My only regret was that I didn’t bury myself in that moaning mouth of hers like I wanted.
Maybe next time.
“Link. You good?”
Ash’s voice pulled me from my trance, and I cleared my throat.
“Yep. I’m good. Just waiting for—”
Ash interrupted me. “Bowser? He walked in a few minutes ago.”
Bowser raised his hand. “Hey-ooo.”
I nodded. “Great. Then, we can get started. Church has been called to session.”
We all tapped our beer bottles on the table to signal that we were ready. Then, I launched into my whole spiel.
“So, the reason I’ve called you here at such an odd hour is because I have news on the Golden Jags,” I said.
Sly drew in a deep breath. “Did you figure out what they were shipping in those containers?”
Bowser downed his beer. “Did you find a way to dismantle them altogether?”
I paused. “Possibly. Depending on how this plays out.”
My guys blinked as they all watched me, waiting on baited breath for me to continue.
“First, though, I want to address Sly,” I said.
I looked over at him and his face fell.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I’m not.”
“You’re about to do business with that woman!?”
Ash furrowed his brow. “What woman?”
Sly shook his head. “Some lawyer bitch that—”
I shot up from my chair. “Enough!”
The entire table silenced as I glared at Sly.
“In this club? We respect women. We cherish them. We hold them up to a higher regard than the animals around us. This club has two rules: never ruin a family, and never hurt a woman. Ever. That’s what we do. That’s who we are. That’s why we make money the way we do. In order to keep in line with those rules. You don’t like what this woman does for a living, Sly? Then, you shouldn’t have done shit to get yourself on that stand in front of her in the first place.”
Bowser swallowed down a snicker as Ash’s eyes widened. Sly glared at me, but he sure as hell didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what the fuck was up with him lately, but I was over it. Sick and fucking tired of his bullshit.
“You good now?” I asked.
He drew in a curt breath. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Good. Because if you’re not, remember that your leather cut is mine if you don’t want to follow the fucking rules.”
He ground his teeth together. “Noted.”
I eased myself back into my chair. “To make a long story short, a new friend of mine needs help. Specifically, with her sister.”
Bowser nodded. “And how did you come upon this new friend?”
“She was stranded on the side of the road and I pulled over to help her.”
Ash grinned. “Help her, huh?”
I shook my head. “Not like that.”
The guys didn’t seem convinced, though. Not that they would’ve been wrong.
“A couple of weeks ago, her younger sister found her at her office she has here in town. Her name is Joanna, and she’s a lawyer around here. New to town and trying to establish herself. Her sister crashed her office one night with bruises on her face. And she claims that the Golden Jags are enslaving women into prostitution contracts based out of the motel they purchased a while back.”
The guys’ jaws dropped open. Including Sly’s.
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Bowser said.
Ash leaned forward. “You mean to tell me those assholes are taking our women and using them as fucking sex dolls?”
Sly sighed. “How do we help?”
My eyes whipped over to him. “What?”
He shrugged. “How do we help?”
I blinked. “Out of all the men at this table, I expected you to be the last to hop on board.”
“I mean, when it comes down to it, you’ve got a girl being held against her will. That’s right up our alley. You got any proof of this, though?”
I nodded. “Both her sister and Joanna could name Skeleton by name. Joanna even described his voice to me. His countenance.”
Bowser’s jaw dropped open. “She’s actually talked to the man?”
I snickered. “She tried calling the motel in question and got him to pick up the phone. She thought a bit of lawyer-speak would intimidate the man.”
Sly chuckled. “Bet she got a rude awakening.”
I clicked my tongue. “To say the least.”
Ash jumped in. “Where’s her sister now?”
“In an undisclosed location. Joanna won’t tell me anything else until she knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that we’re going to help her.”
Bowser nodded. “I admire her gumption.”
Sly grinned. “And her want to take care of family.”
I sighed. “This woman has been through hell at the hands of these assholes. And we’ve gone at the Jags for less than this. I told Joanna I’d help her. That’s already on the table. The question is whether or not this entire crew’s going to help her. That’s what this meeting is about.”
Ash leaned back. “And if we agree? What happens next?”
I licked my lips. “I told her you and I would need to have a sit-down meeting with Hope. Not just to get information, but to try and pick through what’s actually true and what she only perceives as true. Hope has agreed to that, if it’s just us two.”
Sly furrowed his brow. “Why just you two?”
“Because that’s what Joanna prepared her sister with. And right now, her sister is about as jumpy as it gets.”
Bowser sighed. “Understood. Though, I don’t like it.”
Sly picked up his beer. “Yeah. If we’re going to help her, eventually she’s going to come into contact with all of us.”
I reached for another beer. “Exactly. Which is what I’m going to tell her at this meeting with her, myself, and Ash. You know, once we vote on it.”
The guys looked around at one another before I stood.
“All in favor of helping Hope, raise your bottle.”
