I speed up and change a few lanes, seeing if the car stays with me. I’m not an expert at tailing so I’m not sure if he is or if it’s my paranoia. He doesn’t keep right up on me, but at the last yellow light, I sped up, which caused him to blow through the red. I’m about to pull up to the office when the car suddenly pulls in front and speeds past me.
“Fuck,” I curse, which is completely out of character for me. I don’t realize I’ve been holding my breath until I see his headlights in front of me. I park and grab my stuff and head upstairs. I’m praying that Linc and Ram are in a place where I can grab Linc and talk to him. Sadly, when I enter the office, Clara is waiting for me, an anxious frown on her face.
“Hi, sorry, but they’re ready for you. Linc and Ram just finished the morning prep. The client showed up early, so they’re already in the conference room. I have the presentation and the account profile. Everything you should need is in here.” She hands me the folder and grabs my laptop bag to drop off in my office, so I can go straight to the meeting. I’m feeling a bit shaken up and need to pull myself together.
I walk into the conference and see Roman in front with the client, while Ram and Linc take the back seats, allowing Roman to begin the morning presentation.
I offer Linc a smile but it doesn’t reach my eyes. Linc notices it immediately.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I want to tell him what just happened. Show him the photos. I look forward and see Roman finishing up his spiel and know I don’t have much time.
“Linc, when I—”
His phone rings, distracting me. I quickly look at his screen to see who it is, but he ignores the call. Two seconds later, the phone vibrates again.
“Who’s calling you? Why don’t you ever answer?” I whisper frantically. I need to know. And now.
“Babe, I told you, it’s nothing. Bill collectors probably. I’m fine. What did you want to tell me?”
“When I was driving to—”
“Linc, did you want to come up and present your graphics?” Roman cuts us off, and Linc quickly pats my thigh and stands, heading to the front of the room.
I try and sit through Linc’s presentation. His drawings are amazing. And he is a natural with people. I watch as our client hangs on every word, practically drooling over his ideas. I begin to settle, enjoying watching him in his element, when his phone rings again.
Leave it be, Reagan. Trust him.
God! I just can’t. I lean over and see a random number. It tells me nothing, which means he could be telling me the truth. Bill collectors call day and night from random numbers. Dang, relax, girl. I take a deep breath and sit back in my chair, eyes back on Linc. He’s well into nailing this sale when his phone dings again, this time indicating a text.
None of your business.
Ignore it.
He would tell you if…
Oh, to hell with it. I lean forward just as another slew of messages come through.
Detective Dickhead: I know you see my calls. Answer.
Detective Dickhead: We made a deal. Screw me and I take everything from you.
Detective Dickhead: It ends tonight. This is the end of the line for you, Carter, if you fuck it up.
I gasp at the messages I’m reading. What deal? Who is this? What has Linc gotten himself into? I lift my head, finding Linc’s eyes. He knows I’m reading something I shouldn’t be. The look on my face resembles the look on his.
Worry.
His phone dings again. I look down to another text.
Detective Dickhead: 7pm by the docks. You’re the bait. Play your part. It’s your life if you mess up.
My hands go over my mouth at the last message. Oh my God.
“Well, I am sold, sold, sold!” our client boasts and stands. I can barely pull myself together to shake his hand, telling him that we’ll be in touch to finalize the financial portfolio, before Ram is walking them out of the conference room. Linc is by my side instantly.
“Rey—”
“Don’t you Rey me, goddammit,” I snap. “You’ve been lying to me. This!” I jab at his screen filled with message after message. “This is not nothing! This is someone threatening your life!”
He attempts to bring his arms up to comfort me, but I slap him away. “No. You’re not going to smooth your way out this with your kisses and tender words.”
Linc ignores my fight to keep distance and wraps his large hand around shoulder. “Baby liste—”
“Get your fucking hands off my sister,” Roman barks from across the room.
Linc ignores him as he fights for my attention. “Rey, look at me.”
“You’re lying to me,” I accuse. “You’re in trouble. Big trouble.” My voice cracks. “Am I in danger? Was the man following me today one of these people who are out to get you?”
Linc’s eyes darken. “What man?” he demands. “Who was fucking following you?”
My eyes fill with unshed tears and fear claws at my throat. He’s been hiding this from me the whole time when in reality things have not been okay. “Linc, you need to tell me, now, who that is texting you. We need to go to the police!”
“NO!” Linc snaps back, just as Roman rips Linc’s hand off me. “Touch my sister again like that and you’re a dead man.”
Linc’s eyes flicker with rage, the growl leaving his lips straight up dangerous. He takes a threatening step toward my brother. “You know what, motherfucker?” he hisses. “Open your goddamn eyes. If you weren’t so worried about what you wanted, like the selfish prick you are, you’d realize that Rey wants me. Me. And for the record, I’m going to touch her. All of her. And there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.” He shoves Roman into the table. My brother retaliates and charges after him.
“Stop! Both of you stop!” I scream. “I can’t take this anymore!”
Roman pauses, mostly shocked at my outburst.
“Roman,” I say much quieter. “I’m sorry if this is going to put a rift between us, but I’m with Linc. Heart and all.”
