by C. M. Allen
“You touch one fuckin՛ hair on their heads and I will not rest until I hunt you down and kill you myself!”
“Now, now, now, don’t go losing that head of yours,” he began to laugh hysterically at his own shitty joke. “Sorry, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to use that one,” schooling his laughter, he warned. “Take this as your only warning, Mr. Reed. Next time I take all of you out.” Then the call dropped.
“What the fuck kind of game is this asshole playin՛ with us?!” I shouted, trying so hard not to pitch my phone at the nearest wall.
“Let’s just get all the women and children safe, then meet up to try and figure out just what the hell this fucker is up to. But I’ve got to get to Raven. I’m sure she’s freakin՛ the hell out right now,” he patted my shoulder as he took off inside.
“Maverick! Oh my God! Thank goodness you’re ok! I was so worried about you,” Harper yelled, running up to me and practically jumping into my arms, hugging me tight. “What happened?”
“One of Dekes men took out Buzz before we could get any information on what he’s plannin՛.”
Sliding down my body, her feet found the ground. “Oh my God.”
When she tried to look into the shed, I stopped her. “Trust me, you don’t want to see that mess.”
Running her hands over my arms, she asked. “Are you ok though? No injuries? Was anyone else hurt?”
“I’m fine, Sweetheart, really. And no, no one else was hurt. But I really need you to get into the safe room so I can focus on figurin՛ a way to find out what Dekes is up to now. It seems this asshole can adapt really well to a change of plans. Hell, he could be sendin՛ in the fuckin՛ DEA or the FBI to raid the clubhouse right now for all we know. Come on, I’ll walk with you.”
Just as I was leading Harper into the safe room, Ava walked by and Harper froze mid-step before turning to face me. “I think I know how we can find out more about Dekes, but I don’t know if it’s going to work or not since the man who can help us also works for him.”
“Who is it?”
“Ava’s uncle. Sandro Di Mozé.”
Shaking my head, I tried and wrap my head around what she’d just said. “Wait, how is it you know this? And why the fuck if Ava’s uncle works for him, would Dekes threaten to kill her? Or better yet, why would Sandro come all the way out here to help when you went missin՛? None of it makes any sense.”
“I only know because Dekes told me that if I was thinking Ava’s uncle would protect me or her, that he wouldn’t because he worked for him. And I think the only one who can answer any of our questions is Ava.”
“Let’s get everyone safe and settled then we can ask her.”
A half hour later, my men, Ava, Harper, and I all sat behind locked doors at the table in the large office I had built off the side of the safe room. “So, I just wanted to start by sayin՛ that we now know that it was Dekes who took the shot at us and killed Buzz. The fucker was so proud of himself that he called me afterwards to confirm it. But before Buzz was killed we weren’t able to get much out of him, other than he was receivin՛ money and blow for the information he was handin՛ over to Dekes. But how much and what that information was, still remains unknown. Butch and I are workin՛ on a possible lead that might help us figure out this problem and we’ll call you all back to this table the moment we have more information for you. But right now, I want you all to go to your families and make sure that they are calmed down and comfortable. Reassure them that these walls are not only bulletproof but heat seekin՛ proof as well. They have nothin՛ to fear as long as they remain inside. Beds are bein՛ set up as we speak by the prospects. I know it’s goin՛ to be a little tight, but hopefully we won’t be on lockdown for more than the next 24 hours. Hear me when I say, gentlemen, I want everyone to stay inside until I say otherwise, understand?” Everyone nodded in agreement. “I won’t risk losin՛ anymore members of this club or your families. Been enough of that shit in our lives. Bambi has brought in some beers, so go grab one and try to relax. The calmer you are, the calmer your families will feel”
When I slammed down the gavel and called an end to the meeting, all, but my top five that I told to stay behind earlier, got up to leave. “So, what’s this plan of yours?” Butch asked.