And when all of my men—including Sly—rose their beers, I slammed mine down onto the table.
“Meeting is adjourned. Our new job is at hand. Ash.”
He stood. “Yep?”
“I need to see you in the back room.”
“Sure thing, Boss.”
I abandoned my beer and walked with Ash into the stockroom of the bar. I knew the guys would already get to work doing what they did best. Recon. Figuring out the landscape of this motel. Digging around town and using their contacts to try and figure out if anyone else had family members go missing. Preferably of the female persuasion. We weren’t new to this game. Everyone had a role, and they knew how to play it.
But this meeting thing was new for Ash and myself.
Because usually, he was the only one who did these.
“So, what do you think?” I asked.
He followed me into the stockroom and closed the door behind him.
“I think, given your familiarity with Joanna, Hope will be more willing to meet with me if I come with you.”
I nodded. “That was my train of thought, yes.”
“We’re going to need some serious firepower to go at them, though. Especially with all the rumors of them at least purchasing illegal weaponry.”
“That’s one of the things I wanted to speak with you about. You’re the one who locks down our weapons in our armory. Do you think we’ve got the firepower to do something like this?”
“Depends on what ‘this’ is.”
I leaned against the wall. “Worst case scenario, we get Hope out, and only Hope out. But best case scenario?”
He nodded. “We liberate the motel.”
“Exactly.”
He grinned. “You always plan for the big picture, don’t you?”
“Has it ever done us wrong in the past?”
“
Not one damn bit.”
“So, with what we’ve got now, you think we can make a go at them like that?”
He considered my question. “There are a few things we could use if we’re going to attempt something as grand as that. But I’ve got ways of getting them.”
“Ash.”
He held up his hands. “Not underground marketing or anything. I’m not about to rope us into that kind of shit. But trust me. There are only a couple of things I can think of that would help us with this, and one of those things can be borrowed from a friend of mine. You leave it to me, Boss. I’ll get it done.”
I wanted to press him further on what he was talking about. But I’d always been able to trust Ash. So, I left it in his hands.
“All right. That’s the only thing I wanted to speak with you about. I want the guys focusing on helping Hope while the two of us look at it from a big picture point of view.”
He nodded. “Good thinking. But a word of advice?”
“You know I’m always open to it.”
“Be careful with mixing business and pleasure, Boss. It rarely ever ends well.”
I watched Ash open the stockroom door and head back out into the bar. But his words rooted me to my place. While I wanted to shrug them off, wariness blossomed in my gut. That man had always been able to read people like a fucking book. And he read me as if I had sprawled myself out on the floor and verbally dumped my life into his lap.
He was right. And I needed to make sure I kept my head in the game.
Unless I want someone to get hurt.
I drew in a deep breath before making my way out of the stockroom. I saw Ash sitting down at the table with Bowser and the gang, and they were already jotting things down onto napkins and such. I closed the door behind me and made my way to the front door, not wanting to interrupt my guys. They had this under control. They knew what needed to happen.
So, I took the liberty of telling Joanna the good news.
It didn’t take much to figure out where she worked. After straddling my motorcycle and putting my helmet on, I pulled out my phone. After searching “Joanna, lawyer, new york,” only three names popped up. A divorce attorney, an environmental law specialist, and her. The woman who had wrapped herself around my soul and refused to let go. Like a boa constricting the life from my veins.
I pressed the “directions” button on my screen to get a feel for where her office was established.
Then, I sped off into town.
After parking my bike, I walked in through the front door. And the lack of furnishings or even a secretary caught me off-guard. The front room looked abandoned more than anything else. And the lack of pictures on the walls—or any decorations for that matter—was unnerving. How in the hell did she do business in a place like this? If I was searching for a criminal law lawyer to help me with shit, I sure as hell wouldn't attempt anything with someone located in a building like this.
“Hello?” Joanna called out.
Her voice pulled me from my trance, and I followed it down the hallway.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
I wanted to surprise her. Until I heard the cock of a gun.
“Joanna? It’s just me,” I said.
She paused. “Link?”
I saw her shadow moving before she stepped out of her office. The pencil skirt she wore today clung to her curves, making my mouth water as her blouse fluttered with the air conditioning. I saw the pistol at her side. Cocked and ready to blow. But after laying her eyes on me, she quickly uncocked it and holstered it behind her.
“Guess I’m a bit jumpy,” she said.
I nodded. “Understandable.”
She furrowed her brow. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”
“Can we speak in your office?”
Something flashed behind her eyes, but I wasn’t sure what it was. She wasn’t scared. Or upset. Or annoyed. But she wasn’t happy, either. Still, she ushered me into her office and closed the door behind me.
Then, she held out her hand. “Please. Have a seat.”
I shook my head. “I’ll stand, if that’s okay.”
She placed her gun on her desk. “Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“I wanted to come by and tell you that I met with the guys.”
She shuffled some papers around. “Oh?”
