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

by Serena Akeroyd

  Unease creased her features. “I don’t want to be like them.”

  I heard and understood her defiance, but it was futile—we’d both learned that at the end of a man’s fist. “Then you probably shouldn’t have come after me the way you did.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to guilt trip me,” she groused stonily, her hands balling into fists.

  “I’m not. You have anger issues.” I let my gaze drift from her to the hall where her husband was—somewhere in the vicinity anyway. “I understand that, and I understand why, but it doesn’t give you the right to dominate me—that’s what they did.”

  Her gulp told me my words had hit home.

  Again, I shrugged. “The money will enable you to do anything you wish.”

  “It’s tempting,” she admitted, “but sometimes you have to avoid temptation. It isn’t good for you.”

  “Neither is being poor and being beholden to a bunch of bikers.” I pursed my lips. “I’m grateful to them, Alessa, there’s no discounting what they’ve done for us, but we almost got killed because of them. What happened—that’s crazy.”

  She winced. “It is. It was.”

  “Tatána didn’t deserve to die for being an impatient fool,” I tacked on.

  “Better to die that way than to earn the wrath of the Sinners,” she muttered, leaning against the doorjamb.

  “Maybe. I can only imagine what they’d have done to her.” I shuddered a little. “I get the feeling they’d make Sir and Master look kind.”

  “They kept us alive. The Sinners wouldn’t care if Tatána died.”

  The thought had me hunching my shoulders. “Do you really want to stay around this place? With men like that? We’ve experienced too much violence in our lives. We deserve better than that.”

  “When she transfers the money over, do you intend on leaving?” she queried, and her surprise was clear.

  “Why does that shock you? I don’t have the ties here that you do, and if Immigration finds out about me they’ll toss me back home anyway. Rachel already told me that the Visa processing time for my case could be four years, and in that term, I could be deported at any moment.” I grimaced. “I have no desire to return to Ukraine.”

  “No? I thought that was where you’d want to be.”

  I snorted. “No. Shows how much you learned about me while we were stuck together.”

  Her expression as she pulled a face said it all. None of us had ever grown close. It wasn’t possible in those circumstances, but that didn’t mean I wanted that to continue.

  If I’d learned anything since my escape from captivity, it was that friendship helped. Being around survivors like me helped. I might not like it, but I needed Alessa, and I thought she needed me too.

  Alessa swallowed. “You want me to come with you?”

  “I’d like you to think about it,” was all I said. Then, I decided to be candid. “There’s no place for me here now.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Hawk…” I gritted my teeth. His interference had probably spared me a harder beating, but equally, he’d revealed things I wanted to keep secret. “When he told Giulia about my feelings—”

  “He was right?” she asked, surprised.

  “Maybe.” I reached up and rubbed my forehead where the bump she’d given me, the one Hawk had iced, was starting to go down. As kind as Giulia and Stone had been to me over all this time, they hadn’t touched me like Hawk had. With a gentleness that belied his strength. “I think it was more like I imprinted on her. She was the first woman we saw, she cared and helped us… it was stupid.”

  “Nothing we feel is stupid,” Alessa rasped, and when she grabbed my hand, I wasn’t sure what she was going to do until she pulled me into a hug that was awkward, but for all that, felt good. She tucked me tightly into her arms, and I slipped my hands around her waist and clung to her as much, I realized, as she clung to me.

  This wasn’t just for my comfort. It was for hers too.

  And when I looked over her shoulder and saw the man watching us from the end of the hall, a brooding frown marring his brow, standing when I’d only ever seen him in a wheelchair, I knew why Alessa needed the comfort.

  Men… they were more trouble than they were worth.

  Twenty-One

  Maverick

  “Do you know where Lily is?”

  I cut my brother a look but shook my head. “Why would I?”

  “Was hoping she was with Alessa. They’ve been hanging out together these past couple of days.”

  “Have they?”

  Link grunted as he plunked himself down on a pool lounger. “You’re back to being a prick again, I see.”

