23. Chapter 23 – Lincoln
Chapter 23 – Lincoln
“ S o,” Tamen took a long drink off his whiskey. “I’m offended you went to Maddox instead of me when you needed an outlet.”
I rolled my eyes as I worked at my computer, trying to pretend my brother hadn’t barged into my office uninvited, like there wasn’t a state-of-the-art biometric scanner on the door to stop him. Which apparently it hadn’t.
“Seriously, Linc. Talk to me.”
I had avoided him most of the day, burying myself in work I’d ignored while I worked out my frustrations on unsuspecting bodies of flesh and bone. At least they had been whole before I got ahold of them. But now it was getting late, and he had me cornered. I was so determined to avoid Peyton that I refused to leave the safety of my office, fearing I might run into her around the main house.
So I was stuck.
“How’d you get in here? ”
He scoffed like it was obvious and rolled his eyes when I glared at him, unimpressed. “I have a copy of your fingerprints.”
I sighed, changing the scanner on the door to a two-step feature including a passcode.
“Rude.” He deadpanned when he watched me change the process.
“For one of highborn English descent, you’re the rude one.” I threw back. “Peyton could have been hurt last night.”
He raised one brow, clearly happy that I was willing to speak of her, and I groaned inwardly. “Well, since you’ve mentioned her, I’ve got a list full of questions.” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, “Did you know what she looked like before she got the job or after?”
“We’re not discussing her looks.”
“Oh, so you’re going to pretend she isn’t fucking sexy as sin?” He questioned, but I kept my face stoic, aimed at my screens. “Or better yet, you don’t care if I take her for a spin?”
The key on my keyboard creaked under the weight of my fingers as I fought to remain impassive. “If you go near her again, I’ll murder you. I already told you that.”
“Hmm.” He hummed and sat back. “She couldn’t get enough of my ink this morning. Has she seen all of yours?”
“Tamen.” I warned, but my brother had no self-preservation and only desired to tempt my life expectancy by threatening his. A true fight between us would leave an impressive mess of bullet and knife holes in its wake.
“Does she know about Dane?” He cocked his head, “Or better yet, has she met Dane?”
“Leave it alone.”
“She has, hasn’t she?” He hummed and ran his fingers over his bottom lip in contemplation. “I didn’t think she had it in her, to be honest. To tempt the biggest monster out there and walk away unscathed.”
“She didn’t.” I paused, staring aimlessly at my computer screen as her words from the maze played again through my head.
“Did she get hurt?” He asked calmly, knowing my past.
“No.” I shook my head, “But she regretted it.”
“Because of her boyfriend?”
I glared at him and rolled my eyes, going back to what I was doing.
“What?” He scoffed, “I may not be as good as you on a computer, but I can search a name on Facebook and do some sleuthing.”
“I read the situation wrong. She said she wanted one thing and then back peddled when I gave her everything she asked for.”
“Ah.” He nodded, “And let me guess, you walked away without even a backward glance.” I gritted my teeth, “Hence the break from darkness being broken and you eliminating names off of lists even I didn’t know existed. Got it. It makes sense now.”
“Whatever.”
He snorted and rubbed his hands together. “I can’t remember the last time you’ve tried and failed to act so unbothered by something before, Linc. Not a single time.”
“Like I said, it doesn’t matter, she regretted it.”
“And you’ll never allow yourself to be what someone regrets again.” He stated quietly. “Like our father did.”
I clenched my teeth to keep from blowing his brains all over the wall behind him.
But he wasn’t done with me yet, “Tell me something, Linc. When are you going to stop letting the actions of a small man dictate your actions as a much fucking bigger one?”
I once again chose not to respond .
“Interesting.” He rose to his feet and put his hands in his pockets as he faced me. “Don’t let him be the reason she lets someone else give her what she wanted. I’m guessing if she asked you for it, then she still wants it, even if she doesn’t recognize the part of her that does.”
