I rolled my eyes. “We wouldn’t have had three kids by now. That’s almost impossible.”
Steel rolled his eyes. “Don’t think that you would’ve been able to resist, darlin’. I see the way you two look at each other. It’s the way I look at your mom.”
I looked away and felt Linc’s arm tighten.
“After listening to all of this, are you or are you not upset? I’m confused,” Linc said, sounding tired.
He probably was.
We’d gone to bed late, and he’d had to get up super early for his interview, and even earlier since he’d run as well.
That’s when Steel and Jessie started to laugh, Jessie harder than Steel.
“I thought you were going to fight me, kid,” Jessie snorted, bending over slightly at the hip. “Jesus Christ, the look on your face when you opened the door? You wouldn’t hit your old man, would you?”
Linc shrugged. “I honestly thought about it today.” He paused. “Though I’ve thought about it a few times. Sometimes you really piss me off.”
I snickered.
I remembered one of those times, in particular, was right about the time that Linc had been drafted. Something had happened and his dad had told him not to fall into the trap that came with fame. Linc had responded with a curt ‘I wasn’t raised stupid’ reply to which Jessie had countered with ‘don’t act like it.’
Needless to say, both James men were hotheads, and I had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last time that they butt up against each other.
“We’re here on business,” he paused. “But I did think you knocked her up. I was pretty pissed off about that. She’s not finished with school yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Speaking of…I’m not going to finish school, but not because I’m knocked up.”
My heart was hammering and having Linc so freakin’ close wasn’t helping matters.
“What?” Steel asked, confused. “Why?”
I grimaced. “I don’t like the schooling. I thought that was what I wanted, but I just don’t anymore. So instead of further pursuing a degree that I ultimately don’t really want, I’m going to quit while I’m ahead—and save myself tens of thousands of dollars in future debt.”
Steel studied me for a long moment, studying my resolve, then shrugged.
“You’re young yet,” he admitted. “Your mom and I were honestly worried about you getting it so fast, but since we knew that you had your mind set on it, we didn’t say anything. We’d support you in any way.”
Linc squeezed my waist one more time, and then dropped his arm from around me before heading into the kitchen as he said, “Anybody want coffee? I really need fuckin’ coffee.”
I watched Linc’s ass as he went.
I could take or leave coffee, but if Linc came with the coffee? You bet your ass I’d take it. Even if it made my heart feel like it was racing a mile a minute.
And right then, after the drama of telling my stepfather, whose opinion really did matter to me, that I wasn’t going to go to college anymore? Well, it was likely best that I didn’t push the poor little ticker.
But I’d sit next to Linc and smell him—he was better than coffee anyway.
After passing out a few cups of coffee, Linc sat at the kitchen table and stared at the photo of me with mud all up over my crotch and said, “Why are y’all here?”
Linc’s eyes lifted from where he was staring at the picture to bounce his gaze in between Steel and Jessie.
“We’re here because of this,” Jessie flicked the paper. “Though, last night we hadn’t realized that you two were involved with the accident until Silas called us when we were halfway here.”
I frowned.
“We weren’t necessarily involved with the accident. We were involved with saving him,” I corrected him.
Jessie waved his hand in the air as if to clear it. “That’s true. We came because we heard about Hoax’s accident. This,” he tapped the paper again, “was just a coincidence.”
Steel brought the paper closer to him and studied it. “What did you do, sit in the water?”
“I squatted down in the water,” I corrected.
Steel’s eyes met mine and he winked. “What’s that in your saddlebag, Linc? Does that say biohazard?”
Linc got up and walked to his refrigerator, pulling out the same biohazard bag from the night before.
He walked back over to the sink and threw it down unceremoniously.
All of the men stared at it while I grimaced and backed away. “It looks like it’s still alive. So freakin’ creepy.”
I walked to Linc’s fridge and started to study the contents of it while Steel gave a whistle through his teeth.
Happy that there were no other weird things that shouldn’t belong in his fridge, I withdrew the eggs and the bacon.
Breakfast sounded marvelous.
I’d just started to search for the skillet when Linc brushed past me, pulled a skillet out of the cabinet above the microwave—who the hell puts skillets up there?—and retook his seat.
Putting the skillet on the stove, I turned it on and got started with the bacon.
The moment that it was done, I pulled it off and placed it on a plate that I’d found next to the sink and I’d covered in paper towels. Paper towels that had Frozen characters on them.
The moment the bacon cooled enough to be eaten, I had three grabby hands taking almost all of the bacon. There were only two pieces left, and those were the two that Linc had grabbed himself and placed on another plate for me and set it next to the stove.
Rolling my eyes at their extreme hunger and rudeness, I got to work on more bacon.
After that, I cooked everyone but me four eggs, toast, and walked it over to them each, saving Linc for last.
He brushed his hand against the inside of my bare thigh as I put his plate down in front of him, and I felt a shiver tear up my spine at the intimate touch. Just yesterday, I might’ve very well freaked out.
But multiple orgasms, an intimate connection, a relationship declaration and twelve hours later, I was a believer.
