19. Lincoln
LINCOLN
“No,” I snarled, wrenching my mouth away from Daniel’s almost as soon as we’d connected.
He nodded fervently. “Fuck no. Never, ever, ev—”
Oh, shit. We were kissing again, my tongue sliding against his, and it felt so good.
He was all hard lines, but his lips were so soft, and I couldn’t seem to stop kissing them.
This was a terrible idea, and I knew we were both in agreement about that, but…
his fucking mouth. We weren’t so riled up this time, pumped up with the adrenaline of a fight, and it allowed me to appreciate every touch.
The way his palms flattened on my back, his fingers flexing on my skin before he slid them lower, onto the waistband of my joggers.
The press of his chest against mine, without a millimetre of space between our bodies.
His heart pounding as hard as mine was. His erection rubbing up against mine…
and in that moment, although I knew I’d hate myself after this, I could admit that it felt good. So fucking good.
A floorboard creaked above our heads, and he gasped, shoving me away from him.
“Shit,” I cursed, taking in his flushed cheeks and swollen lips, not to mention the prominent bulge in his jeans. If I looked as obvious as he did, Mike was going to take one look at us and know exactly what we’d been doing.
Stepping back, I dragged my hand through my hair, closing my eyes as I took deep breaths. The next second, I gasped, my eyes flying open as a torrent of water drenched my front.
“What the hell, Hoyton?”
“You had a thing! I panicked!”
“Keep your fucking voice down. A thing? What thing?” Out of necessity, I stepped closer to him, tugging my wet T-shirt away from my skin. Asshole. My crotch was soaked too. On the plus side, my erection was no longer an issue.
Daniel’s cheeks flushed even further, the pink spreading down his neck. “A wet bit. Where you, y’know. Your dick. It was really obvious.”
Oh, bloody hell. I could feel my own face heating, and I immediately went on the defensive. “So your bright idea was to throw the contents of your glass at me? I could’ve covered it with my hoodie, dickhead.” I gestured at myself. “How am I supposed to explain this to my uncle?”
“Explain what?”
My gaze shot to the door to find Mike eyeing us with raised brows. Shit.
“He was pissing me off, so I threw my water at him.” Daniel shrugged. “It’ll dry.” His face was still flushed, but his words were so easy and casual, I almost believed them.
My uncle pinched his brow. “My ten-year-old is more mature than the two of you.”
Grabbing my hoodie, I quickly threw it on, covering the damp area. “It was him. I didn’t throw water.”
He gave me a look that warned me to shut my mouth. “Enough. Both of you, at the table. Now.” He strode over to the kitchen table and pulled out one of the wooden chairs, the legs scraping across the flagstones. “Mr. Hoyton. Take a seat.”
Daniel climbed off the stool, knocking me with his shoulder as he passed. I growled under my breath, wanting nothing more than to punch him. It would have to wait until we were alone, though.
Alone. No. I couldn’t allow myself to be alone with Daniel Hoyton again. In fact, I needed to wash my hands of this entire mess, and that meant turning everything over to my uncle.
“Mike. Can I have a quick word?” I jerked my head towards the door, and he nodded. Daniel glared at me silently as we stepped out of the kitchen, so I turned my back on him. I grimaced at the damp fabric clinging to my body.
“What is it?” Mike asked in a low voice.
“I wanted to know if you’re investigating the Hoyton Firm as part of Operation Foxglove.”
“I told you, I can’t talk about active investigations.”
“Can’t you just tell me? I think…” I swallowed hard, trying to push down the guilt. Remember why you’re doing this, Link. “You should investigate them.”
Immediately on alert, he tilted his head, studying me intently. “Is there something I should know?”
“N-nothing specific. Yet. But they’re criminals. There’s always something.” My voice shook, and I knew Mike would pick up on it. “You should dig deeper.”
“Let me get this clear. You think I should focus my efforts on the Hoyton Firm. The same firm that boy in there—” He nodded towards the kitchen. “—is a part of. The same firm that is headed up by his uncle, and his mother is heavily involved in.”
“Y-yes.”
“Bloody hell,” he muttered. “I don’t— Why are you so insistent about this? Is there something I should know about?”
“There’s nothing. Just an instinct. I…I trust my instincts.”
