9. LINK
“Link?”
“Hmm?”
Tink scowled at me, then slapped her hand down on my thigh. “You gonna do something with that log between your legs or what?”
I hummed again, my attention on my phone. I had one hand behind my head propping me up enough to see the screen, and the other I used to tap out a message to a woman who—surprise, surprise—I actually fucking liked.
Liked.
As in, she didn’t irritate me.
As in, she was amusing.
As in, she had character, a character that she clung to with both hands in the face of forces that wanted to turn her into a robot.
I admired that.
Me.
Admiring someone, and not just for how well they filled out a pair of yoga pants.
Although, she filled hers out to perfection that was for damn sure.
Just thinking about her swaggering out of the coffee shop that morning made the ‘log’ between my legs twitch at the memory.
Me: You serious, right now?
“Link!” Tink whined. “I’m?—”
“Don’t care what you are, babe,” I muttered, too engrossed in my conversation to give a shit. “Go fuck one of the others if you’re that desperate for some dick.”
A sharp breath escaped her, and not because she was insulted.
It took a lot to insult a sweetbutt, especially if you were a brother.
I wasn’t going to say that you couldn’t hurt their feelings, because you could, and we routinely did and sure, that made us shits, but that was the life.
That was their choice.
Choice.
Something I didn’t realize, until recently, was a precious thing.
“You being serious right now?” she whispered, and her hand came up to touch my forehead. She twisted it around so the back of her fingers tested my temp. “Are you sick?”
I scowled at her, swatting her hand away. “Nope. Just don’t want to fuck you. Fuck off, Tink. I’m in the middle of something.”
She strode off at that, huffing as she walked that admittedly fine ass of hers out of my room.
I didn’t notice. I was too taken aback.
Lily: Why would I lie? :P
Me: Because your truth is fucked up, babe. Like, beyond fucked up. No one, and I mean no one, likes the Chopped judges. They’re assholes. I mean, they watch the dudes busting their guts for a measly ten grand, then literally piss on the dishes when they taste them.
Lily: You do know what ‘literally’ means, don’t you?
Me: Yup.
Lily: I think people would stop watching if one of the judges whipped out their dicks or dropped a squat and took a leak on one of the dishes.
Me: You think? I think it would make shit more interesting.
Lily: Lol. You would. As for me, I think the judges are paid to be mean. That doesn’t make them mean.
Me: Gah.
Lily: :P You don’t have to like it to know I’m right.
Me: You’re wrong, babe. They were born evil.
Lily: *snorts* Regular Hitlers. God, I wonder what you think of Simon Cowell.
Me: Don’t get me started.
Lily: I’m still getting over the fact you watch Chopped.
Me: I’m feeling stereotyped.
Lily: Feel it all you want. Do you even cook?
Me: Nope. Caught an episode once by accident and that was it. I was done for.
Lily: You’re crazy.
Me: Only just figuring that out?
Lily: That’s probably why I like you.
My brows quirked at that, and I was totally aware I was wearing a dopey ass grin.
Me: You like me, huh? As in, you LIKE like me?
Lily: Are we in high school?
Me: I’d PAY to see you in one of those private school uniforms. All plaid miniskirts and legs up to your armpits.
Lily: Perv.
Me: My fantasies are all nineteen and above.
Lily: You think I graduated a year late?
Me: Nope. Eighteen is too young.
Lily: Not according to the law.
Me: Fuck the law. Nineteen is when the corruption starts.
Lily: Lol. You say the weirdest shit. Explain.
Me: Eighteen is when you’re trying not to squirm when someone fucks you. Still hurts. Nineteen? You’ve done all the screwing around, been groped. Probably gagged on a dick a few times. You know the score. Ya get me?
Lily: Not sure anyone ‘gets’ you, Link. But I admit, I find that refreshing.
Me: That’s me. Better than a cold beer on a hot summer’s day.
Lily: Your ego is massive.
Me: I have the inches to back it up.
Lily: Good to know. :P
I grinned, for some stupid fucking reason, proud that she could banter with me like this.
She looked like she had a stick shoved up her ass and fuck, I wasn’t averse to the idea of her having her butt stuffed with something, just not a stick.
Sticks were pointy.
Not fun.
Lily?
She was fun.
Hell, she was fucking fun.
Like, I’d been shooting the shit with her ever since the morning I’d given her the burner cell.
