Repeat Offender

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  SIX

  “Hello?”

  “Six,” Bruno said. “Lynn, Sin and Laric were all in an accident. They’re on their way back to the house. Can you call your friend Wyett? I called Zach, but it’s going to take him an hour to get here because he was halfway to his parents’ place in Benton, Louisiana.”

  I was immediately running toward the hall phone.

  “Yes,” I said. “Is he okay?”

  “Bumps and bruises. Three possible concussions. But they’re up moving and walking, refusing to go to the hospital. The usual,” he answered.

  “How’d you know that they were hurt?” I asked.

  “Got a tracker on your car. One that has accident protection. Lynn told me as y’all were leaving your place that they were going to talk to your dad. I knew that you weren’t there and they were. Then I listened to the police scanner as the call went out,” he answered. “Be there in ten. They’ll be there in fifteen.”

  Then he hung up, leaving me with knots in my throat.

  “Shit,” I said as I placed the call to Wyett.

  “I need your help,” I said the moment that she answered.

  Fifteen minutes later, Wyett and Lynn were arriving at almost the same time.

  Wyett had just pulled into the driveway when Lynn pulled up with Sin and Laric. They all looked pissed as hell as they got out of the unfamiliar blue truck.

  As Lynn stepped out onto the grass, his face squeezed out a pain-filled grimace that had me rushing toward him.

  He pulled me into his arms once I was close enough.

  “I’m okay,” he assured me.

  “I know,” I lied.

  He laughed at my unconvincing lie.

  “All right, let’s get those heads checked out.” Wyett clapped, pulling a bag out of her car.

  Bruno took it from her and gestured toward the wide-open front door.

  “Let’s go,” he urged.

  We all went, and it wasn’t missed how stiffly Lynn seemed to walk as he headed in with the others.

  “What happened?” I found myself asking as we moved.

  “What happened was we took your dad, someone made an SOS call for him, and instead of saving him, Bruno’s father ran into us so hard that your father was thrown from the vehicle,” he replied.

  Bruno stopped and turned. “You found him?”

  “He found us,” Sin said. “And died. He should’ve probably put on his seatbelt before he started to hit people with his car.”

  “My dad?” I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer, but knowing that I needed to.

  “In the emergency room via ambulance.” Lynn’s eyes met mine. “It doesn’t look good, baby. He’s probably not going to make it.”

  I nodded. “What did you find out?”

  He went on to explain the phone call that he’d overheard as they walked up, then what happened after they left.

  Ending with, “We need to go find the orderly and the gas station attendant,” Sin suggested. “It had to be one of them.”

  “It was the orderly,” Bruno said as he dropped his phone onto the counter. “He tried to hightail it out of the state. Got pulled over by one of our boys. He dropped your name, hoping it would get him out of the ticket. It didn’t. The guy confessed to everything—calling Dumas mainly—and Tripp hadn’t even asked for the information.” He paused. “He took him into lockup for excessive and unsafe speeds. He’ll be in there until we can get him out.”

  “Good,” Lynn said, dropping heavily onto the chair that he’d pulled out from the kitchen table.

  Laric and Sin did the same, while Wyett and I stayed standing.

  Once they were all sitting, Wyett reached into her bag and pulled out a small penlight.

  She walked right up to Laric and said, “Can I touch you?”

  Laric grinned. “Any way you want to.”

  Wyett snorted and leaned forward, pulling down one eyelid.

  “Let me see your eyes,” Wyett said, shining the light into Laric’s eyes.

  Wyett lifted Laric’s eyelid and quickly shined the penlight into his eyes.

  He sneezed.

  “Sorry,” Laric murmured. “I can’t help it.”

  We all chuckled. Well, most of us, anyway. Lynn was now looking like he was in a lot of pain.

  “That’s ACHOO syndrome.” Wyett sniggered as she did the other eye, causing him to sneeze all over again. “That’s usually an inherited trait from your parents. Did your dad or mom do that?”

