In Too Deep (The Lovers Duet) (17 page)

“Back the fuck up.” Ronan was flexing his muscles and began to pace the small room like a bull in a china shop. “How long have you known about Dizzy being your father?”

“Seriously? Since I was about nine or ten. My parents sat me down and my mother calmly explained to me that my father who raised me wasn’t my biological father. I was pissed and angry they’d kept it from me for so very long. They refused to tell me who my real father was but I figured it out. I saw the looks of longing between Dizzy and my mother.

“I think I was around eleven when I ran into Dizzy with his old crew and I asked him if I could talk to him for a few minutes. You have to understand I was always a cocky little bastard so I just came right out and asked him if he was my dad and he said ‘no.’ I remember sayin’, ‘I know you’re not my dad like that but did you fuck my mother and provide the sperm for my conception?’ He burst out laughing and told me even then I was his son…” Trey trailed off and wiped his eyes with the back of his arm.

“Why didn’t you join the Saints from the beginning?” Linx had to admit he was seeing a different, much more sensitive side to his brother-in-law.

“That was too easy. I’ve had an open invitation to join the Saints since I was sixteen but I didn’t think I could deal with bein’ around all my siblings who didn’t know who the fuck I was except Cillian…and Loire. Boy, was that a fucked up a situation when I realized I busted my own sister’s cherry and fucked her during high school not knowing she and I were…related.”

Hardy lit a cigarette and dragged from it. “Did she know who you were when you two were…a couple?”

Trey nodded. “She didn’t think there was anythin’ wrong with it because it wasn’t like we were raised together. She was just someone the Club put up with and I had a proper family—a mother and father and two siblings—plus it was a big ‘fuck you’ to our old man. Kind of like he should watch where he put his dick because he never knew how it could come back to haunt him.”

Trey finished his cigarette and stubbed it out in the ashtray on the bedside table. “I knew she was there at the club and after we broke up, it was just easier to become a prospect with Jonesy and the Bastards. Dad always said that was going to be a temporary situation and I bided my time, learned the business and Jonesy knew he would have to let me go when Dad came back to claim me.”

“You know what happens to snitches, don’t you?” Ronan glared at Trey with desolate, violet-blue eyes.

Linx rolled his eyes and knew he would never get along with him.

“No shit. I’ve already told Dizzy I would never disclose anything I knew about the Bastards and Jonesy knows I would rather cut out my own tongue before I would say anything distasteful about his club.”

Hardy’s cell phone rang at the same time as Linx’s. He quickly answered the call as soon as Trista’s face showed up on his screen.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?”

“We were attacked by the WKs today. They shot up O’Branaughs. There were over twenty deaths and a shit load of injuries. Dizzy is climbin’ the walls. If you guys have found Trey, then you need to haul ass outta Belfast and get back here pronto. Shit’s about to hit the fan and I can’t guarantee he’s gonna wait till you guys get back. He’s pissed as fuck and no one can calm him down.”

Linx clutched the phone so tightly in his hand, he thought it would break while his heart thundered in his chest with such intensity, he knew he was on the verge of suffering from heart palpitations. “Promise me you won’t get involved. Please…I need to know you are going to be kept safe—”

“—you know I can’t make that kind of vow to you, Lennon.” Trista sighed out loud. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see people die right in front of your face and this is your club—
our
club—and I have to do my part.”

“You don’t owe the Saints shit.” Linx walked over to a quiet corner. “Baby, if anything happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to live…if what happened to Keri happened to you…”

“This is why I didn’t want to be involved, Linx. I don’t do half measures, and you know that so why are you acting like this is news to you? I didn’t want to be an old lady because I know what lurks in my heart of darkness. I can’t hang around and be a virtual Club brat without the lifestyle affecting me and how I feel about the world and retribution.”

She paused and her voice changed until she spoke so softly, he could barely hear her. “I love you so much, and I would do anything you would ask of me but…this is your Club and I can’t just stand around and not do shit. That’s not me. You knew what you were doin’ when you patched in and I knew what I was gettin’ into when I became an old lady. Stay safe, don’t worry about me and get your ass back here as soon as motherfuckin’ possible. I love you.”

“Love you too,” he choked out before the call ended.

Linx walked to the wall and braced his hand against it until the tears fell from his eyes. He hadn’t cried since he was a teen but the wetness left a trail all the way to his jaws. All he could think about was Trista shot, raped, murdered by one of those White Knight pricks and then he would go fucking medieval on their asses. Fuck his career, and fuck everything else. This was his woman’s life on the line and no one would ever tear them apart.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he threw it off as he whipped around in a throng of fury.

“Take it easy, bro.” Trey held up his hands in defeat. “I know what you’re going through and we’re leaving…now. You think I want to bury my sister too? She’ll do her part and that’s what scares the fuck outta me ‘cause no one can control her. She’s gonna do what she wants and there’s nothin’ you or I can say or do to change her mind.”

