Guts & Glory: Brick (In the Shadows Security Book 6)

by Jeanne St. James

  Did she just say...?

  “You shot him,” Mercy repeated in a scarier than normal tone.

  “Well, yes.” She sucked in a breath and launched into, “I first kicked him in the balls, then I shot him.”

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Steel grumbled low. Brick wasn’t sure if the man was impressed or surprised.

  “He struck you once and you shot him.”

  “Once was all that was needed.”

  On the other side of Brick, Hunter released a long “Fuuuuck” as he dropped his head in his hands.

  Mercy’s face turned thunderous. And for him, it took a lot to make it so. He was seriously pissed. The man normally went subzero cold when he was angry, not the other direction.

  She leaned forward, jabbing her spoon toward the center of the table. “Okay, here’s what happened...”

  Everyone—except for Mercy, who rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and kept them there—leaned forward, totally entranced.

  “Poker night’s over,” Mercy muttered.

  “Oh no. Fuck no. This is just getting good,” Brick announced. He wasn’t going anywhere until he heard what happened.

  “Okay, so...” Londyn started, ignoring the scary look Mercy was shooting in her direction. “I thought he was my soulmate—”

  “Brick meets a new soulmate every time he swipes right,” Hunter said.

  Brick ignored him and kept his eyes on Londyn’s lips as she took a breath to continue her story.

  “It turns out he was anything but. Because you can’t have two soulmates.”

  “Says who?” Steel asked, playing along.

  “Says me,” she spouted.

  Brick heard a long trying-not-to-murder-someone sigh at the other end of the table. He ignored that, too.

  “You can’t have a second soulmate when you’ve married your first one.”

  Brick shook his head confused.

  Londyn turned hers to look directly at him and began to talk, like he was the only one interested in her story. He wasn’t pulling his eyes from her to look around to see if that was true. Because fuck the rest of them, he wanted to hear it and she also now had a spot of ice cream on her bottom lip. And, for fuck’s sake, he wanted to lick it off, just like she licked his arm.

  But just as hot, that little tongue of hers darted out and swept it away.

  “Which one are you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed on him.

  “Brick.”

  “I never met you before, have I?”

  “No.”

  “I would’ve remembered you,” she stated.

  Before he could ask why, Steel prompted her, “Soooo, you found out your soulmate was married.”

  “Not just married but had a family. It turns out I was his side-bitch! For years! And I never knew.”

  “So… he then used that as an escape tactic when he finally figured out you were a crazy bitch and decided he’d rather deal with his wife?”

  Londyn gave Mercy a look. “No, he didn’t use it as anything. I found out by accident.”

  “Then he slapped you?”

  “Actually, he backhanded me.”

  “Why?” Mercy asked with another impatient sigh.

  “Because I threw a lamp at him and hit him in the face, busting open his eye.”

  “Hold up,” Brick said, more humor in his tone than there should be. “You find out he’s a cheating dog. You crack open his melon with a lamp. He backhands you. You rearrange his nuts, then shoot him. Do I have that all correct?”

  “Close enough,” she said around another mouthful of ice cream.

  “Are the cops looking for you?” The last thing any of them wanted was the cops anywhere near In the Shadow Security or the compound owned by the Dirty Angels MC. That could bring trouble.

  “Why would they be?”

  Jesus. This woman. Was she for real? “Because you shot a man?”

  Londyn waved a hand around in the air. “It was just a scratch. A warning shot.”

  “What was the warning for?” he asked, still unable to keep the amusement from his voice.

  “To never hit me again. And to fucking pack up his shit, get the fuck out of our house and go back to his damn wife.”

  “Goddamn,” Walker mumbled under his breath. He wasn’t the only one mumbling shit.

  “Do you even know how to shoot a gun?” Brick asked, finding all of this so much more entertaining than a poker game.

  Londyn lifted a shoulder as the spoon scraped against the bottom of the almost empty bowl. “You point and pull the trigger.”

  “That you do,” Brick said around a chuckle.