  I sniffed but didn’t answer, just took another sip of the beer I shouldn’t be drinking as I stared up at the night sky.

  The stars didn’t ask me questions and expect answers.

  They just left me the hell alone, and I thanked them for it.

  “You sit out here a lot,” Link remarked.

  “It’s quiet,” I retorted pointedly, making him snicker.

  “Well, it’ll be quiet after I fuck off again, but I’ll only do that in my own good time.”

  “Jesus. Is this going to be another lecture?”

  “Maybe.” Link shrugged, his cut rustling with the move.

  I took another sip of beer, wished it was something stronger, but even I wasn’t dumb enough to mix hard liquor with the meds I was on.

  “Say what you have to say and then fuck off.”

  “This is my home, you know? I don’t have to fuck off anywhere,” was his smug retort, in fact he was so smug that I had to snicker.

  “You letting money go to your head?”

  “I quite like being a sugar baby.”

  “Ain’t you about ten years too old to be that?” I queried, shooting him a look.

  His nose crinkled. “Probably older than that to be fair. Heard you could be one too.”

  I grunted. “I don’t think so. Alessa doesn’t want the money.”

  “Can’t blame her, but I bet she’ll come around. Ten million is a lot to turn down.”

  “I’m surprised Lily can afford to be so generous.”

  Link snorted. “That’s Lily being restrained,” he said with a chuckle, and I heard the hiss and pop as he opened up a beer of his own. “She asked me if fifty million each was too much. I told her ten was enough and to spend the rest on her charities.”

  He had to say that as I took a deep sip, which I promptly sprayed everywhere. “She has fifty million just hanging around?” I sputtered. “Wait, a hundred million?”

  “Lily’s got money coming out of her ears, Mav,” Link replied with a laugh. “Most of it’s her mom’s, but the shit that’s her dad’s, she’s shedding like a whore’ll spread her legs for a four-hundred-dollar tip.”

  I sniffed. “Nice imagery there.”

  “Oh, I forgot, you’re gay at the minute, aren’t you?” was his cheerful retort.

  “I ain’t gay. I’m fucking bi.” I grunted. “Sheesh.”

  “I know some gay guys who’ll say the difference between a bi guy and a gay guy is five beers.”

  “What gay guys do you even know?” I snapped.

  His chuckle told me he was just trying to rile me up, and I was pissed off that it worked.

  I flipped him the bird which only had his laughter deepening. Bastard.

  “You’d have to be gay not to get a hard-on at their victory dance the other day,” Link pointed out, his voice a low, satisfied rumble. “Lily drives better than one of those cars.”

  “Don’t need to know this,” I retorted.

  “Well, I need to share. You and me always talked about this stuff, Mav. Remember?”

  I groaned, because I did. “I know way too much shit about your ass.”

  “Yeah, well, my ass is a sanctuary now.”

  My brows rose. “Why?”

  “Because it’s Lily’s to play with.”

  I snorted. “Plea
se tell me she pegs you.”

  “I’m working up to it.”

  Unable to stop myself, I started laughing. “A big pink dick?”

  “Nah, I’ll get one of those massive Hulk cocks. Ya know? Be a real man.”

  “’Cause only real men take big, green dicks?”

  “Exactly.” He held out his bottle for me to tap with mine, and I had to. I just fucking had to.

  With them having clinked, he rumbled, “It’s funny that you don’t remember Ghost. Even back when you were nutso from the last deployment and your memory was all over the place, there were snippets that used to come to you.”

  My laughter and any and all amusement in this conversation died a short death. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “No? Tough. Got something to tell you.”

  “Make it fast so you can fuck off and leave me in peace.”

  His grunt told me I’d scored a hit but not a deep enough one for him to fuck off as I’d requested.

  “You know that leather cuff she wears?”

  I frowned. “The red one?”

  He snickered. “So you have noticed.”

  My eyes narrowed at him. “I’ve got eyes, don’t I? It’s just my brain that’s mush, not my eyes. Well, most of the time.”

