In Too Deep (The Lovers Duet) (3 page)

“I’m sorry, how rude of me? I sometimes forget me manners after living in this godforsaken country for so very long. This is Desmond Cox—”

“I know who you are,” Linx snapped. “What do you want?”

“Before you and Trista decide to leave and go to Belfast half-cocked, I request you visit the beautiful area of Northern Nevada first. We have business to discuss and my offer is non-negotiable.”

He rolled his eyes and breathed harshly. “We’ve already booked the tickets.”

“Yes, but my oldest son has taken care of it and re-booked the two of you on a flight directly from here. I hope you don’t mind and I know you are going to face a very grumpy bitch when I end this call but there are tickets waiting for you at LAX and your destination is now Reno-Tahoe Airport. Your flight leaves in four hours.”

The line went dead and Linx tried to wrap his head around what he was going to tell Trista to make her feel even slightly better about their sudden change in plans.

“I know who that was…what does he want?” Trista grabbed her Samsung from Linx’s hands and began to play with it in a distractive manner.

“A better question is how the hell did he get your number?”

“Well, only one person could have given it to him and that would have been Trey but the $64,000 question is: did he give it to him before or after the phone call last night?”

“And why would Trey have such a special relationship with this Dizzy Cox? Isn’t he the President of the rival MC he belongs to?”

“Yes and no. Jonesy and Dizzy don’t hate each other per se. They just don’t see eye-to-eye on a whole lot. Their biggest differences involve a certain Raymond Jackson and Mexican drug cartel turned Motorcycle Gang, Aztecas Infierno.” She set her phone down on the coffee table and began to drink her coffee again.

Linx had a feeling Trista wanted to tell him more therefore he waited for her to continue on her own time despite time being of precious essence; they would have to leave soon if they wanted to make their flight to Northern Nevada.

“The Bastards have a deal with Jackson and they provide protection for him. He may be a gangster but he’s no gang leader or anything like that. Word is the man is as paranoid as they come. He doesn’t trust anyone outside of his family in his inner circle so he had no choice but to reach out to a club. Jackson pays Jonesy a hefty price for protection and when a deal goes down, he gets biker protection. They have been friends for many years…since Jonesy immigrated from Wales.”

“Why couldn’t he get protection from Dizzy?” Linx wondered out loud as he stroked her silky hair.

Trista laughed out loud. “Too much bad blood. Jackson’s younger brother has a daughter by Grace Cox, Dizzy’s sister. Jackson’s son has a baby by Misty Cox and abandoned her for an upstanding and intelligent German woman his mother hand-picked for him from her home country. Oh, yeah…Cillian and Gisela were high school sweethearts or at least dated although Gisela went to a very expensive all-girls Academy. No one knows what happened but both of them disappeared when they were around fifteen or sixteen. Granted I was a kid because both of them have to be around thirty now so this happened before my family moved to Northern Nevada.

“Anyway, Gisela came back about seven months later and Cillian didn’t come back at all. In fact he lived in Northern Ireland until he was around twenty and brought back an old lady with him. They have a son and a daughter and apparently, he’s sent her packin’ but kept the kids. There’s a rumor going around that he and Gisela are seeing one another again but she can’t admit that shit and remain his attorney.”

“Holy Christ…talk about drama.” Linx ruffled his own hair and breathed out loud. “And I thought my life was bad.”

Trista’s sky blue eyes met his and smiled wryly. “What are you talking about? I haven’t told you anything yet. Anyway, to put it lightly, there are too many family ties between the Jackson and Cox family despite Dizzy being an Irish fanatic who won’t even let members join if they can’t trace at least half their heritage back to the Emerald Isle. There aren’t any non-white members but it isn’t so much Dizzy’s a racist, he just doesn’t like people if they aren’t Irish Catholic. The Saints are a lot of things but they aren’t a neo-Nazi biker gang, not like the White Knights.”

“Okay, so there’s the complicated connections between the two of them but…what does Jonesy have against Dizzy?”

“What do you mean? Despite him stuffing the pockets of a dangerous Mexican cartel like Aztecas Infierno? Does he
need
another reason? Jonesy knows it’s only a matter of time before they make a play for their piece of Northern Nevada and the moment that happens, the heat will flood the tri-cities area of Reno, Carson City, and Lake Tahoe like a bad case of Herpes. The Feds will get involved, and they’ll bring most of the illegal activity to a halt. The clubs all make money from their illegal enterprises.