He scowls. “You have to be fucking kidding me. Him, Regan? Him?”
“Approve or don’t but it’s what I want,” I clip out. “Stop trying to decide what’s best for me. Because I’ve already chosen for myself.”
Roman gapes at me in shock. He turns from me to Linc. This time Linc isn’t egging him on. Linc’s nostrils are flaring with fury.
“And you,” I snap, pointing at my boyfriend. “We’re going to the cops. Now. And you are going to tell them what sort of trouble you’re in. You’re going to do it for me.”
Linc’s chest heaves with each angry breath. The tension between the three of us is thick. With narrowed eyes, I stare at Linc, waiting for him to agree. To tell me he will do it. For me. But the words that fall from his lips are not what I expect.
“I fucking can’t.” His green eyes flicker with regret.
My heart plummets. “What do you mean you can’t?”
“I can’t do that,” he mutters, scrubbing his cheek with his palm. “I told you to not worry. I have this under control. I’m not going to the cops.”
God, he is so stubborn!
Roman steps in. “If you’re putting my baby sister in danger, you piece of shit, I’ll fucking gut—”
Roman doesn’t get to finish, because Linc tackles him. Swings are being thrown. My screams and pleas for them to stop aren’t being heard.
I know better than to get in the middle of those two unless I want a matching black eye like Linc’s.
“You two big idiots!” I scream, my voice breaking with emotion. I’ve had enough. I grab my purse and throw it over my shoulder. “Fine, if you won’t do what’s right, I will,” I state and storm out of the room.
Linc bellows my name just before Roman slams his fist into his gut. I run out of the office, the tears flowing heavily.
I knew I should have trusted my instincts. Something was wrong. He was not okay. Oh Linc, what have you done? I step o
nto the sidewalk, trying to wipe my face so I can see where I’m going. I must look a mess to anyone walking by on the street.
The police station is just a few blocks away, so I’m not going to bother getting my car. I need the time to calm down anyway….
“’Scuse me, miss?”
I halt at the sound of a heavily accented male voice. I turn to see a man standing at the curb.
“Um, yes can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m a little lost, sweetheart. I’m in town, visiting a friend and I seem to have gotten all turned around. My GPS keeps taking me in circles.” He taps at his device. “Can you tell me where this address is?”
“Sure, of course,” I say, walking up to him so I can take a look at his phone. Looking at the location, I notice it right away. “Oh, that’s in my neighborhood. You just want to go left…” That’s when I feel a sharp pinch in my neck. I throw my hand up to the skin just as I watch the man pull a needle away from my neck.
“What…what did you jus…” I fade off as my words begin to slur, my head feeling like dead weight. I attempt to push away from the man, but my legs give out. He catches me in his arms. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out as he shoves me into the back seat of his car.
That’s when life goes black.
Think, Linc
“YOU”—PUNCH—“ARE”—PUNCH—“A”—punch—“fuck up!”
I roll Roman onto his back and narrowly miss his fist. I’m about to knock his big head right off his shoulders when strong arms yank me from him. Roman is on his feet ready to charge at me when Ram bellows at him.
“Enough! Stop acting like goddamned children!”
Roman glares at me before storming off to his office. Ram slams the door of the conference room. I scrub at my face and instantly hate how I behaved. Roman and I can’t stand each other but we lost our shit, at the office of all places. Reagan is pissed at me for the whole Louie crap—that I can’t even tell her about—and now probably for fighting with her brother at her workplace as well.
“I’m sorry,” I groan and drop into one of the leather chairs.
His hard gaze softens as he sits across the table from me. “Care to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
I clench my jaw and shrug. “I can’t.”
He leans back in his chair and shakes his head. “That might fly with Reagan because she’s nice and sweet and gullible. But it does not fucking fly with me. You’re going to tell me what the hell is going on. Every bit of it. Whatever you’re hiding. Your past. All of it.”
I glare at him. “After tonight, it won’t matter anyway.”
“So, if it doesn’t matter, tell me. What is going on?”
A huff of frustration escapes me but I resign myself to spilling it to Ram.
“When I lived in New Jersey, I got involved with the wrong crowd. At first it was simple errands for this guy I knew. Pick up money from one guy and then deliver it to another guy. That guy would take it to the big boss, Louie. Easy stuff. A little too easy. I started to learn that I could skim anywhere from five hundred to two grand off each run without anyone noticing.”
Ram’s eyes widen. “Oh, shit.”
“It started out innocent enough. I just wanted to see if they would notice. I’d had all these grand ideas that I was like Robin Hood. I’d steal from them and then do things like help my mom or my sister out. Just fun. And since nobody noticed the first five thousand I took and funneled away, I kept on skimming.” I lean back in my chair and loosen the knot of my tie. I hate wearing this shit. “Before I knew it, I had nearly twenty-five thousand dollars stuffed between my mattress and box spring at my apartment. I’d been bored and lonely in New Jersey. With all the money, I felt like I could come back to North Carolina and settle down. Start over. It’s not technically stealing if you take from the bad guys, right?”
