Remember Me (Defiant MC)

by Cora Brent

  James stood tall and stared at him. As the brothers faced one another in Lizzie Post’s small house, Annika was startled by how alike they looked, each a slightly distorted mirror reflection of the other.

  James glowered. “I hear you’ve joined Swilling’s crew?”

  Mercer nodded cheerfully. “I did.”

  “Dammit Mercer, do you appreciate the difficulties I endured last time in keeping your neck out of a noose?”

  Mercer shrugged. “Well, James, if it was so difficult you shouldn’t have bothered.”

  James circled his brother. Mercer watched him with a deadly intent look on his face.

  “BOYS!” Lizzie Post had bolted upright in her bed. Her thin white hair stood out in all directions and she stretched her ghostly arms out. Each of the Dolan men cast a wary look at the other and took one of Lizzie’s hands.

  Lizzie clutched at their hands and held them together. “You boys was so little,” she said in a woefully sad voice as she shook her head from side to side. “So little.” Annika observed the lack of focus in her eyes. She understood Lizzie was fading. “My boys, keep close to each other” she rasped, and then lapsed into unconsciousness.

  James and Mercer Dolan stared at Lizzie Post in defeated silence. She had loved them, Annika knew. As James reached out and tenderly searched the woman’s neck for a pulse, Mercer raised his head and looked straight at Annika. The grief she saw there melted her. She wanted to go to him. Slowly, James withdrew his hand, shaking his head. When he pulled the sheet over the dead woman’s still face, Mercer emitted a heartrending sob.

  “She was the only mother I ever knew,” he said in the hurt, lonesome voice of a child.

  James moaned and let his head sink into his hands. Annika knew how he hated to cry. As she stepped between the brothers to say a private farewell to a woman she admired, her shoulder brushed Mercer’s arm. As he looked at her in surprise, for once his emotions were plainly evident. Annika read his grief, his regret, and, as his dark eyes regarded her more intently, she read something else. Something which should have disappeared two years ago when she became the wife of his brother, yet somehow still remained. Annika felt it too. It had always been like that with Mercer, an unfathomable pull of her soul. Annika wanted to hold him, to comfort him in his despair, but of course she could not. The choice she’d made could not be undone. She took James’s arm and turned away.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Contention City, Arizona

  Present Day

  The other cars on the road to Gaby’s place were headed in the opposite direction. He was the only sucker headed for the low valley. In the distance he could see the grayish white roofs of the old utilitarian homes. They looked like bureaucratic spawn if ever there was such a thing. He easily found the address Jensen had given him. She was at the end of the street. Maddox saw her Versa already in water up to the grill.

  When Gabriela appeared in the open doorway she didn’t notice him at first. Her face held a forlorn confusion which peeled the years back to high school and Maddox wanted nothing so bad as to hold her and make her safe.

  “Gabs!”

  She blinked at him in disbelief. Maddox jumped out of the truck into a foot of water. This was getting bad enough. If the dam broke it would get worse.

  “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

  Gaby looked back at her house and shook her head, disappearing indoors.

  “Fuck,” swore Maddox and followed her.

  It had been a valiant attempt on Gaby’s part; the doorways were all lined with heavy sandbags. The water, however, was too much. It trickled in and washed over the lime green linoleum.

  Gabriela stood in her living room and gazed around at the mounting disaster. Maddox grabbed a baby picture of Miguel from a nearby end table. Gently he placed it in her hands.

  She stared down into the face of her son. Mad spoke low and firm. “We gotta go, Gaby.”

  Gabriela nodded, swallowing. “I know.”

  Quickly she ran to a room in the back of the house, emerging a moment later with an old wooden box. Maddox took it from her, marveling over the fact that she was able to carry the heavy thing so easily. She retreated once more and returned with a plastic bag full of what appeared to be clothing. She looked him calmly in the eye.

  “Let’s go, Maddie.”

