Maverick: A Dark MC Romance (A Dark & Dirty Sinners' MC Series Book 6)

by Serena Akeroyd

  He’d shown me proof of a potential threat to the MC, and while I’d continue to keep my eye on Cruz, I trusted he had the club’s best interests at heart. Especially now that I knew he and Indy were an item. It helped that he was the Sinners’ Grim Reaper, tasked with cleaning up the DNA spilled in the line of duty. A man didn’t pull stunts like that without being loyal to his brothers.

  As dangerous as I was, my reputation was couched in shadows as that was how I wanted it. No one in their right mind would want to make an enemy out of Nyx, whose rep was out and proud in the midday sun, so I knew I didn’t have to doubt Cruz because Nyx would skin his balls for me.

  aCooooig: Heard you got blown up.

  Me: Not a question? Just a statement.

  aCooooig: Well, few people lie to me. Especially when I’m truly interested in something.

  Me: Should I take that as a compliment?

  aCooooig: Most people would avoid my interest.

  Me: I never claimed to be sane.

  aCooooig: How are you?

  Me: Broken leg, bruised hip, battered ribs. I’m okay.

  aCooooig: Sounds it. *Not.*

  Me: I’ve dealt with worse.

  aCooooig: When?

  Me: Do you really want to know? Or have you already found out the truth and want confirmation your sources are on the money?

  aCooooig: Your distrust wounds me.

  Me: I’ll bet.

  aCooooig: Actually, I know a lot about you, but reading it from reports is never as interesting as hearing it from the horse’s mouth.

  My lips twitched. Me: So I’m a horse now, am I?

  aCooooig: I haven’t seen your picture yet, so you could be.

  I hadn’t seen his picture either, and if he had ‘reports’ on me, that was more than I had on him. Details on aCooooig were surprisingly well hidden.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was affiliated with the Irish, what with a name like that—acuig was the Gaelic word for the number five—but for me, I knew who he was tied to simply because of how I’d found him.

  When I’d been throwing shit at the wall and hoping some would stick, I’d waded through various crime organizations, causing trouble among them, trying to find my way into their defenses.

  Along the way, I’d found aCooooig, whose security system had impressed me, but it hadn’t been good enough to keep me out. I’d had fun though, and in my line of work, few were ever good enough to entertain me.

  Still, for all that I was busy, I kept my ear to the ground for anything aCooooig related, but he was as much of a phantom as I was.

  Was he giving me BS about having reports on me? Not just one with a picture of a blank face with a question mark for features, but with actual information on me?

  The notion was disquieting.

  Mostly because if he had that on me, then I should have that on him.

  aCooooig: You there?

  Me: Yes. Wondering why we keep on dancing around each other when we’re on the same side.

  aCooooig: You broke my code. Plus you keep wrecking my hardware.

  Me: You’ve wrecked mine too.

  aCooooig: Tit for tat. A man’s hardware is sacred.

  Me: Is that a euphemism?

  aCooooig: In this instance, no. I prefer my hardware to my cock.

  Interest stirred in me. Me: How true is that?

  aCooooig: Sixty percent true. Depends. Is the woman I’m looking at hot in this hypothetical situation? If so, then forty percent true.

  I snorted. Me: Like to look but not touch, huh? Are you ugly? Struggle to get laid?

  aCooooig: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  Me: So says every momma to every unfortunate kid who ever was.

  aCooooig: Well, my ma would say I had the luck of the Irish where my face was concerned. But looks aren’t everything, Lodestar.

  Me: Aren’t they? Most men would disagree.

  aCooooig: I’m not *most* men.

  Me: Is that supposed to reassure me?

  aCooooig: Or warn you to approach with care… more likely to be that than a reassurance. Never was good at that.

  Me: Then I hope for your sake you never broke in a virgin.

  aCooooig: ROFL.

  My brows rose, because I hadn’t expected that to amuse him. That it did had my lips twitching.

  aCooooig: If I had, I wouldn’t be New York’s most eligible bachelor.

