CHAPTER THREE
Two weeks later, Greaser was elbows deep in an engine trying to help Abe, who was under the car to get the transmission lined up. He looked up when he heard someone clear their throat and saw a police officer standing there.
“Give us a minute,” Greaser said, and ten minutes later he and Abe gave a whoop of joy and he stood, grabbed a rag and began wiping his hands. He looked down and grinned when Link rolled out from under the car. “Sorry about that. Thought the plug was in.” He had forgotten to put a plug in and transmission fluid had leaked out and all over Link. He was covered in the shit.
“Ha, ha.” Link said, and grabbed several rags and began wiping his hands, face and chest. He pulled his t-shirt away from him, then swore and removed it and continued to wipe himself down. He went into his office and grabbed another shirt and was putting it on when he came back out.
“Help you, officer?” Link asked.
“I’m looking for Lincoln Murphy.”
“Found him.” Link held out his hand and frowned when a brown envelope was slapped into it.
“You’ve been served,” he said, and turned on his heel and left.
Link frowned and opened the envelope. He read for less than thirty seconds before he crushed the papers in his fist.
“Bad news?” Greaser frowned at his friend and boss.
“Divorce papers,” he said, and slapped them against Greaser’s chest.
Greaser raised a brow and actually pulled them and read them. Three years ago, he’d gone through a nasty divorce. He’d learned to read each and every word.
“What’s she accusing me of and what does the bitch want?” Link asked as he popped a top on a bottle of soda.
“Infidelity and nothing.”
“Bullshit. She wants something from me.”
“No, according to this, she keeps her business, you keep yours. And you get the house, bike, and your truck. She only wants her business and her SUV.”
“Let me see that,” Link said, and grabbed the papers back. He went into his office, sat down at his desk and read everything, even the fine print. He looked up and asked his best friend. “What do I do next?”
“If you agree with what she wants, don’t do anything. If her lawyer doesn’t hear from you or your lawyer in twenty days, she signs some paper and it goes before the judge. If you don’t agree, you contact a lawyer and fight it out in court.” Greaser sat down across from him and sighed in relief when he didn’t see a beer before his friend. “Before you decide anything, I suggest you sleep on it. Make a decision tomorrow. Now, are you going to the clubhouse tonight? It’s a patch meeting. You haven’t been in a couple of weeks.”
He didn’t get a chance to answer because one of his employees stuck his head in, and said, “Yo! Boss! Visitor!” Then, he disappeared.
Greaser and Link frowned at each other, and together they went out and when Link saw who the visitor was, said to Greaser, “Don’t leave my side, or you’re fired.” Greaser frowned and looked in the direction Link was looking.
“Fuck,” he said as he saw the woman talking to two of their employees and flirting up a storm. She must have heard him because she looked up and grinned.
“Link, darling, how are you? I’ve missed you.” Stephanie rushed up to him and threw her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him. Before he could push her away he heard a voice from behind him.
“Excuse me? Is my truck done yet?”
He turned with Steph still clinging to him and saw his wife standing there. “What are you doing here?” The sight of her both shocked and excited him.
Addy looked at her husband with his arms wrapped around the same woman she’d pulled off him weeks ago. Stunned, she didn’t know how to react. Suddenly Greaser ripped the woman from her husband’s arms and escorted her out of the garage bay. But Addy firmed her spine, and said coldly, “Sorry to interrupt your booty call, but I brought my truck in for inspection. The guy told me it’d be half hour to forty-five minutes. That was an hour and a half ago.”
Link looked around and saw her truck up on a lift. “Randy, you working on my wife’s truck.”
“Ex-wife,” Addy said.
“Not yet and not ever.” Link turned to her and glared. He put his fisted hands on his hips. “Got the papers today, but I won’t sign, Addy. Never.”
“Fine, then I’ll see you in court.” She turned on her heel and headed back into the front office. “Shit,” she said as she entered the office. She hung her head, and it took everything in her to keep the tears at bay. But she wasn’t successful. She found the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Ten minutes later she came out and saw Randy standing there. Link was leaning against the door to the garage watching her intently.