  Maddox shoved the box into the bed of the pickup and tossed a tarp over it. He motioned towards the neighbors’ houses. “Anyone in there we need to worry about?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” she shook her head, climbing into the passenger seat and rubbing her eyes tiredly. “Most of these places emptied out after the housing crisis and I haven’t seen anyone else in hours.”

  The truck skidded a little as Mad struggled to pilot it through the mess of Gaby’s street. He glanced over at her. She sat tensely beside him, clutching the photo of her son. Maddox reached over and squeezed her arm and she suddenly looked at him in surprise.

  “Why are you here?”

  He grinned wryly. “I’m your knight in dingy leather, babe.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “Yes,” she said quietly, “you are.”

  As they climbed to higher ground Gaby looked back once and then sighed. They were almost at Priest’s house. Mad wondered if Ellen the singing Hospice nurse was still around. He accelerate the last few hundred yards, immediately fearful of the idea that Priest had died alone.

  Ellen hadn’t left though. She hurried out into the rain as he pulled up.

  “He’s resting again. Called out for you and your brother a few times. Something about staying away from the hills. Anyway, I gave him a good dose of morphine.”

  Maddox coughed and stared at his hands. They still tightly clutched the steering wheel. “Thank you,” he said, meaning it.

  After Ellen headed home in her Tahoe, Mad followed Gaby into the house. After checking on Priest, who was indeed peacefully sleeping, he remembered the box in the back of the truck. After quietly closing the door to his father’s room, he retrieved it.

  “Christ,” he said, heaving the thing on the floor. It was scarred and weathered, positively ancient-looking. “What the hell is in this thing?”

  She knelt on the floor in her soaked clothes. “Everything,” she said, opening the lid. The box was quite old and it appeared as if there had once been a lock on the lid.

  As Gabriela sorted through the contents, Maddox glimpsed papers, pictures of Miguel, and assorted keepsakes of life. He leaned over and picked up an old book.

  He read the cover. “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

  Gaby looked up, smiling. “One of my favorites. I guess it’s been in our family for a long time. Old Juan gave it to me when I was about Miguel’s age.”

  “What’s it about?”

  Her smile faded. “Vengeance.”

  Gaby reached down into the box and withdrew the thing she had apparently been looking for. She grinned at it wistfully.

  “Remember this?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Maddox answered slowly. “I won that for you.”

  Gabriela nodded, holding the small pink plush kitten in her palm. There had been a carnival in town. It was the night they’d nearly had sex. He’d pulled back, not wanting it to be like that for her; a quick and dirty boning on the ground by the river. He had believed her when she whispered she loved him. Maddox balled his right hand into a fist, remembering. What the fuck did he know anyway? Afterwards, after Jensen, Maddox wished he’d gone ahead and banged the hell out of her. Even as he’d told himself he didn’t care at all.

  Maddox abruptly rose, leaving her sitting alone on the floor staring at her memories. He pulled a beer out of the fridge as the lights flickered. Gaby remained in the same pose, her head bent. He suddenly wanted her out of his house. It hurt having her close. He would take her to Jensen’s. She should be with her kid anyway.

  When Maddox’s phone rang, Gaby looked up.

  “Yeah, Jensen. I got her. We just swung by to check on Dad.” />
  It sounded as if Jensen was outside. The sound of the pouring rain nearly drowned out his voice. “No use trying to come this way if you don’t have to. There’s lines down, trees down. If you’re at the house you ought to stay there.” The sound of the rain receded and Jensen’s voice was stern. “I mean it, Mad.”

  Maddox scowled. Jensen was playing the older brother and Mad wasn’t in the mood for it. He was about to say as much when he heard Miguel’s voice in the background, asking about his mother.

  “Here,” he tossed the phone to Gaby. “Your son wants to talk to you.”

  Mad drank his beer and listened to the soft affection in Gabriela’s voice as she spoke to Miguel. “I love you, baby,” she said at the end. She placed the phone on the counter and looked at Maddox expectantly.

  “I didn’t thank you,” she said, “for coming to get me.”