“Link.” His hand landed on my shoulder, squeezing it gently. “You know that despite my profession, you and Tilly come first. If there’s something you need me to know, even if you’ve done or witnessed something illegal, you can tell me, and it goes no further. I promise.”
You and Tilly come first. Yeah, he and Tilly came first for me, and that was why I was throwing Daniel under the bus. I licked my dry lips. “If I find anything out, will you look into it? Please?”
“If I think it warrants an investigation, I’ll see what I can do.” Dropping his hand, he gave me a reassuring smile. “Come on. Better not keep our guest waiting any longer.”
When we re-entered the kitchen, I couldn’t even look at Daniel. I felt nauseous. Taking a seat at the table next to Mike, I slumped forwards, resting my hands on my thighs. Beneath the table, my fists clenched, my nails digging into my palms.
“Right,” Mike began casually. “As much as we’ve all…ahem, enjoyed this unexpected visit… Want to tell me what you’re really doing here?”
Daniel huffed out a breath. I still couldn’t look at him. “I told you earlier. I was looking for Lincoln.”
“That doesn’t explain how you ended up outside my cottage. According to you, you weren’t even aware of its existence.”
“I wasn’t.” Daniel’s voice rose. “It was an accident, okay? I’m sorry for trespassing. If you’re going to arrest me, can you just get on with it?”
“What? Arrest you? Where did you get that idea?” Mike’s voice was amused.
I finally dared to look at Daniel. His eyes flashed with fire as he glared at my uncle. “Hmm. I dunno. Maybe it was when you informed me that I was trespassing on private property. Or maybe it was when you basically told me I was a prisoner here?”
“Has anyone ever mentioned that you have a flair for the dramatic?”
“A couple of people might have,” he muttered sullenly, and I felt my lips kick up at the corners, despite the raging guilt that was threatening to choke me.
My uncle snorted. “I bet it was more than a couple. Regardless, you’re not under arrest. You were never under threat of arrest at any point. Do you think I would have left my daughter with you unattended if I was concerned?”
“Then what’s this interrogation all about?”
“It’s not an interrogation. This is about putting together a picture. Your motives. How and why you came to be here.”
“So, an interrogation,” Daniel said with an eye roll. He seemed a little more relaxed now, though. “Okay. I was looking for Lincoln for a reason. We’ll come to that in a minute, but that’s my motive, yeah?”
Mike nodded, his mouth quirking. “Go on.”
“Okay. So I went to his student apartment, and all the lights were off, and no one answered the buzzer. I knew he didn’t have any hockey stuff going on, because he played yesterday, and I know their coach always gives them the next day off.
So I thought I’d check the estate, on the off chance he was there.
I honestly thought it would be more likely that he’d be getting his dick— I mean, spending time with one of his many, many ‘special friends.’” He put air quotes around “special friends,” like an absolute twat.
“You can talk. You have just as many special friends as me,” I sneered. “Probably more.”
“So what? Don’t slut-shame me, asshole. It just makes you look bad.”
“Oh my god. Please. Can the two of you stop?” Mike groaned, rubbing his brow. “We’ve established that you were looking for Link, for reasons that have yet to be disclosed. You came to the estate. How did you get here?”
“I drove,” he said. “How else am I gonna get here?”
“Where’s your car?” Mike replied instantly.
“Parked outside a field. Look, I didn’t wanna just drive into the estate. We all know I’m not welcome here, and if Daddy Bellingham caught me on camera or something, then…” He trailed off with a shrug.
“My father’s in London,” I cut in.
“Well, I didn’t know that, did I?” He rolled his eyes at me before turning back to my uncle. “It’s irrelevant, anyway. None of you would roll out the red carpet if you saw me coming up your driveway. So yeah, I parked outside.”
“And how did you get from your car to my private residence?”
“I—” He bit down on his lip. “It was the whole camera thing. I didn’t want anyone to see me coming, so I found another way in. No, I’m not gonna say it out loud. You’re not gonna get me for breaking and entering, or whatever.”
Mike sighed. “For the last time, you’re not under arrest.”
“Not until I admit to a crime, anyway,” Daniel shot back. “So…long story short, I took a stroll through the woods and stumbled upon your gingerbread cottage. I’m still not ruling out witchcraft.”
