Down & Dirty: Linc (Dirty Angels MC Book 9) Page 12

  “Yeah,” he grunted.

  Her gaze slid through the parking lot. Two vehicles were there. Kiki’s Vette and an old rusty Ford pickup.

  “Know that vehicle?” Linc asked her as he swung a leg over his Harley.

  “No.”

  “Stay here.”

  Oh sure. She was supposed to stay outside while he went inside to deal with whoever was yelling. Maybe Kiki needed her help.

  She hesitated just long enough for Linc to yank the front door open and get a head start, then she followed.

  As her eyes adjusted to the interior of the front office, she saw Kiki standing with her hands on her hips in her typical business attire, which was a business suit with a skirt that hugged her curvy hips and sky-high heels.

  On the outside she seemed pretty calm and collected, but, even so, she was looking at Linc with relief.

  A man, one Jayde recognized as a newer client, one who was recently arrested for assault during a bar fight, stood screaming in Kiki’s face.

  Or at least until Linc collared him, yanked him away from Kiki and flung him to the ground. “He bothering you?” Linc asked in a low, dangerous voice. One that sent a shiver down Jayde’s spine.

  Kiki sighed and Jayde was surprised to see her hand shake as she raised it to smooth down her hair. “He’s just a little upset.”

  “’Bout what?”

  “His bill.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because he’s blown through his retainer and I need more funds to continue with his defense.” While Hawk’s ol’ lady’s hand might be a little shaky, her voice sure wasn’t.

  Linc’s green eyes landed on the guy who was grumbling out a string of curses and pushing himself up to his knees. He pointed a finger at the older man. “Stay right there ‘til I figure out what the fuck’s going on.”

  “Fuck you,” the man with a receding hairline and a salt-and-pepper bushy beard said. “Paid the bitch to get me out of a jam. She ain’t doin’ shit and now she wants more money. Like I got it fuckin’ growin’ on a tree out at my place.”

  “Must be doin’ something right since you’re standing the fuck in this office and not in jail.”

  “Don’t mean shit.”

  “Don’t it?” Linc growled at him with an eyebrow cocked. Stepping in between him and Kiki, he kept an eye on the man who was still rising to his feet. Without looking at Kiki, he asked, “Want him removed?”

  “I think that’s for the best.” Kiki glanced at her client. “Mr. Jones, you are now officially fired as my client. I will forward your paperwork to the attorney of your choosing, just have them contact me directly. I will also waive the balance that you owe me if you’re smart and walk out of here like a civil human being. If Linc has to escort you out, then I’ll make sure to sue you for my outstanding fees.”

  The man’s face, which was red when she and Linc walked in, now got darker. “You can’t fire me, bitch!”

  Linc squared off with him. “The hell she can’t. Now, gonna do what she asked and walk outta here with your balls intact? Or do I gotta escort you the fuck out?” When the man grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, Linc got a little louder. “Didn’t hear a fuckin’ answer. Got one more second to choose.”

  With more grumbling and a last glare at Kiki over Linc’s shoulder, he turned around and headed toward the front door.

  Jayde scrambled to give him space as he lumbered by her. She winced when the front door slammed and rattled the front picture window.

  “Told you to wait outside.”

  Jayde’s attention turned from where Jones disappeared back to Linc. “Kiki might’ve needed help.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly why I told you to wait the fuck outside.”

  “Linc...”

  “Can’t be giving me lip on this sort of shit. There was no way you were getting between Keeks and that asshole. Can’t be putting yourself and our kid at risk like that. Got me? That asshole comes back, you call me, Hawk or D right away.”

  She thought he said the last part to Kiki, so she didn’t answer, but then she realized Kiki had disappeared into her office.

  Linc, with a serious look on his face went toe to toe with her, grabbed her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. “Got me?”

  “Yes, I got you,” she whispered.

  He lowered his voice and another shiver skittered down her spine. “Care about you, baby. Don’t want anything happening to you. Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she breathed, unable to fight her smile at how protective he’d become.

