Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4)

by Jessica Gadziala

  That made sense.

  And...

  "Maisy," K's voice cut in, brow raised like he noticed I had totally spaced-out. "You alright?"

  "My head is spinning," I admitted.

  "Okay, here's the plan," he said, tone serious and no-nonsense. I immediately felt some of my anxiety slipping away. "You are going to buck up and you're going to fight for your patch. You've put in the work. Don't you dare give in now. They won't give you one, give them a giant 'fuck you' and move on. You and me, we aren't done just because your trouble is all but a memory. If you're my girl, you're my girl for life. So if this blows up in your face, I'm there. You need to come back to the city and be Maisy, but slightly improved, I'm there. You need to be Maze and start over again somewhere else, I'm there to help you navigate that. You end up falling head-over for that blue-eyed biker of yours and you need someone to walk you down the aisle or be a godfather for your first child, I'm fucking there. Got it?"

  I felt my lips curve up as tears stung my eyes. "K..."

  "Blink those tears away, love. It's not the time or place. Now, I gotta get going. Stay safe and kick ass, Maisy."

  With that, he chucked me under the chin, slapped Repo on the back while whispering something near his ear, shook Reign's hand, and was out the door.

  Despite knowing he would always be there for me, I felt a little stabbing in my belly at watching him leave.

  Repo walked back toward me then, face a little guarded. "What?" I demanded before he was even within five feet of me. He reached up, scratching his cheek, and gave me a smirk. "So yeah, the men are complaining that all their sheets need cleaning."

  "You're serious?" I asked, feeling my mouth hanging open slightly as I looked over at the bar to find a particular group of said men watching me.

  "Afraid so, probie."

  I felt myself snort, shaking my head, then declaring to the room as a whole, "Wow, it's a good thing I'm back seeing as Duke and Renny seemed to have had all four of their hands amputated while I was busy being hunted and kidnapped and found themselves suddenly incapable of doing your laundry. Can't have you guys rolling around in dirty sheets like a bunch of pigs, now can we?" I asked, giving Reign the saccharine smile he had come to expect whenever I mouthed off. Then jerking my chin up at him when he saluted me with his beer, I made my way toward the hall to go collect the fucking sheets.

  And as much as I was annoyed at the current of sexism under the request, it felt good to know that things hadn't changed. I was still just a probate. And I was the first female one to boot. I got ragged on. I got the shitty jobs. I got shit kicked at me then got told to sweep it up because it was stinking up the joint.

  There was a certain sort of comfort in that I realized as I shoved the first batch of sheets into the dryer and turned it on before putting another batch in the washer, adding detergent, and flicking that on as well.

  "You didn't get the sheets off my bed," Repo's voice said from behind my shoulder as his hand slid around my belly.

  "Whatever I am to you, Rye, I'm not your fucking maid."

  "It's only fair," he said, nipping into my earlobe and sending a rush of wet between my thighs.

  "How is it fair?"

  "We're both going to be participating in dirtying them up."

  "Gee, I dunno what you think, Mr. Boss Man Biker. But I'm just a lowly probate. I sleep in a bunk bed in a cold basement like a hated third cousin showing up for Christmas uninvited."

  "Like fuck. You'll do what you need to do when someone needs you to do it, but when you're sleeping, you're doing that shit in my bed next to me," he declared, his hand moving under the waistband of my jeans and stroking me over the material of my panties, finding my clit easily and pulsing his fingertip against it. "Got it?" he asked, his finger sliding under my panties and plunging inside me.

  I held back a groan, my head falling onto his shoulder as I took a deep breath. "Fine, bring down your sheets."

  "But first this," he said, finger raking over my G-spot.

  Then we added the laundry room to our long list of places we had amazing, wild, inventive, amazing, perfect sex.

  Epilogue

  Maze

  3 Months-

  "This is complete and utter bullshit," I shrieked to the whole group of them at large as I watched Duke and Renny stand with them, patches in hands.

  Three months. Three extra fucking months of waiting on them hand and foot, cooking for them, cleaning their sheets, fetching drinks, washing bikes... all for nothing.

  Nothing.

  Because they had stuck to their guns.

  I wasn't getting a patch.

  I wasn't being allowed into The Henchmen MC.

  I swear they picked this particular day to let me in on that fact because Janie was still off on her Honeymoon with Wolf, Lo was out of town on a job, Summer was down with morning sickness until well into the evening, and the rest of the girls club only happened over to the compound if they were called to. So there was no Alex or Amelia around either to pitch a fit with me.

  I was, quite literally, completely and utterly alone.

  Repo stood with his brothers.

  I hadn't exactly thought it would be any other way when it came down to it. It wasn't that he was standing against me, he was just standing with the decision his boss had made. I understood it. But that didn't mean there wasn't a tiny little pit of resentment in my stomach over it, no matter how sad his eyes looked when my gaze slid to him.

  He knew what it meant to me. He knew every little bit of torture I went through, how above and beyond I worked and trained to make myself an important member of the MC.

  "Babe..."

