“No.” I shake my head, emphatic. “Lincoln is a good guy on all occasions. I just wanted to let you know that sometimes what you believe to be true isn’t what it seems.”
I take off, setting out to prove just that.
* * *
An hour doesn’t pass before I set up a meeting with Lincoln’s sisters and Pepper while he’s at Merlin greasing the wheels to get them moving again. He insisted I stay at Jinx and get back to my routine.
“So, why isn’t Luke at this meet and greet?” Pepper seems disappointed.
“Are you interested in Luke?” Stevie looks as if she’s ready to play matchmaker.
“He is adorable.” She bites over her lip like maybe she is. “But I’m enjoying my solo flight. Besides, rumor has it, he’s bagged half of the hive. His stinger has been the talk of the lunchroom for quite sometime. No offense, but not for me.”
Aspen frowns. “We’ll find you a man yet, Pep. Preferably one with a gently used stinger.”
Usually, I’d be relishing this conversation, but right now, I’m a bit affronted. “How can you all sit around and joke when Lincoln’s entire future is at stake? We need to do something drastic. We need to find the bastard who’s nailing him to a wall.”
Stevie pulls the cherry from her drink and plays with the stem on her tongue, her eyes focused on some faraway place. “The only person I know who can crack this code, pun intended, is Lincoln himself.”
Aspen agrees, “There isn’t anything that man can’t find out.”
Pepper and Kinsley offer furtive nods.
Kinsley plucks the straw from her mouth. “He hunted down an old boyfriend for me once who moved clear across the globe and made him give me back three worthless CDs I was bitching about. The guy didn’t even have internet. Lincoln went to Scotland himself to retrieve them. Said it was a great excuse to hook up with girls with beautiful accents.” She mouths the word sorry to me. I bet he didn’t bag a redhead in the bunch, and I’m sure that posed quite the challenge in Scotland.
Aspen leans in. “Lincoln really helped with that whole Henry fiasco. He even helped Jinx figure out who was siphoning all that money from the company.” She brushes over my hand with hers. “Long story short, it was me.”
A laugh bubbles to my throat and stays there.
Stevie shakes her head. “He really knows how to save our asses.”
“Well, there you go.” Pepper waves her cobalt blue nails at us. “The answer is right under your nose.”
“Have Lincoln figure it out?” Stevie tilts her head, trying to follow.
“Not necessary.” Pepper bows her head as if we should catch on. “If he’s as brilliant as you say he is, Lincoln already knows who did this to him.”
“Oh my God,” I whisper. “You’re right.”
“Then why is he playing coy?” Aspen is disbelieving. “Why not call this asshole out on his bullshit.”
“He did,” I whisper.
“What?” Stevie taps the table, trying to pull me from my trance. “When?”
“At the board meeting.” I shake my head. God, of course, he did. “He was giving him a chance to come clean.”
“Him?” Pepper has her gender radar on high alert.
“Luke.” His name slips from my lips like a sickle. He did this.
Damn. His incessant need to decimate the Lionheart family is going to do him in.
Luke is not done stoking the flames of revenge—not by a long shot.
Lincoln
The hustle of a midday drink has always been as relished as landing a beautiful girl in my bed. But today, Gravity’s grainy late afternoon appeal, its barflies with their too short skirts and their heavy gazes set at my crotch are about as appetizing as having my balls skewered and served up to me. The only beautiful girl I want and will ever need in my bed is Macy. And, unfortunately, the only person I’ll need to clear my name is Luke Van Der Wolff.
Luke sits with his enormous back to me, the seams on his jacket stretching to capacity. He has my height with a linebacker’s body. I could take him in a fight, but I would risk losing a few teeth and having my jaw wired shut for months in the process.
“Luke—you’re here.”
I point at the bartender, and he wordlessly slips me a beer.
