Chapter Thirty-three: Superman （It’s Not Easy）

Chapter Thirty-three

Lincoln

SUPERMAN (IT'S NOT EASY)

Performed by Five for Fighting

I'd slept for three hours after losing myself in Willow, but it was only one in the morning by the time the ants came crawling. Fully awake, I stared at her tucked up against my chest, face calm and serene even though I could still see the remnants of the tears scattered across it.

Both Willow's parents had asked me to protect her. And even though Erica hadn't specifically asked if I loved her daughter, it had hovered beneath her other requests. She'd asked the same thing as Willow's dad had in his letter. Was I in it for the long haul? Did I love her enough to guard her heart like it was my own? Would I sacrifice my happiness for hers?

And the answer to all of it was yes.

Before my limbs started twitching so much that I woke her, I eased out of the bed. When she rolled over and hugged the pillow, I almost tore it out of her hands and slid back in. I felt right when I was twined with her, and I despised my body's inability to stay.

I dragged to the love seat with my sketchbook in hand, letting the moon light up the page for me. I drew without thought and found flowers flowing from my fingertips. Lotus blooms in different shades with so many different meanings, but always emerging from the depths of the mud and dark waters to open in the light.

The lotus represents purity and rebirth and rising from challenge. I barely glanced over to where Sienna paced by the window. When I didn't answer, she continued, It's you. And her. And the gallery. Passionate souls, endless love, and new beginnings rising from the muck around you, clean and bright and beautiful. You can have it, Lincoln. You're almost at the finish line. Or maybe the new starting line? I don't know.

She was right, as always, about all of it, but also that it would be a good name for the gallery. The Lotus Gallery. "Why are you here?" I demanded in a harsh whisper.

To keep you from doing something you think is all noble and good and losing everything.

"I won't lose her."

You won't.

"Lincoln? Who are you talking to?" I twirled around at Willow's sleepy voice.

I threw Sienna an annoyed look and then turned my back on her to join Willow in bed.

"Myself. My demons."

I heard Sienna's snort from behind me, but didn't acknowledge her.

"Go back to sleep."

"It's almost time for me to get up anyway."

I kissed her with force and heat and intensity. I kissed her because I was afraid that for some reason, somehow, I wouldn't be able to continue kissing her for much longer, even when my heart knew she was mine and I was hers. And maybe I was kissing her to prove to Sienna I knew what I was doing, so she could just scurry back off into the ether. But mostly, I kissed Willow because I didn't have another choice. She was too tempting. Too beautiful. Too everything I needed and wanted in my life.

Willow smiled against my lips and then pushed on my chest. "I need to get to work."

She didn't need to work because I could take care of us both, but I couldn't imagine Willow ever not working. She enjoyed what she did too much. Her baking was as much a part of her as my painting was a part of me. So instead of spending another hour convincing her to stay in bed, I let her go with reluctance.

We got ready for our day together, and then I walked with her to the car and drove with the Marshals and Axel's team to The Tea Spot. When the team gave the all clear, I went inside with her.

"I'll see you after work," I told her, placing a kiss on her temple.

"At some point, you'll need to stop doing this," she said.

"What?"

"Following me along everywhere."

"I'm not doing it because I think I can protect you more than the men I've hired." When she rolled her eyes in challenge, I huffed out a laugh and said, "Okay, I'm not doing it completely for that reason. I'm doing it because I'm awake and I love spending every moment I can with you before our day pulls us apart."

It wasn't the I love you she deserved yet. But I felt like if I told her now, when it was too soon, she'd toss that word ridiculous at me again, and blame it on my need to protect the women in my life. She wasn't wrong. But those weren't the only reasons. So I'd hold on to the words a bit longer. Until the timing was better. Until the shadows weren't lingering over us.

It gave me one more incentive to end this quickly.

"I don't know how to respond when you say things like that," she said honestly. "Your words are beautiful and breathtaking and—"

"Don't say it, Sweetness. Don't say the R word because there are too many people who might catch us in the middle of me issuing a penalty for saying it."

She snorted. "Go paint something."

I chuckled and taunted back, "Go bake something."

And then I left with the music of her laughter following me.

When I got to the gallery, I sketched out the lotus image and words for the gallery sign, until the contractor's team showed up. Then, I boxed up most of the supplies I'd just uncrated in the last week, and wrangled Axel's men into taking it and all my uncompleted projects to my house.

I'd just finished resetting everything up in one of the guest rooms, when Axel walked in with a grim expression on his face.

"Some college kid was paid by some guy to bring a note to Willow at the café. We intercepted it before it got to her, and we're working with the kid to identify him. So far all we know is that he was an average height man with brown hair, a beanie, and sunglasses."

