But it was hard to find his balance. Finding one’s feet in a relationship was hard enough, he had soon come to realize. Juggling the whole process with life as one of the most prominent members of a motorcycle club was next to impossible. He constantly worried about keeping Eve safe and out of any MC business. But, as much as he had tried to resist it at first, his favorite thing about his relationship with Eve (besides the mind-blowing sex) was conversation. They talked more than Lind had ever talked with anyone, including his best friend.
Which meant that he wasn’t always thrilled about not being able to share things with her, especially whenever things got tough or bloody. Those were the times when he needed Eve the most because his instincts were to self-destruct to silence the guilt so he could sleep at night. Eventually, they had reached the arrangement of her taking care of him during those times without knowing the details. He could see that she wasn’t thrilled, but he couldn’t have it any other way.
“Is she your old lady?”
Was she? Was Eve his old lady?
Lind started when a car suddenly honked at him, and he swerved abruptly to avoid it. Once he could get his racing heart under control, he decided to pull over and walk into the nearest diner. He was just too distracted to drive; he needed to untangle his jumbled thoughts first. His instincts would want him walking into a bar at this point, but he just wasn’t sure it would be a good idea, especially not when he was driving to Eve’s place.
He ordered black coffee and settled himself at a table in the far corner of the room where he would be left alone while still being able to keep an eye on any movement—old habits die hard.
When the coffee came, Lind ignored the flirty smile that the waitress threw his way. He noticed, but he just wasn’t interested. Funny thing, that. Only a few months ago, he would have been all over the pretty little brunette. Now, he only cared about the gorgeous blonde waiting for him.
He sighed heavily and stared down into the dark liquid in the mug as if it could give him answers. He wondered what the other members of the MC or even their enemies would think if they knew he was sitting in a diner drinking coffee and wondering about his relationship.
He shook his head in self-deprecation. They would think you had better grow a pair, that’s what. And fast.
He ran a hand across his face and sighed again. What was happening? Why all this doubt all of a sudden? Things with Eve were good. Better than that, things with Eve were perfect. The vision of her in his kitchen earlier that day should be enough to convince him of that.
But that was just it. Before they ended up going at it like rabbits on the kitchen floor, the domesticity of having her in his kitchen making breakfast had finally hit him. And it had confused the hell out of him. That had been the moment when Lind realized that Eve cooking French toast in his kitchen was something extraordinary and ordinary at the same time—it had become a routine. Whenever Eve would stay over, the next day she would cook breakfast while Lind showered. It had become a ritual, and few things scared Lind more than rituals.
While on one hand the realization that he had reached such a level of intimacy with Eve filled him with joy, on the other hand it also terrified him. Because he knew that the time was approaching when they would have to define this—whatever this was.
“Is she your old lady?”
Lind had no idea. He had no idea whether Eve considered herself that, and he had no idea whether that was the road they were headed down. After all, for all he knew, things could crash and burn in a heartbeat. He didn’t want them to, but he wasn’t so naïve as to not consider the possibility.
“Is she your old lady?”
Lind exhaled slowly, trying to blow out some of his frustration. He took a sip of his dark coffee, hoping against hope that the bitter taste would wash away the taste of insecurity. He had conflicting feelings on the possibility of Eve becoming his old lady. The very thought filled him with warm sensations that he wasn’t ready to admit to quite yet. To have Eve in his life for good, fully integrated into his world…well, even the Viper had to concede that it made for a nice picture. On the other hand, old ladies were involved. They weren’t active parts of the MC’s operations, but they were not kept in the dark. They knew exactly what made their men walk in at night with hunched backs and a tired looks on their faces. Most importantly, they knew what their men did.
Lind was not sure he was ready for Eve to know about what he did. He was not sure he was ready for her to know about what he had done and what he would do. It wasn’t just about the danger that knowing would automatically expose her to, it was also about what she might think of him if she knew. As of right now, Eve knew that her man was no angel. She knew his hands were bloodied. But it was one thing for her to have an abstract idea of Lind’s past deeds; it would be an entirely different matter for her to have to clean the blood off his hands.
His phone beeped, startling him out of his reverie. He picked it up and sighed heavier than he had done so far when he read the text that Alec sent him.
“Meeting. Now. Urgent.”
He sent back a reluctant reply: “Coming.”
So much for dinner at Eve’s.
Lind stood, left a bill on the table, and walked back outside. He tried not to stare at the couple having dinner at one of the outside tables, looking like they didn’t have a single care in the world. Lind wondered how everyone made it look so easy. Was he really the only one struggling with this relationship thing? It couldn’t be.