  “Tell me, if you kicked his cheating, woman-hitting ass out, why the fuck are you here?” Mercy growled.

  “Because I don’t want to live in New York alone anymore. I only moved there for him. I’d go home to Vegas, but Parris lives here now because of you. So... here I am.”

  “Here she is,” Ryder announced loudly with an accompanying snort-laugh.

  “For a visit,” Mercy said. “Like a quick layover before you fly somewhere else.”

  Londyn dropped the spoon into the bowl and pushed it away. “Until I figure out what I’m going to do.”

  Mercy’s lips flattened out. “While in a motel.”

  Those blue eyes narrowed on the big man at the end of the table. “I doubt my sister will want me staying in a motel when you have a big, beautiful home here.”

  “Along with that big, beautiful ring she has on her fucking finger, which you apparently had forgotten earlier.”

  “Oh, is that an actual engagement ring? Or a just-something-to-appease-her ring?”

  “She isn’t fucking needy like you,” Mercy said tightly.

  “Fine,” she surged up, grabbed an empty plastic cup, moved around the table and snagged the bottle from next to Mercy. “Sorry if I’m going through some tough times and I’m needy. I’ll wait for Parris elsewhere.”

  “Like at a motel,” Mercy yelled over his shoulder as Londyn rushed out of the room. When Brick didn’t hear the click of heels, he realized she was now barefoot.

  He dropped his head and saw her heels under the table. They were fucking hot as hell. He had no idea how women walked in shoes like that, but he did not care.

  Then he pictured Londyn sprawled on his bed, her dark blonde hair spread over his pillow, her blue eyes on him, while wearing a black lace negligee that hugged all her curves and those red fucking heels.

  Fuck yes.

  He lifted his gaze from the shoes to Mercy, just to jerk his chain. “You should be a little more supportive of your future sister-in-law.”

  “You’re welcome to go console her.”

  Brick pushed to his feet.

  Mercy pointed a finger at him. “Sit the fuck down. You’re not getting a piece of that. She’s buzzed and in a position to being susceptible to your man-ho charms.”

  Apparently, Mercy hadn’t been serious about his suggestion of consoling her.

  “His perfect type!” Steel said, laughing and smacking Brick on the back.

  “Rissa would kill me. After she killed you. So, sit the fuck down.”

  “But—”

  “Sit the fuck down!” Mercy shouted. “Don’t even think of going there.”

  “I thought you said poker night was over,” Brick said.

  “It is. It was. God-fucking-damnit,” he shouted, then scrubbed a hand over his hair. “I need a fucking drink and she took the whiskey.”

  Brick leaned over, plucked a can from his six-pack of Iron City. “Beer?”

  “I’m not drinking that swill,” Mercy grumbled.

  “Suit yourself,” he said and popped open the can, the beer sliding down his throat. His eyes sliced to the doorway where Londyn disappeared. “We playing poker or are we done?”

  “Poker,” Steel, Hunter and Walker said at the same time. “We’re women-free tonight, so we need to take advantage of it.”

  “A-fuckin’-men,” Ryder said, sitting back in his
chair and lighting a cigar. “And who knows when the next time we’ll get to do this again. Women and children make life complicated.”

  “You don’t even have kids yet,” Hunter said. “I’m the only one sitting at this table with kids.”

  “Kid,” Steel corrected him.

  Hunter smiled.

  Walker whacked him on the back and laughed. “I was starting to think you were shooting blanks, old man. Congrats.”

  “It’s getting to the point where we only have poker games when they’re all at a baby shower,” Steel complained.

  “As long as one of them in the sisterhood keeps getting knocked up, that should be pretty fucking often,” Mercy grumbled.

  “I keep saying that the club needs to start a fucking daycare,” Ryder stated, watching the smoke roll toward the ceiling from the tip of his cigar.

  “Soon they’re going to need their own school district,” Steel said.

  “A-fuckin’-men to that, too,” Ryder answered.

  “Z’s talking about the club running a daycare,” Mercy said, shaking his head. “A fucking strip club and a daycare. Not in the same building. Thank fuck.”

