by C. M. Allen
“The only thing I’m worried about is Dekes changing the plan without including Skull in those details. He’s a psycho, heavily bent on revenge, Maverick. All he’s consumed with is seeing all of you dead at the end of this, so what’s to stop him from changing course in this whole thing?”
“Right now we have the upper hand. I know you don’t think so, but the idea that he’s goin՛ to be able to take us all out at the same time will have his ego runnin՛ on such a high that he won’t want to change the plans for fear it could blow what he sees as the perfect opportunity to rid himself of all of us at once.”
“You really think so?”
“I’m bankin՛ everythin՛ I have in my past experience of dealin՛ with men like him on it, so yes.”
Leaning up, I placed a kiss on his neck, then slid out of the bed. His eyes raked over my naked body with such a heated stare that I felt as though my skin was catching a blaze. When I began to move slowly towards the bathroom, Maverick tracked my every movement like a Tiger studying his prey just before he pounced. “I’m going to go take a shower now. Would you care to join me, bad boy?” I asked before squealing when he practically leaped out of bed and launched himself at me. “I’m comin՛ for you, Sweetheart,” he said as we both ran for the bathroom.
Feeling a pair of arms wrap around my waist, he tugged my back tightly to his chest and began devouring my neck. “Oh, God,” were the only words to escape my lips before I found myself pressed up against the wall in the shower under the cascading warm water as Maverick thrusted himself deep inside of me. We both began to frantically kiss, lick, suck and bite one another, and it wasn’t long before we were both falling over the edge from the pleasure.
Taking me in another deep kiss, he pulled away to look me in the eyes. “I say we do that again.”
And we did... two more times.
THE REST OF THE WEEK passed in a blur and we found ourselves one day away from the dreaded day and I wasn’t feeling good about it at all. I had been trying so hard to keep a brave face on for Maverick so he didn’t have to worry about me and could focus all his attention on the plan he had, but the mask I’d been wearing was starting to crack.
Since Skull had messaged Dekes about all the details on the meeting time and place, no one had seen or heard from him. Not even Skull after he sent him the message. We all knew that saying about the calm before the storm, and it felt like that’s what we were all experiencing right now. “Earth to, Harper! Come in, Harper!”
Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked over at Ava. “What?”
“Geez, where’d you go? I called your name like four times.”
“Just... I’m really worried about this whole thing tomorrow. No one has heard a peep out of Dekes and that’s not his M.O. He likes to taunt and brag, not stay quiet. It’s giving me a bad feeling about all this.”
Letting out a sigh, she sat down next to me at the bar in the clubhouse. “I know. I wish this was done and over with already myself. But we have to trust Maverick and the others that they know how to handle this situation because you know as well as I do Dekes is not the kind of man who will stop until he gets what he wants. He needs to be taken out for good, or he’ll just keep coming back time and time again. If it makes you feel any better, I’m scared too. I don’t want anything to happen to Roman or Maverick. Or the others for that matter.”
“Yeah, I know, but...”
“Well, hello there beautiful ladies,” Roman announced, walking up to wrap his arms around our shoulders, cutting my words off.
“Hey babe, how’s the planning going in there?” Ava smiled up at him before kissing him on the lips.
“It looks like we’re all set. Your boy Rocco has his men in place and everythin՛ is set for tomorrow night. Just gotta hope Dekes hasn’t figured out that Rocco snuck those guys in, otherwise that’s goin՛ to cause one hell of a kink in our chain.”
“Is Maverick out too so I can talk to him?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think he and Butch are in his office upstairs.”
“Well then, I’ll leave you two love birds alone and go find my man.”
“Sounds good to me. What do you say you and I go show my bed a good time, Beautiful?” he teased Ava as I walked away, hearing her giggle at his words.
Ava, giggling over a man? Who could have ever seen that one coming? Not me, that’s for sure!
Shaking my head, I made my way up the stairs to Maverick’s office. When I came around the corner, I could hear raised voices coming from behind the door. “Absolutely fuckin՛ not! I’m not lettin՛ you do that shit by yourself, Mav! No way!”
“Well, I’m not givin՛ you a choice, Butch! As your President, I expect you to follow my orders just like every other member of this club!”
“And as your fuckin՛ brother and best friend I’m tellin՛ you that shit isn’t happenin՛! You bein՛ the President of this club or not!”
Just as I’m about to knock, the door is yanked open and there stands Butch looking more pissed off than I’ve ever seen him before. “Shit! Sorry, Harp,” he huffed before rushing past me.
“That’s... ok.” My words died off when I saw Maverick looking as though he had just lost his best friend. Walking in and shutting the door behind me, I made my way around the desk and sat down on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. “What was that all about?”
“Nothin՛. Just a disagreement on how to handle this whole Dekes bullshit.”
“Sounded more to me like you’re going to do something dangerous that Butch doesn’t agree with,” taking his face in my hands, I made him look me in the eyes. “Tell me you’re not going to endanger your life more than you already are with this whole mess.”
