Chapter Thirty-Three
Linc
“Baby. Why do you keep waking up an hour before the alarm clock goes off? Do you secretly hate me? Am I being punished for something?” Linc put a pillow over his head.
“I need to get to work. I still have charting that needs to be done. I had to leave early yesterday because of the ‘episode.’” Linc lifted the pillow in time to see Madden put air quotes around the word episode. He silently watched as her naked form started to dress.
“You should never wear clothes. Can we move to a nudist colony?”
She raised an eyebrow, looking at him over her bare shoulder. “You really want all those other men seeing me naked?”
He jumped out of bed, snaking his arm around her waist and then pulling her back down beside him. “Not a fucking chance.”
She sat up, straddling his lap. “Didn’t think so.”
“We’ll have our own nudist colony. Party of two.”
She gave him a quick kiss on his lips and then hopped out of bed once more. “I really have to go. I want to get as much done as early as possible. The first time I had an episode it’d been twenty-four hours, and then yesterday I only lasted thirteen. I’ll most likely get even less time today.”
Linc put his hands behind his head. “You know, I’m kind of loving this little problem we’ve got going right now.” Other than the fact his blind jealousy could make him murder someone he actually liked. “You literally have to have my dick. It’s the solution. My dick is what makes everything better.”
She snorted out a quick laugh. “I can see where that would be something you’d enjoy.”
He got out of bed, reaching for the t-shirt he’d worn yesterday. If he was up this early he might as well stop by his apartment before school. “I’m moving in here this weekend.”
Madden spun around to face him, her dark hair flying. “What?”
“You live on campus. I’m not going to keep driving all the way back to town to change clothes. It’s dumb.” He said it in a logical way, careful not to put too much emotion in his voice. He knew Madden, and just because she was falling in love with him didn’t mean she still couldn’t get spooked.
“I guess that makes sense.” She pulled on a pair of tight yoga pants then some tennis shoes. Madden looked like she was about to model for a Lululemon catalogue. Yes, he knew what that was.
“Of course it makes sense. I’m a fucking genius.” He followed her out of her bedroom and into the kitchen.
She opened a cabinet, frowning. “No coffee. We need to go to the grocery store.”
Linc’s heart swelled at her choice of words. We. When she turned to look at him, he tamped down his smile. “I’ll pick up some coffee on my way back to campus.” He held his breath, waiting to see if she’d pick up on what she’d actually said.
“Thanks.”
He let out a quiet sigh of relief as he trailed behind her to the front door. “You want me to drop you off?” What he really meant was, I’m going to drive you to your office. But again, he knew his girl. He knew what would make her bristle. Being mated wasn’t so hard. Why was Dom always in so much damn trouble?
“What if I have an ‘episode’? I should probably take my car so I can make a quick escape if I need to.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. “But, if it makes you feel better, you can follow me and then watch me walk in my building.”
He smiled. “That would make me feel a lot better.”
She nodded, returning his grin. “I figured.”
***
It took Linc walking into his apartment and seeing Brooks and Grimes sitting at his breakfast table for him to remember that they were staying there. He shut the door and sent them a wave. “Morning.”
They both stood, leaving their coffee and coming to shake his hand. Brooks squeezed his harder than necessary. Apparently he was still sore about the fact that Linc had slept with his fiancée. “Linc.” Brooks’s voice was clipped.
“Nice to see you again.” Grimes was much nicer.
“Did Keller fill you in? Did Jace get the description of Ox to you guys last night?” Linc glanced at his watch. He didn’t have much time before he needed to leave to get back to campus before his first class.
Grimes nodded. “We’ve been up most of the night. After we talked to Keller, Jace got on the line and gave us a pretty good description of this Ox character. He wasn’t in the system, at least not by his alias. Which means he’s good at what he does.”
Brooks took a sip of his coffee before speaking, “We hacked into St. Leasing’s security footage.” Linc wondered if Brooks would keep drinking it if he knew he was using Linc’s favorite mug. “We think Ox got onto campus by passing as a student’s father. We even have footage of him going to the admin building and getting a visitors pass.”