Rex wouldn’t have approved of the burner, fuck, I hadn’t even asked him if I should give it to her. I’d bought it out of my own money and why?
Because I’d just known something was off by those texts she sent me, and I’d been right.
I wasn’t sure how, but someone monitored her cellphone. Read her messages. And it didn’t take a fucking genius to figure out who.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree where Luke Lancaster was concerned, but Lily was an orange amid those apples. An orange I couldn’t wait to peel because there was definitely going to be some peeling going on.
A lot of it if I had my way.
She sent a picture, and the sight of her wineglass, her legs crossed at the ankle revealing hot pink toenails, and the vista a pool that was glowing a bright blue, had me damn panting.
Hot pink?
I’d have thought she’d be a dusky pink. Something sedate. Something bland.
Me: If I were you, I’d be in the pool drinking that.
Lily: If you were here, I’d do that.
Eyes widening at that come back, I felt my dick go from the semi just regular conversation with her caused, a semi that had made Tink think I was locked and loaded and primed for action, to a full-on erection.
That was the first time she’d said anything like that.
Made any mention of the fact that she was into me in any small way.
Truth was, I found it incredible that I was into her.
She wasn’t my type at all.
I liked ‘em wild. Unrestrained. Free of inhibitions.
Lily, hell, she was the exact opposite of that.
She was pretty much a walking mummy. Tied up in inhibitions, forced to conform to someone else’s will.
While a part of me wondered why she put up with it, another part got it.
Her brother had bought four women and held them captive in a shack in the middle of nowhere. He’d caged them. Done only the fuck knew what to them when he visited them. Had let them shit and piss in a corner and had still done whatever he wanted to them…
Her brother had done all that.
Her father had killed her mother.
Escaping from a messed up situation wasn’t always easy.
Take Keira, Storm’s Old Lady.
I loved her like she was my sister, and when one of the clubwhores had told her Storm had been fucking around on her from the start, she’d kicked him out and moved on.
Broke my brother’s stupid prick of a heart in the process, but she’d taken action.
Lily couldn’t do that.
Maybe a week ago, I’d have sneered at that.
Said that, of course, she had a choice.
Of course, she could run.
She was rich, wasn’t she?
She could easily slip out and make a life of her own. I’d even think she was sticking around just for the money, for the lifestyle it could bring. Now, I knew different.
Irony being, of course, that a part of her was sticking around for the money.
But I got that too.
It was the principle.
However, she could argue until she was blue in the damn face because I knew, point blank, that she wasn’t just there for the money. She was there because she couldn’t get out. Because she was trapped. So damn trapped that the only way out that she could see was to kill her father.
And that was messed up.
Which was my jam.
I liked chaos.
I liked that it took you to the edges of your control, made you do shit you’d never usually do.
And while most wouldn’t be turned on at the idea of boning someone with murder literally on their mind—and I knew what the definition of ‘literally’ was—I wasn’t most people.
Me: I’d take you up on that if you didn’t have eyes on you.
Lily: Really?
Me: Really.
Lily: I can’t believe I’m asking this, but if I figured something out…
My lips curved in a grin and I sat up, my dick on red alert now that potential pussy was on the table.
Me: ‘Something out’ how?
Lily: If I visited a friend’s place. She lives in a pool house. She’d probably let me borrow it.
Thank fuck for friends like that.
Me: You tell me when and where, I’ll be there.
Lily: Okay.
Well, that response wasn’t as excited as I’d have liked, but I could deal.
Wasn’t like you could show a lot of emotion through a text message.
Emojis could only do so much?—
Lily: Link?
Me: Yeah?
Lily: I should probably tell you something.
Me: All ears, babe.
Lily: Did you know you’re the first guy to call me ‘babe?’
A laugh escaped me.
Me: Good to know, BABE. But I don’t think that’s what you wanted to tell me, was it?
Lily: No.
I didn’t reply to that, just waited for her to get whatever it was she wanted to share off her chest.
She did this sometimes, and I understood her reticence.
It took a good five minutes of me twiddling my fucking thumbs and ignoring a text from Rex to head to his office for her to tap out a message.
Lily: I haven’t actually done what we’re talking about before.
Me: Hook up?
That didn’t surprise me. Not with her Nazi of a father and sick fuck of a brother.
She had more eyes on her than the Mona fucking Lisa.
Lily: Well, that, and what happens when you hook up.
For a second, I wasn’t sure if I was reading that right. Because there was no way in fuck Lily was telling me she was a goddamn virgin, right?