“You’re my brother.” He ticks his head toward me without looking me in the eyes. “We were charged to care for one another by the old man.” He purses his lips the same way Kinsley does when she’s pouting, and something in me loosens. It’s funny how you think something is unique to a person, and then you meet the family and realize it’s some genetic tic they’re expressing.
“What’s up?” He lifts his amber bottle to his lips, but doesn’t take a sip. “You want to exchange odd facts, see if we’ve been wearing the same deodorant for years? Speed Stick. I like Chinese. Don’t care for chocolate. I prefer gold to silver cuff links if you’re looking to get me a birthday gift. October thirty-first if you’re wondering. Halloween. How would you like to have that for your special day?”
“Sounds fun. And I prefer to stay the hell out of silver bracelets myself. You willing to help me out with that?”
His lips curve around the bottle before he thumps it onto the counter. “What do you want? Spit it out.”
“I know who you are, and what you’ve done.” I leave it out there and see what he does with it. There are so many damn facets to my new baby brother that I don’t even know where to start with him. One thing is clear, he’s always up for a good mind-fuck.
Luke shoots me a look, and, for a split second, I see my father in his eyes, cold, calculating, a warmth buried deep that you have to fight to earn.
His knuckles knock together as he considers his next move. “Buy me out.”
“Buy Devour? Rich name by the way. No connection to Wolff whatsoever.”
“Sort of like Alchemy and Merlin.” He’s quick to remind me of my own takeover pun.
“How much? I’m tired, I’m pretty much screwed, and I’m as close to broke as I ever want to be. Go easy.”
“Eight.” He reaches over to a pile of nuts sitting in a bowl and scoops a handful into his mouth.
“Eight thousand—hundred thousand? Eight Million?” At this point any number will do.
“Eight billion.”
Except that one.
“There you are!” A female voice hijacks the serenity of the bar, and we turn to find my sisters and Macy.
“Family meeting.” Stevie points hard to a table in the corner, and we begrudgingly follow her over.
“What the fuck?” Aspen looks to Luke. They know. Aspen isn’t one to toss out an errant expletive. She’s pissed, and it warms my heart to see it.
Macy scoots in close, hiking her mouth to my ear. “You’ve known all along, haven’t you?”
“You know me well.” I plant a kiss over her lips. It feels good like this, the camaraderie, the Lionhearts against the Lionheart wannabe. I hope Luke feels just as disenfranchised as I do loved. Hell, if Luke is booted out of our little Joy Luck Club, prison just might be worth it.
“Okay, I’m not a bad guy.” Luke raises his hands as if he were about to surrender. “I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted out of life, what I knew my father wasn’t about to give me.” He sears me with a vengeful look before his features soften. “I was about to do a start-up on my own, and, in the heat of my childish angst, I decided that I wanted to cut down Jinx and Merlin in the process.” He winces. “I’m sorry. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with a family that I only knew secondhand—a family who was no more real to me than fables a few months ago.” He darts his gaze to each of my sisters. “But you are real, with real beating hearts that I’ve grown to care about. When I came out West, I didn’t think you’d want me. I thought you might resent me for showing up, as much as I resented our father for not including me in your lives. Please, I’m sincere when I say this—I apologize from the deepest chamber of my heart.” He touches his chest. His eyes water
on cue, pleading for his own brand of mercy. “Okay, so I might have been an asshole, but I’m reforming my ways. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to beg your forgiveness.”
“Clear Lincoln’s name.” Kinsley touches her hand over his, and it looks more sisterly than it does a threat.
Stevie takes a steady breath. “It’s very big of you to apologize. Now it’s time to man up with the follow-through.” She presses her hands over the table as she leans in, narrowing her thicket of lashes at him. “I will never speak to you again if you don’t clear Lincoln’s name.” My spirit rises. “It’s not that I love him more than you, or feel some far stretching loyalty.” And falls. “You’re my brother just as much as he is. And, believe me, I know what it’s like to be on the outside of the core looking in.”
Not the core bullshit. I close my eyes for a moment.
