was almost disappointed.
“What is it?” Link inquired, even as I began to leaf through the paperwork.
“I’m not sure,” I muttered, as I recognized the address of properties my father owned in and around New York.
“Your name’s here and here,” Link pointed out, as I flipped through the legalese, trying to make sense of what I was reading. Mostly, I was seeing a lot of my name.
“Yeah, I see it,” I replied, bewildered, “but I don’t know—”
“What is it?”
“I-I think these are deeds,” I rasped.
“Deeds of property?” Link questioned, and I raised my eyes to him, then nodded.
“Yeah.”
“As in, deeds with your name on them, for properties you own?”
“Apparently.” I swallowed. “He must have put them in my name. As a safety net? Maybe?”
“How did he do that without you knowing it?”
“Fuck knows,” I replied, but I didn’t really care. Not if what I held in my hands was real, and I had no reason to doubt it wasn’t. Even if the property had been assigned to me without my wherewithal, in a court of law, they’d stand up. That was why he wanted me to go to his lawyers, and I said as much to Link. “He wants to dissolve this so he can get to his assets while he’s abroad.”
“Meaning, if you don’t, you own all this stuff and he’
s penniless?”
My mouth curved in a smile. “I think so.” The MCs plan to ruin him through Lodestar wouldn’t be necessary…
Heart pounding and with little aplomb, I sank down on the ground and spread out the documents.
“This is the penthouse on Fifth Avenue. That’s for the Juniper Building just off Tribeca, and this one is for the Landis Scraper in the Upper East Side.” My eyes felt like they were bulging as I gaped at him. “Link…”
“You’re a rich woman, babe.”
I let out a happy laugh. “Without having to kill him.”
A snort escaped him. “Without even a drop of blood on your hands.” He raised his, curled it into a fist, and said, “Worthy of a fist bump.”
I knocked my knuckles into his, then went back to the papers.
Giddiness flooded me, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I found something that burst my bubble and, unfortunately, I wasn’t wrong.
I shoved the piece of paper at Link when he was peering at a set of deeds for what looked like some estate I apparently owned in Toronto.
“What is it?”
“Marriage contract.” I shook my head. “This is going to be a problem,” I warned.
He eyed the document, then reached for my hand. As he threaded our fingers together, he twisted it around and revealed the tattoo that was covered in gauze. “There is no problem that can’t be solved.”
I bit my bottom lip. “You need to warn your brothers.”
“They’re already warned, and now that you’re mine? There’s no war we won’t enter headfirst on your behalf.”
My heart was in my throat again. “That’s why you want me to keep a hold of Paul’s number.” My eyes burned. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Link.”
“I don’t intend on going anywhere, babe, but on the off chance I do, I want to know you have someone on your side.”
Oddly enough, I figured I did have Paul on my side. Maybe Alix too. They had been my guards for years, and I had saved their jobs—even if I’d been the one to put them in jeopardy. A part of me wondered if I could trust them because they were my father’s men, but…everyone could have that taint. Only Donavan Lancaster knew how far his money had gone, and I had to put some faith somewhere, didn’t I?
Link: SATAN’S SINNERS’ MC: TWO Page 26