“Wow. That’s pretty ballsy.” Even more so since Ox knew the campus was crawling with shifters. Men who could easily overpower him if they worked together. “Can you tell which student he used? If he’s got a visitors pass, he has easy access to the whole damn campus.” Parents of St. Leasing students paid an arm and leg for their kids’ education. Not to mention that most of them donated large sums of money every year. Dean McCormick treated them like royalty when they came to visit, and rightfully so.
“We’re still looking into it.” Grimes sat back down at the table. “We’ve been brainstorming for hours, trying to come up with a way to draw Ox out of hiding. Make him slip up so we can catch him.”
“Come up with anything?”
Brooks nodded, wincing a little. “We thought we could use Jace.” He held his hand out when Linc opened his mouth to tell him there wasn’t a chance in hell they were going to let him use a kid as bait. Especially a kid that had been abused in some form or fashion for sixteen years straight. “Just hear me out. Jace was being groomed by his father to take over. Granted, his methods were abusive and vile, but he was still training him to run the business. If we can get Jace to find a way to reach out to this Ox asshole, we think he’ll go for it.”
“Why would he? Jace turned on his father. All Franklin’s men have to know that by now.”
Grimes held up a finger. “At the end of the day Franklin is still a businessman, a ruthless one at that. He lost his heir, his protégé. What would be more intriguing to Ox than to be the man that brought Jace back into the fold? The man that got Franklin’s son back on track.”
Linc hated to agree, but their plan made sense. As much as everyone was going to want to say no, it may work. “You two should stay hidden. I’ll get the rest of the guys to come here after school and you can share your idea.” Brooks and Grimes both nodded in agreement. Linc pointed back toward the living room. “We have PlayStation, cable. Make yourselves at home.” He headed into his room, showered quickly and then changed into fresh clothes. He was done in about ten minutes flat, his hair still damp.
He pulled out his phone, calling Madden. He needed her breakfast order, and he wanted to hear her voice. He glanced at his watch again. It’d been almost an hour since he spoke to her. That’s all he could last without knowing she was okay. He was officially a loser, just like Keller and Dom.
“You on your way? I need coffee.”
He smiled. “Leaving now. What would you like?”
“Double shot vanilla latte. Please. Oh and like a muffin or something. I’m going to work through lunch so I can leave when I need to without falling behind.”
Linc grabbed his keys off the counter. “Or I can come by at lunch.” He waved a goodbye to the agents still at his kitchen table and grabbed the doorknob. “I can give you some of my massive—”
“Oh, hey, a parent just walked in. Let me go see what they need. It could be important.”
Linc’s blood ran cold. He was certain that the parent had to be Ox. It was early; the building was mostly empty. It would be the perfect time to make a move. “Madden, no. Listen to me you have to—”
“See you soon, bye.”
He stared at his phone. She’d hung up. “Grimes, Brooks. Ox is on campus. Ox has Madden.”
Grimes stood and Brooks looked perplexed. “Who is Madden?”
Linc was shaking, his whole body vibrating with rage. “My mat…my girlfriend. My fiancée. Whatever, my girl. He has my girl.” Linc threw open the door and raced to his car, not even caring if Brooks and Grimes were behind him. The only thing that mattered was Madden. He started his car, peeling out of his parking spot and racing toward campus. He used the dials on his steering wheel to call Keller.
“Hello?”
“Kel. Wake up Baze and get to Madden’s office. Now. Ox has her. He was there. You have to get to her before he takes her, before…”
“I’m running out the door, we both are. We’ll get there.”
The line went dead and Linc beat the shit out of his steering wheel. He glanced in his rearview mirror. There was an unmarked black Tahoe behind him. He could barely make out Grimes behind the wheel.
Linc’s body was vibrating. He felt out of control, he felt on edge. Like he could shift any second. In that moment he realized he could kill anyone who’d harm Madden.
And he’d be more than okay with it.