I knew she’d gone to college, knew she preferred her life there over her current one as she had more freedom.
But seriously? Was she for real right now?
Lily: Link?
I blinked a few times, then grimaced at a flurry of texts from Rex which told me I needed to get my ass in gear.
Me: Yeah, babe. It’s all good.
Sucking in a breath, I came to a decision.
I didn’t take virgins. That was like the one rule I had.
But Lily?
She was worth breaking that rule over because, fuck, if I hadn’t laughed more in these last few days than I had in a while, and the clubhouse made a morgue look cheerful at the moment.
There was jack shit to be smiling about, but Lily had helped cheer me up. And that Blackadder shit? Fucking epic. And watching it with her? Double fucking epic.
Me: Tell me where and when, I’ll be there.
Lily: Okay. xo
I grinned at that small ‘xo.’
Was this what I’d been reduced to?
Because it amused me, I replied: xo.
Was this how people dated now?
Fuck me.
Life with hook-up apps might seem easy, but it was even easier to have a stable of bitches around.
Of course, that was why Keira’s heart was fucking broken and Storm was walking around like he’d been kneed in the balls because she’d kicked him out.
I rubbed my chin at the thought, then got to my feet and made my way down to Rex’s office.
“You finally decided to show up?”
Because I was in a relatively good mood thanks to Lily, even if the idea of popping her cherry took some of the vibes away from shit, I took a deep bow. “At your service.”
Rex scowled at me then he pinched the bridge of his nose, blew out a breath, and grumbled, “God grant me strength.”
That had me smirking at him. “Dude, he abandoned us a long time ago.”
“Maybe.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “What the fuck took you so long?”
“Was on the phone.”
“That’s your excuse?” The glower deepened.
I shrugged. “It was with Lily Lancaster.”
At that, the Prez stilled, then arched a brow at me. “Why you talking to her?”
“Like her.” I shrugged again. “She’s funny.”
“She’s funny,” he repeated blandly. “Funny?”
“Yeah. You know. Har-har? Surprises me too.”
“She’s the fucking enemy.”
I snorted. “Nope. Not even close. I told you, she wants her dad dead.”
“And only you would think she was dating material. Fuck me, I can just imagine how that conversation went down. Her gagging on your dick, and in between you letting her up for air and her telling you that she wants to murder her dad.” He rolled his eyes. “And they say romance is dead.”
Though I smirked at him, I admitted, “Ain’t boned her yet. All her holes are Link-free.”
He pulled a face. “You’re fucking gross sometimes.”
“Proud of it.” I folded my arms across my chest. “You pull me away for a reason?”
“Yeah. One of the women wants to talk to you.” He waggled his phone then tossed it at me. “Stone sent me a message.”
Uneasy, I caught the phone and stared at it.
Stone: Ghost would like to speak with Link. It’d be a kindness. She’s not doing too well.
“How are they doing?”
“First time you asked me that,” Rex pointed out, his head tilting to the side as he leaned back in his desk chair.
While he went by the label ‘Prez,’ it wasn’t like he was a fucking royal.
The decision for him to be our leader was democratic.
Well, as democratic as it could be.
If he started doing bad shit, pulling stuff we didn’t agree with, we’d lynch him and set someone else, probably Storm, in charge.
Which, holy fuck, was the last thing any of us needed.
Especially Storm right now. Keira was fucking with his head in a way I was sure she didn’t recognize.
Still, that was neither here nor there.
Point was, Rex wasn’t royal, but the way he sat there behind his desk, leaning back into his seat, head relaxing against the rest, he looked like he was the king of all he surveyed.
While that might have pissed another guy off, I appreciated it.
Rex was a strong leader, and the Sinners were a rowdy, motley crew of bastards who needed someone to keep their asses in line.
Not that we always obeyed. Me in particular.
“Link?”
I tossed him his phone back. “What?”
“You heard me. You ain’t asked after them.”
You didn’t need to ask. Whispers went around the clubhouse faster than the Clap. I heard how they were doing and knew it wasn’t going well.
Stone had almost lost Amara twice, but she’d pulled her back. Tatána wasn’t eating and had tried to slit her fucking wrists, and then Ghost? She was weak—dying weak—from some kind of infection she had that the antibiotics weren’t curing.
I tightened my mouth as I headed over to the tray of drinks and poured myself a couple of fingers of tequila.