  "Don't," I snapped, loudly and without restraint. I wasn't a member and I wasn't a probate anymore. So talking back to Reign wasn't disloyal. It might have been a bit risky and stupid, but it wasn't against some code of conduct. "Don't you dare fucking 'babe' me," I yelled, crossing over toward him, watching Vin and Cash shrink away from his sides because, I imagined, they knew women well enough to know that when we got on a tear, we didn't give a good flying fuck in space about collateral damage.

  "Maze this is for the..."

  "Best?" I cut him off. "You know what... fuck that. And fuck you and your sexist bullshit. One day, Reign, Ferryn is going to be all grown up. And on that day, I'll be around and I won't hesitate to tell her what a chauvinistic pig her fucking father..." I started to punctuate each word with a shove to his massive chest, barely managing to make his body move at all.

  "Maze..." he broke in, tone calm, not even mildly phased by my outburst. Possibly due to the fact that he was pretty much only ever surrounded by women who were in no way shy about sharing their thoughts and feelings.

  "Take your half-assed explanations and go to hell," I spat, turning on my heel and moving across the field toward the front yard.

  "Hey Maze, maybe you should shut the fuck up for a second and listen," Reign called. If I hadn't been seeing, hearing, and feeling red... I might have heard the humor in his tone. As it was, all I heard was 'shut the fuck up and listen' and, well, I had just about enough of him. I moved to spin around, almost crashing into Reign himself, not realizing he had followed me. "Stop," he said when I opened my mouth to spit more fire. "Listen," he said, ducking his head a little to look me in the eye. "Things are changing around here a little."

  "Really? And how long before you come out of the seventeenth century gender-role wise?"

  He ignored that completely. "Most prominently, Maze, the law is changing around here a little. There's a lot of new blood. There's no telling who might want to cut their teeth by trying to gnaw away at Henchmen business."

  "And this matters to me, why? Remember? I'm not part of The Henchmen."

  "It's a strategic move, babe. You are but you aren't, okay?"

  My brows drew together and I sighed, feeling some of the anger fall away under a sea of questions. "Alright, explain."

  "We
have to start going part legit. Repo is going to open a garage, stop fucking around in the field when he feels like it and do some real business. Cash, Janie, and Lo are going to be opening a gym that focuses on martial arts and kickboxing..."

  "Why are you telling me this?"

  "Well, see, Maze... you have a particular set of skills the men and I decided might come in handy."

  I felt myself straighten, knowing where he was going and not sure how I felt about it. "Go on."

  "Well, see, babe. Took you years to sort out what was going on with the Kozlov books it was so well hidden. I was thinking maybe you could... point us in the right direction with that kind of thing."

  "You want me to help launder your money?" I asked, feeling my smile spread a little. Oh, what would Detective Conroy Asher think if he saw me now?

  "No. Of course not," he said, grinning a little devilishly. "I want to hire you as an accountant to handle the books for the mechanic shop and the studio. If Repo just so happens to find out how exactly to hide money so well that not even the finest IRS agent could find it, well, that would just be a crazy coincidence."

  I paused, biting into my cheek, wanting to choose my words carefully. "This wasn't always the plan, Reign. I'm not stupid."

  "No, you're not. And, no, it wasn't. But it was the plan by the time you walked back in after that shit with the Russians. This has been something heavy on all our minds since they started fucking with the NBPD a couple years back. Everyone is sweating it. The Mallicks, they have a shitton of businesses to protect them. The Grassis have their restaurant. Breaker and Shooter are big time, but are still small fish. These guys will be itching to take down an organization, not individuals. We need to branch out. You couldn't be a member, babe. Not because you're a woman. You've proved to pretty much all of us that you have what it takes. But we need you on something else and to be on something else, you can't be associated to the illegal side of business. Make sense?"

  It did.

  Damn them.

  I really wanted to be angry about not getting patched-in.

  Hell, I had started to take on a 'doing this for all women' attitude about the whole thing.

  But if they were trying to go legit, then things had definitely gone bad with the law. The Henchmen had been around for a long, long while without ever sweating any kind of heat. And, well, I was a lot less offended that they weren't choosing me if they were trusting me to take care of their money. And, in doing so, I would help ensure their safety.

  It wasn't such a bad deal.

  No patch, sure.

  But a helluva lot of responsibility and respect.

  I could live with that.

  I took a deep breath and nodded.

  "Alright."

  "Alright?" he asked, brows drawn together.

  "Did you expect a fight?"

  "From you?" he asked, smiling. "Fucking always, babe."

  "Well, for once, you won't be getting one. I'll take the job."

  "I have a feeling there's a catch here somewhere," he said, brow lifting.

  "I'm sure there is. I just haven't thought of it yet," I said with a smile.

  "I'll be eagerly awaiting that battle," he said, shaking his head. "Welcome aboard, Maze."

  "In my non-official capacity," I emphasized.

  "You're a member in all the ways that matter, babe. Don't nitpick."

  With that, he turned. I did too, smiling huge because no one could see me.

  Repo

  1 Year-

  The ring felt weighted in my pocket.

  There was no other way to put it. It was a simple square-cut diamond on a platinum band. It was big, but understated. The box was black and tucked into my back pocket.

  It weighed little in a literal way.