  “You getting those headaches again?”

  “Yeah. They’re fucking killer.”

  “Got one now?”

  I could have lied to him, because that was one way of getting him to go, but this was Link. I just couldn’t bullshit him.

  It helped that he knew when I was lying too…

  “No,” I told him grumpily. “Wish I did though. At least you’d leave me alone.”

  “Dunno about that. This shit needs to be said. Lily’s been wanting me to talk to you about this since you got back home, and to be honest, I’ve been hesitant to because it’s clear to me that Ghost doesn’t want you to know.”

  “Alessa,” I corrected as I scraped off the wet label on my beer bottle with my thumb nail.

  “Alessa,” he concurred, “is keeping it from you for a reason, and I don’t know what that is.”

  “You doing your usual ‘Link’ll fix it’ gig?” I queried.

  “Maybe. I just don’t want to break something before it needs fixin’, you know?”

  Unfortunately, I did.

  “What’s the cuff mean to her?”

  “It hides a slave brand.”

  For a second, I thought I’d heard wrong. Then, I twisted around to stare at him and saw he wasn’t joking. Link, the ever-fucking-jokester, wasn’t joking.

  I blinked. “You’re shitting me.”

  “No. Wish I was, man.”

  My nostrils flared as I tried to process what the fuck he was telling me. “A slave brand?” I repeated.

  “A slave brand. She was a sex slave until we saved her.”

  The silence that fell between us was ripe with a conversation neither of us wanted to have. It didn’t take Einstein to conceive what she’d endured, what she’d gone through. I didn’t need to know, even if I was compelled to.

  How had that fragile, beautiful angel survived that?

  How was she here, still standing, just hovering on the sidelines waiting for me to metaphorically kick her while she was already down?

  A groan escaped me as I reached up and covered my eyes with my forearm. All the things I’d said, how cold I’d been, all the fucking—

  Jesus.

  “Your head bad?”

  “No,” I rumbled, even though it was a lie. Like a hammer to the skull, the migraine was back in business, but that wasn’t the reason I wanted to puke.

  That was all Ghost. Alessa.

  “Tell me… how did she get her nickname?”

  At my rasp, Link hesitated, then he admitted, “So, before Giulia and Nyx got together, they were just banging. It was funny as fuck because he wanted more from her, but either she wasn’t willing to give it to him, or he didn’t know what the fuck to do with her. I mean, you’ve seen him with her. I’d say he was whipped as hell, but it goes deeper than that. It’s like…” He paused. “I mean, she’s got him wrapped up in her but not in a bad way. It’s as if, with her, his demons give him a break. Like he can think clearly, you know?”

  I did, actually.

  All the time I’d known him, Nyx didn’t have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. He had two devils, and they didn’t just whisper in his ear, they yelled. Constantly. Like a demonic kind of tinnitus.

  “I get it.”

  “Anyway,” he said softly, his tone changing like he knew I was straining to hear through the pain, “one day, he’s at the bar. We own a bar now. You know that, right?”

  “Alessa told me.”

  He grunted. “She worked there, behind the bar, and this guy comes onto her, won’t take no for an answer. Nyx dealt with him in his usual way, but the bastard came back for her when Nyx was on a run. Almost raped her, managed to get a finger inside her, but—” He grunted. “It’s crazy how your perceptions change. Until Lily, I was just glad he didn’t get his cock in her, and now, I realize that a finger is just as fucking bad.” He released a breath. “Anyway, she killed him. Stone dead. But he was a Lancaster, and his dad owned all this. So the fucker manipulated the laws, got in some detectives, and tried to accuse Giulia of murder. It was working too. We were worried about her, and then one day, Lily goes to the bar, braves it, and manages to get a message to me.”

  When he quieted down long enough to make me realize he was lost in the past, I whispered, “What kind of message?”