  Mad shut his eyes for a few seconds as the lights flickered again. He felt restless, ornery. He wanted to ride, storm or no fucking storm. But no, his bike was at Jensen’s. And he was stuck in a darkening house with a woman he wanted more than he wanted to take his next breath.

  “What do you want, Gabriela?” he asked, opening his eyes.

  She looked down, the waves of her black hair falling in her face. She frowned. “I want to get out of these wet clothes.”

  His voice was sharp. “Then get out of them, Gaby.” She looked up and he met her eyes, raising the challenge. “Now!”

  She took a step backward at his shout. Maddox didn’t back down. He pulled his cut off and his shirt with it. He saw the way her eyes traveled over the muscled contours of his chest. Then Gaby defiantly met his gaze and pulled her wet t-shirt over her head, tossing it on the floor. She faced him in a simple white bra, her sweet breasts spilling out of the cups. Earlier he had wondered if her skin would taste as good as he remembered. He realized he intended to find out.

  Maddox reached around her back and ripped the strap open. She stood for it with no objection and watched as her bra fell. She began to raise her arms as if to cross them over her chest but Mad wouldn’t allow that. He grabbed her hand and watched her eyes widen as he roughly pushed her palm against his dick. Holy hell, he had never been harder.

  With her hand still on him, Maddox held her face in his hands and stared into her eyes.

  “Now Gabs,” he said, hearing the strangled passion in his own voice, “I’m gonna ask you again. What do you want?”

  Her breathy whisper was scarcely audible. “You.”

  “What?”

  She grabbed him harder and he felt like he might bust through his pants. “You! I want you, Maddox.”

  He released her and pointed down the hall. “Prove it.”

  There was confusion in her dark eyes as she looked down the narrow corridor to where there were two doorways. To the left was Maddox’s old bedroom. To the right was Jensen’s.

  Gabriela turned and slowly walked away from him. Mad watched her, noting the smooth curve of her naked back and the tight bounce of her ass. The lights flickered once again and then went out completely. There was only the soft gray light of the fading day as the storm raged outside.

  If Gaby was thinking of the night long ago when she made a choice and entered one of those rooms, she gave no hint of it. She did not pause as she turned left.

  Maddox found her facing his bed, her arms at her sides. He closed the door to the room he had slept in for the first eighteen years of his life.

  Gaby shivered when he ran his fingers down her back. When his hands found her breasts the nipples were hard and eager. She pushed against him when he reached between her legs. She was so hot down there. He had no doubt that she was wet and open. He could strip her down in seconds and plunge right in. But first he wanted to hear a few things.

  “Tell me again, Gabriela,” he insisted.

  She turned on him then, pressing her breasts against his chest and curling her arms around his neck.

  “You,” she whimpered, kissing his jaw as he grabbed a handful of her long hair, still wet from the rain. “I only want you, Maddox,” she said and found his mouth.

  He lost himself for a moment in the heady exchange of tongues before pulling away. He wasn’t quite done hearing from her.

  Her jeans were tight. He was rough as he pushed them over her hips. “What do you want from me?” She was breathing hard but her eyes didn’t leave his face. She watched him silently, trembling.

  Maddox pulled her underwear away, ripping the fabric. He wasn’t going to be gentle. He sensed she didn’t want him to be gentle anyway. Thrusting one finger inside of her told him how ready she was. He unleashed his dick and pressed it against her honeyed center.

  “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, her hands on his shoulders, her eyes half closed.

  “What?”

  “Yes,” she said more clearly. Her full lips were set firmly as she faced him with certainty. “Dammit Maddox McLeod, I want you.” She kicked her jeans the rest of the way off and slid back onto the bed.

  Maddox lowered himself over her, spreading her legs wide. “You know how many women I’ve fucked?”

  She winced. “I don’t care.”

  He was right at her entrance. She arched against him, moaning, trying to pull him inside more quickly.

  “Yes you do,” he told her. “Because underneath all the empty fucking there’s only ever been you, Gabriela. And now I’m going to have you.”