Aspen leans in. “The core refers to Kinsley and Lincoln. It’s a term Stevie coined because she believed that for a very long time only they held our father’s real affection.”
“I completely feel that way.” Luke nods heavily as if finally someone understands.
And the mutiny begins. Shit.
“Our father is dead,” I snap. “His final words to each of us were very kind.” I scour the expanding whites of their eyes. “There is no fucking core—not anymore, not sure there ever was.”
Stevie huffs at the notion.
Aspen looks to the ceiling. She never was a convert to the core nonsense, but if anyone had a right to feel left out, it was her. I’m half-afraid of what the reading of my father’s will might reveal.
“What’s it going to be, Luke?” She flicks her fingers at him.
“Do the right thing,” Macy coaxes. It’s no secret Macy enjoys his friendship. I hope that’s all they ever enjoyed. It killed me knowing she was living with him when she should have been with me.
He looks right at me, man-to-man, first time all night. “I’m willing if you are.”
There are eight billion reasons for me not to be willing.
“We’ll see,” I say, pushing my beer away.
Most likely we’ll see me in prison.
* * *
There is something reassuring about sitting in my office, either of them really. The one at Merlin has a better view, but no Macy. The one here at Jinx holds the promise of something my body is in desperate need of. I text Macy and let her know I’d like to see her for a minute—let her know I need her opinion on something big.
After heading downtown to speak with my father’s attorney, I ran across an odd shop that I thought might interest my favorite sin. I’m hoping she’ll appreciate the purchase.
A gentle knock erupts at the door before Macy appears clicking it shut behind her.
“You’re late.” A slow spreading grin breaks out over my face, hoping she’ll get the reference to the first time she walked into my office.
Her head tilts. Her perfect pink mouth opens before expanding to a smile.
“And you’re a redhead,” I continue. “I couldn’t be more pleased.”
She strides forward with her hips swaying freely, a laugh caught in her throat. “I used to be a virgin, but I was deflowered by a horsey, beast of a man.”
It’s probably wrong of me to love that description, but my ego is too far gone.
“Am I still a no-go?” She sweeps her fingers over the desk’s glassy surface.
“Absolutely not.” I stand and circle my way over to her. I like where this might be going.
She tilts into me. Her eyes expand like an endless grassy field. “I’m glad to know my hair doesn’t disqualify me, Mr. Lionheart.”
My hands dig into her shoulders a moment before gliding down to her skirt. “Bend over, Sin.”
“Sin?” She gives a coy smile while turning around.
“Sinful as cinnamon.” I lift her hair and press a kiss to the back of her beautiful neck.
“Cinnamon is far from sinful,” she coos, her hands spreading over my desk, sending a stack of files straight to the floor.
“It is today.” I lift her skirt over her waist and take in her perfect curves, the lace of her thong licking down between her like a tongue.
“I bet you’re wondering if the curtains match the carpet.” She groans, turning her head in my direction. “By the way, I really regretted those words once I said them. I could have done so much better.”
“Don’t knock yourself too much. I like the research they demanded.” I give her waist a squeeze. “Now, get face-first on the desk. I’ll take it from there.”
“It’s your rodeo, cowboy.” Macy lies flat over the desk, obedient to my every whim. I won’t lie, that thread of obedience added to my attraction day one. Not that she needed it. Sin is beautiful, perfect in every way.
“All right, Sin. You’re a big talker. It’s time to pony up. You’re going to feel things that will make you scream whatever shit they shout at a rodeo.” I pause. My hand gives her thigh a light tap. “It looks like I almost forgot something.” I walk back around and pull out the big purchase I made yesterday, a ten-gallon hat the color of bourbon. I dunk it over my head with little fanfare, and Macy straightens. She lights up with laughter as if it were the funniest thing in the world. It might be.
“I knew you were a cowboy.”
“Just for you.” I stand behind her once again, and she steals a kiss before assuming the position. “I’d do anything for you.”