He handed me a note that read, Your part in this fairy-tale is to die.

A growl escaped me as my rage grew. "Fucking Felicity!"

"She's still in LA," he said. "And we haven't identified any payments from her to another source."

I yanked my phone from my pocket, found the unknown number from the day before, and hit dial.

When she greeted me with a snippy "What?" I almost lost it.

"Call them off. Call them off or I swear to God, I'll find you and pull you apart limb by limb."

"I told you, Lincoln, I have nothing to do with whatever is going on with you." But I heard the hesitation. Heard the spike of something close to fear.

"You really want to end up in prison? You want people to die because of some goddamn obsession? Because you didn't get what you wanted from me?"

"I didn't do anything!" she shouted. She inhaled sharply, calming herself like she always had in the middle of an argument. "But I may know who's behind this. Sort of."

"Of course you do!"

"Not because I hired them! Just listen to me for two seconds."

"I'm putting you on speaker so the head of my security can hear," I told her. "Just fucking tell me the truth!"

I turned up the volume as Felicity said, "I told you I was being stalked, and I was, even though you didn't believe me! He said he was the only person who deserved the fairy tale of me. And after what happened in St. Micah, he said you didn't deserve any fairy tale at all when you'd caused so much pain to me and others. He swore you wouldn't get a happy ending."

"Those were your words. You said those to me!"

"I was so pissed at you and scared. And when you didn't seem to give a shit what was happening, I tossed the same ones at you."

"That was months ago!"

"I got another note earlier this week. He said he'd kill you for rejecting me as a way of proving how much he loved me. He insisted I belonged with him and only him."

"And you didn't tell me," I hissed.

"I didn't know you'd declined Secret Service protection. How was I supposed to know you'd left yourself vulnerable?"

She twisted it back on me. As if this was my fault, and maybe, because I was already thinking similar thoughts, her arrow landed home.

"Who is it?" I demanded.

"I don't know. My manager just threw the most recent note in a bag with all the other hate mail I'm getting because of you ."

"So because you're angry and getting some ugly letters, you figured it was okay not to warn me? For me to be killed? For people around me to be hurt?"

"No! I just thought the letter was all bluster."

I didn't believe her, and I was positive Axel didn't either if the anger in the man's eyes said anything. Felicity Bradshaw would have been happy if I'd turned up dead. Whether or not she'd virtually pulled the trigger by hiring someone was a different story.

"This is Axel Garner, Lincoln's security," Axel said. "We need anything you still have. A photo of the letters for now, but I'd prefer to have the actual ones sent to me. I'll give you the location to mail them."

"You'll have to talk to Richard, my manager. He has it all now."

"Give me his number," Axel demanded.

She rattled it off, and after he'd stepped aside to make the call, I said, "You're responsible for this." Maybe it was the truth or maybe I just wanted it to be true, so I wouldn't have to shoulder one more regret.

"I didn't do this," she insisted. "So please, can you keep me out of it? My career can't handle another hit."

A sound of pure fury erupted from my chest. "Your career? How about my life? How about Willow's life?"

"Who's Willow?"

Her voice turned icy. She didn't care. She'd never really cared, which was why I'd never felt anything for her in return. Felicity Bradshaw was a shell. An empty human being who wouldn't know a true emotion if it hit her in the face. It was also why the pinnacle of success she longed for would forever be out of her reach.

"If something happens before we catch this guy, it's on you," I snarled, and then I hung up.

Axel came back into the room. "Her manager confirms she's been getting creepy notes for several years, and that the latest one came earlier this week."

I refused to feel guilty for anything related to Felicity. If she'd had an actual stalker, it should have given her even more reason not to stalk me. But I was also sure that in her head, Felicity could twist the two events so they weren't anything alike.

When I said nothing, Axel continued, "He also said he hadn't shown Felicity the image that came with the note. But he forwarded it to me. It's a picture of you and Willow with Xs on your faces."

Every nerve ending and muscle in my body tightened as I looked at the picture of Willow and I dancing on the street outside the cottage. The intensity of my anger almost frightened me. The lack of control I felt, shaking me almost as much as the fury itself.

Through the haze, a thought snuck in. If Poco was the one sending the photographs to the media, was he also Felicity's stalker? That made absolutely no sense. No matter how small the world was, there was no way it was that small.

When I said as much to Axel, he agreed.

"The phrasing of the notes is almost the same as the words she tossed in my face," I added. "Whether she picked them up from her stalker or the other way around, she's involved somehow."