God. I sound like a teenage girl.
Shaking his head at himself once again, he walked to his car and reluctantly turned it around to drive away from the nice neighbors and back towards the outskirts of town where the Diamondbacks waited for him at their headquarters. Keeping a firm hold of the steering wheel with one hand, he set up his Bluetooth with the other and hit the speed-dial key for Eve’s number.
She picked up on the third ring, her voice mellow and welcoming as always. “Hey gorgeous,” she greeted.
Lind cringed. He just hated the idea of canceling on her. “Hey baby,” he said, trying to sound as casual as he could. “How’s it going?”
“Good. I just put the roast in the oven, and I’ve got appetizers waiting for you.” She paused for effect. “One of them is me.”
Oh God.
Lind shifted in the driver’s seat, his cock already twitching at the promising picture Eve had painted for him with just those few words.
“I’m so sorry, darling, we’ll have to reschedule.”
The pause that came from the other end of the line this time definitely was not a happy one. “Why’s that?” Eve asked.
Lind could already hear the tension in her voice. “Something came up.”
“What came up?”
Lind sighed. “Club business.”
“What kind?”
Eve would eventually back off, more or less graciously, but that did not mean she wouldn’t first make a few attempts at figuring out what was going whenever the MC was involved.
“I don’t know,” Lind said, grateful that it was the truth. “Alec just called a meeting. He says it’s urgent.”
“It’s always urgent,” Eve retorted.
Lind frowned. He had the unpleasant feeling that he was being made aware of some unexpressed feelings on her part. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “You know I can’t say no.”
“Well, technically speaking, you could.”
“Eve,” Lind said, pointedly and a lot sharper than he had originally intended. He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stand the idea of having to justify himself for a lifestyle that had always been good enough for him. Plus, she had been more than warned about it, thank you very much.
“Fine,” Eve snapped. “Whatever. I’ll see you some other time.”
Lind rubbed his forehead. He was getting a headache. “How about I swing by after the meeting. Would that be okay?”
Eve hesitated. “Are you sure you’ll be able to? Won’t you boys have to go
off to do…whatever it is that you’ll have to do?”
“Maybe,” Lind conceded. “But if no immediate action is required, I’ll come to you.”
“So I’m your second choice?”
Lind blinked, taken aback. Where the hell was all this coming from? He took a deep, calming breath; starting a fight on the phone wasn’t going to lead them anywhere. “You know you’re not,” he said soothingly, and he meant it.
There was another brief pause. “Sometimes it feels like it,” Eve admitted quietly.
Lind cringed again. “Well, you’re not,” he said forcefully, hoping he could convey his emotions through the phone line. “I mean that. The club…it’s just something that I have to do, you know that. It’s got nothing to do with you.”
“Maybe that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” Lind asked carefully.
“Maybe if I was more involved—”
“No,” Lind said immediately, in a tone that bore no arguments.
“Why?”
“You know why. It’s dangerous.”
“But—”
“Look,” Lind cut her off, “you were kidnapped and almost killed. Twice. And you weren’t even involved with the club. Can you imagine what would happen if you were?”
“Nothing has to happen,” Eve said after a moment. “If you could just—”
“I said, no way,” Lind all but growled. I’m keeping you safe, goddamn it, no matter what. “I’ll see you later.”
He disconnected the call before Eve could say anything else, too angry to even consider his gesture. She could snarl and demand all she liked; Lind would rather have her mad at him than have her killed.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Lind’s head was still reeling as he sped through the congested L.A. traffic on his beloved Harley. He had left the car at the Diamondbacks’ headquarters; the bike was faster, and after what he had just learned, he needed to get to Eve’s as fast as possible.
***
“There’s reason to believe that the attack at the Cobra, while aimed at Alec, was meant to hurt someone else.”
The Diamondbacks had all looked at Lucas, the youngest and most promising member of their club, in confusion.
“What are you talking about?” Phil, one of the oldest members, had asked.
“And how would you know?” echoed Freddie.
Lucas hesitated. His hazel eyes settled briefly on Lind before he nervously looked away, but even that short stare was enough to make the hairs on Lind’s arms stand up.
“This came in the mail today,” Lucas said, pulling an envelope out of the inside pocket of his leather vest. “There was no name on it, so I opened it.”
It was a brown, plain envelope with nothing written on it, just the MC’s address. Lucas slid it across the table towards Lind, who took it with a sense of foreboding growing in the pit of his stomach. He looked briefly at the kid before he, too, took the single piece of paper out. Unsurprisingly, the note addressed him directly.