“You were right, the front brakes had to be changed. I also did an oil change and did the inspection."
“How much do I owe you?” She pulled her wallet.
“No charge,” Link said from the doorway.
“Don’t do me any favors. How much?”
Randy looked between the two of them and wanted to be anywhere but where he was. He looked up and saw Greaser and gave him a pleading look, but the fucker only grinned and shrugged at him.
“Uh...” Randy said, and looked over his shoulder at Link, but he was no help. To keep himself busy, he printed the bill and handed it over.
“Randy, if you take her credit card, you’re fired.”
Addy stared Link directly in the eye when she pulled out two one-hundred-dollar bills, slapped them on the counter, turned on her heel, and started to leave.
“Addison,” Link had come up beside Randy and he smiled when she stopped, but didn’t turn around. “I’ll never sign.” He knew she understood him when she didn’t move for several moments.
“Then get a fucking lawyer,” she said over her shoulder, and stormed out of the office.
“Um, boss,” Randy said as he watched his boss watch the woman. “Who was that?”
“My wife,” Link said, and pulled her work order and checked it over. “What was wrong with her brakes?”
“Worn pads.”
“Show me.” Link frowned and followed his employee out to his toolbox. He picked them up and inspected them. “Damn it, Addy, why did you wait so long to have them replaced?” He looked up to where his wife was backing her truck out and driving off. “You knew I’d change them at home if you needed them.”
He looked up at the whistle beside him. “See what she was driving around with? Has she no sense? What if she was pregnant or had a kid in the car? They could have been hurt,” he said to Greaser, then looked around. “Where’s the skank?”
“I escorted her to her car and told her never to come back. She wasn’t happy about it.”
“Thanks.” Link made a quick decision. He turned into the garage, and with a raised voice shouted, “Listen up!” When he had everyone’s attention, he said, “That woman that came in earlier, if she ever shows up again, you don’t know where I am, and escort her off the property. If she gives you a hard time, call the cops.”
“Which one?” one of his employees asked.
“The skank that Greaser escorted out. The other one, if she shows up, you are to treat her with the utmost respect, and if she needs her truck worked on, do it. No charge. Ever. If I find out anyone of you took money from her to get her vehicle worked on, any vehicle she arrives in, you will be fired on the spot,” he said, and glared at Randy.
“I didn’t touch the money she slapped down on the counter.” Randy actually held up his hands and backed away from his boss.
“Fine, go change it in for twenties and go down the street and give each homeless person you see a twenty. Don’t come back until the money’s gone.” He turned in a circle. “Alright, everybody back to work.” He stormed to his office and slammed the door behind him. He picked up the phone and dialed.
“Jackson, this is Link Murphy. I was just served with divorce papers, when can I make an appointment to come in and see you?” He listened and made an appointment to see his lawyer later that afternoon. He went out and started working on the car he and Greaser had been working on before all the interruptions. It seemed that no matter how pissed he was at the world as a whole, or any individual person, when he is working on a car, it relaxed him and he could put his problems into perspective. That was his coping mechanism. He shook his head, and smiled when he remembered that Addison coped by talking her fears out loud by giving herself a pep talk, and pacing as she did.
At six that night, showered, and dressed in slacks and a dress shirt, Link walked into his lawyer’s office. He handed the envelope over to Jackson, and sat down without being invited. “I received this around eleven this morning.”
“You read it?” Jackson asked as he took it and started reading. Several times his brows raised and he took notes. When he was done, he looked at not only his client, but also his brother in the motorcycle club. “She’s being very generous. What do you want to change? What do you want?”
“Nothing. I won’t sign. I will never, ever sign. I love my wife, what happened was wrong, but you and Burt viewed our video, you saw what happened. That part I’ll fight, but I don’t want a divorce. I love her, I want to make our marriage work. So, I don’t know what you have to do, but I refuse to sign those papers.” Link looked at the other man hard. “I don’t care if I have to drag this out for decades, I will not sign those, or any other divorce papers she presents me with.”
