Prohibited (Tulsa City Sinners #1)

16. Lindsay

Chapter sixteen

Lindsay

“I think we have a problem.” Lindsay nearly tripped over his cane in his haste to get the front door of the Crystal shut behind him.

Sal stood behind the bar in his maroon jacket, polishing glassware. Sitting at the bar, Ryan and Hiloha were playing cards, and Joey was watching nearby, smoking a cigarette and likely egging them on. Alex stood behind the bar with Sal.

All of them looked at him with varying degrees of amusement and trepidation.

“What kind of problem?” Ryan asked first.

“I think we’ve been compromised.” The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

“What do you mean compromised?” Alex said impatiently.

“Word on the street is that Simon was seen with Jerry Hannah this morning and no one has seen him since,” Lindsay said. “Jerry works for– ”

“Walter Stanley.” Hiloha finished, dropping his cards on the bar top with disgust.

“He’s been offering a reward for information about her,” Joey said. They all exchanged a look.

“You don’t think he’d–” Lindsay said.

But he didn’t miss the way Alex was glaring at Ryan. “I wonder why it would occur to him to do such a thing,” Alex said, voice smooth in spite of the anger on his face.

Ryan deliberately avoided looking at him. A long-suffering look flickered over his face, but was gone in an instant. Keeping his eyes on his hands, he reached into his pocket and drew out of his pack of Lucky Strikes. All eyes were on him, though no one said anything.

Finally, face twisting with annoyance, Ryan looked around at them. “Okay, Christ. I’m sorry for beating the piglet’s ass.”

“Are you, though?” Alex asked, rolling his sleeves back down as he talked, eyes sharp.

Ryan didn’t answer, just folded his arms and gave Alex a look that could have easily cut a diamond.

“Well,” Alex went on bitterly. “Stanley found the little weasel before I could.”

“We’re going to have to move her,” Ryan said.

“Now,” Hiloha said. “Stanley isn’t going to wait around. That man is walking madness.” He flicked back his shoulder length black hair–gradually growing out since relinquishing the haircut he’d been forced to maintain while in the Army–and began to gather the cards that littered the bar between him and Ryan .

“She can’t be seen,” Alex said, fitting his cufflinks together with practiced fingers. Then he tugged his sleeves down so his shirt fit just so. God, he looked handsome.

“Put her in one of the crates and put her in the back of the truck,” Joey offered, lighting up another cigarette.

“On the one hand, a good idea,” Ryan said. He got to his feet. “On the other hand, cops have a habit of wanting to stop and search crates these days.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Joey said, raising his eyebrows at him and pressing his full lips together.

“Trying,” Ryan said.

“Roll her up in a rug and throw her in the back of the TT,” Alex said, pulling his jacket on.

“What if she suffocates?” Lindsay wrinkled his forehead.

“Shame,” Alex said, dryly.

“Where the fuck are you even taking her?” Hiloha asked, shoving the cards in his pocket. He took Ryan’s pack of Lucky Strikes off of the table and drew one out, striking a match against the edge of the bar.

“I don’t know, the candy shop,” Alex said, a sour expression coming onto his face.

“The candy shop?” Ryan shot back. “Really?”

“Well, ya’ll better decide, because we’re going to have guests showing up here in–” Joey plucked a beautiful pocket watch out of his waistcoat and popped the face open. “An hour. ”

“The candy shop,” Alex said again, eyes burning with irritation as he glanced at Ryan. “We’ll lock her in the basement closet.”

“With the fucking rats?” Lindsay said, leaning hard against his cane and putting his free hand into a fist on his waist.

“I’ll send food down for them, too, so they don’t get too many ideas,” Alex said, smiling an evil cat’s smile.

“Alex,” Lindsay said, totally unamused.

“Alright, alright,” Ryan said, waving his hands in the air. “Joey’s right, people are going to start showing up here. We’ve got to move her now. Hilo, you and Joey get a couple of our boys in here for security tonight.”

“Do you think the place should even be open tonight?” Hiloha said, standing and pushing his stool back. He picked his revolver up off of the counter and slid it back into his shoulder holster.

“Yes,” Alex said. “I do. I’m not running my business around Walter Stanley’s plans. And while I do know he’s fucking insane, I don’t think he’s insane enough to walk in here and start shooting innocent bystanders.”

“Whatever you say, boss,” Joey said, slowly standing and stretching.

“But how are you transporting her?” Hiloha held his cigarette between his forefinger and his thumb, looking back and forth between Ryan, Alex, and Lindsay.