“Alright. You stumbled upon the cottage—and no, witchcraft was not involved. Let’s turn to the reason you were looking for Lincoln. What was so urgent that it had you driving all over the place hunting for him?”
“It wasn’t all over the place. I went to two places, max. I wanted…uh, it was to do with you, actually.”
“Me?” Mike stared at him. “Care to explain?”
For the first time since we’d sat down at the table, a resolute expression came over Daniel’s face. He straightened up, meeting my uncle’s gaze steadily. “Yes. I want your word that Operation Foxglove will immediately drop any investigation into the Attwood clinic.”
There was a long, charged silence. Eventually, Mike cleared his throat. “What makes you think we’re investigating the Attwoods?”
“Because detectives visited the clinic on two separate occasions. They questioned Jay’s dad—uh, I mean, Bryan Attwood—and then they came back and questioned Priya, Nisha, and the rest of the staff.”
“I see.” My uncle’s face gave nothing away.
Daniel leaned forwards, bracing his arms on the table.
“Look. I know I’m bad news, and yes, Jay is one of my best friends.
But that’s irrelevant. The Attwoods are good people who haven’t done anything wrong.
They don’t deserve to be investigated like they’re criminals, when they’re not.
Fucking hell, they do so much for the community.
I’m a bad person, but they’re not like me. Not even a little bit. They’re good.”
“You’re not a bad person, Daniel,” Mike said softly. Something inside me ached, and I exhaled unsteadily, my fists clenching and unclenching on my thighs.
Daniel laughed humourlessly. “Good joke. We all know that isn’t true. But let’s not get sidetracked, please. This isn’t about me. It’s about a family who—”
“To ease your mind,” Mike interrupted, “I can confirm that they are not currently under investigation. Our visits to the clinic were simply routine interviews.”
“Oh.” All the air seemed to leave him on a long exhale, and he slumped forwards. “That’s good. Uh, thank you. Sorry for, y’know, showing up here. Am I free to leave now?”
“Yes.”
No.
Daniel rose to his feet. He grimaced, rubbing at his temples, before pasting on the fakest smile I’d ever seen on him. “Goodbye, Sergeant. Thanks for your hospitality.” His gaze slid to mine. “See you on the ice, Bellingham.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away from me.
“Wait—” I began, not knowing how I was even going to finish my sentence, but he was already turning back around. Not to me, though. To my uncle.
“Speaking of the ice, can you stop sending your creepy undercover detectives to my games? It’s really off-putting.”
Mike stared at him. “I’m not sending anyone to your games.”
“Of course not.” He rolled his eyes. “Obviously, you’re not gonna admit it. At least tell them to get better at hiding. And you might wanna inform them that they won’t find any evidence of nefarious activity at our games. The rink is a sacred space.”
“Uh-huh,” Mike said non-committally.
“Okay, great talk. See ya.”
He disappeared out of the door, and Mike cleared his throat. “Aren’t you going to go after him?”
“No? Why would I?” I couldn’t let myself be alone with him again.
“Do you think he should be driving with that head injury?”
Fuck. I sprang to my feet and legged it out of the room, throwing up my middle finger at a chuckling Mike as I ran.
“Wait.”
Daniel paused in the middle of shoving his feet into his trainers. “What now?”
“You shouldn’t be driving with your head injury.”
“I got here okay, didn’t I?”
“Hoyton.” Stepping as close to him as I dared, I met his gaze.
His gold-tipped lashes swept downwards, hiding his expression from me.
My hand found its way to his jaw, tilting his head so he had no choice but to meet my gaze again.
“Take me to your car. I’ll drive it back here.
You can leave it overnight, and I’ll drive you back to get it tomorrow if your head’s okay.
You don’t need to worry about it. My parents are both away working on cases, and I’ll put your reg number on Mike’s visitor list. No one will care. ”
His tongue slid across his lips as he held my gaze, and my breath caught in my throat.
“What do you expect me to tell my friends about the sudden disappearance of my car? And irrespective of that, there’s no way in hell that I would let anyone see you driving me back to my house or picking me up tomorrow, if that’s what you’re implying.
My teammates would have a lot to say about that, and none of it would be good. ”
“Then come back to mine,” I said, the words tumbling from my mouth unchecked. “Stay with me tonight.”