“You’re sharing the whole investigation with her?” Lind cringed. Jacob was looking at him like he didn’t know him, and he could hardly blame him.
“I’m just trying to piece it all together,” he defended weakly.
Jacob stared at him. “Are you fucking her?”
“No,” Lind all but growled.
Recognizing the tone, Jacob nodded in satisfaction. “Good,” he said. “Because, you know, if you were jeopardizing everything for a piece of hot ass…”
“I’m not fucking her,” Lind said through gritted teeth.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it. It wasn’t like he didn’t think about it every day he spent in that apartment with her. Eve wasn’t unlike any woman he had ever encountered. But he knew the situation was delicate enough that one wrong move could be their downfall.
It had been three weeks since all hell had broken loose at the Cobra (and how fitting and ironic that another serpent would bring trouble to the Viper). Since then, they had all been doing their digging. Some of that had been the digging of graves, but mostly it had just been digging for information. After the club had unleashed their best and most effective methods of persuasion on an unfortunate Gary Merchant and achieved little to no results, Alec had finally convinced himself of the man’s innocence.
Not so much of Eve’s. Just as Lind and Jacob had predicted, both the motorcycle club and the nightclub crew were convinced that she must know something. Fortunately, nobody had managed to track her down just yet. Still, the clock was ticking, and Lind knew that it was only a matter of time before their “pretty little secret” (as Jacob insisted on calling her) would be exposed. He didn’t like the idea—both for his and Jacob’s sake and for Eve’s. He was beginning to grow fond of her in spite of his best efforts.
“I just think that it can benefit us all if we share as much information with her as possible,” he continued under Jacob’s still-watchful eye. “You gotta admit, she’s been very helpful.”
And indeed she had. When they had first discovered Eve’s true identity and daytime life, as she called it, both Lind and Jacob had been perplexed and skeptical about what sort of use she could ever be to them. After all, one doesn’t expect a girl who chooses to dance on the stage of a nightclub for fun to really know anything about the world in general—let alone their kind of world. Instead, Eve had proven a keen observer. She had a sharp eye and an even sharper mind, and she had watched and learned enough that she could piece stuff together astoundingly easily.
Moreover, whoever they were dealing with was leading a double life as well. Gary Merchant and his associates wanted to reach the upper classes. They wanted to taste a slice of a high-end world that was out of their ordinary lives. They wanted to blend in and fit in with people who weren’t their kinds of people. But they were Eve’s, and that gave her an edge, the kind of upper hand that no one else who had been looking into this whole mess really had.
So, Lind had shared every aspect of their progress with her. And she had shared insights on everyone and anyone who ever came by the nightclub that she knew of. She told them about backgrounds and habits, about likes and dislikes. She had been so thorough that Lind felt like he knew everyone at the Cobra intimately.
“She’s being useful,” Jacob admitted. “But I still don’t trust her. For all we know, she could be the mole.”
Lind snorted. “Yeah, right. I can just picture her doing business with the cartel.”
Eve had been very helpful at ruling many people out. Unfortunately, they were no closer to being able to bring someone in. They were still floundering, and Lind hated it. Alec was getting nervous, and when their leader was nervous, so was the rest of the club. Despite his apparently calm demeanor, Jacob was more on edge every day, afraid that someone would find out that he and Lind were hiding the woman everyone was looking for. Everyone’s tension was rubbing Lind the wrong way, and he would be throwing a fucking party as soon as they were out of this mess.
“Whatever, man,” Jacob said. “I’m just saying, we’d best watch our backs.”
“No shit,” Lind said darkly. He wasn’t stupid. He loved Alec and the club and knew his devotion was entirely requited, but he had no doubt that they would skin him alive if they ever found out what he was up to.
They both fell silent when the door to their go-to pub opened and Alec and a couple of the others looked in. Lind and Jacob watched tensely as the other two stopped by their table to greet them and Alec walked past them with no second glance.
Jacob whistled softly, clearly forcing himself to act as normal around the others as possible. “What crawled up his butt?”
Phil shrugged. “He’s been like this since he found out that Merchant really didn’t have anything to do with what went down.”
“I say we should’ve blown his brains out anyways, just for the inconvenience of letting something like that happen at his club,” Dylan added unhelpfully.
“We do not blow the brains out of innocent people,” Lind growled up at them. The two were newly appointed members who had just made the leap from their prospects positions. Their promotions had given them confidence, and it was getting on his nerves.
Both young men paled instantly.
“Yes, Lind,” Phil said.
“Sorry, Lind,” Dylan muttered.
Jacob hid an amused grin behind a tall pint of dark stout.
