I point it at him, sighting it straight between his eyes. The coward ducks as much of his head as he can behind Maddi, who’s desperately trying to keep her feet and the tattered fabric of her top together.
Mad Dog pushes Smoke off of him. They both rise to their feet.
“Not gonna happen,” Cam wheezes when Maddi slams an elbow into his ribs. She pulls her arm forward, driving her elbow back into him again. He falls to the side.
At her movement, Smoke kicks Mad Dog’s gun along the floor toward him. After he scoops his weapon from the floor, he aims and shoots Cam in the leg before throwing himself at Maddi as she’s dragged to the floor when Cam falls.
Smoke and I pounce on Cam.
Smoke rips his gun from his hands while I secure him in a headlock. A keening cry erupts from him, telegraphing the pain caused by his bullet wound to the entire room.
Fucking pussy needs to man the fuck up.
“Fuck, Angel. Tell me you’re okay?” Mad Dog drops to the floor with Maddi in his arms. She doesn’t reply, her shaking shoulders an answer of their own. She’s wrapped herself around him like a vine, legs tight around his waist, her arms around his neck. With her head buried her head in the crook of his neck, you’d need to surgically detach her from him to get them apart. Mad Dog’s eyes are shut, his lips moving silently in prayer, as he holds her just as tight.
I brace for the usual stab to my heart that hits me when I see them connect like this, but for once it doesn’t come. Instead, JJ’s sad green eyes enter my mind, and an urgency to get back to her grips me.
“Check him.” I tilt my head toward Wizard.
He’s still lying where he dropped, not making a sound.
We’ve got to work out how we’re dealing with him before we leave.
Smoke turns him over with his foot. His head lolls to the side, his face white and his lips blue. He’s dead as a doornail.
“He’s gone,” Smoke declares.
“You motherfuckers are gonna pay for this. Mavericks aren’t gonna stop ‘til they rid the earth of you fucking Shamrocks—” Cam spits his threats at us, his face turning ashen at the sight of his dead uncle. I wrench his neck tighter in my headlock, his words stopping as he chokes.
“Funny that,” I deadpan. “That’s our plan for the Mavericks. Especially since you cunts can’t seem to keep your fucking hands off our women.”
Cam shakes his head in my hold, hopping on one leg as he favors his injury.
“She’s ours. Wizard sorted it with Beast.”
Mad Dog growls, and I resist the urge to squeeze Cam’s neck until it snaps. The only thing that stops me is our need for him to talk, to fill in the details that Maddi’s message missed.
“We’ve got you fuckers stitched up. The deal was that we kept the proof buried as long as we got our blood alliance. That’s dead in the fucking water now.”
“And what proof would that be?”
Twisting his head in my arm, Cam looks up at me with curious eyes. “You really have no idea what’s going on, do ya?”
“Enlighten us then, cunt,” Mad Dog cuts in. Pushing himself from the floor with one arm, he stands, still holding Maddi to him. “I’ve had enough of this shit. Either tell us what you know, or I’ll put a bullet between your fucking eyes. Your choice?”
“Fuck you,” Cam answers.
I shake my head. Wrong answer.
Maddi whispers in Mad Dog’s ear, and his face turns feral. I thought he’d reached breaking point earlier, but I think I was wrong—it looks like he might have another level.
“Fuck this shit.”
He puts her back on her feet and moves to me. She tries to stop him, but he shifts her behind him with one arm. When he reaches us, I shove Cam toward him.
Fuck knows what she just told him, but it was obviously huge.
It’s time to cut to the chase.
Grabbing Cam’s hair, he yanks him from my hold, pulling his face to him. Cam blanches at Mad Dog’s naked hostility, and I bite back a grin.
Cam’s a pussy—I can tell he’s gonna cave quickly.
“Tell me the fucking truth. Did Beast agree to Lainey marrying your uncle’s geriatric ass to unite the clubs? Why? What’s this fucking proof you’re talking about?”
Squirrel-gripping Cam’s balls, Mad Dog squeezes.
My mind flips at his questions.
Beast marrying Maddi to Wizard? Fuck me. I didn’t think she meant the message literally.