  “Some coordinates. Steel, Nyx, Giulia, and me, we headed to them, and we found three living women there. I swear, Maverick, I’ve never been anywhere like it. It was this shed in the middle of nowhere, the creepiest forest ever, but they were underground, kept in cages, shit and piss all over ‘em. There was a dead body in one of the cages too…”

  A sharp cry escaped me, one that made me feel as if someone had stabbed me through the fucking ear, but with the pain came a name.

  A goddamn name.

  “Sarah,” I breathed.

  “Shit!” Link sat up. “Mav, yeah. Sarah. She was dead when we found her.” He gulped. “Rotting away—” He shuddered. “It was horrendous. Enough to give me PTSD. But one of the women was Ghost. We saved her, but I called her that because she was as light as a ghost, as pale as one, and as quiet. Her voice was so low—”

  “Still is.”

  “Stone says she damaged her voice box screaming.”

  Gutturally, I grated out, “Fuck.” Like I hurt for her too, the pain was hitting me on all quarters. “Fuck, Link.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He swallowed. “Her story is bad, man. So bad. We made him pay though. Fucker suffered before he died.”

  “Where did he take them?”

  Link stilled. “Huh?”

  The nausea was still rumbling through my system like I’d just eaten tacos loaded down with ghost peppers, but for some reason, my brain was focused on one thing only.

  “Fucker with this much wealth might store his goods like that, but he ain’t gonna fuck them there.”

  A hiss escaped Link. “Jesus.”

  “Assume that means you don’t know?”

  “We never—Well, I mean, I never thought. Maybe Rex did. I didn’t.”

  “You should find it,” I rumbled. “Fuck knows if he’s got other women there.”

  My face was slick with sweat to the point where I felt like I’d just been doused in water. Might as well have had someone flush my head down the goddamn toilet with how soaked through I was.

  “Christ,” Link rasped, and within seconds, he was dragging out his phone and shooting off a text.

  “I hate to admit it, but the only person who’ll be able to find something like that is Lodestar,” I muttered grimly.

  “I’ll go talk to her.” He leaped to his feet, but a few steps into striding away, he paused, hovered, and asked, “Mav?”

  “
I’ll be kinder to her.” It was all I was capable of saying, but it didn’t begin to describe the metamorphosis going down in my brain.

  “Good.”

  He walked off, leaving me like I’d hoped, but my mind was a thousand times more active than it had been before he darkened my door.

  The excruciating pain was nothing compared to the guilt I felt, to the shame.

  She loved me.

  Whenever she looked at me, I saw it. Felt it. She’d admitted it, but words were one thing and seeing them in the flesh was another. Even so, I’d turned her away. I knew the pain of rejection—who the fuck didn’t? But this was something else entirely.

  I’d wifed her.

  Made her mine, even if I hadn’t branded her yet.

  Unless this Maverick, who’d been strong enough to protect a sex slave from ICE, who’d somehow made her fall for him even though she had to absolutely loathe men, had preemptively branded himself?

  Somehow, it felt like the kind of thing that Maverick would do.

  I had no idea why, but the need to know if I had was as strong as the urge to find the place where Lily’s father had fucked his merchandise.

  The bastard.

  I hoped the club had made his death as painful as possible.

  Clambering to my feet was hard with my ears ringing, but I staggered across the poolside, almost falling into the fucking water—which was all I needed, to die now—before I eventually made it inside.

  I walked into my bedroom, deeper into the closet where I’d noticed the door had a mirror on it, even as there was one on the front wall so someone could see themselves from all angles.

  Switching the light on had shadows dancing across my eyes, and for a few moments, I just stood there, quivering like a feather in a storm, like a fucking pussy, until the dots abated and I felt like I could look into the light without going blind.

  Squinting through the discomfort, I twisted my head slightly as I shrugged out of my cut then carefully unbuttoned the shirt I’d started wearing. It felt weird not to wear a wifebeater, but it was getting colder, and I didn’t feel like dealing with frostbitten nipples as well as everything else.

  When both were gracing the floor, I peered over my shoulder to see if I could get a glimpse of my spine, and I found a myriad wall of ink that I did and didn’t recognize.