  He entered her hard and she gasped, her knees pressing into his ribs, her nails digging into his back. Mad had to fight to keep himself from going over the brink. She felt a thousand goddamn times better than his most fervent fantasy. She was slick and writhing, clenching her climax within a minute. Maddox figured she hadn’t had many lovers. In fact, she might have only ever had one.

  When she was till moaning her pleasure he asked her. “How many?”

  He thrust deeper and she gasped, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. Mad gritted his teeth, fighting himself. He didn’t want to come yet.

  “What?” she moaned, wrapping herself more tightly around him.

  He pumped harder, deeper. “Never mind, baby.” He was too close. It was inevitable. “Gaby, fuck, I’m gonna come.”

  “Maddox,” she cried. “Oh God, I can’t help it. I love you.”

  He couldn’t hold back anymore. He released himself deep in an overwhelming moment which seemed endless. He pounded the wall with his fist, bruising his knuckles and denting the surface, as wave after pulsing wave consumed him. Gabriela held him tight all the while and he was aware of her in a way he had never been aware of any other woman he’d been with. As he gasped to a finish he held her tight against his chest. She said them again, the words he’d said the first time. He did not say them back. He only stroked her hair and listened to the rain as she sighed and fell asleep in his arms.

  Later, he wasn’t sure how much time had passed. He only knew that the hour was late and the rain was slowing. Maddox sat by his father and listened to the silence of time. He heard Gaby enter the room quietly and then felt her hands on his shoulders.

  “Has he been awake at all?”

  “Once,” Maddox said. “He was actually here for a minute. He knew what year it was and that it was the end. And you know what he said, Gaby? He said he didn’t mind. I’ve been sitting here trying to picture it. Looking down the tunnel to the end of life and not especially caring that it’s over.”

  Gaby’s soft arms curled around him. “Is that all he said?”

  Maddox leaned back, settling into her warmth. “He said Tildy was waiting for him. But it wasn’t like he was confused. He just said my mother was waiting and that it was getting late. He drank some water and then sank back into sleep.”

  Gabriela hugged him more tightly and he drew her around, pulling her into his lap. She nestled against him in a way that made him think of Gray and Promise. Maddox wished Gray was around to talk to. In the moments after he’d finally had Gaby
de Campo, Mad was angry at himself. He’d always wondered what it would be like with a woman who meant everything and now he knew. Somehow he didn’t like knowing it. It made the world seemed different.

  “Maddie?” Gabriela asked warily, as if she could hear his thoughts. His mother used to use that nickname when he was very small. And then no one else did until Gaby. No one else had since. When he didn’t answer her, she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. She was wrapped in a musty old blanket which had lain on his bed, likely untouched, for the last decade.

  Gaby didn’t try to push him into talking anymore which was good because Mad didn’t know what to say. He knew that what he felt for her was unlike anything he’d ever felt for anyone else. He knew that soon he would take her into his old bedroom again, strip that blanket away from her skin and demand even more than she’d already given. He knew that she would fucking love it almost as much as he did. He just didn’t know what the hell was supposed to come after that.

  “I think the storm is over,” she said, lightly running her fingers over his bare shoulder.

  “Maybe,” he said, listening. “Maybe not.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Contention City, Arizona Territory

  1890

  Lizzie Post had been dead for a week when the rains came. Annika looked out the uncovered window of the humble shack which served as a schoolhouse. Behind her the children crouched on the barrels they used as chairs and added sums on their small slates.

  As she watched the water pool in the unforgiving desert ground she couldn’t help but wonder about the fresh grave up on Lizzie Post’s ranch. It seemed like a cruel thing for the sky to open up and soak the earth which encased the body it had only been awarded days earlier.

  Annika could not remember the funeral without recalling the fight with James. Throughout the brief service she’d kept her eyes carefully trained away from Mercer. He had not troubled to dress in mourning clothes, but his anguish was etched into the rugged lines of his face. James knew anyway where her thoughts were.