Shaking his head in disgust, Lind stood and left them. He searched out Alec with his eyes and was unsurprised to find out that his best friend had been watching him all along from a small, quiet table within a corner booth. Lind took a deep breath and forced his suddenly shaky legs to carry him forward.
When he sat down, he found a tall glass of red draught already waiting for him.
“I took the liberty,” Alec said.
Lind nodded gratefully. “I appreciate it.” They clinked their glasses and took a few hearty chugs.
“How are you holding up?” Lind asked after a few moments of companionable silence.
This was the way they talked when it was just the two of them. Real talk, no bullshit. There was no Viper and there was no President. There was only Lind Addams and Alec Moore.
“I’ve been shot at before,” Alec said.
“I know that,” Lind conceded. “But this time was different. It affected you differently.”
“I guess it did,” his friend admitted, reluctantly.
Alec simply had not been the same since that night at the Cobra. It wasn’t that he was afraid or more fragile—he couldn’t be that if he tried. But it had shaken him up. It had given him a kind of anger that Lind had never seen in his best friend before.
Now, as they sat quietly in the shadows of the pub, Lind studied him carefully. There were lines etched deeply in his best friend’s handsome face that weren’t there before. There were shadows in his black irises that weren’t there before. There was tension in his proud shoulders that wasn’t there before.
“Why?” Lind finally brought himself to ask. He couldn’t put his finger on it. What was different about this shooting? Enemies had tried taking out the MC’s president before. What made this time one of a kind?
“It just did.”
Lind shook his head. “Well, whatever it is, you’d better snap out of it.”
Alec’s dark eyes flashed dangerously. “What did you just say?”
Lind stood his ground. “You heard me,” he said. “We all want to find whoever did this to us, but it’s like you’re obsessed. You haven’t been able to focus on anything else since. It’s making them nervous.”
“Did they send you to talk to me?”
Lind had to fight back a laugh at the affronted expression on Alec’s face. “No,” he said. “But I’m doing it anyway. You’re making everyone uncomfortable; it’s bound to get ugly.”
Lind Addams had been the Viper enough to know that when nerves ran so close to the skin, things were bound to get out of hand. And that was about the last thing the MC needed right now.
Alec scowled dangerously, but he didn’t argue. Somehow, Lind was getting through to him. “If only we could find that bitch,” he said. “She must know something.”
Lind did his best not to tense up. He shrugged. “She’s vanished, man. Besides, she probably doesn’t know anything useful. Somebody must’ve put her up to it and chances are they just ordered her around.”
Alec grunted. “Perhaps,” he said, begrudgingly. “Still…are you sure there was no sign of her when you found your bike?”
“Don’t you think I would’ve brought it up by now if that were the case?”
Alec blew out a frustrated breath and ran a hand across his face. In that moment, he looked as tired as Lind had ever seen him. “Shit. This is driving me mad. Three weeks, and we still know squat.”
Lind let it go. He let the silence fall back upon them, and he let his friend relax—at least, as much as Alec could, given the circumstances. He let some of the tension ebb away, because there could be no real talk when tension was in the way.
When he felt like he could be heard again, Lind spoke. “Alec,” he said quietly. He waited until his friend lifted his head and he had his full, undivided attention before he went on. “What’s going on?”
Alec shifted a little in his chair. He was uncomfortable, and the fact that he was letting it show told Lind that he would finally be getting something real out of it. “Is it so odd that I would want to find out who ambushed our club?”
“No,” Lind admitted. “It’s odd that you would be obsessed with it. Like you said, it’s not the first time we’ve been set up. It’s not the first time the cartel showed their disapproval. It’s not the first time somebody tried to kill you. But you’re pissed off, and it’s the kind of pissed off that tells me that this is personal.”
Alec stared at him. “Fuck off,” he finally snapped. “Just leave me alone, will you?”
Lind grinned. “Sorry, I can’t do that.”
Alec glared at him. He was silent for so long that Lind was afraid he would really have to pull the words out of him like a dentist does to teeth.
Finally, however, he relented. “Fine,” he said, with a deep sigh that was so out of character it instantly had Lind sitting up straighter. “You really want to know?”
“I really want to know.”
Alec hesitated for just a moment longer before he finally spat out, “Linda’s pregnant.”
Lind did a double take. He would have expected anything, but not this revelation about his friend’s old lady. “What?”
“She’s pregnant,” Alec repeated. “She’s twelve weeks along. They’re twins.”
Lind’s eyes were wide. “Wow,” he said. “Congrats, man.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Alec said, waving his hand as if to bat away any attempt at celebration. “Keep it down.”