Sinking back a gulp, I let the burn cleanse me. Not that it got far. Too much of me was filthy, and what I’d seen that night was gonna scar me for a goddamn lifetime.
“How’s Giulia? Ain’t seen her around.”
Rex scowled. “She’s been helping the women.”
“Legit?” My estimation of her soared.
“Legit.” He grunted. “What’s going on with you, man?”
I cut him a look. “You weren’t there.”
Three words, and they said it all.
The irritation on his face lessened some, and he exhaled roughly. “No. I wasn’t.”
“Be glad you weren’t,” I stated grimly, eying the amber liquid in my glass and swirling it around so it licked the edges. “Never seen nothing like it, and hope to fuck I never see shit like it again.”
“Brother, you doing okay?”
I tipped up my chin. “I’m alive and I wasn’t caged like a dog. I’m doing fine.”
His mouth tightened. “You going to have a problem with seeing Ghost?” His scowl made a quick reappearance. “Why the fuck is she called that?”
“Gave her the nickname. Dunno why she’s still using it.”
Rex complained, “Only you’d give a woman a nickname like that.”
“Had to be there to get it.”
My arched brow had him rolling his eyes. “You going to see Ghost?”
“If she’s asked me to go visit, I will. Don’t know why she has, but I’ll go all the same.”
“Good.” A breath whistled between his teeth. “We need them to live, Link.”
Lips pursing at that, I took a bigger sip of tequila because I knew what he was saying without actually saying the words.
We couldn’t lose three women, dispose of their bodies, not without something coming back on us.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Good. We need to think about burying the other one too.” His tone darkened, and I knew he was shifting the topic to something that pissed him off. “How do you think Lancaster knows about our ties with the Five Points?
“If his daughter is right, then the sheriff is on our side which means our backhanders are true.”
“There are lots of backhanders that ease the way. Someone might have split.”
“Then they need ferreting out. Fucking weak links, hate them.”
I dipped my chin. “Nyx and I can do that.”
Rex scraped a hand over his chin. “Would prefer to leave him here with Giulia, but I think it needs the pair of you.”
“I agree. You know we’re effective together.”
“One’s the jackhammer and the other’s the scalpel.”
Snickering, I muttered, “You talk out of your ass.”
“But I do it so finely,” he mocked. “Get in touch with Declan. See if you can deal with things alone. If not, drag Nyx into it.” He rubbed his eyes. “We need a council meeting.
“Shit’s been up in the air over the last few days, need to get things back on an even keel. We can discuss where we need you to go then.”
“When?”
“Day after tomorrow? It’s late now, and Storm’s already fucking drunk. Won’t get any sense out of the prick.”
“Didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?” Rex was still scowling.
“The last time he went to Keira’s place.” My lips twisted into a grim smile. “She changed the locks.”
Brows lifting and mouth parting, Rex couldn’t have looked more shocked if he tried. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. I heard this from her. Got to assume that’s why he’s tanked at…” Looked at my watch. “Six PM.”
“He said shit to me. The fucker’s derailing. Things were much calmer when Keira and he were a couple. Can’t you do something to get them back together again?”
I snorted. “Do I look like fucking Cupid?”
“Maybe. Glitter comes out of your ass sometimes.”
“I never shove glitter up there.”
“Only butt plugs. I know.” He covered his face with his hand. “Why does any conversation with you always revolve around the ass?”
“In my defense, you’re the one who brought it up this time,” I said wryly, earning myself a chuckle from my brother.
“You turned me. You made me asscentric.”
“Best way to be,” I retorted, after taking another slurp of the tequila in my hand. “But to get shit back on track, Keira’s pissed with Storm, and only Storm is going to change that.”
“Dumbfuck. Some bitches you just don’t mess around with.”
“Seems he’s figured that out too goddamn late.” I pursed my lips, genuinely irritated by the situation.
In the run up to Keira leaving, I’d been telling him to get his head out of his ass. He’d been partying hard, getting home late.
You couldn’t do that shit when you had a kid and an Old Lady at home—not unless you wanted to be like our parents, and they hadn’t exactly been role models.
Rex sighed. “I heard Kendra stirred some shit between them.”
I arched a brow. “Hadn’t heard that. Keira didn’t say anything to me about her, but I know a sweetbutt told her some things it’d have been kinder if she never knew.”
“Overheard Tink and Jingles discussing it. Whatever it was, even they thought she went too far.”
“Fucking Kendra,” I sneered. “Never did like that bitch.”