  Me: Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

  aCooooig: Now who’s being mean? Play nice, Lodestar. Or are you just being crabby because you’re in pain?

  Me: :/ Probably. Sorry.

  aCooooig: Heard the Sinners’ compound is totaled.

  There was no point in tensing up at that. No point whatsoever. I knew from his code, from the A+ hacking he did on the regular that he probably knew my blood type by now, but still, that he knew my general location didn’t sit well with me.

  Especially as I’d yet to determine where he was.

  NYC was a big fucking place. Lots of people. Knowing the city and a general neighborhood wasn’t enough.

  If he knew I was with the Sinners, then he knew how to get to me. I was okay with him being aware of my injuries because he could have come across a doctor’s report. That was one thing. Knowing my current location was another.

  aCooooig: Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.

  Me: I feel so reassured.

  Not.

  aCooooig: The Sinners are allies.

  Me: Allies are just friendly enemies.

  aCooooig: My, my, my. Such a cynic.

  Me: If you’re looking to chat with a naive ingenue, I’m not your girl.

  aCooooig: Naive ingenues are boring. Why do you think I never fucked an Irish virgin?

  Me: You only fuck women if they’re from the motherland?

  aCooooig: What do you think? o.O

  aCooooig: Out of curiosity, where are you from?

  Me: Originally?

  aCooooig: Of course. I’m about as Irish as a potato.

  Me: Meaning you’re not?

  aCooooig: Well, if you want to get into a philosophical debate on the rights of natural citizenship…

  Me: I have better things to do with my time.

  aCooooig: Thank fuck.

  Me: LOL.

  aCooooig: Go on then. Where are you from? Originally?

  I snorted. Me: Delaware.

  aCooooig: How disappointing. The very first Delawarian, huh?

  Me: Actually… my mother was fourth generation Irish. Dad was second gen.

  aCooooig: So… you’re Irish?

  Me: More American.

  aCooooig: But your people came over on a boat and slinked through Ellis Island?

  Me: Is this giving you a boner?

  aCooooig: Might just be. You have potential, Lodestar.

  Rolling my eyes, I tapped out: Your charm knows no bounds.

  aCooooig: It’s been an issue all my life.

  Laughing, I shook my head, amused despite myself.

  Something about this fucker had gotten to me from the very start.

  I could almost regret making ground beef out of his security system, but hey, better for me to hack it than someone truly malicious.

  Well, I was malicious, and if he’d been helping the Italians or the NWS then I’d have done more than wreck his system… but aCooooig was a pleasant challenge.

  Someone to butt up against.

  There’d always been Maverick, of course, but he didn’t work the same way I did. Not anymore. Becoming the Sinners’ treasurer had changed his MO.

  aCooooig: Watch out for a gift from me.

  I narrowed my eyes at the screen. Me: Already been bombed once. Don’t want another present.

  aCooooig: Friendly enemies might be what you consider us, but I prefer allies. Just one little token to a boss ass bitch from a boss ass bastard.

  Snorting out a laugh, I replied: Thanks. I think.

  aCooooig: TTYL.

  I di
dn’t have a chance to reply before he cut the connection between us, making the chat screen disintegrate away like it had never existed.

  We both had code on each other’s hardware. No matter how many times I took it off, it popped up again… and vice versa.

  I knew the bombing had done more than break a few bones and had rattled my brain too when the thought of his presence on my computer didn’t piss me off, but felt more like a hug than a malicious threat.

  Shaking my head at the thought, I switched programs and went through the manual stripping of my gear to delete his presence even though, by the end of the day, I knew it would be back again. And as I checked my code on his software, found it deleted and restored it, I smiled.

  Then, when five PM rolled around and someone buzzed at the front gate and it was a delivery driver, I’d admit to feeling no small amount of excitement as I realized it was his gift.

  As promised.

  When I opened up the box to reveal ten pounds of candy corn, my smile made another appearance.

