24. Chapter Twenty-Four
Jason “Stone” Langford
I sighed in relief when the text from Maya hit the group chat that she had made it home safe from her shift at the hospital.
I hated that she worked such long and hard hours.
She made good money and she loved her job, but she came home utterly exhausted and often fell into bed for over twelve hours after a working a week of twelve-hour shifts.
I was even more pissed that I wasn’t home, waiting up for her, to help her shower off her shift and tuck her into our bed. The bullshit that had popped off with the club couldn’t wait though, and when our president called us all in, there was nothing we could do.
Club came first, always.
Maya understood how it was, and while she never voiced her frustration, I knew it bothered her sometimes.
“Someone killed the mayor tonight,” President Larry “The Butcher” Buckley said from his spot at the head of the large table that made up our church.
“What the fuck?” Marcos asked, leaning forward in his chair.
“He was gunned down at Barry’s gas station about an hour ago,” Buckley said.
I frowned, “But you called us here before that happened.”
Buckley grunted. “Yeah. We were raided tonight.”
The men around the table—all of our brothers present—roared with fury. “Why didn’t you lead with that?!” My father shouted. He didn’t bother to hide his glare at our president.
Buckley did a downward wave motion with his hand, cutting off the roaring rage around the room. “I think they’re both connected. Whoever raided us, I think they also set the hit on the mayor.”
“Why do you think that?” Bear asked, crossing his arms over his wide chest. The man was huge—bear like—with a mane of dark black hair that fell around his broad shoulders and a thick black beard that covered most of his face.
He was stacked with muscles on top of muscles, and tattoos covered most of his skin from the neck down.
The dude even had the word Bear tatted over his left eyebrow .
“I got a call from Sanders down at 501, that our warehouse had been hit. Someone walking by happened to call in that they witnessed someone trying to break in,” Buckley said.
I crossed my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes on Buckley.
Detective Sanders from precinct 501 was a long-time friend of the Devil’s Psychos, his friendship with Buckley had gone back decades to their grade school days.
If Sanders said someone called in the break in, then the information was legit.
But why? And who the hell broke in to our warehouse?
“We need to go down there and secure things—”
“Then why are we here?” Nickle interrupted everyone shouting.
I eyed the newly patched brother with interest. Nickle usually went along with anything Buckley said, loyal to the fault. He was still so green; he didn’t question things yet—until now.
“Because we gotta let things lie low, until Sanders says the coast is clear.”
“So we’re just letting whoever raided us, take everything? The fuck?” My dad bit out.
“The hell we are!” Dagger growled.
“Enough!” Buckley roared, slamming the judge’s gavel down on the wooden table top—effectively silencing the arguing men around the table.
“It’s done. Sanders is watching the place, back up had already been called in before he got there.
The police are turning the place over now.
There’s nothing we do—the shipment’s lost. ”
“How does this have to do with the mayor?” I asked.
“Sanders called, saying that Barry saw a snake tat on the neck of the guy who gunned down the mayor, but didn’t see anything else,” Buckley answered. “And the witness from the warehouse also saw a snake tat on one of the guys.”
“Las Serpientes—aren’t they a street gang from the south side of Chicago?” Marcos asked.
Axel, Phoenix, and Blaze shifted in their seats, suddenly on full alert. I cocked an eyebrow, not that the three men noticed.
“Yeah. They’ve been here for years now, but it seems they’re making a play for Creekton and being bold about it too,” Buckley grumbled.
“How the fuck did they find out about the warehouse?” Bear asked.
“Unclear, but masked fucking Las Serpientes were running all up and down the block,” Buckley said.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Axel muttered, shaking his head, before he shot Phoenix and Blaze a look of contempt.
“We gotta do something about them.” There’s a fire in Blaze that I hadn’t seen before.
The usual laid-back trio were fired up and raring to go, like Las Serpientes were a personal afront to them or something. Definitely something had happened that those boys weren’t talking about.
I shared a look with Marcos, who raised an eyebrow. Yeah, we’d talk about it later. For now, we needed to figure out our next move and convince Buckley that sitting here on our fucking asses was not the way to go about things.
“Alright, so how we hitting the snakes?” Nico asked.
“Let’s just go burn down their house,” Blaze growled.
I stifled a laugh. Blaze and fire… yeah, it was too easy.