“Can’t disagree with you. They’re all cats. I mean, Giulia and Keira are. But I fucking hate it when they turn bitchy on one another. We got enough shit going down without infighting from the bitches.”
“If Keira had been a bit more like Giulia, she’d probably have had less trouble.”
Rex snickered. “No one handles the clubwhores quite like Giulia.”
“True.” I smiled.
When Giulia had arrived six weeks ago, she’d caused a lot of shit by headbutting Kendra, breaking noses here and there, getting in a lot of the snatches’ faces.
She hadn’t rolled over and let them kick her while she was down. Nope. She’d faced them, dealt with them, and now they were all wary as hell around her.
“Keira’s not like that,” I pointed out. “You know that. She’s a homemaker, not a trouble starter.”
“Why the fuck he wifed her, I don’t know.” Rex huffed. “I mean, I get it. She’s beautiful. But?—”
“He was a selfish prick. Wanting it all and hurting her in the process. And I’m the king of selfish. If I say someone’s goddamn selfish, that means they’re cunts.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” Rex countered with a laugh. “I’ll talk to Storm. See if I can help clear shit up with him.”
“Only way you’ll do that is if you change Keira’s locks back,” I pointed out, before I slammed the rest of my tequila down.
“Well, I ain’t going to do that, but maybe I can get the dick to wake the fuck up, see he’s only wrecking shit for himself and that little girl of his.”
“Douche,” I muttered, semi-amused when Rex nodded his agreement. Then, sucking in a breath and drawing courage, I muttered, “I’ll go see the women now.”
I didn’t wait for him to reply, just headed on out and down the hall to the front door.
Passing JoJo on her knees slurping down Steel, I shook my head. “Idiot.”
I was surrounded by them.
He peered through slitted eyes and focused on me long enough to flip me the bird.
Shrugging, I walked on, hoping to fuck Stone wouldn’t leave the bunkhouse where she was looking after the women and head to the compound, because she’d catch him in the goddamn hallway.
That would hurt her like crazy, which was precisely why the fuckwit had done it.
I truly was surrounded by idiots, and today had only confirmed it.
When I was the only one who was making sense?
The day after tomorrow, we wouldn’t be having a council meeting, it’d be Armageddon for real.
Shaking my head at just how big of a moron Steel was, I headed out into the early evening.
The compound wasn’t unattractive, it was just boring.
Purpose built, it was easy to see a bunch of guys from the sixties had designed it—guys who’d just returned from ‘Nam with a hatred for the government burning in their souls. There was none of the flower power shit here. It was heavily utilitarian.
Before Bear had retired and passed on the gavel to Rex, his only brat, the place had been painted a steel gray.
I wasn’t sure which sweetbutt had sucked Rex off and asked him to repaint it a more flattering cream, but it gave off fewer prison vibes now, that was for damned sure.
Reaching for my cell, I smiled when I saw it was Lily.
Lily: I freaked you out, didn’t I?
Surprised by the show of vulnerability, I froze in my tracks.
Me: Beautiful girl like you? Went to college? Didn’t get laid? You shocked me. Not much freaks me out.
Well, that was bullshit. I’d found my limit, and that had been discovered in Luke Lancaster’s fucking lair.
Lily: I made arrangements with my friend. I’ll send you a link to her place. Thursday? Morning/night?
Me: Thursday. Morning AND night.
Lily: Oh. Okay. x
I snickered at the ‘x’ as I had earlier.
Me: x
I shoved my phone back in my pocket, ignoring the next buzz because I had to suck it up and suck it in. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the women.
This was for Ghost’s sake.
It was why Stone had texted Rex to get me to haul ass—I’d ignored her texts for the past few days.
It wasn’t their fault that the second I saw them, I was transported back to that place. That time. And I figured by Tatána’s and Amara’s reactions, they associated me with that moment too.
Ghost, when I eventually saw her, not so much.
She smiled at me, weakly, and without all the shit on her face and body, without the scent of death lingering in the air, I saw she was a beautiful woman.
As were the others.
Luke had fucking taste, that was for sure.
But they were all brutally thin.
They were all pasty and sickly-looking.
And they had more wires and lines coming off them than I knew what to do with.
The bunkhouses were for visiting chapters and other MCs to sleep in. That meant they were like mini apartments, complete with bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom. This was one of the bigger ones and it had two bedrooms.
