Counter To My Intelligence (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 7)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Yummy.

  By the time I was finished with Danni, she smelled like a Christmas tree with a hint of man and leather.

  It was a very nice smell, and I couldn’t help myself as I pulled Danni up into my arms, ten minutes later, fully dressed in a new set of clothes, and inhaled her scent.

  I came out of the bathroom with Danni cradled to my chest.

  Seemed like pooping and eating had tired her the hell out.

  The door to the bathroom opened silently, and what I saw when I walked out had butterflies taking flight in my belly.

  “Do you have a bag or something I could put these clothes in? Trash bag, grocery sack? I just don’t want to drag all of this with me through your bar,” I explained.

  Silas looked up from his desk, and my breath caught in my throat.

  He wore glasses perched on the end of his nose.

  Ones in which he ripped off the moment he saw me standing there.

  “Yeah, I think I got one when I brought my extra clothes a few weeks ago,” he muttered, pulling open drawers.

  He found what he was looking for and yanked it open before dumping the contents on the desk.

  My eyes fell on the underwear that were on top, and I nearly let out a moan.

  He wore tighty whities.

  Holy shit.

  Sweet baby Jesus.

  “Here ‘ya go,” he said, holding out the bag to me.

  I took it, then looked at the bathroom before looking back down at Danni.

  “Do you…ahhh…mind holding her?” I asked.

  His cool demeanor melted into a puddle of goo on the floor.

  “Yeah, I can do that,” he said, holding out his hands for me to place the sleeping Danni in them.

  I handed her over, and her body was engulfed by his massive, scarred hands.

  He cradled her to his chest expertly, and I was left staring at him dumbly for a few long moments while he looked down at the baby in his arms.

  “She’s cute. I can’t even remember when my girl was this size,” he mumbled. “My granddaughters though… they were cute like this. Now they’re just shit heads.”

  I had to laugh.

  No bullshitting from him.

  Which didn’t really surprise me.

  He seemed the type to tell it like it was.

  I smiled as I shoved the dirty clothes and the blanket into the little bag, and smiled even more when I came back out to see Silas still staring at Danni as if she were a piece of spun glass.

  “How many kids do you have?” I asked softly.

  He stood when he saw me with the things I’d brought with me and went to take them from me.

  I shook my head.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to hold her while I take all this out to Bristol. Then I’ll go wash my hands,” I said softly.

  He nodded and walked with me out to the restaurant once again.

  “I have three kids. They’re all older now. Now I’m working on ruining the grandkids,” he murmured softly as we walked down the darkened hallway once again.

  My senses seemed to be honed as I listened to him.

  The way his voice rumbled in his chest. The way he smelled.

  I’d never felt like this around anyone in my life. It was an odd experience.

  And when I got to the table where my brother and Bristol didn’t even seem to care that I’d had their child for over twenty minutes, I was very disappointed.

  I didn’t want him to leave.

  “Thanks man,” Dallas said when Silas handed the baby over.

  I set the bag of dirty clothes on the floor and offered the diaper bag to Bristol. “I have to go wash my hands. There are things on them that I’d rather not think about.”

  Bristol laughed, and I turned to find Silas gone, and nowhere in sight. Only the hint of pine in his place.

  I couldn’t figure out why I was so disappointed, but I was.

  Really disappointed.

  But it wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. Nor the last time I smelled him.

  Chapter 6

  World’s greatest farter…I mean father.

  -T-shirt

  Silas

  “Get the fuck out of my sight,” I hissed to Crotchet.

  Crotchet narrowed his eyes. “Do you realize who you’re talking to?”

  I smiled. “Yeah, I realize exactly who the fuck I’m talking to, now move.”

  “You’re not authorized to be in here.”

  “Crotchet, back off and let him through,” Rosenthal ordered.

  Crotch Rot froze and turned where his boss’s boss stood behind him, ordering him to move when he hadn’t even had the chance to meet him yet.

  Everybody knew what Rosenthal looked like, though.

  He was infamous… just like I was.

  “You heard the man,” I said quietly. “Move.”

  Crotch Rot’s eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward. “You won’t get what you want. Trust me.”

  I smiled. “Watch me.”

  Crotchet moved to allow me to pass, and I barely held back the urge to pop him in the face with the back of my hand.

  Rosenthal didn’t say a word until we were well away from Crotchet.

  “You’re making an enemy where you don’t need to,” Rosenthal said amusingly.

  I shrugged. “Like I give a fuck. I’m old and on the downhill side of dead. I don’t have to please everyone anymore. All I have to please is God and myself… and he’s neither.”

  Rosenthal laughed.

  “You never seem to lose the bad attitude,” Rosenthal rumbled.

  I sighed. “I got it from my mama.”

  “What can I help you with?” Rosenthal asked as we made it into his office.

  He closed the door, and I took a seat and waited for Rosenthal to follow suit before I handed him a paper.