I looked at Harper before speaking. “Recently I’ve found out that there might be someone else who can shed some light on Dekes and how he operates,” looking at Ava and then back at Harper again, I continued. “Harper, why don’t you tell us what you know.”
Looking at Ava, she turned back to face all of us. “When I was in the hospital Dekes came to pay me a visit. He told me that if I was hoping Ava’s uncle Sandro was going to protect Ava or myself that basically he wouldn’t because,” pausing for a moment, she looked at Ava again. “Because your uncle worked for him.”
Standing up quickly, Ava looked utterly shocked. “That... that’s impossible! Uncle Sandro wouldn’t have come here to help find you if he worked for him! Dekes has to be lying!”
Roman stood up and took a hold of her shoulders before pulling her into his chest. “Easy, Hellcat.” Moving her away so he can see her face, he asked. “How well do you know your uncle, Ava?”
Ripping herself out of his grip, she started digging into her pocket for her phone. “I’ve known him all my life. There’s no way he would ever work for a man like Dekes.”
A tear escaped her eye as she tried to scroll to his number in her phone. “I’m so sorry Ava. I didn’t want to upset you like this,” Harper said, walking over to her.
“Don’t worry about it Harp. I’m going to get to the bottom of this right now and prove that bastard was lying to you about my uncle.” Putting the phone to her ear, I motioned for her to put it on speaker, so we could all hear what Mr. Di Mozé had to say about this.
“Ahh, how’s my little Bella nipote? Everything’s ok, yes?” he answered.
“Hello, Uncle. No... no everything is not ok,” Ava said, wiping another tear away.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“If I asked you a question Uncle, will you be honest with me?”
“Where is this coming from, Bella? Have I not always been as honest as I can be with you?”
“Yes, Uncle, you have, but...”
Cutting her off, he said. “So then, ask me what it is you wish to know, and then I’ll ask you why you have a room full of people listening in on our conversation.”
How the fuck did he know that with all of us being so quiet?
“I’m sorry Uncle but when I tell you why you’ll understand.”
“What is the question, Avanti?” he snapped with a little irritation in his words.
“Do you work for a man by the name of Dekes?”
The phone went silent for a moment before he finally answered. “I do know of this man Dekes you speak of and yes, I do business with him from time to time but work for him I do not. Why do you ask?”
Motioning Ava to hand me the phone, she hesitated for a moment, but then said, “Uncle, Maverick would like to speak with you.”
He let out a heavy breath and I could hear the sound of a leather chair squeaking on the other end. I imagined him leaning back in it to prepare himself to have to deal with the likes of me again after our not so friendly interaction we had the last time. Taking the phone from Ava, I took it off speaker and put it to my ear. “Mr. Di Mozé.”
“Mr. Maverick. Mind informing me on why my beautiful niece is sharing your airspace, again?”
“Because, Dekes, the man you do business with from time to time, has threatened to kill her. He’s already killed one of my men today.”
“He what?!” Sandro shouted so loud that I knew everyone in the room had to have heard him. “Why? Why is he threatening to harm my niece? I want to know exactly what’s going on out there, and right this God damn second, Mr. Maverick.”
After I told him about Dekes being the one who kidnapped Harper and his threatening Ava’s life before telling Harper that he worked fo
r him, I’m met with a long silence. “Mr. Di Mozé?”
“I’m thinking, Mr. Maverick. So, you said that Dekes took Harper and threatened Ava’s life, but you haven’t said why this is, but I’m assuming it has something to do with you and your club, no?”
“You assume correct. Seems he’s the brother of a girl I was with years back. She was murdered by the Slayers when they shot up our clubhouse and now, he wants revenge on us all. Me, for putin՛ her in the line of fire and the Slayers for pullin՛ the trigger.”
“Then it sounds like all I need to do is come collect my niece and her friend out of there and let you all hash this out on your own. And don’t think I won’t be speaking to Dekes about using my niece in any kind of capacity for his plans of revenge. For that, he will be hearing from me. Now let me speak to my niece.”