  Allies, indeed.

  Ten

  Nyx

  The noise in my head wouldn’t quit. It was there, an endless blast of sound that made it impossible to hear what Giulia was saying.

  The day had been a crappy one.

  First, the funeral. Saying goodbye to Jaxson had sucked because I’d promised his dad that I’d watch out for the kid, and I’d tried to, but I couldn't watch out for a fucking bomb. Watching him being returned to the earth, then women I'd fucked over the years too, had been as much of a headache as the night our compound had been destroyed.

  Then, Cammie had persisted in blowing up my phone. Normally I’d have ignored her. I wouldn't even go through the bother of blocking her number, but we’d lost a lot of people along the way. We could have lost her as well if she’d been there, if she hadn’t left because her father was sick.

  I’d never loved her, had never really even cared for her. I knew I was a bastard for that when I was well aware of her feelings for me.

  I wasn't sure how, looking the way she did, she’d come to me a virgin, and I’d never wanted to be her first, but she’d approached me on one of the few nights I drank and before I knew it, I’d been tearing through her goddamn hymen.

  That had made me keep her around longer than most of the bunnies I boned exclusively, which I knew she’d taken to mean that I had feelings for her.

  But I hadn’t.

  I never had.

  And now, with Giulia at my side, our baby in her belly, I recognized what it was to feel.

  If Cammie felt this much for me, how couldn’t I have answered her call?

  How couldn’t I give her some semblance of peace so she knew I was okay? It wouldn’t make things better, could even make things worse, but the need to give her some closure was real.

  From my sister and Old Lady’s reactions, I figured I’d fucked that up, but I’d tried.

  That was more than I’d have done before Giulia came along.

  After the call, things had steadily worsened.

  All my life, I’d been chasing closure too. The need for vengeance was one of the only things that got me up in the morning. The need to make pedo cunts pay had been my reason for fucking breathing for so long.

  Indy’s admission, the revelation that she’d been abused by our uncle too?

  The need to kill was there, a raging beast in my soul that wouldn’t quit. The demons inside me, that I wore on my back, were screaming at me to let them out, to let them free so they could wreak havoc on any who thought they could harm the innocent.

  But I’d just made a promise to Indy.

  And she was right.

  My first duty was to my unborn child.

  “Nyx? You’re frightening me, baby.”

  I didn’t blame her for being scared. I was fucking trembling like a pussy. Hell, she had a pussy and she was stronger than this.

  But Indy… God, had Quin been targeted by our uncle too?

  Before the blast, I’d been scheduled to visit with him, but I’d canceled in the aftermath. Now I wished I’d gone because, once again, I’d let him down.

  Fuck, when would I stop letting down the people who mattered the most to me?

  My throat was clogged with tears and rage and the outlying urge to kill, maim.

  I’d thought they were safe.

  Indy hadn’t been. Why wouldn’t Kevin have targeted Quin? He’d told me he’d hurt me, so why wouldn’t he approach my baby bro?

  My hands were shaking as I reached for my phone, tugging it out of my jeans. We’d been standing by my bike ever since I’d staggered out of Indiana Ink, leaving my sister behind as I tried to cope with what she’d gone through.

  I knew that was messed up. She was the victim, but she’d been the one to hug me, to try to make me feel better. Nothing she could say would ever do that. I’d killed Kevin. I’d stolen his last breath from him. I’d watched his brain explode like it was a watermelon falling from a one-hundred-foot drop.

  I thought I’d known vengeance.

  I didn’t.

  Nothing could make up for this.

  Nothing.

  And the depth of the betrayal made it hard for me to breathe.

  I’d let her down.

  I’d let Indy down so fucking badly it was a wonder she could look me in the eye, never mind have me close enough to ink.

  “I-I need to speak with Quin.” I scrolled down for his number. We’d managed to get a new cell into Rikers for him, one I didn’t want to know where he kept.