He wasn’t wrong. I knew that. But I didn’t know how to give her another chance to deny me. Rejection stung so fucking deep into my soul, fracturing it beyond recognition each and every time.
“You know I’m right, and I wouldn’t wait too long before you get your head on straight and make her see that, too. Especially not when she’s going out looking as sexy as she did right before I came up here.”
My eyes snapped up to his and my blood boiled as his words sank in. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged and opened the door to the hallway, “She was looking for trouble when she got into an Uber on my way up. My guess is she’s going to find it in the little clothing she had on when she left.”
He departed, already knowing he had said enough to bait me into acting. Before the door to my office was closed all the way, I pulled up the location tracker that I put on her phone and swore when I saw where she was.
Eight Ball Bar.
“Fuck!” I roared, grabbing my guns and tearing from the room.
I pushed my way through the bar and fired a shot before I even cleared the door, landing one bullet directly into the VP’s head. He had just come back inside from screaming at Peyton as she ran for her infuriatingly stupid life toward my house, and he landed on his back before anyone else even dared to pull their guns.
I bellowed out as I crossed the room toward Blade, and everyone froze when they saw who fired the first shot. “The next one goes into your old lady’s face after I break every single bone in her fucking ugly ass body for what you allowed to happen tonight.”
He clenched his jaw but held his hands up, “She came in here, without warning.”
“And they should have given her the same treatment as last time,” I barked as I stepped over the VP’s dead body, putting two more holes in the zipper of his jeans for good measure.
“That wasn’t—” Blade started, but I aimed my gun to my right, at his third in line.
“Keep talking and you’ll find yourself sorely out of members tonight!”
He pursed his lips and nodded to the back door. “She left, unharmed.”
“I’ll be back to chat about that.” I spit on the floor at his feet. “Maybe you’ll see me coming, maybe you won’t.” And I followed Peyton, not trusting that some loner biker wasn’t chasing her down from the parking lot for the sick fun of it.
I cleared the back door and took a deep breath of fresh air as I caught sight of her white dress as she moved deeper into the woods. And I did what I did best, I let my fucking wild side free.
She wanted to be chased down by a madman; she was going to get her wish .
She wanted Dane’s attention after I went dark on her, she’d regret her words from that night.
I’d make her fucking eat them. And then I’d make her come on my cock to prove just how wrong she’d been.
My boots thundered through the underbrush as I chased her, feeling my pulse slow and my adrenaline hyper fixate on her body as she sprawled out across the forest floor. We were deep enough to be obscured from the bar, but not safe from any lurkers or intruders.
She caught sight of me as I moved through the trees and she cursed, scrambling across the ground on her hands and knees, searching for something in the brush. I didn’t warn her it was me; I didn’t even toy with her. I simply pounced, landing on her back and trapping her under the weight of my body.
Without a mask or a hood on, she would see me if she looked over her shoulder. The real me.
Lincoln. So I kept my hand buried in her hair, forcing her to stare at the dirt as I pulled my shirt off over my head.
“No!” She hissed, grabbing for the bushes like she was going to get away from me with the help of the twigs.
Silly girl.
I wrapped my shirt around her face, lifting it so she could breathe, but blocked her sight and quickly tied it behind her head, blindfolding her. Gasping for breath, I could feel the throbbing pain in my cock for her while she continued to resist, despite her blindness, desperately attempting to escape from me. I flipped her over onto her back and looked down at her silk dress, covered in dirt and absolutely fucking perfect even still.
Unable to resist her sexuality and beauty after four days apart, she entranced me. Instantly, I tore the front of her dress down, revealing both of her sexy, lush tits to the chilly night air .
My obsession with her would always be my fatal flaw, though.
I just didn’t know that when I let go of her arms to grope her tits, she’d prove it to me.
I didn’t see it coming, but I heard the hum of electricity a nanosecond before she hit me in the abs with the spicy lightsaber she wielded. “Puppet.” I groaned and collapsed forward onto her as searing pain encapsulated every cell in my body.
Stun gun.
Fucking checkmate, Puppet.