“It’s true the Saints wouldn’t be too bad off because Dizzy has other monetary sources but they all make cash from their nefarious dealings and they won’t be able to operate with the Feds swarming the area. And Aztecas Infierno is one of the most dangerous cartels from Mexico who have managed to operate here in the States. Dizzy buys his drugs from them and you think they won’t eventually want a part of the action up in Nevada?”

“What about the White Knights?”

“They operate outside of Nevada and control the meth trade. They make their own product so they don’t need the ‘niggers or the Spics’ to help them out. Of all the MCs, they are the absolute worst. Hell, when Brooklyn threatened me, I was genuinely scared because I know about what they are known to do to women and…it isn’t pretty.”

Linx shifted on the sofa and finally decided to drop the bomb.

“We’re not going to Belfast…at least not yet.”

Trista sat up before she whipped around to face him, her icy blue eyes unreadable at that moment. “Where the hell are we going?”

“We’ve been summoned…by Dizzy Cox. I don’t know why because he didn’t tell me but he’s bought the tickets and we have to go back to the place you’ve never wanted to return to…I’m sorry. I should have told you but frankly, I didn’t know how you would react.”

Linx stared at her as her eyes darted around and he knew she felt like the trap doors had been shut on her for good.

“Holy shit.”

He was about to respond when the doorbell rang.

Why did he feel like a bad situation was about to get that much worse?

Chapter Three

MY HEART THROBBED in my chest with a beat I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to face Dizzy Cox, regardless why he wanted to see us. Fortunately, we were saved by the door bell and interrupted a moment before something happened that could have been potentially so explosive between the two of us, I didn’t want to even think about it.

I had no desire to answer the door either but because I was blocking Linx’s path as I stood, and left the comfort of his warm body, I strode purposefully towards the double doors of our palatial Hollywood Hills home.

The sight that awaited me when I opened one of the doors was not what I was expecting. Cassidy stood there with Jimi and Brady; she spoke animatedly on the phone to someone as she exclaimed, “Yeah, I’m here now. As soon I drop them off, I’ll meet you at your place. Love you, babe.”

She ended the phone call and faced me. Her bright blue eyes sized me up before she placed a hand on one slim hip. “Hey, Trista. I thought you and Lennon would like to spend some quality time with the boys this weekend. Is that okay?”

I pursed my lips in her direction and shook my head. “Sorry, we’re actually on our way out of town and our driver should be here any minute.”

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath. “Listen, I am wooing this music exec at Introspect and he surprised me with a trip to Palm
 
Springs. What the hell am I supposed to do about the boys? They can’t come with me and if you two can’t take them, where will they go?”

Before I could respond, Linx was behind me and slid his arms around my waist. “Take them to John’s house. I’ll call him while you’re on the way. Trista and I have to handle some business and as much as I want to see Brady and Jimi, it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to come.”

Cassidy glared from me to him and back again. “That’s just fucking great. First, you beg me for split custody but when I need you to do me a favor, you’re unavailable—”

“—and you would have known that, Cass, if you would have picked up the phone to call us,” I interrupted rudely before I looked down at Brady and Jimi. My heart thawed and I felt awful we were arguing about them while they stood there with their mother. “Sorry…I shouldn’t have said that. I was out of line. I’m under a lot of stress right now because we have to make a trip back to Nevada and I don’t really want to go.”

Cassidy glared at me long and hard. “Then don’t. What do I look like dropping the kids off at John’s house? He’s never liked me, you know, and he is going to give me tons of shit—both of you know that!”

Linx didn’t waver as he placed his chin on my shoulder. “It’s the best I can do while you woo your new executive, Cass. So, what’s it gonna be?”

It didn’t take her long to think but as Linx reminded me as he squeezed my waist that time was of essence, I allowed a sigh to escape from between my slightly open lips.

“Shit…fine, I’ll take ‘em to John’s but he better be expectin’ me, Lennon.” Cassidy turned on the ridiculously high Christian Louboutins she wore and marched off with the kids in tow.

Linx ran past me and caught up with her in time to stop her in her tracks. He spoke to her before he lifted his boys in his arms and embraced them like it was the last time he’d ever see them again and suddenly the thought occurred to me: what if the hell it
was
?