Lind’s head was still reeling as he sped through the congested L.A. traffic on his beloved Harley. He had left the car at the Diamondbacks’ headquarters; the bike was faster, and after what he had just learned, he needed to get to Eve’s as fast as possible.
***
“There’s reason to believe that the attack at the Cobra, while aimed at Alec, was meant to hurt someone else.”
The Diamondbacks had all looked at Lucas, the youngest and most promising member of their club, in confusion.
“What are you talking about?” Phil, one of the oldest members, had asked.
“And how would you know?” echoed Freddie.
Lucas hesitated. His hazel eyes settled briefly on Lind before he nervously looked away, but even that short stare was enough to make the hairs on Lind’s arms stand up.
“This came in the mail today,” Lucas said, pulling an envelope out of the inside pocket of his leather vest. “There was no name on it, so I opened it.”
It was a brown, plain envelope with nothing written on it, just the MC’s address. Lucas slid it across the table towards Lind, who took it with a sense of foreboding growing in the pit of his stomach. He looked briefly at the kid before he, too, took the single piece of paper out. Unsurprisingly, the note addressed him directly.
‘Viper,
This isn’t over. You may have eliminated the menace of the cobra, but I have many more serpents in my basket. I will destroy you and all you love. I will destroy the club. I will destroy your love. Once everything you’ve ever known and loved has been burned down, I will kill you.
This isn’t over. You can’t sleep easy yet.
Love,
D.’
Lind had to re-read the words quite a few times, in order to make sense of it all. In order to accept that this was real. And once the reality of it finally sank in, he experience a red-hot wave of rage as he had not experienced in a while. It almost blinded him.
“What is it?” Alec asked.
His friend’s voice brought him back to the here and now. Wordlessly, Lind handed the note over to him. He watched as Alec’s gray eyes flashed in anger and his jaw twitched. Equally silent, the President of the Diamondbacks handed the note over to the man sitting next to him. It was passed around the table until everyone had read it, and once everyone was up to speed a stunned silence fell onto the room.
“Are we sure it’s him?” Victor ventured weakly. “Maybe it’s a prank.”
Lind silenced him with one glare. This was no prank. This was far too real.
“What do we do now?” Freddie asked.
“We find that son of a bitch,” Alec said. “And we kill him, like we should have done a long time ago.”
“I’ll kill him,” Lind corrected, his voice low and growly and dripping with hot fury. “No one else lays a hand on the bastard but me.”
Alec nodded gravely. “Understood.”
***
Lind feared that Eve would not understand. After all, he could hardly wrap his mind around it himself. He just couldn’t believe this was happening. Then again, he should have known. He should have known this was going to come back and bite him in the ass one day. He had known that this day would come eventually, but he always supposed Doug’s revenge would harm him and him alone. And he certainly never imagined he would have a woman to protect when the time came.
Lind clenched his jaw in anger and self-deprecation as he rode on, and he curled his fists a little tighter around the bike’s handles. He had been stupid. He had let down his guard. Before Eve, he would have been looking out for something like this. Eve was a blessing, but he realized now that she also made him slip.
Never again, he promised himself.
From now on, he was going to be as sharp as he had ever been. His life—and more importantly, Eve’s—depended on it.
Lind parked his Harley in the street in front of Eve’s fancy apartment building. All thoughts about the canceled dinner and her suppressed anger towards the club were forgotten as he all but rushed inside.
Henry, the doorman, greeted him cheerfully. Lind barely responded and made a beeline for the elevator. Horrible scenarios of finding Eve in a puddle of her own blood flashed through his head, so much so that he had to take a few deep breaths once the elevator doors closed behind him and hid him from the doorman’s sight. He tried to convince himself that she would be fine. He told himself that the threat had just come in, and there was no way Doug was going to act so fast; he would let Lind marinate in his fear first.
The elevator ride was the longest Lind could remember, and once he finally reached the right floor he was out of the door like a bullet before the doors could even open completely.
He knocked—or, if he were honest, pounded—on the door and waited impatiently, and when Eve wasn’t at the door two seconds later, he knocked again. And again.
“I’m coming!” he finally heard her scream from inside. “Hold your horses!”
He wondered if she knew it was him or if she would just yell out at a stranger. If he knew anything about women’s anger—and unfortunately he did—it was probably a little of both.
The door finally opened, and Eve stood there wearing sweatpants and a tank top, glaring murderously at him.
“Were you trying to kick down my door?”