“Bring a car around to the back alley,” Alex said. “Station a lookout on either end. We’ll bring her up at gunpoint and put her in the back of the truck. Put a blindfold on her and bind her hands. The truck is covered anyway, so if we get stopped, we get stopped. But I have enough cash in my pocket that says any cop that stops us will be happy to let us be.”

“Considering that you chopped all of her hair off, she’s not as easy to recognize, anyway.” Ryan said. The sour tone in his voice was not lost on Lindsay.

“Is Brother mad I ruined my Dolly?” Alex asked in a mocking, diminutive voice.

“Don’t fucking call me that,” Ryan said through clenched teeth.

The room fell silent, with a tension so thick and palpable in the air that Lindsay could practically feel it touching his face.

“Uh oh,” Joey said under his breath. “Mom and Dad are fighting.”

“Joey,” Ryan said, voice simmering with anger. One of his forefingers was pointed directly at him. “I swear to God.”

“Everyone calm the fuck down,” Lindsay said, raising his voice slightly. “Joey, Hilo, beat it, outside. Bring the car around and then post up at either end of the alleyway.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Hiloha said, snatching his hat and his coat off of the bar. He led the way out after throwing both Alex and Ryan a look, shaking his head as he went.

Joey saluted Lindsay with a grin and followed him out.

“It’s time to end this,” Lindsay said, limping closer to where the two of them stood on opposite sides of the bar from each other. “I know you’re fucking pissed off about Tommy, but look at where this is leading up. You’re cat fighting and Walter Stanley is liable to show up on our doorstep any minute. Just give her back to him and let it go.”

Alex laughed, a bright sound of mirth as if he’d said something genuinely funny. “Give her back to him? Oh, Pony, my Pony. There’s only one way this story is going to end and it is not that.”

“If you don’t, there’s only one way that this is going to end, and it’s with a hell of a lot of bloodshed.” Lindsay threw his cane onto the bar with a clatter and gripped the back of his chair with his hands until his knuckles turned white. “I didn’t nearly get my leg blown off fighting fucking Germans to come home and be launched back into another war all over again.”

“You chose this life,” Alex said coldly.

“I’m a career criminal,” Lindsay said. “Not a career warlord.” He swallowed. “I chose you. I didn’t choose this.”

Another heavy silence between all of them.

“I’m going to get her.” Ryan turned on his heel and went to the secret door, snapping the candle back so hard he almost took it out of the wall.

“Tommy wouldn’t have wanted this,” Lindsay said.

Alex came around the bar, leveling a finger at him. The anger in his eyes was more intense than Lindsay had ever seen it. Still, he didn’t back down. Ryan paused at the doorway and slowly turned to look at him, anger and… remorse warring in his face ?

These days the only thing Lindsay saw in Ryan was anger and conflict. It gave him hope that Ryan could be turned to his side of things.

“You don’t know a single fucking thing about what Tommy would have wanted,” Alex said in a voice that nearly burned.

“He wasn’t my brother,” Lindsay said, “but he might as well have fucking been. And he sure as fuck wouldn’t have wanted an innocent woman being maimed by your insane fucking vindictive blood quest.”

“You’re on very dangerous ground, Lindsay,” Alex said in a soft voice. The use of his given name was like a stab right through his heart.

“What are you going to do, Alex?” Lindsay said, spreading his hands, adrenaline and anger humming through his body. “Hit me? Go on. Fucking hit me.”

“Stop,” Ryan said in a voice that brooked no argument. “Knock it the fuck off both of you. Fighting like fucking children. Lindsay, quit provoking people like a bitch. We’re running out of time. We need to get her out of here. Lindsay, you go up to the alleyway. Alex, come with me.”

He and Alex stood staring at each other for a long moment. Lindsay’s hand twitched from his desire to slug Alex in the face. They’d only had a physical altercation once or twice and he wasn’t proud of it, but he was more than ready to have another one now. Still, the voice of reason that called from beyond the fog of anger filling his head said that Ryan was right .

Taking in a deep breath, he leaned forward and snatched up his cane. Alex watched him with hooded blue eyes. Lindsay met his look squarely one more time and then he turned and went back to the door. He looked over his shoulder at Ryan and Alex both and then he snapped it open, stepped into the stairwell, and slammed it shut behind him.

He took the steps carefully, hauling his bad leg up one at a time. On his way out of the back door into the alleyway, he banged his elbow and swore loudly. Hiloha was just bringing the covered Ford TT around when he got there. He pulled it smoothly to a stop right in front of Lindsay and put it into park.

“Good luck with the little madman,” Hiloha said, giving him a skeptical look and a salute.