‘Viper,
This isn’t over. You may have eliminated the menace of the cobra, but I have many more serpents in my basket. I will destroy you and all you love. I will destroy the club. I will destroy your love. Once everything you’ve ever known and loved has been burned down, I will kill you.
This isn’t over. You can’t sleep easy yet.
Love,
D.’
Lind had to re-read the words quite a few times, in order to make sense of it all. In order to accept that this was real. And once the reality of it finally sank in, he experience a red-hot wave of rage as he had not experienced in a while. It almost blinded him.
“What is it?” Alec asked.
His friend’s voice brought him back to the here and now. Wordlessly, Lind handed the note over to him. He watched as Alec’s gray eyes flashed in anger and his jaw twitched. Equally silent, the President of the Diamondbacks handed the note over to the man sitting next to him. It was passed around the table until everyone had read it, and once everyone was up to speed a stunned silence fell onto the room.
“Are we sure it’s him?” Victor ventured weakly. “Maybe it’s a prank.”
Lind silenced him with one glare. This was no prank. This was far too real.
“What do we do now?” Freddie asked.
“We find that son of a bitch,” Alec said. “And we kill him, like we should have done a long time ago.”
“I’ll kill him,” Lind corrected, his voice low and growly and dripping with hot fury. “No one else lays a hand on the bastard but me.”
Alec nodded gravely. “Understood.”
***
Lind feared that Eve would not understand. After all, he could hardly wrap his mind around it himself. He just couldn’t believe this was happening. Then again, he should have known. He should have known this was going to come back and bite him in the ass one day. He had known that this day would come eventually, but he always supposed Doug’s revenge would harm him and him alone. And he certainly never imagined he would have a woman to protect when the time came.
Lind clenched his jaw in anger and self-deprecation as he rode on, and he curled his fists a little tighter around the bike’s handles. He had been stupid. He had let down his guard. Before Eve, he would have been looking out for something like this. Eve was a blessing, but he realized now that she also made him slip.
Never again, he promised himself.
From now on, he was going to be as sharp as he had ever been. His life—and more importantly, Eve’s—depended on it.
Lind parked his Harley in the street in front of Eve’s fancy apartment building. All thoughts about the canceled dinner and her suppressed anger towards the club were forgotten as he all but rushed inside.
Henry, the doorman, greeted him cheerfully. Lind barely responded and made a beeline for the elevator. Horrible scenarios of finding Eve in a puddle of her own blood flashed through his head, so much so that he had to take a few deep breaths once the elevator doors closed behind him and hid him from the doorman’s sight. He tried to convince himself that she would be fine. He told himself that the threat had just come in, and there was no way Doug was going to act so fast; he would let Lind marinate in his fear first.
The elevator ride was the longest Lind could remember, and once he finally reached the right floor he was out of the door like a bullet before the doors could even open completely.
He knocked—or, if he were honest, pounded—on the door and waited impatiently, and when Eve wasn’t at the door two seconds later, he knocked again. And again.
“I’m coming!” he finally heard her scream from inside. “Hold your horses!”
He wondered if she knew it was him or if she would just yell out at a stranger. If he knew anything about women’s anger—and unfortunately he did—it was probably a little of both.
The door finally opened, and Eve stood there wearing sweatpants and a tank top, glaring murderously at him.
“Were you trying to kick down my door?”
“Are you okay?” Lind blurted out before he could stop himself. It was a stupid question, of course, but one he felt entitled to ask given the circumstances.
“If you must know, I’m pissed off,” Eve said.
Lind almost laughed in relief, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t take that well. “We can talk about that later,” he said, the fleeting moment of alleviated tension already gone and forgotten. “We have more pressing matters to discuss now.”
Eve arched a blonde eyebrow. “Such as?”
“Just let me in,” he almost growled, shoving her aside and striding inside. “Close the door,” he ordered, turning around to face her.
Eve was so taken aback by his behavior that she did as he asked without protesting. “What’s going on?” she asked, as she walked them both to the living room.
She sat on the white faux-leather couch, but Lind was too agitated to sit down next to her.
“I can’t go into details,”
he said, “but I need you to come with me to the club’s headquarters. You’ll stay there for a while, it’s a lot safer than here.”
Eve groaned. “Please, Lind, not again. What is it this time?”
Lind hesitated. “I can’t tell you.”
Her brown eyes flashed in anger. “So, I’m just supposed to follow you without knowing anything about what’s happening?”
“You’re supposed to trust me,” he corrected.
Eve sighed. “I trust you,” she said, but she didn’t look very convinced herself. “But I can’t just uproot myself every time you think I may be in danger—”
Untouchable: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 41