"We're fairly certain Poco isn't the one leaving the notes based on the timeline and what we've dug up on him. He may have sold some photos he took, but there could easily have been someone else who saw the two of you together."

"The guy in the sedan." Even as I said it, I remembered the car had buzzed past Willow and me the day we'd danced in the street. "Willow insisted it wasn't Poco's car."

"Let's go pay him a visit," Axel said.

"You're willing to take me with you?" I said with more than a little shock. My Secret Service detail wouldn't have let me anywhere near Poco or Tall Paul's place.

Axel gave a curt nod, "I know if the woman I cared about was being threatened, I'd want to confront the asshole suspected of doing it. Besides, if Poco is somehow involved, seeing you might set him off, and I can use that to our advantage."

I pocketed my phone and followed Axel out to a waiting SUV. The man was so big he made the driver's seat look like a go-cart chair. He hid his golden eyes behind dark sunglasses and tucked his shorn hair under a baseball cap. Once again, I'd left my disguise behind, but if Axel wanted me to be recognized, I didn't need one. The damn disguise obviously hadn't done its job like I'd promised Willow anyway.

As we headed toward the outskirts of town, Axel said, "Marshal Service told me they gave the Earharts forty-eight hours to move or exit the program."

My entire being tightened. I wasn't losing her. I'd promised Erica I'd protect them if they left, and I would. "As much as I'd hate for this to be about me, it would be better than the Viceroys showing up at their door. You got any ideas on that front yet?"

"I've got some men hunting Aaron Vitale down now that he's skipped town. Trail went cold in Texas. I'm thinking he headed over the border, planning to go south from there. Either we'll find him or the Marshals will."

"Yeah, and then what?"

"Willow has nothing to do with the RICO case. She can't cause him any more damage, in fact, coming after her now could actually put a nail in his coffin. I'm not sold she has anything to worry about from him, and the Marshals agree. They're just taking precautions because that's what they do."

Precautions that would rip her away from me.

Axel drummed his hands on the steering wheel, looking almost as frustrated as I felt.

"We haven't been able to get a license plate or ID on the gray sedan. Neither your security system nor the Earhart's have it at a good angle. I've got my team working with Detective Muloney to gain access to the cameras for the businesses along Main Street. We're hoping to catch something from one of those."

"What's taking so long?" I grunted.

Axel snapped back, "Forty hours, Lincoln. That's how long I've been on this job. We've established a perimeter around two properties, increased the cameras at the Earharts, established a twenty-four-seven security detail, bartered with the local police, negotiated with the Marshals, and all but eliminated Poco Malta from the mix. If you've got a problem with how we've performed, find another company, but I can guarantee you no one else could have achieved what we have in forty fucking hours."

He was right. I wasn't even sure the Secret Service could have done more.

I gritted my teeth and said, "I know. Your team has hit the ground running. I appreciate it. Let's just get this box marked off so we can focus on the Felicity angle."

Axel pulled into Flat Mike's parking lot. The building was an old metal warehouse that had been converted to a bar. A row of Harleys was lined up out front, and even this early in the day, heavy metal music poured from the place so loud I could hear the riffs while sitting in the SUV.

"Let me do the talking," Axel said, shooting me a warning look. "And don't take a swing unless you're ready for us to get the crap beat out of us. As good as I am, there are at least twenty bikers in there willing to fight for no other reason than getting to hit something. They won't give a shit who you are."

"They might actually swing harder because of who I am."

Axel's lips twitched, and we both got out of the car and headed inside.

The haze of cigarette and marijuana smoke was thick, turning the darkened interior into a black hole. Add to it the booming music, the smell of beer and sweat, the volume of bodies shoved into the place, and it was enough to disorient me for several seconds before my eyes and senses adjusted. By the time I did, we had at least two dozen people staring in our direction. Large men in mechanic uniforms and equally burly men in leather who lounged at the booths, the bar top, and pool tables.

Only a handful of women were mixed in amongst the men. Two carried trays, wearing skirts so short they almost shouldn't have bothered. The others sat at booths drinking. They looked as rough and burly as the men sitting with them.

Axel strode toward the bar, and the man serving pints behind it. The bartender's face glowed in the light of a neon beer sign above him, turning him weirdly demonic and making me think of my unfinished painting sitting next to the angel I had barely started.

"Paul, right?" Axel asked. The man's large shoulders tightened for a brief moment before relaxing again. He wasn't bulky, but he was at least six and a half feet tall, if not more. Seemed like he'd earned his Tall Pall nickname the old-fashioned way.

"Who wants to know?"

"Axel Garner, Garner Securities. I'm looking for Poco."

Paul poured a pint and slid it toward Axel before filling another he sent in my direction. "Have a beer."