  “Why? What’s going on? You and Indy were fine until I went to the bathroom, then I came back and it was like WWIII had just hit her shop.”

  Her brow was puckered, her expression one big mass of confusion as I stared at her beautiful face.

  She got my crazy.

  I got hers.

  But while it had started as that, while we were both two insane fuckers riding and dying together, this went deeper now. It had nothing to do with the kid she was carrying and everything to do with her.

  Indy’s promise was something I would never have been able to give to her before Giulia.

  Just the rage her revelation triggered was something that would have had me hauling ass out of the tattoo parlor and heading to—

  Christ, it wasn’t like Maverick was compus mentus right now. That was why I’d gotten Lodestar in on the hunt for Martin London. So even if I wanted to go off on a slaughtering sesh, I couldn’t. I had no one to definitively slay.

  But that wouldn't have stopped me.

  I’d have done something stupid.

  I knew myself too well not to know that, so if it wasn’t for this woman, this crazy beautiful woman, who’d somehow agreed to tie herself to me, who didn’t mind my demons, who fucked with them on the regular just as I did with hers, I knew my sanity would be compromised.

  The thought had me pushing us forward, away from the borrowed hog I was using, and toward the side wall of a building that was at the mouth of an alley. I moved with her until her back was against the brick, and because she was perfect, so fucking perfect for me, she didn't say shit, just flowed with me until I stopped. Then, she pushed her forehead against mine the second I tipped my chin forward and our hands tangled, bridging us together, connecting us in another way.

  If I could have been inside her, I would’ve. But this went deeper than sex. This was… fuck, it was just everything.

  She was everything.

  “Talk to me, baby,” she urged, but she did so softly, carefully. Like she recognized how fragile I was.

  Fuck, what a pussy.

  I closed my eyes. “Kevin… Indy just told me he got to her as well as Carly.”

  The sharp indrawn breath, her tension, all of it transmitted itself to me. But the way she literally fucking throbbed in the aftermath of my confession spoke of a true rage that few could handle.

  Few, read none. Because only I could handle this woman.

  Only I could bring her peace
, fuck with her crazy, deal with her rage.

  I was born for this.

  Born for her.

  Just as she was for me.

  There was no doubting her sorrow for Indy, but her response was what I needed to feel vindicated. A normal woman might have said, “Oh, Nyx, I’m so sorry.” But Giulia didn't say shit. She just reacted. Viscerally. And that calmed me down like nothing else could.

  Her fingers tightened around mine to the point of pain, but it grounded me, brought me a semblance of peace as the quiet flowered around us.

  “You want to check if he got to Quin too, don’t you?”

  “She slipped through the cracks. Why wouldn’t he?” My voice broke and I felt no shame for it.

  My kid siblings.

  Fuck, I should have protected them—kept them safe.

  “What made her tell you now?” she asked softly, dangerously. I knew that wasn’t aimed at Indy who, nuts though it was, she seemed to get on really well with.

  “She said I could handle knowing, that she needed to tell me because she was trapping the truth inside her for my benefit and she needed to be free from ‘the cage of her silence.’”

  “What else did she say?”

  God, this woman.

  Fuck.

  I pushed my forehead into hers before I angled my head and caught her lips with my own. She was there for me, right from the start until the very end as I thrust my tongue into her mouth and started to fuck her there, at the opening of the alley, uncaring if anyone could see us.

  My dick hardened, rubbing into the belly that was shielding our baby, but it wasn't about arousal. That was just the response my woman wrought in me.

  It was about connecting. About the link between us.

  Because Giulia knew something else was affecting me.

  Knew it because she knew me.

  She groaned into my kiss, which was my cue to pull back. Her inky black hair made her creamy skin look all the more like silk, and as she stared up at me with glittering eyes, her body soft as it merged with mine, sinking into me as she let me support her, I knew there’d never been room in my heart, my fucking soul, for any other woman.

  Cammie had never had a snowball’s chance in hell of meaning shit to me.

  Because I'd been waiting for Giulia.