  He planted a kiss on her lips, then smacked her on the ass as he walked toward the front door. “Remember, he shows up again, call me, D or Hawk,” he threw over his shoulder one more time.

  Jayde didn’t bother to answer because he was already gone and she needed to go check on Kiki. Maybe even call Hawk to let him know what happened, if Kiki hadn’t done that already.

  But speaking of Hawk, Jayde needed to have a little conversation with his brother after work.

  “Zak knows but won’t tell me.”

  Diesel grunted.

  Jayde pursed her lips in annoyance and studied the man sitting behind his desk at In the Shadows Security. There was no doubt that he wasn’t happy that Jayde had invaded his domain. Well, she wasn’t happy that she had to come to him, either. “Do you know?”

  The big man grunted again.

  She sighed loudly. “D, really. I’m having his kid. Don’t you think I should know?”

  Before she could get another grunt as an answer, the door opened and her cousin walked in with Violet in her arms.

  Jewel froze at seeing Jayde, then unstuck herself. “Oops. Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was in with D.”

  Jayde waved her hand around. “Doesn’t matter.” She stood, and Jewel came around the chair and gave her a one-arm hug.

  “Congrats?” Jewel asked in Jayde’s ear.

  Jayde lifted one shoulder. “I know I had baby fever for a while with everyone getting pregnant and having babies, but having the urge and actually having one are two different things.”

  Jewel glanced down at Violet, who had a handful of her long, dark hair in her little fist. But her baby blue eyes were focused on her father as she let out a loud coo. “That’s for damn sure.”

  “Thanks for giving up the apartment on short notice.”

  Jewel jerked a thumb toward Diesel who was now hen-pecking at a computer keyboard and staring intently at the screen like that would help plug his ears to the chatter of the two women. “Good excuse to finally get his ass moving and find us a place. You two should move out to the farm, too, once one of the other leases comes up on a cabin.”

  “Linc talked about that.”

  “That would be great. It would be nice to have a bunch of us with babies close by. If we can get Z and Sophie, too—”

  “Fuck,” D barked out.

  “What’s wrong?” Jayde asked him.

  “Ain’t a fuckin’ coffee house. Go chatter elsewhere.”

  “But I came because of Linc...”

  “What about him?” Jewel asked.

  “I don’t know anything about his family and he clams up every time I ask—”

  With the knuckles of his fists planted on the desktop, D leaned forward and yelled, “Family’s dead. Now get gone!”

  Both Jayde’s and Jewel’s mouth dropped open and their eyes widened as they stared at each other for a moment before directing their attention back to D.

  “What?” Jayde whispered.

  “Dead. Get gone.” His eyes landed on the baby. “Leave Vi.”

  “I need to nurse her, D,” Jewel said with a look of exasperation.

  “About Linc—” Jayde started, trying to get them back on topic.

  “Then feed ‘er an’ leave ‘er in here after,” D ordered, ignoring Jayde.

  “Then she’ll shit in her diaper,” Jewel snapped back. “You want to change it?”

  D leaned back in his chair and stared silent
ly at his ol’ lady and daughter. The longer he stared at them the more his harsh expression changed. His eyes became warm, his face softened, and his frown flattened out as his dark eyes slid slowly over his woman.

  Jayde blinked to make sure she was seeing what she was seeing. Holy shit, “the beast” had actual feelings?

  Jewel was noticing his reaction, too. Her face changed, as well, a flush running up her chest into her cheeks and her eyes heated as she stared back at her ol’ man.

  Oh shit.

  Time for Jayde to bail. Diesel liked to have sex against the wall. He was an expert at it and there was no way Jayde was sticking around to witness D nailing her cousin against an office wall.

  That was a big, fat nope.

  A loud clearing of a throat had all eyes sliding to the open doorway, where Ryder, one of D’s “Shadows,” was leaning in. “Sorry to interrupt, boss, but...”

  D, his expression now shuttered, lifted his chin to him and Ryder stepped inside. He was carrying something in his hand.

  Something Jayde recognized. And she wasn’t the only one in the room who knew exactly what Ryder was carrying.

