Lind Addams was seething. Everything that could go wrong that night had gone even worse. The deal was a no-deal. It had been a ruse, a pretext to get the most influential members of the Diamondbacks all in one place and make them watch as the foundation of their club unraveled. They wanted them to watch as their leader was murdered and all that they knew and cherished went down with him. They wanted Lind to watch as his best friend died.
He supposed it could have been worse. After all, he had caught the glimpse of the gun before it went off and Alec was safe. After all, none of them had gotten seriously hurt. After all, the hell that broke loose only brought on one hell of a fight, faceless enemies, and a hurt pride—because really, how could they have been so stupid?
It had sounded good. The Cobra had become one of the most proficient nightclubs in the area and getting in on the business had sounded like a good idea. Too good, Lind had said, but Alec and the others had not listened. It had seemed odd to Lind that Gary Merchant would suddenly want to tap into the Diamondbacks business and enter the market of high-end drugs. But the club was always looking for new ways to make money, and Alec and the others had decided to give it a go.
“Let’s hear them out at least,” Alec had said.
As it turned out, Gary Merchant did not just want to talk. He swore up and down that he had no idea that something was going to go down. He swore that he wasn’t involved. He swore that he had not told the Mexican cartel that they would be there, with their guard down. He swore he had been jumped and played just as they had.
The Diamondbacks weren’t convinced, and God help Gary Merchant now.
And God help whoever had stolen Lind’s bike. Because as if a set-up to his club and an attempt on the life of his best friend were not enough, Lind had found his precious baby had also been tampered with. He seethed now, as he suffered the humiliation of riding on the back of someone else’s bike, clinging to someone’s waistline as he scoured the neighborhood.
He had no hope of finding his bike tonight, not with everything that had already gone down. The thief was probably long gone, and who knows how much time had passed from the actual theft before Lind was finally free to get outside and discover the glaring absence.
He was just about to give up when Jacob suddenly swerved to the left and took a sharp turn. Then, he stopped.
There, on the grassy surface of a large flowerbed by the side of the road, lay his bike. And next to it, half-sitting and half-slumped, lay a woman.
Lind was off Jacob’s bike before the man had even set foot to the ground. He ran up to the scene, somewhat astonished at what he was seeing. He had been picturing many scenarios, but this sure wasn’t one of them.
“Is she all right?” Jacob called out.
“Looks like,” Lind said, flipping his Harley back up and running examining hands and eyes over its metal parts. “There doesn’t seem to be much damage.”
“I meant the girl, asshole,” Jacob said, as he walked up.
“Oh.”
Lind turned around. He watched as Jacob knelt in front of the woman who had stolen his precious Harley and made an already bad night even worse. He let Jacob do this examination since he was much more attuned to the human condition than he was, anyway. He watched as Jacob’s expert hands examined the girl for injuries.
“She seems fine,” he finally declared.
The woman stared dazedly at them for a few minutes before she finally seemed to come back to herself. She batted Jacob’s probing hands away and drew herself up onto shaky legs.
“Get away from me, you perv!” she cried.
Jacob stood with his hands in the air in a placating gesture. It was a hard task for Jacob to appear unthreatening, what with his over six-foot frame and massive muscles. After all, they called him the Lumberjack for a reason.
“Whoa,” Jacob said. “No one’s going to hurt you, sweetheart. We were just making sure you hadn’t gotten yourself hurt.”
“I’m fine,” the girl said.
She had a cut on her forehead that was bleeding profusely, but otherwise she looked unscathed. Her dark eyes were clear when they met his, and that was when Lind recognized her as the woman who had been dancing on the nightclub’s stage when they had first entered that goddamned nightclub.
“You work for Gary, don’t you?” he asked bluntly.
She must have spied the fresh fury in his eyes, because she took a step back.
“Yeah,” she said after a moment. At least, she wasn’t stupid enough to deny it.
“Did he tell you to steal my bike?”
She blinked at him, confused. “Uh…no. I…I did that on a dare.”
Jacob burst out laughing. “Well, I’ll be—” He wisely cut himself off when Lind’s eyes shot daggers in his direction.
“Listen, sweet cheeks, I’m not in the mood for any more bullshit tonight,” Lind said, advancing menacingly. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders. Hard. “Where were you supposed to take my bike? Was it just a stunt for some extra humiliation?”
The woman’s eyes were wide by now. “No. I…really…I made a dare with some friends. We were drunk, it was stupid. I’m sorry. I—”
Lind cut off her cascade of excuses with a rough shake. “Shut up,” he said. “What did the cartel offer your boss to betray us?”
The fear on the girl’s eyes was suddenly replaced by utter confusion. “What?”
“The Mexican cartel. They tried to kill us tonight. They wouldn’t have known we would be at your club unless your boss or someone else told them. What’s in it for Gary?”
“What are you talking about?” She wrenched herself free, suddenly enraged.
Lind advanced again, but Jacob jumped forward and grabbed his arm, effectively stopping him from moving any further.
“Hold on, Lind,” he said. “I’ve got the feeling she may not know what we’re talking about.”
“How could she not know?” Lind snorted. “That shit was kinda hard to miss.”
“What shit?” the woman asked. Worry flashed across her face, and as her features softened with it Lind could not help but notice that she was beautiful. “What happened? Is anybody hurt?”
“I sure as hell would hope so,” Lind said darkly.
She sucked in a breath. “The girls…”
“The girls are fine,” Jacob reassured her hastily. “We don’t hurt women and none of them were caught in the crossfire.”
She had such a lost look on her face that Lind was forced to relent. “You really have no idea?”
“No,” she said. “I guess I must’ve stolen your bike before it all went down.”
Lind scowled at the absurdity of that statement. A working girl had stolen his bike. It was too humiliating to even contemplate.
She seemed to pull herself together then. She drew herself up to her full height and looked at him straight in the eye. “Tell me what happened.”
It was a demand, and even though he wouldn’t have been able to tell how or why, Lind found himself giving in to it.
“Let’s go get a cup of coffee,” he offered. “We’ll tell you then.” He did his best to ignore Jacob’s shocked look.
She watched them carefully for a few moments, clearly trying to gauge whether she could trust them.
“He told you the truth,” Lind said, nodding toward Jacob. “We don’t hurt women.”
She still stared at the both of them in turn for a little while longer. Finally, she decided that they weren’t about to take her off somewhere and leave her at the bottom of a ditch.
“Fine,” she conceded. “But keep in mind, I’ve got a gun in my purse.”
Lind smirked. “Who doesn’t?”