17. LINK
“WHAT’S GOING ON?”
“With who?”
I rolled my eyes at Nyx’s evident bluff. “Try that on with someone who doesn’t fucking know you, man.
”Something has bitten you both on the ass. What is it?”
It was as clear as the nose on my fucking face that something was going down between Nyx and Giulia. If he thought they were hiding shit, then they were idiots, but even though Nyx was one of the smartest fuckers I knew, even he couldn’t see the trees for the wood sometimes.
Dipshit.
Giulia had been gnarly from the start. In fact, she made a fucking cactus look fluffy, but Jesus wept, that was nothing to now. The looks she was aiming Nyx’s way should have been enough to have him pissing blood. And Nyx? His glower made it clear that he wasn’t a happy frickin’ bunny.
“Nothing’s going on, man. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His bluster had me snorting. “How long have I known you again?”
He flipped me the bird. “Nothing’s wrong.” He completely twisted that around by muttering, “Sin, get me a shot of tequila?”
Sin’s brows rose, but he did as bid, throwing the bottle from one hand to the other before pouring Nyx a shot, which he instantly downed.
After he’d finished pulling a face, I muttered, “Still want to tell me nothing’s wrong?”
His nostrils flared and, ignoring me, he twisted around to face the room once more. The second Cammie shimmied over to us, I saw Giulia pinpoint the action like a heat-seeking missile.
Fuck, she’d be a beautiful woman if she didn’t always look like she was sucking on goddamn lemons. But now, she looked like she had a lemon and lime medley going down in her mouth as Cammie pressed her hands to Nyx’s chest and began giving him his own personal lap dance.
Stupid bitch.
Nyx didn’t like public displays of anything.
Sometimes, he’d get his cock sucked in public, but that was mostly because he didn’t want to take Cammie to his bed.
See that was how well I knew my brother, and here he was, trying to sell me a lie.
I watched Cammie put on a show. I wasn’t sure if it was for Nyx’s or Giulia’s benefit, but it wasn’t working.
Nyx looked like he’d taken a leaf out of Giulia’s book and was sucking on a lime. He certainly wasn’t appreciating having a gorgeous woman writhing all over him, that was for fucking sure.
Casting a look over Giulia’s way, I saw her face had turned impossibly stony. Implosion was imminent, and I could see the countdown begin ticking down before my very eyes, like it was hovering above her fucking head.
On the brink of nudging Nyx to warn him that shit was about to go down, I knew he’d either reached his limit of Cammie’s BS—she knew not to approach him like this, so she was doing the female equivalent of pissing all over him like he was a water hydrant—or he’d seen Giulia’s reaction himself.
“Enough!”
The words were an explosion in and of themselves. The heaving crowd of bikers who were dancing with their slut of choice ground to a halt, someone even switched off the music, because when Nyx used that tone, everyone knew to back the fuck off.
Cammie jerked back like she’d been slapped, and for Nyx, that was about as violent as he’d get with a bitch. He hadn”t had to lay a hand on her for Cammie to realize she’d pushed her fucking luck.
Just that one word and a glower was enough to have her twirling on her heel and staggering off into the crowd. I could hear her crying and knew it was because the bitch probably thought she was in love with the fucker, but hell, she should have known.
Bikers never made clubwhores their Old Ladies.
It never fucking worked.
And if she’d thought she was special because Nyx was giving her all his attention, she was wrong.
Looking over at Giulia, I didn”t find any smugness in her expression. Mostly, there was surprise. But when Nyx twisted back around to face the bar, it didn’t shock me to see a look of yearning written into her features.
Sometimes, the heart knew what the heart wanted, and the brain knew the heart was fucking stupid.
I clapped Nyx on the back. “I think you’re back in her good books.”
He sniffed. “You think my shouting at a slut who had no right to touch me, in front of the woman I actually want, is going to put me in her good books?”
When he put it like that…
“If you’re done with Cammie, that mean I can have a go at her?”
I glowered at Sin’s shitty timing. “Really, man?”
“She’s hot.” Like that said it all.
“I have eyes too, but there’s a time and a fucking place, man.”
“She never was mine anyway,” Nyx grunted. “Have at her.”
The words weren’t loud enough to be heard over the crowd, but I knew enough people heard and recognized what that meant.