Pulling my hands away from his face, he let out a heavy breath. “Harper, I’m goin՛ to do what I have to do so we can be rid of this asshole. I want to start a life with you. A real one. One that’s not filled with the kind of bullshit my life is now, and in order to do that I need to end this with Dekes and make some kind of peace with the Slayers.”
We both sat there just staring at one another when his phone began to ring, breaking the silence. Picking it up, he said, “hello?” Then seemed to just listen to what the person on the other end was saying before responding. “Sounds good.” Then hung up.
“What was that about?”
“Just gettin՛ an update on things from Rollins in our Atlanta chapter.”
Getting off his lap, I moved away from him, then turned to face him. “I really hate it when you keep things from me, Maverick.”
He rose up out of his chair and started to head over to me when a knock on the office door stopped him. “Come in!”
“Hey... oh shit, sorry Prez... but ah... Axle and Repo found somethin՛ on the computer they wanted you to take a look at,” Pinch looked around the room, finding me and cleared his throat, “said it was important.”
“Tell them to bring the laptop to my office.”
“Sure thing, Prez.” Just as fast as he could, he exited the room and shut the door behind him.
Maverick finished his strides across the room and now stood in front of me, looming over me. “First of all, that was Rollins from our Atlanta chapter on my phone so I ain’t hidin՛ shit from you. Second. There are goin՛ to be times though when I won’t be able to share everythin՛ that has to do with this club with you. I mean, do you really want to hear about the cop they caught tryin՛ to imbed his way into the club and the ramifications that got him? ˋCause that shit ain’t pretty, Sweetheart.”
Hearing him mention the cop, scratched at the question I’d had this whole time in the back of my head, and I did a total 180 in our conversation. “If Dekes has fake credentials of a DEA Agent then why hasn’t he just set you all up and had you arrested this whole time? I’ve never understood that. I mean, he obviously had them come out to the cabin and help him find Vulture and I, I heard the men referring to him as an agent and using military terms when they were talking. So I know he has used his DEA pull be
fore. But why not with this vengeance he has against you and the Slayers?”
Shaking his head at me, he smirked. “And you talk about me changin՛ the subject. To answer your question, I would bet my life on the fact that he would never be satisfied knowin՛ all we got was a jail sentence. He needs us dead for what happened to Nicole and his parents, and in order to do that he needs to keep his interactions with us on the down low. He can’t arrest all of us at once and then suddenly everyone he’s arrested starts gettin՛ picked off one by one, it would raise too many red flags with the government. That, and Dekes is not the kind of man to let someone else take away his glory of our deaths, or to have us rot away in jail. In his eyes, that shit takes too long for him to feel satisfied. This way he’ll get an instant high knowin՛ he’s finally gotten what he wants and killed us all.”
Another knock at the door interrupted our conversation. “Come in!” Maverick shouted.
Both Axle and Repo appeared in the doorway and looked between the two of us as if asking if I was staying to hear this or leaving. Maverick quickly solved that mystery. “Sweetheart, would you please give us a minute?”
Trying not to be pissed off at him hiding more crap from me, I kept my voice as friendly as I could. “Sure,” I started to make my way out the door, but before I could close it, it was yanked back and out of my grip.
Turning around, I saw Maverick’s intimidating stature filling up the doorway. “I will tell you what I can later. But like I told you earlier, some things just need to be left alone.”
Nodding my head, I walked away, trying so hard to understand that it wasn’t that he didn’t trust me with the information, it was that he was trying to protect me.
But that didn’t mean I had to like it. Not one bit!
As I made it back down the stairs, I heard a child screaming at the top of his lungs like he was throwing a fit. Following the noise into the game room, I saw a little blond-haired boy slapping at Bambi and yelling “I want my mommy!”
“Hey, what’s going on in here?”
She looked up at me with a sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re here. Can you help me calm him down?”
“Where’s his mother at?”
“His mother is Roxy, who is with Dekes right now.” She uttered in a low voice, so the boy didn’t hear her.
Crouching down in front of him, I asked. “Hey handsome, what’s your name?”
Wiping his nose, he spoke in a quiet voice. “Jacob. Do’s you know wherez my mommy izth?”
“I think she’s running and errand hon and won’t be back for a few days.”
“Where’s Caswey, she whatchses me?” he asked, getting tears in his eyes all over again.
Not knowing who this Casey girl was, I looked up at Bambi for any clue, to which she shrugged her shoulders. Great! “She’s in school right now and can’t come over to watch you.”
“Why?”
Ugh! So not a kid person. I mean I loved kids, wanted to have them one day, but I’d just never been around them a lot, making this whole situation with Jacob a bit more awkward and harder than it needed to be. “Well, she wants to get smart, so she has to go to school. Just like you will one day.”
“Whenz will my mommy bez back?”
“When she’s done running her errand for her work then she’ll be back. You know what work is, right?” When he nodded his head, I continued. “She’ll be back soon baby boy, I promise.”
After the words were out of my mouth, I instantly regretted them. Who was I to make such a promise to this little boy, knowing she was with a man who would easily kill her for just breathing the wrong way. “Wills you pay wiz me?”
Looking up at Bambi, who looked like she’d just been let out of jail, she quickly exited the room before I could say another word, leaving me alone with Roxy’s little boy. “Sure, guess it’s just you and me kid.”