  Laric shrugged. “Don’t know. I was adopted.”

  There was a long silence, and then Wyett moved to the next man, Sin.

  Sin wasn’t very happy to be getting a physical either after being blindsided by a freakin’ truck plowing into them, but he sat still and allowed Wyett to examine him anyway.

  The last person to get checked out was Lynn. Lynn, who looked like he was about to get up and run straight out of the building.

  What the hell?

  “Ummm, I’m okay.” Lynn started to stand up.

  Bruno’s hand on his shoulder had him sitting right back down before he’d even moved his ass a couple of inches off the wooden chair.

  “Just let her look in your fucking eyes,” Bruno grumbled toward Lynn. “You’re being a little bitch.”

  Lynn’s jaw tightened.

  “Just let me look. Y’all could’ve suffered some serious head injuries, and I need to make sure that you didn’t,” Wyett urged.

  Lynn’s eyes met mine as if he was almost terrified of what was about to happen.

  “I…” Lynn started to say, but Wyett was like a slippery little devil. Before Lynn could protest more than a single word, she was on top of the scariest man ever and shining a light in his eyes.

  Lynn promptly sneezed in her face.

  Wyett backed off immediately, looking shocked. Not because she’d been sneezed on, but because of the sneeze that’d just come out of Lynn’s mouth upon seeing the light.

  “I fuckin’ knew it!” Laric boomed as he studied Lynn. “You’re my father, aren’t you?”

  There were two people in the entire room that didn’t look surprised by the news.

  One, Wyett.

  Two, Lynn.

  He looked resigned.

  “What…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  Now that the answer was in my face, I couldn’t help but notice the other similarities that I hadn’t already noted.

  I mean, I’d done the comparisons.

  I’d thought how much they looked alike.

  What I hadn’t done was put the two together and gotten that from him.

  I guess I could’ve asked but… I would’ve thought that he’d want to tell me.

  At least, I would’ve thought that he would want me to know.

  But… why?

  “Why?” Laric asked, mirroring my thoughts.

  Lynn sighed and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes.

  “Do you want the condensed version, or the really long version?” Lynn asked.

  He looked and sounded tortured.

  “Everything,” Laric said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And why the hell you’re just now telling me after I’ve been around for a fuckin’ year.”

  Lynn sighed and recounted the awful story of him being a fifteen-year-old father and not knowing it. “I tried to find you for half my life before I finally was successful,” he admitted. “I checked up on you every day for a year. Made sure that you had a good life.”

  “I didn’t,” Laric grumbled, voice gruff.

  “I know that now,” he admitted. “Only found out after you went to prison. I kept up with you. Every six months or so I’d come around, make sure you were okay, then back off. The thing was, you’re really fuckin’ good at putting on a show. Slipping that fake mask into place just like I am. I should’ve looked past the surface, but I convinced myself that you were better off without me.”

  My stomach hurt for my man.

  Like seriously
, I was nauseous at the thought of Lynn having to make that decision at such a young age. And to think that Laric was better off without him.

  “I got you out of prison the moment that I heard you were in there,” Lynn sounded shattered. “And then I did what I should’ve done, which was have you at my side, even if you being there was with the knowledge that you’d never know who I was. Because you had some serious fuckin’ hate for your adopted father, and I was the one who left you there.”

  Laric sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands. “I don’t even know what to say to this right now. You should’ve told me.”

  “And if I had. If I’d told you, would you have stayed? Would you have come out of that hellhole?” I asked.

  Laric’s eyes came to me. “No.”

  “Then he made the right decision,” I said. “You came out. You’re here. You’re going to be able to punch him in the face if you really want to, which you won’t because then I’ll have to fuck you up afterward. Now, Wyett, are they all okay?”

  She nodded, looking hesitant. “As far as I can tell, just bumps and bruises. Though Lynn has a bleeding wound on his arm. Is that bad?”