“Are you okay?” Lind blurted out before he could stop himself. It was a stupid question, of course, but one he felt entitled to ask given the circumstances.
“If you must know, I’m pissed off,” Eve said.
Lind almost laughed in relief, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t take that well. “We can talk about that later,” he said, the fleeting moment of alleviated tension already gone and forgotten. “We have more pressing matters to discuss now.”
Eve arched a blonde eyebrow. “Such as?”
“Just let me in,” he almost growled, shoving her aside and striding inside. “Close the door,” he ordered, turning around to face her.
Eve was so taken aback by his behavior that she did as he asked without protesting. “What’s going on?” she asked, as she walked them both to the living room.
She sat on the white faux-leather couch, but Lind was too agitated to sit down next to her.
“I can’t go into details,” he said, “but I need you to come with me to the club’s headquarters. You’ll stay there for a while, it’s a lot safer than here.”
Eve groaned. “Please, Lind, not again. What is it this time?”
Lind hesitated. “I can’t tell you.”
Her brown eyes flashed in anger. “So, I’m just supposed to follow you without knowing anything about what’s happening?”
“You’re supposed to trust me,” he corrected.
Eve sighed. “I trust you,” she said, but she didn’t look very convinced herself. “But I can’t just uproot myself every time you think I may be in danger—”
“I don’t think you may be in danger,” Lind cut her off forcefully, “I know you are.”
“Fine,” Eve said after a moment. “But until you tell me what the danger is, I’m not going anywhere.”
Lind suppressed the wave of anger that came over him. She was driving him nuts. Could she not see the urgency written all over his face?
“I’m not going to involve you—”
“Sounds to me like I’m involved enough,” Eve cut him off.
“It’s not about you.”
“Then, why are you asking me to leave my house?”
Lind exhaled in frustration. “Someone’s after me,” he said, finally conceding to revealing some part of the truth.
“Who?”
“That really doesn’t concern you,” Lind dismissed. “They have reached out to let me know they’ll be going after the people I care about, so I need you to please come with me where I can protect you.”
Eve was silent for a few moments. She seemed to be letting the words sink in and weighing her options. When she finally spoke again, it was nothing Lind would have expected.
“No,” she said.
Lind blinked. “Excuse me?”
“I said, no,” Eve repeated, more forcefully. “I’m not going back to your club’s headquarters so that you and your friends can guard me like I’m in some sort of witness program. No.”
Lind took a steadying breath. “Eve,” he said, with a calmness he did not feel, “I have to hunt this bastard down and get rid of him before he gets rid of me. That means I can’t be here watching you 24/7. I need you to be in a place where there are people who can keep an eye on you.”
Eve looked unimpressed. “I’ll be fine on my own, thank you.”
“No, you won’t—”
“Listen, this is not negotiable,” she interrupted, anger creeping back in her voice. “I’m not the one who chose to be in a gang, and I’ll be damned if I’ll alter my lifestyle because of your choices.” She stood, her whole frame taut with tension. “I’m not leaving my house.”
Lind stared at her. He forced himself to dismiss the impact her words had on him; now was not the time to be sensitive. “Then I’ll send someone to be with you at all times.”
Eve snorted. “No, thanks.”
“That’s not negotiable.”
They stood unmoving in Eve’s living room, staring at each other with defiance in their eyes. It was a battle of wills, and neither of them was going to back down.
“Fine,” Eve finally said, giving in to at least this one request. “Send whoever. Also, get me a gun.”
Lind stared at her in surprise. “What?”
“You heard me,” Eve said. “I want to be able to protect myself.”
“From the one who’s after you or from the one I’m sending to protect you?” Lind didn’t know what prompted him to ask that question, but as he uttered the words he knew it was a legitimate doubt to have. Eve had begun to show her feelings towards the MC, and they didn’t seem to be amicable ones.
“Both,” Eve admitted readily.
Lind did his best to hide his shock. It was one thing to suspect something; it was another matter entirely to have those suspicions confirmed.
“Do you really think I would send you someone untrustworthy?”
“No,” Eve said. “But they’re worthy of your trust, not mine. I don’t know these people.”
“Isn’t it enough that I know them?”
Eve stared at him straight in the eye. “No.”
Lind shook his head, but he decided not to argue the point any further. If a gun was going to make her agree to have a bodyguard, so be it. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll get you a gun. Do you even know how to use it?”
“I’ll learn.”
Lind stared at her. “You’re a maddening, maddening woman, you know that?”
For the first time that evening, Eve smiled. “Honey, you have no idea.”