  “Hey... this belong to either of you?” Ryder’s eyes bounced from Jayde to Jewel. “Found it on the sink in the bathroom.”

  Someone left a pregnancy test stick on the sink at In the Shadows Security?

  Uh oh.

  “Does it have one or two lines?” Jayde asked, her heart racing as she watched Jewel’s face turn a sickly shade of pale.

  Ryder glanced down at it. “Got a plus sign.”

  Oh fuck.

  Diesel shot to his feet, his chair flying back and crashing into the wall behind him. “Fuckin’ woman!”

  Jewel took a step backward, almost bumping into Jayde. “I—I... fuck... I was going to tell you tonight! I didn’t want to tell you here. In front of anyone. And I wanted you sitting down this time.”

  “Not supposed to be a fuckin’ this time!” Diesel roared, making Jayde wince.

  Violet let out a little mew as Jewel clutched her to her chest tighter. “I know... I...”

  He scrubbed an agitated hand over his short hair. “How the fuck did this happen?”

  “Boss, think we had this discussion already,” Ryder started with a snicker.

  D pointed a beefy finger toward his open office door. “Get the fuck out. Now!”

  Ryder’s smirk widened, he plunked the positive test stick on D’s desk, spun on his heels and left with a two-finger salute. “Yes, boss!”

  Before D could continue his yelling, Ryder poked his head back into the office, “Congrats, by the way.”

  Then he disappeared, his loud laughter heard as he walked away.

  D’s dark brown eyes narrowed on his ol’ lady. “What the fuck, Jewelee? Only been a few months since you had Vi.”

  “No one knows that better than me, and I’m still nursing her—”

  “No shit,” he barked.

  “And I thought I couldn’t get...” Her cousin’s voice drifted away, and she grimaced as D’s face turned a scary shade of red.

  Oh shit.

  At least it wasn’t green or white, or whatever color it was when he passed out the first time he got the news Jewel was pregnant.

  “I assume you put up a mirror on the ceiling at your new place?” Jayde asked, trying to keep her expression neutral.

  “Get gone,” Diesel growled. “Now.”

  Jayde lifted a palm. “But I need info—”

  “Told you what I’m gonna tell you. Now get gone!” D roared, stomping around his desk and heading in their direction like a pissed off grizzly bear.

  Oh shit.

  “Fine,” Jayde squeaked. She eyeballed Jewel who was frozen in her spot. “Text me if you need me.”

  Her cousin nodded, her gaze not leaving D as the man herded Jayde out of his office and slammed the door behind her. Hard enough that the walls rattled.

  Well, that didn’t go as planned. Fuck.

  Now she’d have to do a little snooping on her own. She needed to know what she was dealing with when it came to Linc and his background.

  She glanced down the corridor in the direction she hoped Ryder went.

  From what she knew of D’s guys, they were pretty cool. Deadly serious about their work. Pasts she probably didn’t want to know anything about. But maybe one of them would be willing to help her out. They seemed to be protective of women in general.

  She might be able to play that up and use that to her advantage.

  She headed opposite of the direction the exit was and deeper into the warehouse where D and his men worked out of. Their “secret lair” which really wasn’t so secret or a lair. It was a cavernous warehouse with offices in one part of it, secure storage in another and most of the remaining area was for keeping their equipment or whatever they needed for their assignments.

  As she walked away from D’s office, she knew he’d be pissed if he found out she was wandering around.

  But hopefully Jewel was keeping him occupied.

  No matter how pissed Diesel seemed, Jayde didn’t worry about her cousin. Not for a moment. If anyone could tame that beast, it was the petite, outspoken Jewel. The two of them reminded her of a popular Disney story. One of Jayde’s favorites, in fact.

  As she got closer to an open doorway, she heard the clacking of computer keys. And soft singing.

  She tilted her head and listened more carefully. Garth Brooks. Friends in Low Places. A low, deep voice that, if she hadn’t already been pregnant by another man, might have made her ovaries explode.

  Damn.