  But figuratively, it was heavy as fuck.

  It carried with it all my future good times, all the bad days, all my sleepless nights, all my plans, all my hopes.

  It was such a little nothing.

  But it was also everything.

  Maze had seemingly effortlessly made the transition from probate to unofficial club member. The first couple of months, with nothing really to do, she hung around and pitched in still in little ways, doing a little cleaning or cooking, but only when she wanted to, not when someone tried to tell her to. I say 'tried' because she had, on more than one occasion, knocked fellow members onto their asses. And maybe they would have tried to retaliate if she was just any other member, but she wasn't. She also belonged to me.

  She moved out of the basement, where Duke and Renny still lived until Reign put in the plans for an expansion of the club rooms, and into my room with me. I liked having her there, but it made me realize real quick that I needed to get a place of my/our own. I was pretty fucking laid back about a lot of things, but the first night I walked out into the clubhouse and got hoots from the guys about overhearing me and Maze fucking, yeah, I flipped shit.

  Sure, we fucked like porn stars half the time.

  But that was mine and Maze's business, not everyone else's.

  The ring was the first surprise.

  The house was the second.

  With all the money I had socked away rebuilding and selling vintage cars over the years and having next to no living expenses save for the cut I gave The Henchmen, I had a nice chunk to sock away on a small cape-style fixer-upper right off the closest side street to the compound. It was within walking distance for the nights when we had one too many to drive home. It was seconds a ride away if the shit ever hit the fan and I needed to get my ass there.

  It felt almost wrong to be deciding to move out after being the only real live-in member at the compound. But, that being said, Duke and Renny stepped into the place I vacated. They were there. They kept an eye on things along with some of the older men who had nothing else to do with their time but hang around.

  The garage was supposed to open in another two months. It was nothing special. Reign bought one of the old, abandoned ones in town, just a simple shop with two lifts, a bathroom, and an office. He'd gotten a bunch of the men in and had them clean it up, fix any issues with the the Sheetrock, plumbing, and electrical. Then he'd had Summer, the only one of the girls club who seemed to have any interest in interior design, and had her fix up the office. The promotional fliers were going out in a few weeks and then we would be in business.

  Lo, Janie, and Cash's gym was about another six months out due to both all the strong personalities involved and expected head-butting and some issues they ran into with construction and certifications.

  And Maze, well, she'd somehow talked Reign into paying for an office for her in town to do her official business. The money for which, at first, was completely off the books. She'd been surprisingly undemanding though. When I say it was a small office, I mean that I was pretty sure you could touch both walls if you spread your arms out. But she loved it and spent a lot of time getting it just how she wanted it, insisting she not only cover the books for us, but as many of the local businesses and individuals as she could. Within a few weeks of opening her doors, she had us, a few legit small businesses, and several individuals she called clients.

  "Maze," I called as I walked into the compound.

  "How'd you miss her up on the roof?" Renny asked, shaking his head at me like I was an idiot. Renny was Renny. Some things never changed.

  I went back outside and went around the building to climb the ladder to the roof where I found Maze sitting with a gun propped up on a milk crate and an open folder full of papers on her lap. Her hand was tapping a pen against her lip as she tried to concentrate. She was wrapped up in tight blue jeans and a big, bulky white sweater against the only mildly cool Fall weather. Her hair, which she had kept purple, was in a thick braid down one of her shoulders.

  I knew it was supposed to fade, to grow old, but I never got over the punch-to-the-gut sensation I got whenever I saw her and realized she was mine.

  She tu
rned, hearing or sensing me, her head tilting, her smile tugging her lips up slightly. "Hey Rye," she said, looking a little more tired than I was used to seeing her. But she had taken to working on her accounting business with the same single-minded determination that she took to prospecting for The Henchmen MC. I walked over toward her, tucking the papers back into the folder and slipping it under the milk crate. "Everything alright?" she asked, brows drawing together.

  "Yep. I got you something," I said as I crouched down in front of her. All the crates being used, it didn't seem unusual.

  "Is it the grease-less hands? Because that is quite the treat," she teased, her hazel eyes bright.

  I reached into my pocket, grabbing the box and flipping it open before she could fully register what I was doing.

  "Rye..." she said, her eyes going huge as her gaze went from my hands to my face.

  "I didn't even know your real name when I knew you were it for me. I didn't know where you grew up or your favorite flower or what song makes your soul hurt. But I didn't need to know those things to know you, Maze, to know you're determined and strong and stubborn as all fuck, but that you're also giving and sweet and snarky and sexy as all hell..." I added when her eyes started to water up, trying to lighten the mood. "There's only one thing in this world that means more to me than my brotherhood, than The Henchmen, and that's you honey. So I figured it was time to..."

  "Mark your territory?" she asked, swatting at her cheek, giving me a wobbly little smile as I took her hand and started sliding the ring on.

  "Something like that," I said, pushing it fully on then curling my fingers between hers. "So, yes?"

  "One condition," she said, eyes getting a little mischievous.

  "Anything."

  "The wedding night..."

  "Yeah..." I smiled, liking where this was heading.

  "Come up with somewhere really fun for us to, ah, seal the deal."