Devil's Prey

by SE Chardou

  Max couldn’t trust a single whore tied to Koslakov and that left only one option: his brother’s girl. Or rather the only woman in his Edward’s life—other than his wife—he seemed to care about. It was easy to track her down. Magnolia Reynolds wasn’t exactly a secret in certain parts of the underworld; plenty of people knew about her past and what the White Knights had done to her. They also knew she would be getting freedom sooner or later especially if someone had an offer tempting enough for the WKs to let her go early.

  The stolen drugs had been tricky. Eventually, they would be missed but Dimitri had been so focused on the plan of murdering Abandonato, the heroin Max stole from the most recent shipment that came into the country wasn’t the first thought on his mind. Of course he’d gone through his men, tortured and murdered a few until someone had spilled the info about Max being the last trusted person seen with the shipment containers. It wouldn’t have taken Dimitri long to put two and two together and know he’d been had.

  The jig was up and if Max wanted to stay alive, he no longer had a choice. He would have to go back to his past and the woman who’d started this whole, sick act of perversion, pain and murder rolling in the first place. The person responsible for the reason the vast majority of his thirty years on this hellish earth had been a nightmare most would find too hard to believe.

  Mila had been a whore and deep down she always would be one. She didn’t even care about her own offspring; they certainly weren’t more important than keeping herself in a lifestyle she’d easily become accustomed to. He had to take the blinders off and realize his mother would never change.

  “Hey, Maxwell, Dimitri sends his regards—”

  The fucker never had enough time to finish his sentence as Max turned around and fired. The bullet hit his left eye and the beast fell to the ground. He quickly dispatched the two that followed him into the room but not before one got a shot off, which grazed his arm.

  Fuck! That hurt. The bullet had strayed right past him, embedding itself into the bathroom wall but it had also taken part of his shirt and skin with it.

  He stood and hoisted the duffel bag on his shoulder as he listened for a moment. The silence was so loud, it had become white noise unto itself. He couldn’t hear anything and then the frantic sounds of concerned neighbors and emergency vehicles in the distance hit him like a rush of blood to the head.

  Double fuck!

  No way were Raz, Mags and him going to make it out of that house, not without giving police statements and wasting precious time and energy. They needed to get gone right then and there but despite being on the run, their getaway would obviously be delayed by an hour, maybe two if they were unlucky.

  Life sucked and the worst part was shit had just got real and would get worse before it came even close to getting better.

  Part Two

  Bonnie & Clyde ’14

  Three Months Later

  Chapter Thirteen

  Magnolia

  I sat on the deck of the super yacht, ironically named Yayo, and concentrated on a acquiring a killer tan. The weather here was better than in most parts of the country this early in Autumn but out on the water, it was absolutely paradise.

  Although our target lived in Palm Beach County, Max and I naturally gravitated toward Miami Beach and made it our temporary home due to the high influx of seasonal residents and constant year-round tourism. We could easily disappear into the various communities that dotted the city and it truly was refreshing to get away.

  The best part of all? I hadn’t murdered anyone in almost three and half months and to me, that was heaven. I may have never known peace before but I knew it now and I realized I would never be able to go back to how I’d lived before. Not that Max expected me to but for the first time in my life, there was no pressure to be anyone else other than the person I truly was.

  Raz had fled the country shortly after the whole incident in Birch Tree. It should have been a huge story but with the Saints controlling the Sheriff’s Department, the media received very little information other than a “home invasion gone wrong” and “mistaken identities.” The story was hot for about a week but we were gone as soon as Max was released after several hours of questioning.

  The thugs he killed all had records, both in the States—Nevada to be precise so Sheriff Rawlins was happier than a pig in shit—and Western Europe. No one would mourn them and the world was a better place without them. Sheriff Rawlins sent us on our way, Max claimed the insurance money on his home, and although the check had eventually come through, it still wasn’t nearly enough to maintain the kind of lifestyle we perpetrated.

  Both of us had savings and money in the bank but we couldn’t touch it. The paper trail alone would lead Dimitri directly to us and he was the last person we wanted to deal with at the moment. Not when we’d cultivated the perfect plan to get his money and make him suffer.

  Ironically, with Raz out of the picture, Max was much more pliable and even depended on me for advice and information. Ever the alpha male, we had some knock down, drag-out fucking in the bedroom but outside of it, we treated each other as equals. He’d never mentioned the fact that he’d bought me ever again and I never teased him about me having his balls in the palm of my hand.

  It was the strangest feeling because if I ever imagined a life where Edward and I would have been able to be together as a couple then Max and I were living it—minus the bikers. Not that it was bad to be on our own. We each had our own demons and could give each other space to deal with our shit when we needed to while other times, we relied on one another and worked perfectly in tandem. I truly couldn’t be any more content than I was at that moment.

  Even if my feelings for him were in a muddled gray-zone I couldn’t quite work out yet.

  Neither Max nor I had ever used the “L” word with each other, mostly because we both knew it would be a lie. We cared deeply for one another and would do anything to protect ourselves because we were a unit. But love—maybe we were both too fucked up to believe we could ever feel that deeply for anyone at all. It was just better to know that we respected each other and would never make a move without consulting one another.

