19. NYX
“Tell that moron asswipe that if he brings this shit into me again, I’m telling the sheriff he needs his license revoked,” Link snapped, as he wiped his hands on a rag and hollered his irritation at Gunner, one of the brothers who helped out at the garage as Link’s right-hand man.
“Ain’t gonna tell him dick, Link,” Gunner retorted. “Levi Jamieson spends a fucking fortune on this car. Think of how much money he wastes by being a shit driver.”
“Yeah, and I made it how it is.” Link ran his hand over the sleek, custom-build he’d done last year before we’d moved into these premises, and grunted. “He keeps on damaging it, and I’m going to get a real fucking boner for him.”
“Since when were you into dick?”
My lips twitched even as I launched off the side of the wall where I’d been leaning, watching over things without anyone knowing the wiser.
“Yeah, Lily will be surprised to hear you suddenly prefer cock to pussy.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “Stop fucking talking about her pussy.”
“Wasn’t talking about her pussy, not specifically anyway.”
I pretty much heard his teeth grind as he glared at me, and I almost shook my head at the sight.
Giulia had only last night bet me a hundred dollars that Link would make Lily his Old Lady and, though I’d argued against the notion because Link was a manwhore, I had a fucking feeling I was going to lose to my woman…
Still, losing to her usually involved her gloating, and I liked watching her gloat. Especially if that included her squirming on my dick as she did so.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he groused, even as he began packing up tools, tools that were black with the work he’d been doing.
While I liked to think of myself as being pretty open-minded, it still blew my mind that Lily Lancaster, a woman who’d been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, liked a man who got his hands dirty for a living touching her.
I felt shitty for thinking that way, but there was no evading just how different Lily and Link were.
Sure, their names started the same way, but alliteration wasn’t the key to a happy future.
And fuck, I cared.
I loved Link.
He was my brother by choice and that was all that mattered to me. I didn’t like the idea of this bitch coming in, wrecking his world, and just for…
I blew out a breath.
What?
For what goddamn reason would Lily have done the things she had if it wasn’t to cauterize her life from her father’s?
I knew that, I did. Really. But I was protective, and Link had the worst judgment where women were concerned.
“Thought I was the one in danger of turning,” he rumbled, still pissed at me. “Or can I just feel your eyes on my ass because it’s wishful thinking?”
A snort escaped me, one that quickly morphed into laughter. The fucker could always make me laugh, even if I was rolling my eyes at the same goddamn time.
“You wish,” I retorted.
“Oh, you’re right. I do.”
He puckered his lips and sent me a kiss that had me wrinkling my nose, and Gunner just shook his head before he tossed a greasy rag at Link’s face.
Link, good-natured bastard that he was, snatched the rag, tossed it on the side table where he was working, and asked, “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Lodestar’s hit pay dirt.”
He stopped tossing tools into a box. I wasn’t sure why he bothered when he’d be working on the same vehicle in the morning, but I knew my brother had a routine.
He cleaned the garage and himself down every evening, so that things would be just so the next morning when he came in.
He’d fought against running this place, and I wasn’t sure why. It was his natural habitat, but I figured it had to do with him not wanting the extra responsibility.
He was already Road Captain, and throw this in? A business that had already been mostly made thanks to his fame with custom work? More responsibility, less time to do what he liked doing—boning chicks and partying.
Something that had seemingly changed since he’d met Lily.
Another reason this entire situation blew my fucking mind.
An old dog couldn’t learn new tricks…but was that right? Wasn’t I an old dog? Hadn’t Giulia taught me some new shit? Why couldn’t Lily teach Link something new too?
Giulia sure as fuck kept me on my toes, so I couldn’t imagine Lily not doing the same for my best friend.
“What? How?”
His urgent tone had me blinking when I realized I’d tuned out of the conversation.
Lodestar was a soldier buddy of Mav’s that he’d met overseas. She’d been recruited by the CIA and did shit I really didn’t want to know about. For some reason, they kept in touch.
I wasn’t sure if Mav had boned her, but had to think that if he had, then it was unlikely she’d still be talking to him and willing to do the illegal shit she did for us.
Not that he asked her often, but when we needed her help, it was usually for something bad.
And she always came through.
Always.
“What did she find?” Link demanded, surging toward me, a storm cloud in his face that told me he really fucking cared for Lily. Enough that this was all he could think of.
Her safety was as imperative to him as Giulia’s was to me.
“He’s in Hong Kong, which makes Vietnam and Cambodia likely destinations for him if he’s going to flee to countries with non-extradition orders with the US.”
“Okay, so?”
“She’s found some shit that would help persuade those governments to return him to the States.”
His eyes widened, glee filling them. “You’re shitting me?”
“Nope. I promise I’m not.”
“What did she find?”
“Ties to the Triads, more ties to the Fieris.” I rubbed my chin. “Lots of trafficking shit, Link. Lots of Vietnamese and Cambodian women…”
“What about them?”
“You know that shit with China? The One Child Law?”
“They could only have one kid per family, right? Population control or something.” He scratched his head. “I ain’t no historian.”
“Yeah. Well… Okay, so that’s created a deficit. Lots of dudes, not a lot of pussy.”
Link’s mouth dropped open. “What? He’s transporting women across the border for men to buy?”
“Well, not him in particular. He’s the money man.”
“Why the fuck has he gotten involved in this? He was legit. He didn’t have to go down this road.”
“Lodestar found out why.” I paused for a second. “He and Benito Fieri were in college together. Benito introduced him to Henry Lindenbourg.”
I watched him process that, process a name that was up there with Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts, and the Rothschilds. “I mean, I know who Henry Lindenbourg is, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Henry is Lily’s grandfather.”
His mouth dropped open. “Now you really are shitting me.”
“No, I’m not. This crap has been tied up for a long time. It’s come full circle.” I frowned, still a bit confused over all this myself. “But it means we can go to the sheriff with what we’ve uncovered without fear he’ll never come to justice. You ready to ride?”
His jaw worked. “More than fucking ready. Let’s take that cunt down.”
I caught his eye. “When he’s on American soil…”
Mouth tight, he spat, “We’ll ride and watch him burn.”
We bumped fists and sealed that promise.