  “Well, Moose’s strippers could probably use it, too.”

  “We all could,” Hunter said.

  “Speak for yourself,” Mercy stated.

  “Okay, Frankie and I could.”

  “Jesus fuck, we’re turning into the fucking women here! Can we just play fucking poker, smoke cigars and scratch our damn balls like the men we are?”

  A few grunts were heard in response to Mercy’s outburst, and Brick began to shuffle the deck of cards that had been abandoned in front of him. “I’m dealing, fuckers. Ante up.”

  Chapter Two

  Brick stepped out the front door, his remaining two beers hanging from the plastic rings hooked over his fingers. With Thanksgiving approaching, it was actually cold enough Brick could see his breath as he watched Walker and Ryder cut across the lawn to their houses in the same cul-de-sac. And Hunter headed down the dark sidewalk circled occasionally in light from a streetlamp since he lived a couple streets away.

  Steel pounded him on the back and snorted, “Good game. Thanks for donating to our new place tonight.”

  Brick’s eyes automatically went to the empty lot to the right of Ryder’s house. Steel and Kat would be building there. Just a week ago they bought the lot from the DAMC with the winnings of Kat’s last fight and once spring came, they’d start breaking ground. That left one lot in the cul-de-sac to the left of Mercy’s house.

  Diesel told him it had his name on it when he was ready.

  Brick had no problem with his current pad. He was renting the Dirty Angels VP Hawk’s old place in town and it was plenty big enough for him. It had a huge master bedroom perfect for entertaining the ladies. And he didn’t have to worry about remote-controlled gates, concrete walls and security codes to get them in the front door. Or out of it, either.

  Easy in. Easy out.

  Steel’s phone pinged and he glanced at it. “Kat’s home. That means the baby shower’s over. That also means Rissa will be pulling up soon and finding out her sister has invaded Shadow Valley unexpectedly.”

  “Unless she knew,” Brick said distractedly as he stared at the dark empty lot to his right. His lot. One he wasn’t sure he wanted or would ever need.

  “If she knew and kept it from Mercy...?” Steel shook his head. “I doubt it. Mercy said Londyn’s impulsive, so I could see it being a complete surprise. Though, if Kat’s sister decided to just show up at our front door, I’d be torqued as fuck.”

  “Yeah, but they aren’t close like Rissa and Londyn.”

  “Right. Gotta go home and make my Kitty Kat purr.” Steel grinned. “I’m out.” He jerked his chin at Brick and headed toward his Jeep, which was parked next to Brick’s TUV. Even though Steel’s custom Wrangler was not small, it was still dwarfed by Brick’s Rezvani Tank.

  Because bigger was always better. Right?

  Fucking-A right.

  Bigger rifle. Bigger vehicle. Bigger dick.

  He snorted, shook his head at his own asshole thoughts and climbed into his tactical urban vehicle. Like his bedroom, it was also perfect for impressing the ladies.

  Brick waited until Steel pulled away and hit the start button on his Tank, letting the growl of the engine rumble through his chest.

  “You must have a really small fucking dick.”

  He had the Glock 19 that was stowed in an under-the-seat holster pulled and pointed toward the back seat and at the intruder’s forehead before the last word even trailed away.

  His heart began to beat again when he realized his target wasn’t a threat. At least the kind that would kill him.

  “You gonna shoot me?” Londyn asked.

  “I should,” he lowered the gun and turned around, tucking the Glock back into its holster, “for breaking into my vehicle.”

  “I didn’t break in. It was unlocked. Unlike the Jeep.”

  “You were a finger twitch close to dying, Londyn.” He twisted to face her again, even though she was hidden in the shadows of his back seat.

  “I doubt your fingers ever twitch. Parris said you’re a sniper. Bet you have some really steady hands.”

  “Former.”

  Londyn belted out a laugh. “Sure. Former. Wink, wink.”

  Was Rissa running her mouth? “What’d she tell you?”

  “No secrets, if that’s what you’re worried about. Just general information. But I have a clue to what you all do... I’m not stupid.”