  As she stepped into the doorway, she noticed Ryder was the one sitting behind the computer that had multiple large screens.

  “That’s you singing?”

  His green eyes narrowed on her between the gap of two monitors. “Fuck. You caught me.”

  “Door was open.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his super short military-style haircut. “Yeah.”

  Ryder reminded her a lot of Linc. If Linc was a badass former Special Ops guy. Which he wasn’t.

  Or was he?

  What did she really know about his past? She just knew he’d been part of the DAMC for the past four years or so.

  The men had almost the same honey color hair, though Ryder’s was a little lighter and a little bit shorter, but not by much. And their eyes were similar. That rich green. “You sounded good.” Ryder was definitely handsome in a badass motherfucker type of way.

  She had to remind herself that Linc’s baby was in her belly right now.

  “Right,” he grunted.

  She stepped into the room, which was pretty large and held several computers and a hell of a lot of monitors.

  Badass central.

  “D raging?” he asked.

  “Not sure. I was kicked out of his office.”

  “He’ll get over it. They’re probably fuckin’ about now. They’re always in there fuckin’.”

  If they were, Jayde hoped Violet was taking a nap in the playpen that was tucked into the corner of D’s office. “Hence the pregnancies.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. Man’s smart as fuck, but apparently not smart enough to take precautions.”

  “Speaking of... I have a question for you,” she started.

  He groaned.

  She moved around the desk he was working at so she could see him better. Possibly gauge his facial expressions. Though the few times she’d been around any of D’s guys, they were pros at hiding shit. “Do you know anything about Linc and his family?”

  His face closed up like a Venus Flytrap with its prey. Which was about what she expected.

  “You talking about Andrew Lincoln?”

  Andrew Lincoln?

  Holy shit, she didn’t even know the real name of her own baby’s father? After all these years?

  “Um, yeah. You know another Linc?”

  Ryder pursed his lips, then grunted, “Nope.”

  “Then, yes, him.” Andrew. Andrew Li
ncoln. Shit.

  “After that shit with Slade, D had us run backgrounds on all the newer members and prospects.”

  Interesting. “And what do you know?”

  His dark eyes flicked toward the open doorway, then back to Jayde. “Why you need to know what I know?”

  She pressed her blouse to her slightly rounded gut. “I’m not getting fat. I’m pregnant.”

  “Jesus, what the fuck’s in the water at church?” He shook his dark blond head, then pinned his breath-taking green eyes back on Jayde. “So, what does that have to do with Linc’s family?”

  “Pregnant with Linc’s kid,” she clarified.

  Ryder cocked a brow. “He know?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Good thing I ain’t taggin’ any of the DAMC women, because, fuck, I’m not ready to be a father any time soon.” He frowned. “Or ever.”

  “Apparently we’re fertile.”

  “Right. So you’re having Linc’s kid, but he ain’t talking about his family.” He tilted his head. “Or his past, right? That why you’re in here bugging me?”

  She flipped her index finger at him. “Bingo.”

  “D wouldn’t say shit?”

  “Bingo again.”

  Ryder sighed and crossed his beefy arms over his especially beefy chest. And though his chest and those arms looked awesome in that tight black T-shirt he was wearing, she was pretty sure they’d look even more awesome without it.

  “This gonna get me canned?”

  Ryder smirked at her when she lifted her eyes after roaming his chest. “No.”

  He cocked a brow. “You sure?”

  “No.”

  Jayde leaned back in her comfy leather office chair and rubbed a hand over her eyes. This pregnancy thing was exhausting. It was like the kid was sucking the energy right out of her. She swore she was growing a vampire inside her and not a baby.

  Maybe she should just take a cat nap on her desk while she waited for Linc, if only her full bladder would allow it.

  He was supposed to come pick her up and take her to the ultrasound. She would have met him there if it wasn’t for that piece of shit loaner car not starting this morning. Again. Instead he dropped her off at work on his sled and said he’d pick her up at four.

  It was now five minutes after four and their appointment was at four thirty. Which meant they might be late if he didn’t show up soon.