  Shovel’s name was the only thing on the paper, but he knew right off the bat what I was after.

  “I haven’t seen or heard anything from him. He fell off the grid the moment he got out,” Rosenthal said before I could even tell him what I wanted.

  “I know that,” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “What I don’t know is why he got out. There was no forewarning. No call to tell me he was out. No mention of parole at all, as a matter of fact. Why did something as important as this slip through the cracks? I check on this motherfucker once a week…then in between this week and last, he not only gets out…but then fucking disappears. Is that a coincidence? Because I’m thinking it’s not.”

  Rosenthal’s face hardened to stone. “I don’t know what you want me to say to you, Mackenzie. I know you have a man on it. When I became aware of the situation, I started to follow the stepping stones, but I got nothing. Not a single thread.”

  I tilted my head back to stare up at the ceiling.

  “Need I remind you that he tried to kill my kids… my wife? Which was why he was in prison in the first place,” I said, not bothering to look at him.

  “I know exactly what happened. I was right there with to you. Remember?” He reminded me none too gently.

  I closed my eyes and let my mind wander back to that night. The night that my life changed forever.

  ***

  “You’re going to watch. Watch while I rape her. Watch while I rape your son. Your daughter. Your other son. That other trash isn’t worth it… I know you don’t care about her…but the other four…yeah, I know that’ll get a reaction out of you,” Shovel smiled manically.

  Bile rose in my stomach as I watched him rub a hand up and down the thigh of my wife.

  She was drugged.

  Shovel had drugged us all.

  I’d trusted the wrong person, and now they were all going to pay.

  My mistake was going to probably kill everything I loved in one fell swoop.

  And I didn’t see a thing I could do to help me get out of it.

&nbs
p; Then he snuck his hand into her panties, and my hands fisted behind my back.

  Outwardly, though, I appeared calm.

  God help him if he moved to my kids, though.

  I couldn’t do this for much longer.

  They were never supposed to get to my family.

  I never agreed on this.

  I knew this one moment in time would forever alter my course in life.

  Whatever I had to do, I’d kill this motherfucker.

  It may be now…or it may be twenty years from now…but the fucker would die. And at my hand.

  “Coming in hot,” Rosenthal, my partner, said into my mic.

  He was going to get here fast, I knew that.

  But when Shovel started to run his hand along the side of my children’s faces, I nearly lost it.

  Shovel was never supposed to get this close.

  All he was supposed to do was get to the front door. They were supposed to apprehend him…except Shovel had my other kids…the ones that were supposed to be in Galveston, eight fucking hours away.

  So my partner had held off, and now the piece of shit had us all, with me helpless to do a goddamn thing about it.

  This whole charade had been fucked.

  I’d been undercover for years now.

  It was never supposed to go on this long.

  I wasn’t supposed to get married.

  I wasn’t supposed to have kids.

  And I sure as fuck wasn’t supposed to have another wife.

  Yet, I did every single bit of it for my fuckin’ country…and look where I ended up.

  Having four of the people I loved most in this world under the hands of a madman who couldn’t see past his own fuckin’ rage.

  Thank God Rosenthal and the rest of my backup finally made it through the door, causing Shovel to freeze.

  Because if he’d been even seconds later, I would’ve killed Shovel with my bare hands. Carved his heart out with only my fingernails.

  “Freeze, put your hands up!” Rosenthal screamed.

  Shovel smiled, and slowly lifted his hands up away from Sam’s belly.

  My throat convulsed as I thought about how much worse this could’ve been.

  What he could’ve done to my other kids had he not been hell bent on revenge.

  “I’ll see you in hell,” Shovel said as Rosenthal and another officer put him into handcuffs.

  “No you won’t, because there is no escaping to hell for you yet. You’re going to live a nice long life, in a maximum security prison with no chance of parole, and I’m going to make sure you fucking enjoy the fuck out of it,” I smiled.

  Shovel glared as he saw that I was serious, and I stood, not sparing him another glance.

  My family needed me.

  But I knew one thing for sure.

  I needed them…but there were still others in the club just like Shovel.

  My job wasn’t done…but my time as a good, attentive father, was.

  And I’d pay for that decision every day for the rest of my life.

  ***

  “I’ve got every available resource, computer geek, and field agent on the lookout for Shovel. Trust me, he’ll be found, and when he is, I’ll give him to you,” Rosenthal explained.

  I nodded and stood.

  “Crotchet needs to keep off my case. You need to contain him – and keep him contained – and he needs to understand just what he’s dealing with here. Maybe it’s time you share those files with him,” I said softly.

  Rosenthal’s eyes held mine and then he nodded once.

  “Maybe you’re right. I’ll do that after you leave.”

  I nodded and offered him my hand, which he took.

  His grip was just as strong now as it was thirty years ago.

  “Be careful,” he said.

