Chapter 18
“Are you on your way?”
Bishop’s voice boomed through the other end of my phone. I couldn’t believe he invited me to dinner. Maeve and I had talked about telling him what was going on between us, but that was before she left my crib without saying anything.
I blew her up for days, but she didn’t answer or call me back. I had pulled up to her school and everything and still couldn’t find her. I figured she was mad about me taking another call during our date, but now I thought she may have overheard me talking to Fitz.
How could I be so fucking careless?
I had worked multiple undercover cases before this one and never slipped like this. My head being wrapped up in Maeve was the only explanation for how I kept dropping the fucking ball.
This invite to dinner had a bunch of different scenarios going through my head. Either Maeve told her father about us without me and now he wanted to talk to us together, or she had heard me on the phone, and this was all a setup. Either way, I had to see her, so I was going.
“I’m on my way now,” I answered Bishop, who was still on the phone.
“Cool. Let them know at the gate that I’m expecting you. They’ll let you in.”
I looked for cues in his tone, but he kept it straight. He didn’t give shit away.
“Alright. See you soon.”
I never knew what to expect with Bishop. He was an unpredictable type of man, but ever since I’d been undercover, I had gotten to know the different sides of him. One side was the ruthless underground king of Jackson. The other side was a stand-up man changing the lives of everyone attached to him.
Bishop was the kind of man who wanted to hit his enemy head on.
That way they’d know he was coming. He was never one to sneak behind someone’s back or try to catch them slipping.
Anybody he ever took out always knew he was coming, and I didn’t think it’d be different with me.
That was the only thing that kept me from thinking this was a setup.
Just as Bishop said, the guard let me through the gate without issue, and in no time, I pulled up in front of the big house. I put my truck in park, hopped out, and headed up the steps to the front door. I only knocked twice before their housekeeper let me in.
“Mr. Moore and his daughter are already in the dining room. Follow me, Mr. Dima.”
She led the way into the dining hall where Maeve and her father were already seated. It was just us three, which was strange. None of the other guys from the club had been invited, so whatever Bishop wanted to talk to me about was private. I was eager to know what the fuck it was.
“Dima, you made it,” he said, standing to shake my hand.
“Yeah, boss. Thanks for the invite.”
“Yeah, I knew I had to get you over here sometime soon, and I thought tonight was as good as any.”
“Dima.”
Maeve spoke sharply, but she didn’t look at me. I could tell she wasn’t excited to see me, which explained why she hadn’t been answering my phone calls or my text messages. It had been two days since the last time I saw her, and she didn’t look happy to see me at all now.
“What’s up, Maeve?”
I let my eyes rest on her for a minute, trying to decipher what was going on. She glanced up for a second but broke eye contact way too soon. I would definitely get to the bottom of that the first chance I got. We hadn’t been at odds since we started talking, and I didn’t want us to be now.
“Have a seat. They should be bringing the food in any moment.”
Bishop went into telling me everything that was on the menu for the night, and honestly, my eyes kept venturing back over to Maeve, who looked down in her lap at this point.
I learned that Bishop didn’t like cell phones at his dinner table, but I was sure if he did, Maeve would be deep into hers right now.
She did everything she could to not have to pay attention to our conversation.
I didn’t know what I’d done to upset her, but it was clear she was pissed at my ass.
“Excuse me for a moment, Daddy. I need to run upstairs for a few minutes. I’ll be back down before the food is ready.”
“Of course, sweetheart.”
Maeve got up and walked out, and my eyes followed her until she was out of the dining hall.
She wore an oversized graphic tee with bright colors.
She had those same colors in her pants too.
The big gold hoops she had in her ears lit up her whole face.
Even the frown she wore couldn’t make her any less beautiful.
“Dima, tell me how you like things at the compound. You fitting in okay?”
“I am. Everybody treat me like family, and I been learning a lot about the bikes, culture, and history from Guard. It’s been straight.”
“It’s been good to have you. Especially for Maeve.”
Bishop stared me down after that last line, and I didn’t break eye contact. I hoped the subject of me and Maeve came up. This was my opportunity to be straight up with the man I had come to respect in such a short time.
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”
Bishop’s phone rang, taking his attention. He looked down at it before standing up.
“Hold that thought. I got to take this.”
He stepped out before I could get another word out of my mouth. As soon as I built up to tell him, my confession was put on hold yet again. I sat in the dining room alone for about ten more minutes before Maeve came back down.
I was happy she’d made it back before Bishop. That would give us time to talk, but she still avoided making eye contact when she sat back down.
“Why haven’t you been answering my phone calls?”
“I don’t have to answer your phone calls. That’s why. Whatever this was between us, it’s over.”
“The fuck you mean it’s over? We were just talking about telling Bishop about us. Now it’s over?”
I got up from my seat and walked around the table to sit next to her. She turned in her seat to face me. This time when she spoke, she gave me complete eye contact.
“Yeah, that was before I heard you on the phone.”
“On what phone? What you talking about?”
I knew exactly what she was talking about. Fitz had called my phone again, and like a dumbass, I answered it with Maeve in the other room. I didn’t think she would follow me to the back. My only option now was to play dumb to find out just how much she’d heard.
“I’m talking about you being a federal agent, Dima. Just tell me the truth, please. Who is Agent Fitz, and how much does he know about my father? Are you a Fed, Dima? Is that what this is? You were just using me? Was I collateral damage in some elaborate plan to take my father down?”
Tears brimmed in her eyelids, and I hated that shit.
The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, but I was here to do a job.
I never expected to come on a mission and bump into a girl so perfect that I’d risk my career to be with her.
Hell, I was risking my life just to be here right now, but I wasn’t leaving.
I couldn’t leave her until I knew she would be good once all of this was over.
“Maeve, believe me, this is not how I planned this.”
“And what did you plan? To make me fall in love while you scheme behind my back? Was I just a pawn in some sick game of yours?”
“Of course not.”
I tried to grab her, but she slapped the shit out of me.
The slap stung a little and caught me off guard.
Maeve had the power to blow my cover completely out of the water.
I had put so much energy into planning this mission perfectly, but I never could have planned for her.
I should have known as soon as I saw her picture on that whiteboard that her face would be my downfall.
“I never planned to fall in love with you. This shit just happened. I need you to believe that at least. I wasn’t using you. I was only doing my job.”
“Fine. Then I need to do my job as my dad’s daughter and tell him what’s going on here before the police is kicking down our door.”
She tried to get up from her seat, but I held her in place.
I couldn’t let her tell him while I was a sitting duck, but more than that, I couldn’t let her leave this room thinking I didn’t care about her.
I cared about her more than I cared about myself.
My uncle had warned me that coming back here was a risk, but I was willing to take that risk to see her again.
“Are you going to let me leave? You know he would hear me if I screamed, and I am two seconds from screaming.”
“I’ma let you leave, but hear me out. I don’t care what you tell Bishop, but I can’t let you leave this room thinking this was a game to me.
None of this was pretend for me. I knew what it was between us the moment you walked into that garage.
I love you, Maeve, and whether you walk out of here right now or not, that ain’t gon’ change. ”
“Are you done?”
Tears welled in her eyes, and I didn’t know if it was because she was sad or afraid. I never wanted to be the cause of her sadness. I especially didn’t want her to be afraid of me. I kissed Maeve’s lips before I let her go. She stood as soon as I did.
“Just don’t hate me.”
“I do hate you. I hate you for making me feel something real and at the same time taking it away from me.”
One tear fell from Maeve’s eye before she casually wiped it away. She gave me her eyes one last time before she walked out of the dining room in search of her father. I waited for a moment, then followed her. I had to be ready for whatever.