  “Puncture wound from a jagged piece of metal. I put some superglue on it.” He turned to look at me. “You had some in your floorboard.”

  My lips twitched. “I have a lot of things in my floorboard.”

  “Speaking of things in your vehicle,” Sin said. “That hunk of metal protected all three of us. They don’t build cars like that anymore.”

  “No, they don’t,” Laric agreed. Laric looked away, and his eyes landed on Wyett. “Why didn’t you tell Six that you own that land with her father?” he asked, lashing out.

  Wyett’s eyes widened.

  “What?” I asked, standing up straighter.

  “I…” Wyett sighed. “He told me not to. He said that he would take it away. And God, honestly, that’s the only place that Six really freakin’ loves. He didn’t originally own it. Originally, it was one of my dad’s business partners. At some point, he asked if I wanted to buy him out, but at the time I didn’t have the money to do that. So I said no. Then I find out that Ivan bought it. Which worked for me because I knew him. But then he threatened to force me to sell if I told her that Ivan owned it. And I knew that she loved it there. So, I just kept quiet because it was easier.”

  She looked like she’d just hurt me irreversibly.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “He’s manipulative.”

  “Why would he not want you to know?” Lynn asked me. “Think.”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess I would’ve been asking too many questions? I mean, he already has that land with the cabin on it. Why would he need the land? Plus, maybe I would’ve been on it more? I don’t know. Knowing that it wasn’t only Wyett’s did keep me from being on there way more than I would’ve liked.”

  “The land is likely the answer,” Trick said from his perch across the room. When the hell had he gotten there? And how much of everything had he heard? “Why the hell else would he go to so much trouble to hide it from his daughter?”

  “When did he purchase it?” Lynn asked.

  I looked to her, expecting to hear that it was lately, but of course, she didn’t say that.

  “About two years or so ago,” she admitted.

  “Right when you bought yours.” Bruno looked at Lynn. “Right when you got pissed and started to really push back at all this. What better way to hide the shit that’s going down than by doing it where you do your illegal shit?”

  Sadly, things would have to wait for another day, because right when they all would’ve left the house, thunder shook the roof of the large home we were standing in.

  Lightning flashed, and the lights flickered.

  “I think it’s time we all clean up,” I suggested. “Lynn, let’s go. Let me look at your arm and we can get you cleaned up. Sin, feel free to use the guest bedroom on the second floor. Or the first. Bruno, show him to one. Wyett, can you order some pizza?”

  Wyett nodded her head and pulled out her phone. Lynn stood up and tried to hide his grimace.

  I, on the other hand, headed for the stairs and Lynn’s shower.

  Once it was on, hot and steamy, I started to strip out of my clothes.

  Lynn had just made it to the bathroom when it was at the perfect temperature.

  “You ruined another suit,” I mused.

  He made a grunting sound as he painfully pulled the suit jacket off.

  I helped him with his shirt, unbuttoning it and pulling it off gingerly.

  I winced when I saw all the new bruises.

  Dragging my finger along the one that went across his chest from the seatbelt, I said, “This one is going to hurt really bad in the morning.”

  He grimaced. “Fuck yeah it is.”

  “So, Laric?” I asked. “I should’ve seen it. If I’m being honest with myself, I actually did see it. Y’all look a lot alike. Though more like brothers than father and son.”

  “Yeah.” He grimaced as he unbuttoned his belt, but stopped mid-way to remove a gun from behind his back and set it on the counter. “I didn’t want it to be seen. I wanted him to stay. Now I’m not sure if he will.”

  I smiled. “He will.”

  He looked at me with so much hope in his eyes that I couldn’t stop the small smile from tipping up the corners of my lips.

  “He will,” I confirmed.

  Lynn sighed and stripped off the rest of his clothes, only stopping to empty his pockets once he was done and then walking into the shower I’d turned on for him.

  When we were both in the shower, I started to wash him clean, focusing on the dried blood on his back as he washed his hair.