Losing all hope that Sandro was going to put aside his business dealings with Dekes and help us, I handed Ava back her phone.
Taking it from me, she moved to a corner in the room to continue her conversation with him. A few minutes later we heard her shout out. “No! No! I’m not going anywhere with you, Uncle. Why won’t you help them? Are you afraid of this Dekes man? Is that why you won’t help them? I won’t come back to you! Uncle, if you love me then you will help this club!” Disconnecting the call, she walked over and wrapped her arms around Roman. “I won’t leave you. He can’t make me.”
“Honey, I’d have to agree with your uncle on this one. It’s the only way to keep you safe,” looking at me then Harper, he said. “Both of you.”
“I have to agree Har...”
Instantly she cut me off. “Don’t even say those words to me, Maverick. I will not leave you and that’s my final word. No more discussing it.”
“Same goes for me.” Ava stated.
My men couldn’t help but chuckle at these two women who showed nothing but balls of steel right now. “I think you two have found someone to keep your asses in line.” Gunner chuckled.
Wrapping my arm around Harper’s neck, I pulled her in closer and leaned down to nibble on her ear. “Yeah, but it’s your ass I’m goin՛ to get my hands on and keep in line when this is all over, isn’t it, Sweetheart?”
Feeling her body tremble at my words, she just smiled up at me. “Only if you’re a good boy.”
Leaning down to her ear again, I growled. “I’ll never be a good boy, Sweetheart. Besides, that’s not what that pussy of yours likes anyways. She likes it when I play rough and dirty with her and I’m as bad as bad gets,” kissing her on the lips to punctuate my words, I released her with a slap on her ass so hard she yelped. “Now who’s keepin՛ who’s ass in line?” I winked at her.
Ava’s phone rang, and she quickly answered it. “Uncle... ok, hold on,” walking over to me, she handed me her phone. “He wants to talk to you.”
Taking a deep breath, I could only imagine how this conversation was about to go down. Putting the phone to my ear, I said. “Mr. Di Mozé?”
“What the hell have you done to my niece?! She has never defied my word before, ever!”
“I’ve done nothin՛ to her. You know as well as I do, Ava doesn’t do anythin՛ she doesn’t want to do.”
“I do. But she’s never defied me before.” A silence filled the air before he finally spoke again. “My niece means the world to me, Mr. Maverick. And the fact that Dekes has threatened her life, be it blowing smoke up your asses or not doesn’t sit well with me. So, here’s what I’m willing to do for you. I’m going to send one of my best men, Rocco, out to help you. He will have my blessing to assist you in any way possible with whatever information you might need on Dekes. But hear me when I say this, Mr. Maverick. I am entrusting you with my niece’s life. And if any harm should come to her... I will not hesitate to come after you myself. Do we understand one another?”
Knowing I needed to pacify this asshole to get the information on Dekes I needed, I agreed to his terms. “I do. And I give you my word that she will be kept safe. No matter what.” I looked at Roman with a nod at him, knowing he would do everything he could to protect Ava. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly was going on with the two of them yet, but I knew he would never let any harm come to her.
“Good. Rocco will be leaving here shortly and will be in contact with you as soon as he hits the ground. And just a little piece of advice, Mr. Maverick.”
“Shoot.”
“Dekes is a very intelligent man. He will have five failsafe plans already in place should his current one go bad. He’s also more than likely got eyes and ears on you. Anything that has been in his presence will probably have some sort of tracking device on it. So, my advice to you is, if you don’t want him to know where you are or where you’re going, you will need to replace your phones and check the dead man as well. I guarantee that’s how he knew right where to find him when he had him eliminated. Then you will need to clean your clubhouse. If Dekes put rats into your house, I can guarantee you that they left a few droppings behind, if you get my meaning.”
“I do. And thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet Mr. Maverick, you still need to hold up your end of the deal. Now, I would like to speak with my niece again, and in private.”
“Sure thing,” I said, handing Ava the phone. “He wants to talk to you in private. You can use the bathroom that’s off to the side over there,” I pointed to the door as she took the phone from my hand and put it to her ear before heading off.