The bunkhouse had been turned into a mini field hospital, and it was where I found Stone, leaning back against the kitchen counter watching me take it in.
Giulia was there too, but she was seated at the kitchen table, her eyes heavily shadowed.
I bypassed Tatána who was in a nest of blankets on the sofa, her wrists bandaged up, and who immediately flinched at the sight of me.
Because I pretty much felt the same way, I did the kindest thing and ignored her, then headed for the kitchen.
“You got everything you need, Stone?”
“We’re out of the woods now. We just have to build their strength up.”
My brows rose at that. Rex—the fucker. He’d been speaking like they were dying. Shit, not that I was complaining, but he’d definitely guilt-tripped me into visiting.
Stone yawned, breaking into my internal grousing, and I saw that her work had taken its toll on her. She looked like she needed a good sleep and, though I’d say this to no one, even more, looked like she needed Steel to hug the shit out of her.
Preferably in a bed.
Where they’d sleep together.
Fuck, maybe I was Cupid?
Grunting at the thought, I muttered, “When are you going back to the city?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
“They going to be okay without you?”
“Giulia knows what to do now. It’s not ideal,” she murmured, pulling a face. “But it’s the best I can do. I’ve already stayed on longer than I should.”
“I can call you if there’s a problem, and it’s not like you’re far away, Stone,” Giulia replied, and the respect in her eyes stunned me because Giulia and most of the women from the club didn’t get along well.
At first, with all the shit she’d caused with the sweetbutts, I’d figured she was one of those women who just hated other bitches. Which, in a place like the clubhouse, was a fucking nightmare just waiting to happen.
But I soon realized I was wrong on that front. It took a lot to earn her respect, but when you had it, she gave her friendship too.
I liked Giulia.
She was a pain in the ass, had more attitude than sense, and made the best pasta puttanesca I’d ever fucking tasted, but more than that, she was good for Nyx.
I liked her for my bro.
Nyx needed something to keep him sane, and while Giulia wasn’t the ideal candidate considering she was prone to violence, it fit that she and Nyx would gel well together.
“What are you staring at, bozo?” she mumbled, glowering at me and reminding me of the whole ‘more attitude than sense’ thing.
“You. You look exhausted. You both do.”
“I am. We are. It’s been a long couple of days, and it’s been fucking hard but we’re getting there. Aren’t we, Stone?”
Stone’s lips twitched, and I saw from the sparkle in her eyes that Giulia had a new friend.
God help us.
I guessed it fit, considering they were both biker brats, but there was a distinct age gap…
Apparently Giulia liked hanging around old fuckers.
Nyx was a lot older than Stone even, so with Giulia, he apparently liked robbing the cradle.
Fuck.
Lily was about Giulia’s age.
Shit. I was just as bad then!
Grunting at the thought, even if I was mostly amused by the notion, I twisted around and asked, “Rex said Ghost wanted to talk to me?”
“Yeah.” Stone shook her head. “Only you’d call someone in their situation ‘Ghost.’”
That was like the third person who’d told me that. “What can I say? It fit. Her voice was so fucking quiet?—”
“Still is. Can barely hear her most of the time,” Giulia interjected with a wince.
“I think she must have damaged her voice box,” Stone inserted, tone grim.
We all shared a look, each of us knowing and wanting to shy away from exactly how she’d done that.
See, we were bikers and they were biker spawn. We knew how the real world worked. We did bad shit. Nyx routinely cut up pedos, for fuck’s sake. We weren’t innocent little lambs.
But this went to a whole other level.
A level that messed with our comfort zones.
Maybe it was a weird kind of logic, maybe it was fucked up to be okay with murdering some people so long as they were shitty bastards, but that was how it rolled for us.
And I included myself in that too.
I wasn’t a good man. If I got shot up one day, stabbed to death or whatever, I deserved it.
I’d go meeting my Maker well aware I’d been a shitty human being, so coming across a shittier human being?
Well…let’s just say it took all our breaths away.
Wanting to avoid this conversation, and not really wanting to talk to Ghost even though it was important to her, I got to my feet and headed to the bedrooms.
When I opened the door and saw Amara curled up on her side, I grunted which had her gasping and flinching back like I was going to attack her.
“Wrong bedroom,” Stone told me dryly.
“Could have warned me.”
“Nope. She’s got to acclimatize to the fact there are men here. Men that look like mean motherfuckers, but are putzes where women are concerned.”
“You’re just full of fucking charm today, aren’t you?”