  It was enough for me.

  For now.

  Max walked out on to the deck and sat in the lounge chair next to mine. He also had the requisite Florida tan although his skin was lighter in color than mine. I was almost bronze to his sun-kissed complexion that didn’t handle the sun nearly as well as mine.

  “You’re going to burn,” I warned as I gazed at him, his eyes hidden beneath blacker-than-black Ray-Bans.

  “And you’re going to get skin cancer,” he retorted.

  “Why can’t I relax and just enjoy some time in the sun?”

  Max stood and held out his hand. “You’ve had enough sun. Come on inside, we have to talk.”

  “Yes, Daddy,” I mumbled sarcastically under my breath as I stood up and followed him inside to mid-deck.

  There was a full living room with a wrap around leather sofa and all the amenities one expected in a super yacht, including dark wood paneling, a built-in bar, a sixty-inch television and more than enough space to easily entertain ten guests though the only two people on board were us.

  “Don’t call me that, Peaches,” he murmured as he sat down on the sofa with casual grace.

  I made us both Macallan scotch on the rocks in crystal tumblers before I sat down and turned my bikini-clad body towards him. “What’s up?”

  “We leave for the Palm Beach tomorrow. We’ll drive—this yacht is too risky. Plus it’s tacky and flashy, something the head-up-their-ass residents of Boca Raton would remember quite well. Our whole point is not to stand out,” Max explained in a measured voice.

  “I thought your mother was in Paris.”

  “Mila came back early.” He smirked after he swigged from his scotch. “The weather wasn’t to her liking.”

  I lightly bit my bottom lip. “So, everything’s good to go? We’re still gonna do thi
s, right? You’re not gonna chicken out on me?”

  “And face your wrath? Hell fucking no. The plan is on and it stays as is—to the letter.”

  “You’re really ready to do this?” I certainly didn’t want him to think I would dare talk him out of it but nearly four months ago he’d sworn he’d never be able to do this and now he was okay with it? I wasn’t buying it at all.

  Max stared into my face, his aquamarine eyes brilliant in the sunlit room. “Are you getting cold feet now?”

  I rolled my eyes as he set his drink down on top of a coaster on the glass magazine table and reached for my face. “Nope. Shit like that doesn’t happen to me, Max. I had most of my humanity fucked outta me by the time I was fourteen and the rest . . . well, when you kill people for a living, you know we don’t feel like normal people. I’m frightened and I never thought I would ever reach this point in my life.”

  “Frightened of what, Peaches?” he teased before he slid his tongue from my collarbone all the way up to my jaw.

  “You. Not of you but I don’t want whatever you feel for me to ever turn into resentment. I’m not stupid, you know. If I push you too hard and you do this, you’ll blame me for the rest of your life. Love has a very easy way of turning into hate.”

  “Who ever said I love you?” The question was rhetorical but the way he cocked his head to the side, I wasn’t so sure I hadn’t hit the nail on the head.

  “It’s just a turn of phrase, babe. I wouldn’t think you feel anything for me other than uncontrollable lust and a pull at your hormones for somewhere warm and wet to stick your dick when the mood hits you.” I shrugged. “I’m okay with that—I’ve put up with worse situations and you’re not bad at all. Easy on the eyes, you fuck like a stallion and know how to say all the right stuff to a girl so there are no complaints outta me. I just . . . I don’t want . . .”

  “What? Me to start despising you because you thought this would be the easiest way for us to accomplish our goals? It is and Raz had a valid point—what has the bitch done for me lately? I try to forget all that shit she did to me and remember the good times because it’s what keeps me sane, Mags. If I truly thought about all the crap I’ve endured over the years, I’d surely flip the fuck out and have a nervous breakdown. We can’t afford for me to be like that,” he explained with a genuine look of sincerity creasing his brows.

  “I could take care of you. We all have to go a little crazy sometimes to get sane, Max. It’s human nature.”

  He shook his head adamantly. “Maybe I don’t want you taking care of me, ever thought of that? I’m the eldest here and I’m the one who’s supposed to be the expert at this. I can’t . . . I don’t ever want you to see me at my lowest. I’ve been there, done that—own the fuckin’ t-shirt. It was a long time ago when I lost my shit but it was bad and I can’t go through that again.”

  “You wanna talk about it?” I urged in a soft voice.

  “No, I don’t. All I wanna do is fuck you right here, right now. We can fight too and that will be all the catharsis I need. Tomorrow, we get down to business but today belongs to us.”

  I hated how easily my body responded to his request but the moment he mentioned sex, I tingled all over and my body became a raging inferno of hormones and firing synapses. Every nerve ending crackled with heat awaiting his touch, his tease, and ultimately his very release.

  His fingers easily slid across the bowtie knot at my neck and loosened it until my breasts tumbled out after the top of my bikini fell down. I swigged from my scotch, grabbed an ice cube and held it in my mouth before he snatched my glass and set it on the table beside his.

