Page 71 of No Apologies
“Not much. I’m getting close to paying him off.” He shook his head, “At least I was until last week when I nearly lost that fight.”
Skylar’s brows furrowed, “When you were all bruised up?”
“Yeah.”
“You almost lost?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’ve never even come close to losing before?”
“No.” He glanced up and saw her lips pursed. “Why?”
“You don’t think it’s a little bit strange that you’re finally getting close to freeing yourself from Lincoln’s chains and all of a sudden you nearly lose a fight and your business, which he gave you money to start in the first place, is attacked?”
He scowled, “What are you gettin’ at Skylar?”
“It just seems to me that the person with the most to gain here is your cousin. Lincoln doesn’t strike me as the type of guy that’s going to let something good go easily. You bring in money if you never lose and it’s pretty clear even to an outsider like me that he loves lording his power over all of your cousins. You and Cash will be the only ones he can’t touch once you pay him off.”
What she was saying sank in and his brows shot up. No. That was crazy. Wasn’t it?
“You think Link attacked my shop?”
“Maybe.” She shrugged a delicate shoulder, “Would you put it past him?”
Colt rubbed his temples as a headache began to take hold. No, he wouldn’t put anything past Lincoln. Not really. And it made a sick, twisted kind of sense. With the shop destroyed, he’d need more money to fix it. Lincoln had even offered to cover it already, claiming he still owned some of it anyway and would be happy to help. Of course, that money would come with its own debt and he’d known that so he hadn’t said yes.
But if Lincoln had set him up, what had they spent the afternoon doing? All of the phone calls and hushed conversations while they cleaned up the shop. The tip that their guy had been blabbing about getting back at the Bomars. They’d found the bastard responsible and returned the favor. But who had told Lincoln that was their guy?
Damn it, he didn’t know.
“I don’t know.” He admitted.
“Do you trust him?”
“No.”
Skylar shrugged, “There’s your answer.”
He wished it were that simple but it wasn’t. He didn’t trust anyone. That didn’t necessarily mean his cousin was out to ruin him. Lincoln was a selfish, sadistic prick but he’d never hurt the family.
“If Link set me up, how do you explain the guy we paid a visit to today?”
“That’s where y’all went?”
“Yeah and the guy wasn’t working with Lincoln. Trust me. He was terrified of him. Started talkin’ straight away. He said Link has a rat in his crew, somebody playing both sides with the competition. That got Link’s attention for sure but if the guy we talked to knew who it was, he would’ve cracked and said something after the beating we gave him.”
Skylar winced, “Guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.”
“Hey…” He crossed to the bed and reached for her hand, “This shit, it’s a part of me. I’m trying to break free but you said you wanted to know everything. That’s everything. Please don’t hate me for being honest with you about who I am.”
“What?” Skylar squeezed his hand, “I don’t hate you, Colt. You did what you had to do in order to survive. You still are. I don’t blame you. I respect the hell out of the tough choices you’ve had to make.”
“You have no idea what that means to me.” He breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her close, knowing that he was about to push her away again, “But until Link and I figure out who the threat against us really is, I need you to keep your distance from me.”
“No.”
“Sky…”