“And they’ve agreed to help. All of them.”
She refused to look at me. “That’s good. Thank you. Just let me know your rate and I’ll find a way to pay you guys.”
“It’s fine. I’ll take care of that for them.”
“I’m not going to let you do this without me paying you.”
“And I’m not going to speak with you another second until you look at me.”
Her entire body froze as I stood there, waiting for her to simply grace me with her eyes. I narrowed my own as she shuffled on her feet, raising her gaze to the wall. She looked over my shoulder, almost as if she were steeling herself against something.
But when her eyes met mine, I figured out why.
“Yes, Link?” she asked.
Her nipples puckered through her bra in my purview. She licked her lips as her eyes fell to my own, before quickly darting back up to my stare. Her pupils blew wide, gobbling up the beautiful brown of her irises and betraying what she really wanted.
The thought made me grin.
“There you are, beautiful. You had me worried there for a second.”
She snickered. “And why’s that?”
I shrugged. “Never good when a beautiful woman doesn’t want to look at you.”
Her eyes fell to her desk. “It’s nothing personal. I just—”
“Joanna.”
She sighed. “Yes?”
“Look. At. Me.”
Her temple pulsed as she clenched her jaw, but she did as I asked. And when our eyes met again, I made my way toward her. I stepped slowly, scared I might frighten her off. She turned her body to face me, no matter where I moved, until I stood directly in front of her. I watched her gaze fall to my chest. Her heat reached out for her. She planted her hands on top of her desk as she bent back slightly. Trying to keep up her professional demeanor as much as possible.
I wouldn't let it stop me though as I crooked my finger beneath her chin. Pulling her gaze up to mine.
“Hello there, beautiful.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Hi.”
I let my free hand fall against her knee. “How are you doing?”
She shuddered. “I’m good. You know. Just working.”
I pressed myself between her legs. “How’s Hope?”
She licked her lips. “Scared.”
I dipped my lips to hers. “Are you scared?”
She sighed. “Not when you’re around.”
I nuzzled my nose against hers. “Good.”
As I pressed my lips against hers, everything fell to the wayside. Her legs parted for me as her skirt popped at the seams, screaming and crying to be off her body. I bent her back down against her desk. I let my lips slide down her neck. And as her nails clawed at my leather jacket, I mouthed over her puckered nipples.
“Fuck,” she sighed.
Then, a piercing ring practically shattered my eardrum.
And ruined our fucking moment.
10
Joanna
I groaned as the sound of my desk phone rang out in my office. I felt Link’s growl against my breast, causing my nipples to pucker even further. He slowly got up, and what I’d wanted was to pull him back down to me. I wanted to forget my clients. Forget my work day. Forget my responsibilities and let him have his way with me.
Like I should have done with him the last time we were together.
“You should get that,” he said.
My heart sank. “Yes, yes. Of course.”
I didn’t bother getting up, though. I simply crossed my legs at my ankles as I laid there, staring up at my office ceiling, as I reached for the phone.
“This
is Joanna Slater,” I said.
“Hey, yo, Miss Slater?”
I shot up from my desk. “Max?”
“Yeah, uh. I kinda got a problem.”
I hopped off my desk. “What’s going on and where you?”
Link murmured. “Is it Hope?”
I shook my head as I reached for a pen on my desk.
“I’m, uh, at the courthouse? I didn’t even know I had a court date today, Miss Slater.”
“I didn’t know, either. Any idea why you’re there?”
“Just somethin’ ‘bout my sentencing? I already thought I got sentenced, though.”
I sighed. “You did. You hang on and let the judge know your lawyer is on her way. They shouldn't start without me. And Max?”
“Yeah?”
“Keep a lid on that mouth of yours until I get there.”
He snickered. “I can do that, ma’am.”
“Good.”
I slammed the phone down into the holster before I looked over at Link. And despite the bulge against his jeans, he grinned.
“What?” I asked.
“You know how to handle men like that, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “It’s my job.”
He made his way for my door. “I’ll walk you out to your car.”
I quickly gathered my things as Link held the door open for me. He walked me across the parking lot and helped me into my Subaru. And the second I took his hand, electricity shot up my arm. Causing the hairs on the nape of my neck to stand on end.
Link closed my door. “You stay safe, all right?”
I jammed my keys into the ignition. “Always.”
“And here. Take this, if you ever need it.”
I saw him holding out a card, so I rolled down my window.
“What is this?” I asked.
But when I flipped it over, I answered my own question.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.
“You’re welcome. Call me if you ever need anything.”
He winked at me as I placed the card beneath my shirt. I slid it against my breast, in my bra, so I knew I wouldn't lose it. And after blowing him a kiss that made him chuckle, I cranked my engine. It rumbled to life without one issue, Link beaming with pride. I shook my head as I eased out of the parking space, then sped toward the road.
Link (Dragon Riders MC Book 1) Page 8