“Do you remember what I did to Wizard? That was heat of the moment, dickhead. I’m gonna take my time with you unless you start talking now.”
Cam whimpers like a lost puppy when more pressure’s applied.
Maddi rolls her eyes at me over Mad Dog’s shoulder, unimpressed by his whining.
I chuckle at her.
“I’d listen to him,” I caution. “He enjoys this.”
Pulling my hunting knife from my belt, I prod him in the right kidney with the tip.
“And I enjoy finishing off what he starts—”
I press harder, just breaking the skin. He turns stiff and stops breathing, afraid to even move. Looking down, I watch a small trail of dark red fluid run down his back, and my adrenaline spikes. My heart beat pounds in my ears, the typical euphoria I feel at the sight of blood commencing.
I love this shit.
“Okay, okay. I’ll talk.” I ease up the pressure of my blade and Cam takes a deep, steadying breath. “Fuck, man, the Mavericks are gonna kill me for telling you.”
Mad Dog squeezes Cam’s balls again, and he takes an unthinking step backward, straight into the point of my blade again.
“Fuck!” He jumps away from the knife. “All right, I’ll talk. She was supposed to be mine. Wizard was ready to step down, and I’m next in line. He was gonna fuck around with her for a while. Solidify the alliance. Then when he stepped down she was gonna be my Old Lady. You know—to form a blood alliance between the Mavericks’ and the Shamrocks with our kids and all that shit.”
My gut lurches when I think about Wizard “fucking around” with Maddi.
His particular tastes are well known. He has—or I should say had—a proclivity for violent sex that doesn’t require either the consent or the participation of the other party. Only the most desperate women get involved with the Mavericks sex trade, since there’s a good chance that they’ll end up dead if they capture Wizard’s attention.
“And fucking Beast agreed?” Mad Dog’s pissed off voice breaks through my fucked-up thoughts. He’s still holding onto a shred of sanity—I don’t know how, but he hasn’t given in to the urge that’s written all over his face.
The urge to gut Cam where he stands.
Cam nods slowly. “He didn’t have a choice. We know shit that can bury your fucking Club. He either agreed to an alliance that let us trade again or watched everything he’d built turn to shit. Your Club would’ve gone down. None of you could’ve stopped it.”
Mad Dog’s puzzled eyes meet mine over Cam’s head. I can’t think of anything that would force Beast to agree to his only daughter being exchanged for silence.
“What shit? And don’t fucking sugar coat it,” Mad Dog demands.
“Connor and Sherri have shit on you all. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s good. The one thing I do know about is her dead boyfriend.” He flicks his head to Maddi. “We have proof one of you fuckers offed him, and we have evidence showing where you disposed of his body. We can prove he’s not missing. Plus, we have an in with his dad.”
Maddi gasps, and wraps her arms around Mad Dog’s waist from behind as she leans her head on his shoulder. This is her worst nightmare come true. She killed her ex in self-defense, but no court in Australia is going to buy that story with their history and the Shamrocks’ reputation.
“Using the pigs on the farm was fucking genius, man. We’ve got ourselves some now. They come in handy for dead whores.” The arrogant fucker laughs, looking at us all with merriment as if he thinks we’ve bonded ove
r his disclosure and become friends. I ram my knee into his leg wound, and he whines, the smile sliding from his face.
“Bullshit,” Smoke interrupts. His tense posture displays his disbelief at Cam’s assertions. “This cunt would say anything to get himself out of shit. No fucking way would Beast sanction anything without bringing it to the table. He’d wipe these fuckers off the face of the earth before he agreed to an alliance.”
“Smoke. Brother.” Mad Dog puts a calming hand on his shoulder as he leaves Cam in my grip. Smoke shakes his head at all of us. Maddi flashes him a sympathetic smile when Mad Dog continues. “Two-Ton Tony basically told us the same story after you left. We both know something’s been wrong with Beast for months. This explains most of it—”
“It’s true, Sam,” Maddi cuts in, addressing her maternal cousin head on. Smoke is Butch’s eldest son, and a third generation biker like Mad Dog and me. He’s a lifer and loyal to a fault. His uncle fucking over his Club isn’t something he’ll take lying down. “I heard them discussing it when I was dragged out of here to meet with Wizard. He was on the phone with Dad before he laid the whole alliance on the table. He gave me the option to agree or fight him—”
“Maddi, your dad would never bloody agree to this. He’s not the easiest man, but he loves you.”