Linc and I may have very well been meant to be from the very beginning.
Our time might’ve come later than we’d have liked—but our time had come, and it was now. This was exactly where I wanted to be.
It was fast.
It was hard.
It would continue to be hard.
But it was us.
“Thanks, honey,” Linc rumbled, making my nipples harden.
I turned before anyone could see the change and went to make my own eggs, stopping at just two.
I probably could’ve eaten just as many as them, but I didn’t want to stuff my face in front of Linc just yet.
That, and I had a feeling the moment our family was out the door, we’d be doing something that involved a lot of cardio on my part. I’d need to have some flexibility to accomplish it, because there were things that I wanted to do later to him that being full enough that I felt like I could pop wouldn’t allow me to make happen.
Once my eggs were finished, I went to the table where the men were sitting, and looked around for a chair, only then realizing that there wasn’t but three seats.
“Why don’t you have four chairs?” I asked in confusion.
Linc had an entire egg on his fork and shoveled it into his mouth before reaching out and pulling me to him.
I went, taking a seat on his lap where he’d placed me, and nearly laughed when he shifted me so that I was straddling one leg.
We ate like that in silence for a few seconds while I tried to still my racing heart.
Linc was on his second piece of toast, and last egg when Steel started to talk.
I looked at him while I shoveled my food in, seeing the seriousness in his eyes.
“Got a problem,” Steel murmured.
I bit into my slice of toast and waited for him to elaborate.
“What kind
of problem?” Linc asked, sitting back in his seat.
He’d completely cleaned his plate, and there wasn’t even any runny yolk left over from his eggs to show.
I looked at him. “Hungry?”
“Starved,” he agreed.
Steel gagged. “If you two are done, I’ll tell you why we came.”
I stuck my tongue out at Steel but went back to my own breakfast and stopped making googly eyes at the man I was currently using as a chair.
Linc’s hand started to slowly creep up my exposed thigh, but luckily with the way we were sitting I was covered and the other two men at the table couldn’t see what his hand was doing.
I’d just put a bite of egg into my mouth when Steel threw a couple bombshells our way.
“Had a tip that something we got going on at home is going to come crashing down on y’all,” Steel rumbled.
Linc’s hand stilled its ascent up my thigh.
“What do you mean?” Linc rumbled.
Steel’s eyes hit mine for a second, then he looked away.
It wasn’t until Jessie’s eyes did it, too, that I realized that they weren’t really wanting to talk in front of me.
Well, too damn bad.
I’d be staying. Especially since it involved Linc and them.
Steel sighed and pushed his plate away, wiping his hand down his trimmed beard before saying, “A couple of months ago there was a motorcycle club that tried to move into a few of the chapters’ towns. Benton, Louisiana. Mooresville, Alabama. And Bare Knob/Little Rock, Arkansas.”
I held my hand up before they could continue. “There’s a town in Arkansas called Bare Knob?”
Steel gave me his most effective glare that clearly told me to shut up.
I held my hands up in the air. “Okay. All right. I’ll shut up.”
I pantomimed zipping my mouth shut for added effect.
Linc’s hand on my thigh tightened for a moment, causing me to smile.
That smile fell off my face moments later when Steel continued.
“This club is targeting everybody affiliated with the Dixie Wardens. They’ve gotten four other clubs loyal to us, and we have reason to believe that they’re going to target y’all next,” Steel explained.
Linc opened his mouth to ask something, and Jessie held up his hand.
“Before you say that’s not fuckin’ possible, let me explain why it is,” Jessie said. “I’ll tell you about the one closest to us, and we’ll go from there.”
Linc sat back against his chair and waited impatiently.
I shifted on his leg—which was really fuckin’ hard and starting to make my ass fall asleep—causing Linc to move me into a better position. This time my ass was squarely in his lap, and I could feel everything.
Before I had too much time to get all excited about what I was feeling between my ass cheeks, Jessie’s words caught our attention.
“It started out with little stuff,” Jessie began. “The club, the Wind Furies MC, came into what the local MC considered theirs. Made nice. Acted like they were visiting and watched.”
Before I could think ‘that’s not illegal,’ Jessie continued.
“Once they get the lay of the land, and see what kind of people you are, they make their plan. They try to decide whether they should approach you, or just set an example,” Jessie said.
“With the MC that’s closest to us, the Wind Furies MC decided that whatever they said wasn’t going to convince that MC to just turn on us, and instead started setting their club members up. Various accidents began happening with the club members. At first it was pesky little shit like flat tires and vandalized bikes. Then the accidents started. It was when the fourth member of the MC got targeted—and also the VP—that things finally started making sense. But in case they were too clueless still to realize that they were being targeted, the Wind Furies decided to leave a little note.”
“A note on the motorcycle that says ‘Give them backup and die.’”
My head whipped around to see Bayou standing there with a note in his hand, and a face like thunder.
“Was pinned to his bike,” Bayou mumbled as he walked farther into the room and slapped the note onto the table with a little too much force.
My eyes automatically went to the paper, and my head tilted as I read the hastily scribbled letters.