Stone snickered. “You know it.”
Shooting her the bird, I headed for the other bedroom and winced when I opened the door.
Ghost was like Amara, wrapped in a cocoon of sheets and blankets, but the drips and shit around her went to a whole other level.
I knew Stone had only been able to do so much to help.
Shit like X-rays and scans and blood tests were beyond us, but she was training to be an ER doc for a reason.
Under pressure, she worked well, and in the end, it was all that was available to these women…unless they wanted to return wherever they’d come from, and considering whoever had brought them over here had sold them to Luke fucking Lancaster, I couldn’t blame them for wanting to stay under the radar.
I didn’t believe that shit about the US being the land of the free. Not anymore. But for these women, all they’d been given was a handful of chains, not liberty.
“Hey,” I rumbled, keeping my voice low as I didn’t want to disturb her if she was resting.
“Link?”
Though I’d expected it, it came as no surprise when her voice was soft and gentle to the point where it was hard to make out my own fucking name.
I stepped into the gloomy room, which hadn’t been redecorated in way too long—while the outside was utilitarian sixties, in here, it was fucking flower power to the max—and used the faint light coming from the windows at the back of the bed to maneuver to her side.
“Yeah. It’s me.” I dropped to a crouch beside her. “How you doing, Ghost?”
“Everything hurts,” she admitted, but she laughed. Fucking laughed. And that broke my damn heart. “I’m getting better though.”
“Glad to hear it, honey.” I reached over, cautious because I didn’t want her to flinch like the others had.
The last thing I intended was to cause her pain or anxiety.
“I-I’m sorry to disturb you, but you’re the only man I’ve really spoken to and I-I, the others, Stone and Giulia, they seem to like you. I feel like you might be the right person to ask—” She hesitated. “You’ve already done so much for all of us. More than we could have hoped for.”
I reached over and squeezed her arm again. “Ask, Ghost.”
“Please, I have a sister?—”
“Did Luke get her too?”
“No,” she rasped, but her eyes flared wide in terror at the prospect. “Her situation is different.”
Inwardly wincing at derailing that conversation and maybe adding to her nightmares, I muttered, “Different how?”
“My mother left the Ukraine when I was a little girl. She came here and got married.
“My sister is American, but our mother died a few years after she was born, and her father passed in a car crash a year ago.”
Jesus, how much bad luck did this girl have?
Unaware of my thoughts, Ghost continued, “I was denied a visa so I came a different way.” Her smile was tight. “I promised her I’d be there for her, but Luke happened.”
I patted her hand. “You have some details for her? I’ll find a way to get in touch.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Thank you, Link,” she whispered. “I truly appreciate this as well as everything else you’ve done for me.”
“Done nothing more than another human being should do for another. Just because you’ve been exposed to the worst out there, don’t forget, for most people, decency isn’t a curse word.”
Look at me go—preaching like I was a decent person.
If I went into church, I was the kind of guy who would cause the holy water to start bubbling and boiling. Nothing about me was decent in the eyes of the world.
But… sometimes, you just had to compare yourself to the worst cunt out there to realize you weren’t that fucking bad.
I got up from my crouch. “Tatána and Amara are scared of me. Why aren’t you?”
Her features were delicate from how much weight she’d lost, and her skin had a strange translucency I didn’t understand but fuck, after I’d been in a cage underground for however long, I hoped I’d look as good as she did.
Her elfin features were only enhanced by a pixie cut, something I had to assume was a medical decision considering the others all sported the same style when they’d had long hair back in those cages.
Her smile, delicate but beautiful, burrowed into me, making me grateful I hadn’t ignored Lily, that we hadn’t given up on finding these women, innocents who’d been dragged into a world they didn’t deserve.
“You saved us. You went into that basement. You helped us out of those cages. They are silly to be frightened of you. You’re our saviors.”
My nose crinkled at that. “I’m not a good man.”
“But you’re a decent one.”
“Not really?—”
She smiled. “I choose to believe what I choose to believe.”
That had me sighing and, determined to change the subject, I asked, “Where was your sister last?”
“St. Jude’s Orphanage in Cincinnati.”
“I’ll find a way to get you in touch with one another.”
“Thank you, Link,” she whispered, this time, her tone so soft, I only heard my name as I headed out the door.
Before I left, though, I muttered, “Concentrate on getting better, Ghost. You hear me?”
“Yes, I hear you, Link.”
“Good.”