"We're not here for—" I started just as Axel said, "Sure."

He sat down on a stool, pulled a roll of cash from a pocket of his jacket, and made a big show of unwinding a couple of twenties before setting them on the bar. Contrary to everything I'd ever learned about self-defense and protection, Axel sat with his back to an entire room full of people as if he didn't care that they might come at him. I slid onto the stool next to him, twisting so I could take in at least half the room. My shoulders were tight, body tense and ready for anyone who might attack.

"Poco was taking care of some business for me. He'll be back soon. If you tell me why you're looking for him, I might be able to help you." He looked as rough and hard as his clients, but his voice was smooth and educated, seeming to contradict what Hardy had told me about him.

"He's been harassing my clients, selling images of them," Axel said calmly, all business. "We need to come to an understanding before things get out of hand."

"This about what happened at Hector's place?" Paul asked.

"And more," Axel said.

Paul's eyes landed on me, taking me in. "No Secret Service detail today."

"Do I need them?" I grunted out, and Paul's lips twitched.

"Depends."

"Your employee hasn't learned a very important life skill," Axel commented, drawing Paul's eyes back to him. The man leaned against the counter behind him and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah? Which one is that?"

"No means no."

Paul's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "You telling me Poco attacked a woman?" He shook his head. "No fucking way. He knows I won't tolerate that shit. I have a mom, a sister, a daughter. No one lays a hand on them. No one lays a hand on my employees either."

"How about Hector's employees?" Axel asked.

Paul moved fast, smacking a hand on the counter and leaning in with anger sparking in his dark green eyes. "Shay? He went after Shay?"

"No," I grunted out.

"The blonde then. Nice ass. Small tits."

My fists clenched, and I leaned in too so that our faces were closer together. "Watch what you say."

Paul laughed and eased back. "Poco was always a sucker for a sweet little blonde. But he knows my rules. Knows he's out altogether if I catch wind he's assaulted a woman. If she said something happened, she's lying."

"Believe me, he forgot that rule the other night in the cemetery. I was there. I saw it with my own eyes, and if I hadn't intervened, he would have hauled her away," I stormed.

Paul's eyes turned thoughtful. "The cemetery? What night was this?"

"Early last Tuesday. Like two a.m., kind of early," I said.

"Did he have a shovel?" Paul asked.

I shrugged. Hadn't Willow said he'd had one? "Maybe."

The song ended and nothing replaced it. The silence was both a relief and a deafening scream. In that quiet, the door to the back room slammed shut, and I turned to see Poco walking in. He took one look at Axel and me at the bar, and his beady eyes narrowed impossibly further.

Paul called out, "Hey, Poco, you been selling pictures of Hector's baker to people?"

Poco scoffed, heading toward us with a sure gait not matched by his eyes that darted around. He halted with his hands shoved into his jacket several yards away. "Why the hell would I do that?"

I was almost ready to push off the stool, stalk over to him, and shove one of his pictures down his throat when Axel put a hand on my arm and gave me a barely perceptible head shake.

"How about leaving stupid-ass notes on people's doors?" Axel demanded.

The beady-eyed creep looked legitimately surprised by that question, but it was Paul who grunted out a protest this time. "I'm not sure Poco would know how to write a note, would you?"

Anger flitted over Poco's face before it disappeared.

Paul moved out from behind the bar. "When I asked you, you told me you hadn't been by the cemetery in months."

The beady-eyed man glanced behind him at the couple of behemoths now blocking the door before he replied, "Haven't."

"Interesting that these two insist you attacked Hector's baker there just a few days ago."

"That's a bunch of bullshit," Poco grunted.

Paul lifted a chin in the direction of two behemoths, and they closed the distance, blocking Poco's retreat.

"We'll just have to see about that." Paul stopped near Axel and me. "He won't be bothering you or the blonde again. You have my word. Now, I think it's in everyone's best interest if you see your way out."

Axel rose and dropped two more twenties in the pile on the bar. "We appreciate your time and consideration."

I followed Axel, and as I did, I whistled the same sick tune Poco had been whistling when he'd been following Willow. Near the door, I turned back and saw Paul towering over the slimy little man while shoving him toward the back. When my eyes met Poco's for the briefest of seconds, they were full of hate but also fear.

A wave of satisfaction roared through me as Axel and I stepped into the bright sunlight. I knew what was going to happen to Poco. Or I had an idea that it was going to be brutally painful. He might even die, and I wasn't sure what it said about me that I didn't care. He'd terrified Willow. Had his hands on her. Been paid money for photographs that could have blown up her carefully guarded world. In my book, he deserved everything he had coming.