  He leaned into me and when we kissed, the ice cube transferred from my mouth to his before he took it out with deft fingers and massaged my nipples, the feel of the air conditioned room and further coolness from the cube left my nipples stiff and almost as erect as his cock hidden beneath his board shorts.

  I leaned back and moaned as he stuffed the cube back in his mouth and tackled my nipples, his warm tongue against the ice utterly exhilarating as wetness pooled between my legs.

  Max lifted me up as if I weighed nothing and sat me on his lap. His hard, insistent dick pressed against me and I couldn’t help I wanted to tease and please him at the same time if possible.

  My hips worked on their own and ground down against his cock as he switched nipples and slid the other into his mouth. This would have been enough to make me come alone but I knew what would happen next and the anticipation built inside of me like a twister spinning completely out of control.

  Soon, I was lost in the feeling of his lips on mine, our tongues twirling around each other as our kiss deepened. I could barely breathe from want and need but the moment his beautiful hands gripped my neck and cut off my air supply, my heart thudded inside of my body and the sound of blood rushed through my ears.

  It was a battle of the wills to see how long I could hold out, kissing him, teasing him as my hips bucked against his before he let me breathe again.

  The tension completely relaxed and a rush of blood went to directly to my head. I felt dizzy and slightly nauseated but that was the purpose of breath play. If I didn’t entirely trust him then it wouldn’t have been as satisfying or worth the pain that brought so much pleasure afterward.

  Max pushed me onto my back and I lay on the sofa as his body straddled mine. He quickly slipped my bikini top off and untied the string bottom before ripping it away from my body and tossing it the floor. My legs opened automatically as he slid two fingers inside of me and teased my G-spot.

  “How can such a beautiful angel be such a wanton slut when I get you like this? You’re a greedy little bitch, aren’t you?” he whispered in my ear as his fingers worked in and out of me with hard, steady precision.

  “Such sweet nothings you whisper into my ear, lover.” I lightly bit the ear closest to my mouth.

  “Only because you fuck me better than any woman I’ve ever known.”

  “Not as good as Raz though? Damn, I’m slippin’.” I pouted and knew it wasn’t a good look for me.

  “Raz has never fucked me in his life but you do all the time. You and your twisted mind fuckery . . . you make me yours and I don’t even know how I got in this position in the first place.”

  I smiled. “It’s called practice. When you have nothing but your body and your brain, you quickly realize which one is a better manipulator. What happens when all of this is less than perfect?” I motioned toward my form underneath his. “My brain will always be able to save me long after I’m no longer young or beautiful.”

  “You’ll always be gorgeous to me, Mags. Long after the shine has worn off. I fell in love with your mind and soul long before I even knew you had a heart in this body of yours. That’s what I mean when I say that you have me and you always will.”

  His words should have brought me peace but I was in full on panic mode. What was this crap about love? What did he mean he fell in love with me? That wasn’t supposed to happen. We were a team, we respected each other but love was for awe-struck, naïve women who’d never have true horror visited upon them night after night. It didn’t belong to the downtrodden that watched their parents murdered in front of them. I could possibly comprehend the enormity of his words but the bite of certainty and truth almost made me physically nauseous.

  Not because I didn’t feel the same for him.

  I did.

  Max was handing me a piece of him that should have never been trusted with a broken, twisted soul like me. All I could offer him was a stitched together heart made of cheap silver metal instead of radiant platinum, and emotions as jagged as glass. No man deserved that. Not someone as fragile and perfectly dangerous as him.

  He offered me his heart, clear as white diamonds and cut like the shape of a perfectly polished specimen. It would pierce right through me and leave my battered body beyond repair, my twisted soul in tatters and my emotional frame of mind as shattered as it ever was and I would never be the same again. />
  Fuck him for falling in love with me, and fuck me for fooling him into thinking I was someone special enough for him to ever give a damn about. If he’d been smart, he would have left me on the side of the road by that horrible diner and never looked back. There was nothing about me worth keeping and I wished to God I could convince him of that.

  Just not at this moment.

  It would have to come later. My mind reeled from our sexual dance and all I wanted was him, his cock, and his hard body pressed against mine.

  “Where’d you go?” he whispered before his mouth pressed against mine and I swallowed the words that would do nothing to enhance the moment.

  I was with him again and when he spread my legs further, I pushed down his board shorts before he entered my depths with a red hot and insistent passion.

  My fingers grazed against his back as he rammed me hard and deep, his Prince Albert whispering inside of me as he continued to take me to new heights.

  I threw my head back and he steadied himself on top of my body while his hand wrapped around my throat and squeezed. The feeling of not being able to breathe, his tongue in my mouth and his cock in my pussy was too much to resist. I added fingernails and left a trail of blood and pain against his back as he loosened his grip and allowed me to breathe.

  Everything came out in quick, short bursts, the feeling of him slamming inside of me, opening me to him and his body that demanded satisfaction from mine.

  I gave it to him too; my kegel muscles squeezed around his hardness and my hips met his thrusts with perfect timing.

  “Tell me you want me to come inside you,” he demanded.

  “I want you to come inside me,” I whispered.