“Is he going to help us?” Harper asked.
“He is. Let’s get everyone back in here so we can brief them now on what’s goin՛ on,” looking down at Harper, I told her. “Why don’t you and Ava go get a beer and relax with the others while we let the rest of my men in on what we’re doin՛.”
“Ok, I need to talk to Ava anyway and apologize for the way that all came out about her uncle. I should have said something to her in private first.”
Seeing Ava exit the bathroom; she had an anxious look on her face. “It looks like she could use a friend right now anyway,” I motioned over towards her.
Harper frowned at her friend before looking back at me. “I think you’re right. I wonder what has got her so upset?”
“I’m sure you’ll find out. Now give me a kiss.”
Stretching up on her tiptoes, she started with a simple kiss before deepening it and turning me the fuck on. “Something for you to think about until we can be alone again,” she winked at me before turning to leave, swaying those beautiful hips I was dying to grab a hold of while I fucked her senseless as she went, leaving me hard enough to pound nails right now.
Fuck me!
CHAPTER
12
Harper
When Ava walked out of the bathroom, Maverick pointed out that she seemed upset and when I looked at her, I could see that he was right. After I gave Maverick a kiss to remember, I walked over to her and grabbed her wrist. “Want to join me for a beer? I think I owe you an apology.”
“It’s fine, Harp. I can see why you didn’t want to say anything. But I really do wish you would have pulled me aside and said something to me first, so I didn’t feel so blindsided by the whole thing in front of the guys.”
“I know, I messed up bad... again, and I’m so sorry. I was really hoping Dekes was lying, but I was too scared of what would happen if I said anything to you and it turned out to be true.”
Stopping mid-stride, Ava looked at me. “My uncle would kill Dekes before he would ever harm me, or you. But I do have to admit that with what my uncle does for a living there was a small piece of me that was worried that it might be true. But I definitely never feared he would hurt me. I was more worried about you and what would happen to Roman, Maverick and the others if he was on Dekes’ side.”
“I’m just glad he’s decided to help us.”
Frowning, she looked back at Roman before she pulled me by my hand the rest of the way out of the room and toward the mini bar in the corner where Bambi was handing out beers. “Two beers plea
se.” She told Bambi before continuing. “Yeah, well that might pose a problem for us.”
“Why?” I asked her as I took the beer Bambi handed me.
Moving us to a corner of the room where no one was, we sat down on the couch. “My uncle is sending Rocco out here to help Maverick and the club.”
Staring at her, not understanding what the problem was, I asked. “And that will cause problems how?”
“Do you remember me telling you about the guy I dated when I went to stay with my uncle for a little while a few years back?”
“The one you broke up with because you didn’t want to be a part of that kind of world he lived in?”
“Yes. Well... it was Rocco.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit.”
“Do you think he’s going to try and get you back?”
“I don’t think so. He knows how I feel about what he does for my uncle, but I wouldn’t put it past him to try and at least cause some trouble if he can while he’s out here.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to be a part of that world either, but weren’t you like totally in love with the guy?”
“I thought I was... but when I saw what he was capable of doing to someone, Harper... I knew I couldn’t be with a man that had no conscience. I can’t tell you what he did, but let’s just say there’s a monster under all those good looks. There’s a reason he’s my uncle’s top enforcer.”
Knowing I may not get a straight or honest answer from her, I still asked. “What’s going on with you and Roman, Ava?”
Looking down at her beer, she picked at the label. “Honestly, I’m not sure. But what I do know is that even though Roman is part of this club and has to do some shady shit sometimes, he’s still a good man at heart. He really does want what Maverick is trying to do with the club by taking it legit, so he won’t have to do the kinds of things he’s had to do in the past anymore,” biting her bottom lip she smiled. “And he does bring out a side of me that I didn’t know existed. I guess he calms me in a way no other man can. We balance one another somehow, you know?” she shrugged.