Lindsay just shook his head. “See you later,” he muttered as Hiloha tossed his jacket over his shoulder and strode to the end of the alleyway.

God, it was hot and sticky outside, even in the shade of the alleyway. He looked back and forth at either end of the passage. Both Joey and Hiloha were smoking cigarettes. Joey was kicking rocks and looking especially impatient. Hiloha stood straight back and still, occasionally swiveling his head back and forth.

Finally, the door behind him opened. Alex preceded Ryan into the alleyway, who walked behind Evelyn with a gun pressed into her lower back. As Alex had stated, she was blindfolded and her hands were bound. She was also gagged for good measure. The sight of her in the trousers and shirt that Lindsay had furnished for her along with her short hair would have been charming, if not for the miserable scenario in which she found herself.

“I’ll ride in the back with her,” Lindsay said, firmly.

“Will you, now,” Alex said, lips tightening. He looked on the verge of protesting. And he went so far as to exchange a look with Ryan. But Lindsay reached out and took hold of her forearm, pulling her toward him. And neither of them stopped him. He steered her around the back of the truck and then gently pushed her backward until her backside hit the bed. Ryan, who had followed them, picked her up and lifted her inside.

“Keep moving back,” Lindsay said and watched her squirm awkwardly toward the back of the bed. “Stop, stop there.”

He threw his cane in with a clatter and then climbed in after her. He and Ryan exchanged a look that positively vibrated with anger. Once Lindsay was inside, Ryan yanked the cloth covering down in the back. The crunch of his boots followed him around to the front of the truck where he climbed in. Another door on the other side of the truck banged closed, and then after a moment the truck started slowly moving forward.

Lindsay crawled to where Evelyn lay, inert and tense. With gentle fingers, he undid the rope around her hands, which left a red mark behind.

“Are you alright?” he murmured, stroking the red marks with his thumb. With a glance at the grated window at the back of the truck cab, he undid the gag that bound her mouth and whispered in her ear. “Don’t get me in trouble.”

“Where are they taking me?” she whispered, voice trembling, as the truck engine fired and the beast began to roll forward.

“Another place,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

Her hands reached out blindly and felt for him, stumbling over his shoulder, his chest. When she found his face, she caressed his cheeks, and his nose, and his lips with such a tenderness that it made his body warm. He captured one of her hands and kissed her knuckles.

“Are you hurt?” he asked her. The way her hand moved to cup his face made his heart flutter.

“No,” she whispered back. “I’m glad you’re here.”

They rode on in silence for a while. Discomfort chased warmth through his body as he lay next to her, propped on his elbow. The roads made the truck rattle and shift, rotating their bodies back and forth. All the while, she held onto his wrist and kept her hand against his face.

“Are they going to kill me?” she finally asked in a hollow voice.

“No,” Lindsay said with absolute certainty. “They won’t.”

Another stretch of silence as they rode along.

“Will you kiss me?” she asked softly.

“Kiss you?” Lindsay wasn’t sure he heard her correctly.

“I want something gentle to remember before I die,” she said .

“You’re not going to die,” Lindsay said, feeling a small touch of despair swarm through him.

“Will you?” she said.

Lindsay swallowed. Who was he to deny a lady her request? “Yes.”

Heart beating faster, he lowered his mouth until his lips brushed hers. She let out a sigh and her hand found its way to the back of his head. God, her lips were soft and delicious and they parted when he kissed her so that each could taste the other’s mouth. Slowly, they moved together until he broke his lips away from hers with a rich, satisfying sound.

Without either of them saying anything, they kissed again. This time, her mouth opened and he tasted her tongue with his. A soft sound escaped her throat and he matched her, slipping his hand around the back of her head. The scent of her, the taste of her were enough to make his body weak.

Their mouths broke apart again and he lifted her wrist to his lips and began to press tender kisses on the red marks the ropes left on her flesh.

A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that she was likely manipulating him, the way she’d manipulated Simon, but he didn’t care. She was warm and delicious and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted a woman so much. He’d replayed the bath that she’d allowed him to give her ten thousand times in his mind in the past day .

“How far do we have to drive?” she asked him in a quiet, breathless voice.

“Twenty minutes or so,” Lindsay said between kisses on her impossibly soft forearms.

“Make love to me,” she said, pressing closer.

This time, he actually laughed. “What?”

“Make love to me,” she said again, breathless.

“No,” he said. That, he would not do.

“I’m taking my liberties where I can,” she said with an edge to her voice that surprised him. “And I want you to fuck me.” A pause. “Don’t you want to?”