“I know he does. I didn’t say he was giving his willing blessing.” My head snaps to her, as does Mad Dog’s. She knows more than we thought. “Listen to me. I was taken this morning because Dad’s been delaying, and Wizard got sick of it. I wasn’t told anything about becoming Cam’s Old Lady, but I was told enough to work out that Dad wasn’t going to try to get me back. He wanted the evidence before he pushed the alliance through the Shamrocks’ table. He was on board.”
Mad Dog swings her to him, engulfing her in a bear hug.
“Angel, I fucking guarantee he was gonna get you back. He wouldn’t do this without a plan,” he tells her fiercely.
I nod my head in agreement with him. Beast’s been an asshole lately, but I can’t wrap my head around what Maddi and Cam are saying.
What they’re talking about amounts to treason by our President, and I can’t fathom Beast ever heading down that path. He was born into the Club, and he’d die for it. There’s something else at play, something that scares the shit out of Beast.
Frankly, Beast being scared scares the shit out of me.
“Mik, you don’t know that,” Maddi cautions, her expression downcast.
Her faith in her father is broken. Shattered. Irreparable?
“I know what I heard. I know what Wizard told me, plus we all saw what they tried to do to me before you got here.” She points at Wizard’s dead body and then at Cam as she speaks. “They wouldn’t have the guts to do it if they didn’t have Dad’s agreement.”
Smoke and Mad Dog open their mouths to argue, but I cut them off.
“Not the place for this discussion. We need to deal with him.” I jerk my head toward Wizard’s body. “And we need to get back to the Club to deal with this shit. We can lay it all out then.”
Mad Dog pulls his phone from his pocket.
“You’re right, brother. I’ll get the van and a clean-up team back here. We’ll take both these fuckers with us.” He tilts his chin at Cam. “Since you’re so sure you have Beast’s support, I’m sure you won’t have a fucking problem with that?”
“Ah, I, um,” Cam splutters, his face turning whiter than it was.
The giant pussy is definitely not President material. I haven’t a clue what Wizard was thinking grooming him to take over the Mavericks.
“Yeah, just as I thought,” Mad Dog dismisses him, raising his phone to his ear and barking orders once the call connects. He walks from the room, wrapping his arm around Maddi and taking her with him, leaving me and Smoke staring at each other.
Smoke shrugs as he lights a cigarette, sucking on it like a lifeline. He’s one rattled brother right now.
“Come on, brother. Let’s wait for the clean-up out the front. Need some fucking fresh air.” I drag a reluctant, hobbling Cam with me, and Smoke slowly follows.
Fuck waiting in this pigsty.
Blinking when we walk outside into the sunlight, I’m shocked as hell to see that it’s only mid-afternoon. It feels much later than that. Too much shit has happened for one day.
“Boys are on their way. Clean-up’s gonna deal with Wizard. Cam’s heading back in the van, straight to the bunker. We’ll leave when they get here,” Mad Dog barks at us, a sadistic grin creasing his face when he mentions the bunker.
He’s all business, back in control, and ready for what’s coming next. Maddi’s tucked under his arm wearing his T-shirt to cover herself, her arms under his vest, and around his now bare waist. She looks relaxed as he rubs her arm, a smile covering her face when he plants a kiss on her forehead.
Looks like their discussion last night, and the drama of today, has healed their wounds for the moment.
Maybe there’s still hope that today’s events won’t send her sliding back into old memories.
“Fucking, Sherri. Where is she?”
It pops into my head that we haven’t come across the dirty whore yet. She wasn’t in the SUV with Connor, and we haven’t seen a sign of her since we’ve been here.
“She’s gone shopping. Won’t be back for hours,” Cam answers. He snickers. “She loves spending our money. Fucking lucky she gives good head, with her spending habits.”
“That true, Princess?” I question Maddi.