“Wrong,” he mutters. “It’s worse than stealing.”
I sigh and nod in agreement, ignoring my phone that continues to buzz. I’m sure it’s Detective Douche blowing up my phone still. “I’d barely made it out of town when my phone started ringing over and over again. My friend who hooked me up doing the money running in the first place warned me Louie had figured out I’d managed to embezzle a shit-ton of money from him. I took my piece of crap car to the dealership, traded it in and added some cash for a new one, and hightailed it out of the city. I figured Louie wouldn’t suspect I’d come here. And for months and months, everything was fine.”
“He’s here?” Ram asks, his eyes wide. “Your mob boss is here?”
“Yeah,” I groan. “I saw him awhile back. I’d evaded him but he saw me. I traded in my new car for a different one and have been lying low ever since. But don’t worry, I have a plan.”
His eyebrow arches. “A plan, huh? So who the hell has been blowing up your phone then? This mobster guy?”
I motion for my phone and he picks it up to pass it to me. “Nah, it’s this guy I call Detective Douche but really he’s a—”
“FUCK!” Ram roars as he glares at my phone. “FUCK!”
I yank it from his grip and stare down at the picture. My entire world shifts beneath my feet and spins out of control.
No.
No.
Fucking no!
“He’s got Rey.” I stare in shock at the picture of Reagan gagged and bound in the gold-leathered backseat of a vehicle with her eyes closed. The text was sent from her phone but it’s most definitely Louie. “He’s got Rey.”
Rey: No more hiding, thief. I’ve found you and I took something precious from YOU.
Ram bolts from the room, and I stand, tapping out a quick reply.
Me: Don’t you dare fucking hurt her, Louie.
The dots move as he replies.
Rey: How do you know I haven’t already? Meet me at the following address in fifteen minutes. We have much to discuss. If you comply, your pretty girlfriend might not suffer the consequences of your actions.
I don’t wait for him to text the address and I’m already running from the office. Ram calls out after me but I’m on a mission. Soon, two pairs of thundering footsteps are behind me as we run outside. Ram points at his Mustang.
“My car,” he grunts. “It goes faster.”
Roman flashes me a murderous glare as he climbs into Ram’s backseat. I take the front and barely have my door closed before Ram’s peeling out of the parking lot. The engine roars as he blasts down the road. After I rattle off the address I’ve been given, I text Detective Douche.
Me: Plans have changed. I can’t make our date later. It’s happening now.
“I knew you were trouble,” Roman snaps. “The only reason I put up with you was because you’re related to my wife.”
I jerk my head over my shoulder and snarl. “Not the time for this shit. I get it. You hate me. Big fucking deal. Right now, all I care about is getting Reagan back from New Jersey’s biggest mobster.”
Ram’s grip on the steering wheel tightens. “We need to call the police.”
“If we call the police, we’ll waste time explaining things. Louie said fifteen minutes. I don’t know what the hell he’ll do if we don’t make it in time…” My voice is raw with emotion. I won’t even allow myself to consider what he’d do to her if we didn’t show up. Louie is a bad man—someone you don’t mess with. I not only messed with him, but I fucked him over. He’s itching to teach me a lesson.
We’re all on edge, imagining the worst.
Fuck, this is all my fault.
“I’m going to get her out of there,” I vow. “And when I do, I need you guys to be ready to take her and bolt. He wants to punish me—maybe even kill me for what I’ve done to him. None of that matters as long as she’s safe.” I attempt to rub the tension from my neck. “Promise me you’ll stay out of sight. I’ll find a way to get her out of there, but if you go in with me, you’re as good as dead, too.”
Neither of Reagan’s brothers makes any promises, and I can sense their hesitation. On one han
d, the last thing either of them want to do is get involved in my mess, but on the other hand, my mess has involved their sister.
Ram barrels down the street, and we eventually turn onto a road that leads to an old abandoned factory on the edge of town.
“Stay here,” I instruct. “I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
Ram throws the car into park and gives me an exasperated look. “So we just fucking wait?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what you do.” I pull my phone from my pocket. “Here, hold on to this. You’ll need it.”
He gives me a confused stare, but I don’t waste any more precious seconds. I’ve just wrenched open the door when Roman reaches past me.
“Take this with you.”
I gape at the Glock in his hand. “What the fuck? You carry?”
He growls. “Ever since that asshole Frank nearly killed my wife, I’ve been packing. You never know when you might need to use it. And apparently my hunch was correct.”
I take the gun and chamber it. “I’ll get her out of here. And if something happens to me…” I hang my head in defeat. “Let her know that living with her the past couple of months was the best time of my life. Tell her that I loved her.”
“Wait, you two were living togeth—” Roman starts.
I slam the door shut and start running down the gravel path. I untuck my dress shirt and shove the gun into the back of my pants. The road winds, but when I round the corner, I see a familiar gold Town Car parked in front of a side door of the factory. The door stands wide open, but it’s dark inside.
“Fuck,” I utter under my breath. When I woke up this morning, I did not expect to be meeting with Louie to try and trade myself for my girlfriend before lunch. This was not the plan.
Thieves 2 Lovers Page 18