  If she was anything like her sister, she certainly was not stupid. She just did dumb things on occasion. But then, they all did. Like by him not kicking her ass out of his vehicle the second she revealed herself. Especially since she’d been drinking.

  She wasn’t only slurring slightly, her U’s were being dragged out. However, she didn’t appear to be sloppy drunk from the little he could see from where he sat.

  “Why are you sitting in my Tank?”

  “This is a tank? I’ve seen tanks in movies, and this does not look like one of those.”

  “It’s the name of the vehicle.”

  “Is it bulletproof like Mercy’s?”

  While he loved his Tank, he hadn’t liked writing the check for it and a bulletproof model was twice as much. “No.”

  “Have you tested that theory?”

  “Londyn, why are you in my back seat?”

  “Because Mercy doesn’t want me inside and I’m waiting for Parris to come home.” That declaration ended on a sniffle.

  Oh fuck.

  “I’m just...” Sniffle, sniffle. “I...”

  For fuck’s sake. He was not used to being around emotional women. He never stuck around long enough for them to become emotional. He did hookups, not relationships.

  There was too much variety out there to be limited to one type. He was sure monogamy could get boring fast.

  Another muffled sniffle drew him back to the woman in his vehicle. Who was not a hookup, he reminded himself. “Did you finish off that bottle?”

  A soft “maybe” drifted toward him.

  He sighed, took a whole two seconds to decide what to do, got out of the driver’s seat and opened the door to the back. With a quick glance back at the house of the driveway they sat in, he climbed in and she scrambled to give him room.

  As he closed the rear driver’s side door, he quickly glanced toward the house again, feeling a little bit of an asshole pucker. Was he going to die in his beloved vehicle?

  He just needed to keep his hands to himself. That was all. Easy.

  She was buzzing big time—if not totally smashed—on whiskey. Since he didn’t know her, he wasn’t sure what her current level of pickling was. But no matter what the level, he wasn’t going to die tonight. There was plenty of other pussy out there without that threat attached.

  But, hell, pickled or not, Londyn was hot as fuck. Even in the limited light of his back seat.

  “Are y
ou still barefoot?”

  Her face turned toward him; her brow furrowed. “What?”

  “You left your...” sexy-as-fuck, “shoes under the table. Did you put on another pair?”

  “No.”

  “It’s chilly as hell out here. Are your feet cold?”

  “A little.”

  He pushed past her and leaned over the console to the front of his TUV to turn up the heat. “Are you going inside once Rissa gets here?”

  “Yes. I just can’t take... him right now. He doesn’t understand.”

  Brick winced at the little bit of whine in those words. “What he doesn’t understand is why you’d move across the country after meeting someone online.”

  “I’ve been with Kevin for years.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t know him before you moved in with him.” And apparently, she didn’t know him after that, either. But now was not the time to point that out.

  She groaned. “I know, I know! I thought my life was getting on track. I thought I was finally going to be happy. He said all the right things. I thought...” She shook her head. “Why am I telling you this?”

  “Because you’re sitting in my vehicle and you like to talk?”

  She sniffled, sighed and wiped a hand over her eyes. She twisted in the seat to face him. “My sister is the strongest woman I know. She got freaking kidnapped and could’ve died and didn’t even cry once when she told me about it. And here I am crying about a man. One fucking man. An asshole who tricked me into thinking he loved me and that I was his one and only. And I wasn’t. I never was.”

  “Londyn—”

  “I need my sister. I need to figure out where to go from here. I have nowhere else to go and she’s all I have left.”

  The last part sounded pained and raw, causing a strange feeling to fill Brick’s chest.

  It was like he almost... cared.

  Huh.

  He wasn’t sure what to think about that. It could be just a fluke.

  “Like you said, Mercy’s just a ‘big ol’ grump.’ Ignore him. I’m sure he won’t mind you staying a few days.”

  “You’re really nice.”

  No, he wasn’t. If he was nice, he wouldn’t be thinking about peeling that outfit off her and having her ride his cock in the back seat of his vehicle like a drunk chick on a mechanical bull.