CHAPTER
20
Dekes
It’s the day before what I prayed would be the best day of my entire life. A day when all the plans I had made over the past six years would finally pay off.
All the plans had been made. All of my men had been instructed on just how things would play out. And all of my eggs, literally, had been placed in this one basket. How badly I wanted to crush them all. If everything went as planned, tomorrow night I would be sipping champagne and dipping my dick into Roxy one more time before her purpose was of no longer use to me. While she still believed that I was going to rescue that little brat of hers, having told her it was taking a little longer, I figured what she didn’t know wouldn’t make a bit of difference when I was done with her. Though the kid could turn a nice profit for me with the buyers, it might be something to reconsider, selling him into the trade.
Devin knocking on my door frame brought me out of my thoughts. Leaning back in my chair, I smiled up at him. “Ah, there’s my number one warrior. How’s the planning going? Everything and everyone still in place ready to go?”
Stepping inside, he shut the door behind him. “Yes. I have five of my men watching the building right now until the meeting happens. That way they don’t try and sneak something by us we don’t know about the night before.”
“Good. Yes, it’s always better to be one step ahead of the rats.”
A knock on my door interrupted our conversation. “Yes!”
Gerard, my number two stepped in. “Boss, just wanted to give you an update on the roads and airports.”
“Ahh, yes. Anyone trying to slip in to help our little Deviant heathens?”
“So far none that we can see. The private jet Devin attached the tracking device to is currently in the Florida area, and no one has been spotted trying to come in by road.”
“Excellent! But keep your eyes peeled, I don’t trust those fuckers not to try and call for another biker gang to come in and back them up in this little meeting with the Slayers. Anyone have the location on the men in their Atlanta chapter right now?”
“Last report came in about an hour ago, and the number of men in the club has been accounted for. They are all at the clubhouse partying and milling around.”
Tapping my finger on my lip, I couldn’t help but think that this was all going almost too perfectly.
What are those fuckers up to?
“Boss?”
“Hmm?”
“Everything ok?”
“Yes, it is Devin. Everything’s actually perfect, and that’s the problem I’m having... it’s all almost too perfect. Makes me wonder just what they’re really up to right now.”
Gerald spoke up first. “With all due respect boss, I think that it’s because you planned it all out to be that way, and they have no idea you will be there at what they think will be a meeting just between them and the Slayers. Besides you’re always a step ahead of your enemies, it’s what I’ve enjoyed most about working for you.”
“That I am, Gerard. That I am. But something about this is bothering me this time, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. That in itself pisses me off.”
“Anything else you want me to do?” Devin asked.
“No. I think we’ve covered just about everything we can. But I think we do need to be ready with some kind of secondary backup escape plan, just in case things do go sideways on us,” tapping my finger on my lips, thinking for a moment, I looked back over at Devin. “Have Blake ready with the chopper in the empty field five miles down the road from the building they’ll be in, just in case we need to make a quick getaway.”
“Sounds good. I’ll let him know now. Anything else you need from us, boss?”
“No. Nothing for now. Close the door behind you when you leave.”
After they’ve both left my office; I got up and walked over to the windows that looked out over this crappy city. “What is it you have up your sleeve, Mr. Reed?” I mumbled to myself.
CHAPTER
21
Maverick
After Harper left my office, I shut the door and faced Repo and Axle, who
wore a pair of smirks on their faces as they tried not to crack up. “By the balls man. By the balls,” Axle shook his head, mumbling.
Leaning down to look at the laptop, I told them. “Ok, that’s enough. Now, what do you have for me?”
Repo stepped forward and began to explain. “You were right. The cameras caught Dekes’ men comin՛ in about an hour ago and takin՛ up their posts around the buildin՛, watchin՛ for anyone who tries to get near it or enter.”
“How many?”
“From what I could see, I spotted five of them.”
Standing up straight, I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face at the fact I had finally one upped that asshole and knew his move before it played out. “I just knew that fucker would camp out the night before.”
“Yeah, sure is a good thing you rigged that warehouse with the cameras before Skull gave Dekes the location of our meetin՛.”
“I’m sick of that prick gettin՛ the jump on us. What about the work the guys were doin՛ on the inside? Is it all finished?”
“Everythin՛ is done and ready to go.” Axle informed me.
“Good. Now we just pass the time until it’s showtime. But first, I want you to call church. Have everyone at the table in thirty.”
“That includin՛ yours and Butch’s old ladies?”
Thinking for a moment on whether or not to involve the women in this little chat with my men, I decided. “No. Just the members and prospects.”
“You got it,” Axle said as both him and Repo left my office.
When the door shut behind them, I rounded the desk to my chair and took a seat and began to wonder. “What is it you’re plannin՛ that I can’t see yet, Dekes?” I asked myself, knowing there is no way in hell I’d caught on to his one and only move to get the jump on us.
A half hour later, every member was seated around the table when I walked in and took my seat at the head of it, slamming down the gavel to signal the beginning of the meeting. Looking over at Butch, I could tell that he was still not ok with my plan but would do as he was told because he knew that I was right.