Of course, everyone but fucking Giulia recognized the significance of his words. But that fit. Both she and Nyx were difficult motherfuckers. Trust her to misunderstand.
She bowed her head over her can of Coke, making me wonder what she was even doing here. After all, she’d only just closed the bar up, and I knew she had to be exhausted because the place had to take a lot of work.
But here she was.
A glutton for punishment?
I slapped Nyx on the back again. “You know what you just did, right?”
“I did nothing,” he denied.
“Yeah, you keep on telling yourself that.”
He shrugged off my hand and powered off the bar in an explosive movement that had Giulia flinching. That her focus was so utterly on him, even though she didn’t want it to be, was clear.
Because the two of them were no hopes, after Nyx headed off to only God knew where, I slouched over her way.
She cared for Nyx, anyone could see that, and the truth was, Nyx was my brother. I couldn’t love him more if he was flesh and fucking blood.
Lighting up the second I was beside her, I laughed when she glowered at me and grumbled, “Feel free to poison your own air but leave mine free and clear.”
“Shouldn’t be sitting in here if you didn’t want secondhand smoke.”
She ran her fingertip over the rim of the can. “Didn’t feel like sitting on my own.”
I cocked a brow. “I thought you’d be fucking exhausted after what you’ve been doing at the bar.”
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I can get to sleep easily.”
“You do know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, right?”
She twisted her neck so she could grace me with her lemon-sucking expression. “Who the fuck said I wanted to catch flies?”
“Me.” I smirked at her. “I’ve known Nyx a long time. You’re smart enough to figure out that he doesn’t like his business to be public. That’s why Cammie’s claiming went as bad as it could go.”
“Yeah? So?”
“So, if you think he’s the kind of guy that playing hard to get works on?—”
She snorted. “Link, save your fucking advice. I’m not doing shit to entice Nyx. He’s the one who reminded me of what he is.”
I frowned at her. “What is he?”
“Just like my father.”
And with that, she stormed off, leaving me gaping at her, because Nyx was nothing like Dog.
“Well, that couldn’t have gone much worse.”
Recognizing my Prez’s voice without having to turn my head, I muttered, “You got that damn straight. What the fuck did Nyx do?”
“I’m not sure, but the first day she was at the bar, when you were late meeting up with the Wolves?—”
“I’d like to know how you can be late for an appointment that didn’t exist?” I grunted, because I was getting sick of defending myself on that score.
I’d known fuck all about the Wolves heading into our territory to check over the garage, but everyone, Nyx included, had blamed me for being late and for forgetting to inform the council that they were entering our city.
Rex just rolled his eyes and said, “Anyway, she had to get a cab back from town.” He laughed. “She got a receipt and made me pay her back for the expenses.”
“You like her,” I said slowly, my eyes wide as I made that realization.
“I barely know her, but I like her for him. I think she’s what he fucking needs. She isn’t scared of him.”
“Fuck off. No woman is scared of him. They all go to him when they want him to save their asses?—”
“Physically, they know they’re safe, but…” He tapped his temple with a tattooed finger. “Up here, they know to be wary of him, and you can’t blame them for it. Their instincts are on point. But Giulia will give him shit, and that’s exactly what he needs.”
I thought about that a second. “Maybe she doesn’t know what he is. What he’s done.”
“Undoubtedly. But the women don’t really know.”
“They watch the news,” I said dryly.
“They think we’re all involved. They don’t know it’s personal for him. They don’t know it’s his way of cauterizing old wounds.” He reached for the shot glass Sin slid his way. As he stared into the liquid, he grunted, “You meant well, but they”re both too prickly to accept any advice.”
I winced at that, because he wasn’t wrong. He saw my wince and smiled a little. “You always have to fix shit, don’t you, bro?”
“If I can,” I admitted gruffly.
I hated to see people suffering for no goddamn reason.
Sometimes, when you took a step back from the situation, only then could you see things that up close were blurred.
Fixing things for the people I gave a shit about was the only way I could help. If it meant they called me an interfering motherfucker, I’d take it because, hell, that was why I’d been given this road name.
Because I was the link between so many of the brothers here.
The person who knew all their secrets, and who’d die before I’d reveal a fucking one to any bastard—be they friend or foe.