  I shrugged. “Got nothing left to lose, friend. Careful’s not in my repertoire.”

  I’d lost everything thirty years ago…and even now with my kids half understanding what I’d had to do, it still wasn’t enough to undo thirty years of damage and probably never would be.

  Chapter 7

  Is that your flashlight or are you happy to see me? Oh, that’s really your flashlight? Bummer.

  -Coffee Cup

  Sawyer

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I said, plopping down in the seat across from Silas.

  He winked.

  “Was here first, girlie,” he mumbled, leaning back against the booth he was in and taking a sip of his beer.

  He was right.

  I’d seen him the moment I’d crossed the threshold.

  “What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked softly.

  We were nearly an hour away from our hometown, in a place called Longview.

  I knew why I’d come here. I just didn’t know why he had.

  “I think it’s a little delicate for your ears,” he chuckled, taking another drink of his beer.

  My face flamed as I realized just why.

  He was looking for a hookup.

  At a bar that was not in his hometown.

  Shit!

  “Ahhh,” I said, stumbling over something to say and coming up empty.

  He grinned, and my nipples started to harden.

  “That’s why I’m here, too. Figured I had a better chance with a man that didn’t know my life story,” I murmured embarrassingly.

  That, and I just wanted to feel something.

  After a little bit of experimentation, I realized that alcohol just made me feel even worse about myself.

  Made me relive the nightmares over and over until my drunkenness wore off.

  This was the next logical step. Getting lost in someone’s body for a couple of hours.

  I was pretty enough.

  And my outfit was perfect.

  Black five-inch heels. Short skirt. Low cut top.

  It was the exact outfit that women wore when they wanted to pick up a man.

  When he didn’t say anything, I took that as my cue to leave.

  “Anyway…good luck,” I said stupidly.

  Jesus, but the man didn’t need luck.

  Every female eye in the room was aware of Silas.

  He was just that hot.

  I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away, could practically feel his phantom hands running up the outsides of my thighs to smooth over my ass.

  Sweet baby Jesus.

  I went straight to the bar and ordered a Jack Daniel’s on the rocks.

  I didn’t have time to pussy foot around. If I was going to have the nerve to go home with a man, it’d have to be with a little liquid courage.

  The bartender froze when he looked at me, a smile appearing on his face.

  I already felt dirty.

  So I drank to forget and hoped it’d work like it was supposed to.

  After my second drink, I was finally loose enough to venture out onto the dance floor.

  There weren’t many dancing, but my devious mind was set on dancing…mainly because the dance floor was directly across from the booth that Silas hadn’t moved from.

  Not that he needed to move.

  There’s been a plethora of women stopping by his table.

  Some had the courage to sit.

  Some only walked past and waved.

  He never waved back, eyes forward.

  The ones that had the courage to sit, he spoke to, but only for a short time.

  He was intimidating as hell, which I’m sure they realized after sitting for only a short time.

  I weaved in and out of the tables on my way to the dance floor, very aware that I had the attention of many men.

  Not the attention of the man I wanted, though.

  But we’d just have to see about that.

  ***

  Silas

  I’m not a person known for his good decisions.

  I knew I shouldn’t take her.

/>   Knew it was bad on way too many levels.

  Yet my dick and my mind were in complete agreement.

  And I was a big believer in fate.

  We’d both been here looking for the same thing.

  An hour away from our normal lives.

  She’s a baby.

  She’s younger than your kids.

  She was younger than my kids…but she was older, too.

  She had eight years of experience on the inside, and if there was one thing I knew, it was that prison changed you.

  Made you grow up even when you didn’t want to.

  It was either live or die. There was no surviving when you had to watch your back twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year.

  I watched as she danced to a song that I hadn’t heard in years.

  She moved her hips enticingly, swaying from side to side, sliding her hands into her hair.

  The men in the room were captivated.

  But they wouldn’t have her.

  I would.

  Downing the rest of my beer, I moved out of the booth, aware of everyone’s eyes in the room moving to me.

  A man that was set to make his move on Sawyer froze in his spot just by a simple glare from me in his direction.

  He turned and moved away, the thought of trying for Sawyer dying an agonizing death once he looked into my eyes.

  I moved up behind her just as the next song made its way in, and I smiled.

  It was perfect.

  Mostly because she stopped dancing and turned, seeing me standing there.

  Her eyes widened, and she licked her lips.

  I walked forward, coming to a stop only inches away from her face.

  “You’re sure about this?” I asked softly.

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You know who I am?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I do.”

  “You know what I want?” I continued.

  She nodded again. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t do relationships. And whatever this is, it’s not going to be hearts and flowers. I don’t have time for that,” he said again.

  She shrugged. “I don’t have time for hearts and flowers anyway. It’s just not for me.”

  I didn’t bother to contradict her.

  She deserved the hearts and flowers. But I was a selfish prick.