I roll on a condom and glide into her gently, taking her right there at the desk the way I wanted to that first day.
“Don’t let me hurt you,” I say, pumping into her slow and easy.
Macy leans her head back and lets out a moan, that beautiful hair pouring over her shoulders like rose petals. “I’ll take whatever you can give me. I want it all, Lincoln. And I never want it to end.”
I thrust freely, hard and steady, until the desk jumps beneath us, rattling the walls of this lonely office. My freedom is ticking away with prison taunting me on the other side of this countdown.
I want it all with Macy.
And I never want any of it to end.
But things have a way of ending for me in the most tragic way.
* * *
The following week, just hours before the formal reading of my father’s will, Ford summons me to his office. I stare at the text an inordinate amount of time. It feels ominous, very school principal, and I’m not sure why.
I head over, nodding at Pepper as I pass her desk. My feet plod as if I were a death row convict.
The air on this floor is cooler, less saturated with the pheromones permeating the hive. I shuffle down the long neck of the hall that leads to a set of doors to his lair, much like that of my father’s old office, the one I plan to settle in next week. A part of me didn’t want to move in just yet, didn’t want to “jinx” it, in the most literal sense. The truth is, I miss my father. I miss him so damn fiercely that I want to let out an earthshattering roar at the thought of never seeing him again. It’s unacceptable, and yet I’m forced to accept it.
I head inside without bothering to knock and pause when I see that the Cannons, my sisters, Luke, and Macy are all staggered around the room, seated wherever they can manage.
“Farewell party, so soon?” We all know that any day now I can find my ass in front of a judge and jury for crimes my brother committed. I’d hate for that to happen because, I promise, it will be the last day my brother has a normal life. There will be consequences, and I will make sure they are very uncomfortable.
“Sit,” Stevie beckons, and I choose to stand next to Macy.
Her arm slips inside my jacket, rubbing my back as if to comfort me, ease me into the ambush at hand.
“We’ve heard Luke’s proposal.” Ford closes his eyes as if the never-ending zeros my brother is hungry for are making him dizzy. “What we’ve decided to propose to you is something that perhaps you may or may not have entertained.”
Carter slaps a formal business plan onto the
desk, but I don’t bite. “It’s a merger proposal—Jinx and Merlin coming together to create one hell of a strong corporate group that becomes a game changer in the tech industry.”
“We reroof,” Cash chimes in, and my chest begins to hammer at the possibility. “You’re essentially the owner of both. You are Jinx and Merlin. We combine the names to create brand recognition, arrange them however you like. We can talk subdivisions and conglomerates later if you’re interested, but the power we can wield is far greater than that of Jinx and Merlin alone.”
Macy gives my back a gentle scratch, and I relax into her.
“What brought this on?” I’m perplexed. It’s out of left field. If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s being caught off guard.
“I did,” Luke offers.
“Figures.” I pick up the business proposal and drop it back onto the desk without bothering to thumb through it. “Reconstructing—deconstructing everything my father built from the ground up has been your proposal from the beginning.”
“Not true,” Carson pipes up. The Cannon doppelgangers dot the room with their faces like a funhouse nightmare. “We’ve been getting together and trying to figure out how to make your brother happy. Devour is a viable company. He has something serious on his hands, and I don’t blame him for not wanting to give it away.”
He has shit on his hands. It’s nice to know he’s managed to pull the Cannons under his spell.
“He worked for Jinx and Merlin while developing those patches,” I inform them in the event he’s wiped that out of their memories. “The formal employee contract at both firms stipulates we have first right of refusal on any work he might be willing to sell. And, since I own both and didn’t see shit, I’m not giving him a dime.”
Macy straightens. “Think this through. You own Merlin and Jinx. The insider-trading charges will stick unless you can prove someone else undersold those patches. Luke is willing to work with us. He’s—” she nods to him in hopes he’ll finish the ad campaign starring himself.