“Now hold your damn horses,” Buckley grumbled. “We gotta be smart about this. Can’t go in half-cocked.”
I watched our president as he slowly scratched his eyebrow… like he was stalling. Was Buckley stalling? I had no proof, just a hunch, and staring at Buckley—who was usually a hot head and cocky—being utterly calm was telling.
I didn’t know what it told though, just that something was up with our president.
“We should be smart about this,” My dad spoke up, agreeing with Buckley.
I looked at my father to see him eyeing the table carefully. It wasn’t lost on him either then, that Axel, Blaze, and Phoenix were acting differently than normal. I would have to make a point to speak to my dad away from the club to garner his insight.
“What do we know?” Bear asked.
We spent the next two hours planning on how we were going to take down the snakes, only for Buckley to hmm and haw over it. It was some fucking bullshit.
Frustrated beyond belief when we finally got out of church, I didn’t stick around to speak to my dad. My girl was home alone in the middle of the night. All I wanted to do was get home, shower and slip into Maya.
Sleep would come after, much, much, after.
As expected, the house was dark and quiet when we walked in. We shed our boots in the mudroom off the kitchen before we moved through the house to the stairs, climbing them quickly.
We found Maya in our large bed—two king mattresses pushed together—sleeping naked as she usually did anymore.
I loved how our relationship had evolved over the last two years and how Maya had evolved.
Gone was the shy girl just learning BDSM and negotiations, now we had a spit-fire of a submissive that wasn’t afraid to try new things and often brought up ideas out of all the smutty books she read.
It was a dream come true. I couldn’t imagine ever being happier.
Well, I would be in about thirty seconds when I slipped my rock-hard cock between Maya’s slick folds. I quickly stripped off the rest of my clothes and headed into the shower. It had been a long day and the last thing I wanted to bring anything from work into our bed.
Nico tried to push me out of the way as I headed for our ensuite bathroom, but I beat him there. “Fucker.” He chuckled under his breath. There were two other showers in this house, those two could wash off elsewhere.
I made quick work of soaping up and rinsing off.
After a quick towel off, I left the bathroom naked, not bothering to cover up.
In the bedroom, Marcos still hadn’t moved, he was standing at the end of the bed, watching Maya sleep.
His hand was moving slowly over his jean covered cock. “Shower’s free,” I muttered.
Marcos nodded absently, still stroking himself through his jeans while he stared at Maya. She was sleeping on her back, half the covers pulled off of her, either by her own wiggling or Marcos’s interference, but one tit was out and half her belly was showing. “So fucking perfect,” Marcos groaned.
I nodded, my naked cock growing hard.
“I’m gonna knock her up,” Marcos declared.
My jaw dropped open and I jerked my head to look at my brother in disbelief. “What?”
Marcos nodded absently, his eyes never leaving Maya. “Yeah. I’ve been fucking with her birth control. Giving her the sugar pills when she’s not paying attention.”
“Dude, the fuck?” Nico said from the doorway behind us.
I glanced over my shoulder to find my Nico with his hair dripping wet, as he walked into the bedroom naked.
“Mmhhmm,” Marcos murmured. He was utterly lost to the bomb he just dropped onto us. “She’ll never leave, then. ”
I cocked my head at Marcos, confused. I was so used to seeing Marc— Killer— with his head on straight.
He was usually wound so fucking tight and so in control, that he made me look flighty.
Where the hell was this insecurity coming from?
And why the hell were we just now hearing about it after being in a relationship with Maya for two years?
I knew that Marcos’s possessiveness was off the charts—shit, so was mine—but Marcos was acting completely out of character.
“Since when are you worried that she’s gonna leave?” Nico asked, voicing the same concerns I had.
Marcos shrugged a shoulder and then sighed softly. “I don’t know… since my Mom? Since Kara left? I don’t know. Two of the three women in my life that meant anything to me are gone…Maya can’t leave me if she’s carrying my—our baby, right?”
I sighed deeply. This was some heavy shit. “Nah bro,” I agreed quietly. “She can’t leave if she’s having our baby.”
Nico walked further into the room to stand shoulder to shoulder with Marcos. I moved closer to be right next to them as well. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s knock up our woman.”
I chuckled dryly, leave it to Nic to make a joke during a heavy moment .
“I’m gonna hit the shower,” Marcos muttered. He jogged for the bathroom, a new determination in his gait. A moment later, the water was turning on.