“Yes,” he said. “I mean, obviously yes. But, I–”

“You what?” Her hands were ghosting down over his shoulders, his arms. One of them slipped down to touch his chest and the other one was questing lower.

He grabbed it gently but firmly with his hand. “Are you sure?”

“Goddammit,” she breathed. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to beg a man to fuck me before.”

Lindsay laughed again. “I’ve heard that humility is a virtue.”

“Yes or no?” she whispered against his cheek, lifting her head. Something about the blindfold was so tantalizing.

“I won’t fuck you, but…” He moved slowly onto his knees and his voice dropped to a whisper. “I would like to pleasure you.”

“Okay,” she said, voice sounding cautious but a touch heavy with excitement. “Hurry, we only have so much time.”

“Roll onto your back.”

She did so without complaint. He wished he had a blanket or something to put under her beautiful, tender flesh, but alas.

“I’m going to take your trousers off,” Lindsay said. And he began to unfasten the buttons of the fly, one at a time. A smile touched her beautiful mouth and she bit her lower lip, causing a surge of blood to his cock. With gentle, quick hands, he pulled the trousers all the way down and off. He’d caught a glimpse of her luscious thighs and the beautiful, glossy curls between them when he was toweling her off, but he’d kept himself from leering at her. Now, she was offering herself to him. On full, gorgeous display, and it was enough to make his body tremble like he was a stupid young man again.

“Lift your hips,” he said, and then fit her trousers underneath them to keep the detritus scattered across the truck bed from biting into her flesh. Lindsay settled on his stomach directing each of her legs over his shoulders and he wriggled up until her gorgeous cunt was within reach of his face.

God, it had been so long since he’d been with a woman. And he, admittedly, had never been with one so beautiful. But then, were there any others who were as beautiful as her?

Slowly, he lowered his mouth and ran his tongue along the length of her cunt, stopping when he found the delicate pearl where the lips of her cunt met, relishing the spicy, rich taste of her. He teased it with his tongue, pleased with the way she moaned and rocked her hips, offering herself up to the tender explorations of his mouth. An illicit thrill went through him at the idea of Alex and Ryan riding in the cab just ahead of them. The anger he felt toward Alex surged through him, bidding him to please her, to let her claim him.

One of her slim, graceful hands stole into his hair, twining through it and massaging his scalp, sending a current of pleasure through his body. He glided one of his hands up and down her thigh and locked the other one around her hip while he slipped his tongue through the silken folds of her cunt, glorying in the texture, the smell, the taste. He dipped his tongue into her hot, wet opening and she gasped, opening her thighs further to allow him to press his tongue inside of her as far as it would go and draw his head back and forth, simulating penetration the way he would fuck her with his cock if he wasn’t so interested in earning her pleasure with the labor of his mouth and his hands.

The hand that he caressed her thigh with stole down and he eased two fingers inside of her, replacing his tongue. He gave her cunt a rich, wet kiss, and then he went back to lapping at the pearl of her pleasure, paying careful attention to the way she moaned and her muscles tensed until he settled on a spot to stroke with his tongue over and over again, with patient and faithful dedication while her grip in his hair grew tighter and she begged him not to stop. The pain in his scalp sent thrills of ecstasy through him. With his fingers, he found the core of pleasure inside of her and began to massage it with steady, deep strokes.

Small whimpers died in her throat and she choked on cries that she wouldn’t allow herself to release.

Lindsay stopped the worship of her cunt just long enough to say, spitefully, “Don’t hold back. Who fucking cares if they hear?”

And with that, the small moans and cries trickled out of her throat, growing louder and louder, until she was rocking against his face and his hand, muscles clenching tighter and tighter around his fingers until she stopped breathing, stopped making a sound for a moment that lasted eternity. Then, he felt her muscles release, and then clench, release and then clench in a wave of pleasure while she choked on a scream that she didn’t allow herself to release, even at the climax of her pleasure. The muscles of her cunt continued to clench as pleasure rode through her, wave after wave, nearly soaking his hand and making his cock so hard that it was painful to lie on.

The thing Alex loved about him so much was his acute desire to please during their sexual encounters. This was no different and he couldn’t prevent himself from taking another deep taste of her cunt before bringing himself up onto all fours and crawling up her body to whisper against her lips, “Did that please you?”

“God yes,” she moaned in a low, velvety voice that sent ripples down his belly and into his cock. “Thank you. ”

Lindsay took her hand in his and raised it against his mouth, pressing his lips against her knuckles. “You’re going to be alright,” he said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

She caressed the side of his face, but said nothing.

They rode the rest of the way in silence.