“Has she always been this fuckin’ stubborn?”

“Since she was born. The little bitch wanted to back out before the doctor threatened a Caesarean and all the sudden, she was in position to be born. She is one of the most stubborn people in the world but she lives like she loves—fuckin’ hard.” Trey stared at him with haunted hazel-green eyes. “Man, she’s so fuckin’ in love with you, no one would ever be able to separate you two. She can take care of herself and we just have to sit here and take it and hope she’s all right.”

Linx wiped the tears from his face. “That’s what I hate so fuckin’ much. She’s there—we’re here—and there is fuck all we can do about it.”

“Except get back to Birch Tree as soon as possible.”

They both stared at one another and an extremely tense moment was broken with nervous laughter from them both. If they weren’t such bad asses, they would have both been crying instead.

Chapter Thirteen

I PACED BACK and forth in my room as soon as I ended the call to Linx.

I needed to hear his voice before I changed myself forever and even now, he was still the only person on my mind.

The nine millimeter—my weapon of choice—sat on the bed. I picked it up and ejected the magazine. It was full; I slammed it back into place and pulled the head back to chamber a round. I had two extra empty magazine clips. The bed was littered with “cop killers”—hollow-point bullets that went through body armor and inflicted the most damage because they disintegrated and couldn’t be removed. They weren’t meant to maim, they were meant to kill.

I began to load the clips with the bullets and slid one in each back pocket.

The day after the shooting, everyone was mostly in shock except for the few of us who were mad as hell and sought nothing but the need for revenge against the WKs. Cillian didn’t want me to go and neither did Gisela. It didn’t matter what they fucking wanted because I’d gone straight to the horse’s mouth and sought his permission. Dizzy was such a fucking wreck, he’d said yes right away and promised me if I didn’t come back alive, he would drag me out of Hell himself.

This wasn’t some half-baked, hackneyed mission that hadn’t been planned out. We knew exactly what we were going to do and when we were going to strike. I pitied the fool who got in my way tonight because it wouldn’t end well for them at all. I could take a bullet—or two—but I would go down with my gun blazing.

I’d dressed the part. A pair of indigo boot cut jeans that were sculpted against my body but I could still move and still run paired with a black tank top and a half sweatshirt that ended mid-torso. It was officially nearing winter and cold as hell here in Birch Creek. We’d already had several days of flurries and the weather didn’t seem like it would improve much.

None of us were stupid—least of all Cillian, Gisela, Bookie or I—and we knew how lucky we were to have made it out of O’Branaughs not only alive but without a scratch on us. It’d cost me a favorite pair of jeans and a kick ass band t-shirt but I’d burned my clothes as soon as we got back to the compound and never looked back. I could never wear those clothes again, not knowing what I knew and feeling what I felt.

A flutter hit me in the nether region and although I knew it was too early to tell, I just felt like Linx had hit the bull’s eye that night. A baby grew inside of me and if I had to do this for him or her then I would. No one would ever know because we’d sworn each other to secrecy. Dizzy promised the extent of my involvement would never get back to either my brother or my hubby and I was cool with that.

As far as they were concerned, I would be a driver and nothing else. Cillian, another hard-ass in the club by the name of Cricket and Naomi would all be along for the ride. It was a small crew but we were the best shooters.

Cricket had hooked up us with a dope ride—a stolen Cadillac Escalade he had managed to “borrow” from some vacation home in Pine Bluff. It was absolutely necessary the crime could never be traced back to the club and we were vigilant, to the point of having an extra pair of license plates just in case.

There was a knock at the door and I yelled, “Come in.”

Cillian entered and although he was usually one of the more playful brothers, his eyes shined arctic blue and his expression was one of quiet fury. Furrowed brows, his mouth set and a jaw that clenched every now and then. He looked me up and down; I realized I was still holding the gun and I set it down on the bed after making sure the safety was on.

“Are you here to talk me out of it?” My voice was soft, that of a young woman because I would do anything—outside of sexual favors; those were saved for Linx only—to make sure I was included on this mission. I could have been killed and I’d already lost my family. No way would anyone get that close to snuffing my life out again when I had Linx, two step-children and a child on the way to protect.

“Nope, not my style.” He sat on the bed and patted a spot next to him. I sat down, albeit reluctantly, and tried not to fidget or show just how angry I truly was at that moment.

“I know you’re ready for this because I have seen that very look in your eyes. Only the last time I saw it, I was seventeen years old and living in Belfast. It was my first kill and I had the look of murder in my eyes. I wanted the pain to go away and I was willing to do whatever it took to make it happen. I snuffed out my first human life when I was still a teenager and…no matter what you see in the movies, unless you’re a sociopath, it
never
gets easier.”