“You said your father started the Dead Presidents?” I asked before shoveling another bite in.
“Yep.”
I chewed and swallowed. “Why?”
“It’s a long story.”
The most annoying answer ever. I cocked an eyebrow at him and called him out on it. “As in, you don’t want to tell me? Or you’re afraid I have ADD and can’t sit through the answer?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “I like the way you don’t pull your punches. It’s… refreshing.”
“Refreshing?” I smiled back, enjoying the way my bluntness didn’t intimidate him. “Don’t think flattery will get you out of sharing.”
He watched me as he chewed and swallowed. Nice full lips, strong, square jaw, intelligent blue eyes, there was no denying my attraction to him. As I began to think he’d ignore my question, he took a deep breath and started the tale.
“Mom got pregnant with me about the time Pops, his brother, Wade, and about half of Seattle got laid off from Boeing. Not a lot of places were hiring, and Pops didn’t know how he’d support us, so he and Uncle Wade decided to join the Army. Mom had me while he was away, and a few years later, when Pops was home on leave, she got pregnant with my little sister, Naomi. Pops has never done anything half-ass, and so when he served the country, he did it all the way. He passed the Q-Course and went on to Special Forces. Uncle Wade tried to follow him, but didn’t make it. He stayed on as an infantryman.”
Link’s gaze landed on a black and white picture. I followed it to find two handsome men—one of which looked a lot like Link—dapper in their Army uniforms, M16s slung over their shoulders.
“Mom pretty much raised me and Naomi alone until Uncle Wade’s unit went missing. They found a few bodies, but not my uncle’s. Pops came home shortly afterward, but my uncle never did. Pops thinks he was captured, and it fucked with his head pretty bad. Mom couldn’t handle the man he’d turned into, and she must have been tired of raising me and Naomi, because she split when I was eight and Naomi was five. We never saw her again.”
His story tugged at my heartstrings. My parents had died when I was young, but neither of them had abandoned me willingly. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like for him and his sister. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. Shit happens for a reason, and Mom’s absence allowed Pops to do something great that she never would have agreed to had she stayed. My grandparents died shortly after Mom left, leaving Pops the inheritance he needed to start this club. Me and Naomi lost our mom, but we gained a shit-ton of family in the process. Aunts, uncles, cousins, people who needed this place… needed the structure, the accountability, and the stability… shit they lost when they got out of the service. I grew up building bikes and listening to war stories, surrounded by good people who’d willingly sacrificed so much for their country that they couldn’t remember how to live.”
“The Dead Presidents.” I nodded. “I get it now. What made you go into the service?”
“Stubbornness,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d heard so many stories, I wanted to experience it for myself. Pops asked me not to, but there was pride in his eyes the day I enrolled. I get him—and the cause—now, on a level I never could have understood had I not served. It made me the man I am today, and I don’t regret a damn thing.”
Why was he telling me all of this? Don’t get me wrong, I’d had hundreds of people bare their souls to me over the years, but it was usually in an attempt to prove their innocence. As far as I could see, Link couldn’t be accused of anything other than being a sexy badass carrying on his father’s legacy for helping people.
“And your sister?” I asked.
“Naomi’s in the Air Force.”
Before I could fire off any more questions, a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Link called out.
The door opened, and a handsome blond beefcake strolled in.
“Wasp. Just in time. Ms. Stafford, this is Wasp, Vice President of the club. Wasp, Ms. Stafford is the attorney taking Havoc’s case.”
“Emily, please,” I said, stepping forward to shake Wasp’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
He grinned. “Pleasure.”
“Wasp will take care of you and make sure you talk to everyone you need to talk to. If he—or any of these other assholes—give you any trouble, you nail ’em with that elbow thing, but make sure you aim for their throats.”
“What elbow thing?” Wasp asked.
I shrugged, trying my best to feign innocence as Link laughed and hurried out the door.