“Why?” Lind found himself smiling wide. “You’ll have to marry her now.”
Alec grinned. “Jerk.” He didn’t seem to mind the suggestion.
Lind tried to picture Alec and Linda’s tumultuous relationship ending with a white picket fence and twin kids, and he had to admit that it didn’t seem that absurd.
“Why haven’t you told anybody?” he asked.
“The tension with the cartel was escalating,” Alec said. “I didn’t want the news leaking and for somebody to use it against me.”
Lind nodded. Now that he could understand. “I still don’t get what this has to do with what happened at the Cobra sending you off your rocket though.”
“I’m about to be a father,” Alec said. “Don’t you get it? I’m about to have babies, and someone almost took that away from me. Someone almost took me away from them.” He shook his head and looked down. “I realize it sounds stupid, but it is what it is.”
Lind remained silent for a few moments, his mind reeling. He really didn’t know this side of Alec. It was jarring and endearing all at the same time.
“It doesn’t sound stupid,” he finally said. “I understand.”
Alec nodded. “So, I need to find the son of a bitch who almost destroyed my family. And then destroy him.”
The dangerous fire was back in Alec’s eyes, the fire that Lind knew so very well. Alec was just but ruthless, and Lind had no doubt that his friend wouldn’t rest until he got his revenge.
“We’ll find them,” he said. “I promise you.”
Alec nodded. “Keep what I told you to yourself, all right? I’d much rather make them nervous than have them blab on to somebody about Linda and the babies.”
“Of course. My lips are sealed.” Lind grinned. “I think we should still have a toast. No one has to know what it is we’re toasting to.”
Alec smirked. He waved at a waitress and ordered a second round. A few minutes later, he was joining the others for a game of darts and leaving Lind to sit alone.
Lind watched them all from his safe distance. Things seemed to get messier by the minute, and he didn’t like that one damn bit. Time had just gotten to be more of the essence. Soon, Linda’s belly would begin to show, and then everyone would know. And if whoever had done this to the Diamondbacks was still out there, she would be in danger. Lind wasn’t about to let anything happen to his best friend’s babies. He needed to start closing in on somebody, and soon.
He thought about what Jacob had said. Did he trust Eve too much? Should he be warier of her? It just seemed impossible for her to be involved somehow, and yet it would also seem unfathomable to many people for the daughter of Harold Robinson to go by Trinity and spend her nights with her legs wrapped around a strip pole.
The thought of Eve’s legs around the pole sent an unbidden shiver down Lind’s spine. He had noticed her the minute he had walked in. He had seen his fair share of working girls, strippers, and dancers, but he had never seen anyone quite like her. There was a grace to her movements that he had not known before. Their eyes had met briefly as she danced, and Lind still remembered that thrill as if it had happened ten minutes ago. He had never been that enthralled.
He had noticed her again later that night when he went out for a well-deserved cigarette break. She had been at the bar, and she had watched him. Their eyes had met again, and once again he had felt like he had just been electrocuted.
Every day in the apartment, Lind had to pretend like he couldn’t see just how strikingly beautiful she was. How sexy. How smart. How funny even. He knew he couldn’t let himself be pulled in, but that pull was sometimes incredibly hard to resist. He was trying not to get attached, but the irrational surge of anger he had felt when Jacob had suggested that she might be playing them told him he was doing a poor job of it.
He couldn’t blame Jacob. The man was being sensible, a quality that Lind seemed to be well on his way of losing wherever Eve was involved. After all, what did they know about her? Sure, they knew her background, but what about her? What about Eve, the person? What about her motives? What about her allegiances?
And yet, the more he tried to take Jacob’s suspicions into consideration, the more absurd they seemed. Eve wasn’t a backstabber. She wasn’t a player. She was just a wild child who had found herself hanging with the wrong crew, on the wrong night, at the wrong time. Lind was certain she had nothing to do with what had happened.
He couldn’t help but smile as he thought back on the dazed look on her face when they found her sitting in the grass by his bike. He had been enraged at the time, but now that he thought back on it, it was one of the funniest sights he had ever seen. He was surprised that she had managed to take his beloved Harley that far, and even more surprised to later discover that the only reason she had tipped over was that she was drunk. Eve Robinson knew how to ride a bike. Who would have thought? Certainly not Lind, who had not believed her when she told him and had made her take them both to the supermarket on his bike. They had gotten there unscathed, and Lind had secretly been very impressed.
So, to sum up, Eve Robinson was sexy, smart, funny, and knew how to ride a bike. Lind Addams was screwed.