“If my dad weren’t here explaining it to me right now, how the hell were we supposed to connect the dots to ‘them’ being ‘the Dixie Wardens?’” Linc questioned. “This doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense. And, not to mention, there was no buildup here. It’s only been Hoax’s accident.”
“My bike’s been vandalized twice,” Bayou paused, his eyes meeting every man’s gaze in the room but skipped over mine. “But both times they were different bikes that I owned, and I think maybe they didn’t realize that it was me that they hit twice. Once I was at work, and the other time I was at the fire station responding to a call. I had to take the brush truck out for a pasture fire.”
“Never explained it to the other clubs, either,” Steel murmured. “They hit all the ones around us that were closest and have circled out wide from there. The Wind Furies aren’t big enough to split up too wide, so they’re hitting each affiliated club one at a time until they’ve hammered their point home.”
“They’re not hammering anything home here,” Linc grumbled, sounding confused. “If you hadn’t come to explain, which means you had to learn about it beforehand, then we’d still be wondering what in the fuck was going on—and who it was that had caused the accident.”
All very true.
Something was missing here, and we still didn’t know what.
“You’re correct,” Jessie explained. “We realized that they’re only hitting the stronger clubs. The smaller ones that are supporters have been skipped over. They’re thinking bigger picture here, and we only realized that last night when we were headed to a different club’s territory and then heard about Hoax’s accident.”
“So, what do y’all have on the Wind Furies, or what have you done to piss them off, that they’re hoping to cut you off from all support?” Bayou asked, taking up residence against a counter and crossing his legs out in front of him.
He was looking at the wall, keeping his eyes on no one in particular. He looked lost in thought.
“We’ve arrested their president and vice president of their MC. One in Mooresville, and one in Benton. Both times it was them trying to cause trouble.” He paused. “The man that’s now in charge was likely the smartest of the entire bunch, and without anyone to hold his psychotic hand and keep him in line, he’s kind of turned into a little bastard who’s too smart for his own good.”
“What does he look like?” Linc questioned. “And what’s his name that he’s going by?”
Jessie produced a picture and tossed it on the table. It slid a few inches before coming to a halt by Linc’s plate.
That’s when I gasped.
“That’s Dr. Threadgill!” I gasped. “Tyson!”
A slew of curses left Linc’s mouth as he started to lose his shit.
“Who is Tyson Threadgill?” Steel asked, leaning forward.
“The man that asked me out on a date, and I went to make Linc jealous, and turned out to be a weirdo! I told him I had the stomach flu, and then it turned into me being pregnant with Linc’s baby,” I blurted.
“You’re pregnant with Linc’s baby?” Bayou asked in surprise.
He still didn’t meet my eyes, even when his question was directed at me.
I rolled my eyes. “You mean you heard half of the conversation, but not all of it?”
Bayou narrowed his eyes and finally met my gaze, and I would’ve said more, but Linc placed his palm over my mouth. “Shhhh.”
I licked his hand which only caused him to press his hand harder to my face.
I continued to lick it until Steel sighed. “Seriously? We just found out that this prick i
s working with you, and you’re thinking that licking him is the best course of action right now? This is why I don’t think you’re mature enough to be together yet.”
I flipped Steel off. “Go fuck yourself.”
Except Linc’s hand was still covering my mouth, and it came out sounding more like gibberish.
Which I suppose was a good thing. Steel would tell my mother what I’d said, and then I’d get a lengthy phone call from her that would include her telling me that it wasn’t ladylike to tell anyone to go fuck themselves.
It made me feel better, though.
Linc pulled his hand away from my mouth and then wiped the spit that I’d deposited onto my leg, causing me to curse. “That’s gross.”
I narrowed my eyes on him and promised him retaliation with only my glare.
Something that he thought was extremely funny seeing as his eyes were glittering with mirth.
“Children,” Jessie said, sounding tired. “We need to figure out what’s going on here.”
I shrugged. “I honestly think that it was an accident that I was ever implicated at all,” I admitted. “Up until Tyson showed up to pick me up for our date, Linc and he had never seen each other before. Then, when Pru and Phoebe alluded that I was pregnant with Linc’s love child—which, for your information Bayou, I’m not—he looked just as surprised as I was. I think it was a surprise to find out that we even knew each other seeing as up until just a little bit ago, Linc was ignoring me and trying not to come see me.”
“False,” Linc interrupted. “I wanted to come see you. You, on the other hand, went out of your way to thwart my every attempt.”
I shrugged.
There was that.
I wiggled my hips to get a better position and had just decided that maybe we needed to go find a new chair when Linc growled into my ear. “Sit still.”
I bit my lip and tried to sit still, but his ever-growing hardness had me thinking about hundreds of naughty things I could be doing right now.
Linc and I had lost quite a bit of time. We had a lot to make up for.
“…think it’s best if you move in with Linc,” Steel said, gaining my attention.
“But I work in Kilgore. I can’t stay here.” I shook my head.
Talkin' Trash (The Bear Bottom Guardians MC Book 2) Page 12