Jackson looked at him in utter shock. “Really? Shit, I’ll try to see what I can do, but I have to go over some of these things with you first. I want to get a better perspective of what we may be dealing with. Why isn’t she going after the house or your business? Her keeping her business I can understand, do you want any part of it?”
“No, she had her business before we hooked up, as did I. We never messed with each other’s businesses. I assume she doesn’t want the house because I inherited it from my grandparents, again, before we met. I had always said I would, but I never got around to putting her name on anything. The only thing she contributed to the house was helping pay down on a second mortgage I had to get when my business looked like it might stay in the red.”
“Okay, but I have to ask you something. I’m asking as your lawyer, and as your friend because I was there. She’s charging you with infidelity. You accused her of going to a local hotel and meeting men there. Is there any truth to that?”
“Yes and no.” Link sighed and rubbed his face. “That skank planted the seed in my head. I happened to be across the street a couple days later using the wrecker to remove a car for the police. I saw her, Addison, across the street meet two men. They hugged her and kissed her cheek. She hugged them back, then they went into the hotel. For a week I staked out that hotel. On six different occasions she met a different man each time.”
“Do you think she’s having sex with them?”
“Honestly?” Link asked, and sighed deeply at Jackson’s nod. “In the past, I wouldn’t think it of her. But she has an office, why isn’t she meeting these clients there?” He rose and began to pace. “Before that blowup at the clubhouse she’d been working later and she’s always tired. Falling asleep as soon as she’s in bed.”
“Do you have any children?”
“No, but we’ve been slacking off on the birth control. We aren’t actively trying to have a baby, but if it happens, it happens.” He shrugged.
“Is that you talking or her talking?”
“Actually, it’s both of us talking. We decided a year ago that we would start to try to have a baby. We want to start a family, but we weren’t like some couples that took their temperatures and fucked like rabbits at the right time of the month. We both believed that if we were both on the same wavelength, took things naturally by slacking off on the birth control, and letting nature take its course, then things would happen for us.”
Jackson studied the man pacing his office and sighed. “Are you sure she still feels the same way?” At his confused look he sighed. “About having a baby. Things have changed.” He held up the divorce papers to prove it.
“I refuse to sign them,” Link said firmly. He gripped the back of a chair and clenched it so hard his knuckles were white. “She can take anything she wants, the house, my business, hell, she can even take my truck, the bike, and all my money, I don’t give a fuck. But, Jackson, I won’t sign those divorce papers. You’re my lawyer, make sure you make it happen.”
“Okay.” Jackson sighed and continued to study the man before him. “How would you feel about me calling in the private investigator I use and get pictures of her with her clients?”
“To prove what?”
“I still see doubt of her fidelity in your expression.”
“But how would that help me on my infidelity? She’s still accusing me of what happened with that skank.”
“But luck is on our side with that. If this goes to court and it gets ugly, we can produce the footage from the clubhouse. It clearly shows that you’re asleep or passed out and you weren’t aware of what was going on. You’re not seeing her are you?”
“About that.” Link sighed and sat down and told him what had happened earlier that day, with Steph and Addy.
“Damn, if I didn’t know better, I’d say this Steph woman was stalking either you or Addy and showing up at the most critical time.”
Link frowned, then joking, asked, “Hell, why don’t we use that investigator of yours and follow Steph around to see if she is stalking us. Maybe we can bring charges against her.”
“I’ll look into it. In the meantime, I’ll contact Addy’s lawyer and tell him your request. I’ll work on your counter and get it over to him. I’ll call you back in a couple of days to come in, look it over and sign.”
“Is there a timeline?”
“As soon as you’re served, which you have been. You have twenty days to counter, deny or agree. We’re doing that. Nothing has a timeline after that. It’s on the couple and their lawyers to try to iron things out before it goes to a judge. But I’ll tell you right now, Abe, it may be recommended that you two go to counseling.”
“Anything, as long as I can get her back.” They talked for another hour and Lincoln felt good for the first time since Addy moved out. It felt like he had a direction to take, and he would do whatever it took to get his wife back. Sure, they had a lot of crap to work out, but he was willing to do the work if it brought Addison back to him.