She nods, giving me a small smile. “She left not long after JJ.”
At the mention of JJ, my worries about her waiting for me in my room resurface.
I fucking hope she keeps her promise.
Things need to be put right before she bolts on me. My ultimatum last night is beginning to look fucking foolish after what’s happened today.
Every word she’s said about our different lifestyles has been proven correct.
JJ
Present Day
Regret for snapping at Maddi back at the house rises within me.
She was definitely onto something with her pacing. Making circles of Lucas’s room has been the only thing that’s kept me remotely sane as I wait for him. It’s been hours, much longer than I expected. Loud commotion an hour or so ago had caused my hopes to rise that he was back, but they’d died after no sign of Lucas, so I’d resumed my pacing.
I know in my heart of hearts that I should’ve demanded to be taken home, instead of borrowing a phone to ring Gwen to let her know I’m okay. I’d lied through my teeth, telling her that I was sick with a twenty-four-hour bug, which was why I wasn’t at work. The damn woman hadn’t even been sympathetic, choosing to fill me in on her encounter with the deliciously sexy Lucas—her words making me laugh because I concurred wholeheartedly—and to offer me her advice about how to lock down the “giant hunk of man meat” before another woman snatches him from me.
When Gwen had mentioned another woman snatching Lucas, my laughter had died. Maddi’s terse advice that I should ask Lucas about his past relationships floated back into my mind. If, and it’s a big if, I decide to see him again after I’ve terminated the pregnancy, it’d be prudent to learn more about him. I already know he’s gorgeous, well read, and can fuck like an animal; getting to know him on a more emotional level would be in my best interest.
As I pace, my stomach churns intermittently as an ongoing reminder of my predicament.
In case I dare to forget for a second.
Thankfully the infernal dizziness has eased to a manageable level since Maddi’s stepmother fed me a fresh salad roll when I got here. I haven’t thrown up again, which has made me feel better.
Tired of walking the same circuit around the room, I’m snooping through Lucas’s bedside drawers when the door is flung open. Tossing the old photos I was flipping through onto the bed, I jump to my feet, fear clawing its way into my throat. I calm and sit back on the bed when I realize that it’s Lucas who’s barged i
nto his room, only to have it spike again when I meet his eyes.
They’re feral, glazed, and hard.
He slams the door shut behind him as he stalks into the room.
Coming to a stop in front of me, he regards me. Tangible rage shoots from his eyes, an undercurrent of sorrow surrounding him as well. I reach out a hand to him, hoping to soothe whatever has upset him, but he takes a step back from me.
I let my hand drop, his rejection burning.
“I thought you were a good person. I was falling in love with you, you knew that. Not any fucking more, though. My feelings are dead. I won’t go through this shit again.”
My heart stops at his words.
Sheer agony laces his tone.
I’m dumbfounded—why would he say something so hurtful?
“What do you mean, Lucas? I am a good person,” I speak up in my defense.
“A good person doesn’t kill a baby without telling the father.”
Bloody Maddi and her big mouth!
How dare she tell him after I explicitly demanded that she keep quiet?
My temper flashes, and I rise to my feet in indignation.
“So Maddi opened her big mouth?” I ask him hotly. “I hate to break it to you, but this is my body. My career. My choice. We aren’t together, so you don’t get a say. For crying out loud, the bloody condom broke. It’s an accident! I don’t want a child, and this sure as hell isn’t a fit environment to raise one in. As if I’m going to bring a child into your violent world.”
I wince when I’ve finished yelling my arguments at him.
Hurt floods his expression. He pushes past me to sit on his bed.
Lowering his head into his hands, he rests his elbows on his knees, and stares at the floor.
It’s a nasty habit of mine to hit him with my true thoughts without my life-long filter.
I wouldn’t dare speak to anyone else the way I speak to him. I thought that was a good thing in the beginning, but the way I constantly hurt him has me rethinking it.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that—”
“Yeah, ya did,” he interrupts my apology, lifting his head and glaring at me with eyes that flash his anger. “But you’re wrong on both accounts.”
Making Choices (Black Shamrocks MC Book 2) Page 14