  The water that hit the white tiled floor was tinged red for the first couple of minutes as we got him clean.

  “Fuck, I’m sore as hell,” Lynn grumbled.

  I put the soap on the shower caddy and then wrapped my arms around him from behind.

  A boom of thunder shook the entire house again, and he wrapped his arm around me from behind and pulled me even closer.

  “I love you, Six.”

  His words had my heart stuttering in my chest.

  “What?” I asked, unsure whether I’d heard him correctly or not.

  I mean, the shower was pretty loud with its large amount of shower heads.

  “I love you.” He repeated what I’d thought I’d heard. “I was thinking, when that guy hit me, that I didn’t get to tell you. My life is never certain,” he turned and pulled me into his chest, tangling his hands in my hair before saying, “I don’t live an easy life. In fact, it’s pretty fuckin’ bad. There’s no guarantee that I’ll even make it to tomorrow.”

  I blinked.

  “I’m probably a bad bet. I’ll piss you off and make you mad. Make you question why you ever came into my life in the first place. But I swear to God, I’ll make you happy. I promise, I’ll never go to bed without making sure you’re happy.” His eyes were so intense that there was no way in hell I wouldn’t believe him.

  “I love you, too,” I admitted. “Even though we’ve only been with each other for a short while, there’s no denying how you make me feel. You accept my weirdness. You don’t complain when I start randomly singing Christmas songs. And even better, you saw through my dad’s lies and made sure he couldn’t hurt me.”

  “You’re not upset about your dad?” he asked, his hand smoothing down my back to pull me closer into his body.

  “I’m upset that he didn’t think to put me first,” I admitted. “I’m upset that he thought that he’d get away with this shit. I’m even madder because the asshole probably hurt a lot of kids, and I didn’t even know it. He was in a position of power, and he should’ve utilized it for good. Not for evil. So no, I’m not mad that he’s probably going to die. I just wish that we could’ve gotten some information out of him that could’ve saved some kids in the process.”

  He pulled me in tight, leaning his h
ead on the top of mine.

  “We won’t rest until we have this section cleaned up,” he promised me. “I’ll make sure that it’s safe here.”

  I smoothed my hands up his sides and pressed my head back, allowing the water from the rain showerhead above my body to fall over my hair.

  He got some shampoo and squirted it on my head. It was too much, but I didn’t complain because he took his time working it into my scalp, massaging me and working out the tension one luxurious swipe at a time.

  His erection didn’t go unnoticed, either.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” I asked softly, not parting my eyelids for fear that his copious amount of shampoo would leak into my eyes.

  “Yes, I’m okay,” he promised.

  His voice sounded like he was, but I had the feeling that he’d been shaken.

  Not by being hit, but by the knowledge that there was more to this entire thing than met the eye.

  “I’ll have to play the grieving daughter,” I found myself saying. “People are going to be worried and sad. And they’re going to expect me to be sad, too.”

  “Lean your head back,” he ordered.

  I did, and the water started to run into my well-lathered hair.

  His nimble fingers worked through my tangled locks, slowly rinsing the soap from my hair then applying my leave in conditioner.

  The rest of the shower we didn’t speak.

  He helped get all of the excess conditioner out of my hair, and I helped wash his wound really well. By the time we were through, I could tell that he was dragging.

  When we got out, he handed me a fluffy towel off the heated rack—where the hell had that been all my life?—and we dried off.

  When I was bent over, working on getting my legs dried, I felt his hands on my hips and his cock nudge at my entrance.

  I froze mid-leg and waited to see what he would do.

  He didn’t disappoint.

  After prodding me with his cockhead and finding me wet, he slowly started to ease inside, one delicious inch at a time.

  I had to will my body to ease around him, to allow him entrance.

  “Hold on to your ankles,” he ordered.

  I wasn’t that flexible, so I had to hold on to the lower part of my calves instead.

  When my hands connected with my own flesh, I could feel the goosebumps running down the length of my legs, and I knew that they were likely everywhere.