Chapter 27
Delaney
Two hours later, I find myself sitting on the couch in Draven’s home. It’s quiet, though, and feels distinctly empty without the Montgomery siblings here.
Shit, even the dog is gone.
How long will Draven be at the clubhouse?
I can’t complain or at least I shouldn’t, and I didn’t see Maddox nor Draven when I left. I don’t know if I ever will again.
Presumably if Maddox and Joker hate the Aces then Draven will be barred from seeing me.
Romeo, the heartbreaker, drove me here and left me to my own devices. He’s now sitting out on the porch, staring into the distance.
Although gruff like the others, he hasn’t been anything but polite, leading me to believe that either the Shadow Saints MC are an anomaly when it comes to the reputation of hardened bikers, or they at least respect the women in their midst.
Something tells me it's the latter.
No one mentioned what happens next or how long I'm going to stay here. I don't even know if I should go to school or how I would get there.
If I had stayed with Mom and Peter, I could have driven but that’s long gone, along with any trust I had for the people who raised me.
Maybe now that they’ve spoken to my mom it’s fine, but I can’t deny that nothing about this situation feels right and the events that forced me from my home seem trivial now that I’m running from an MC under the guise of being protected by another.
I mean…am I a prisoner here?
As for school, I guess all that effort to do extra credit doesn’t mean a damn thing now.
I feel itchy knowing I’m here at the mercy of people that I don’t know and while I trusted Maddox, which was possibly stupid, it’s hard to extend the same to the tough as nails man guarding the door.
Is that to keep me in or someone out? Or maybe both?
With a shiver, I turn on the television to drown out the total quiet and step into the kitchen before grabbing a cold soda.
In all this, I haven’t had time to think about my brother but as I stare at the calendar on the refrigerator, December first circled in red, I realize that it’s been almost a year since Petey died.
Willing away the burn in my chest, I open the back door. With the anniversary coming up, I wonder how Mom will cope, especially without me there.
She needs you.
Does she? Because it seems as though what she really needed was the high that made it all go away.
After sitting on the steps just outside the door, I gaze into the trees but I’m not seeing the brittle boughs pulled down by the wintry weather.
Instead, Mom’s shrill screams while she stood over the pool rebound in my skull as I pushed her out of the way and jumped into the icy cold water.
His frail body felt like air in my arms and when I turned him over, Petey’s pretty blue eyes met mine, lifeless and disturbingly blank.
I don’t remember getting out of the pool or attempting CPR, but I did until the paramedics arrived and pushed me away.
All the while, Mom’s achingly desperate cries provided a backdrop to the worst moment of my life.
Blinking away from the memory, I rub my hand down my face. Would any of this have happened if she had admitted she had a problem?
Or if I had? Did the treatment work?
It’s hard to tell without seeing her face to face. She sounded pretty clear on the phone but she’s good at pretending. We all are.
Covering my eyes, I muffle a groan because no matter what I do, I can’t unsee the past.
It’s always waiting to claw at my skin when I least expect, like right now when I’m in a stranger’s home, running from dangerous bikers and perpetually fucking alone.
When the sound of a snapping twig brings me around, I meet Romeo’s wide-eyed stare before wiping my face.
I’m sure he wasn’t expecting tears and if his panic is anything to go by, he doesn’t know what to do about it.
“Sorry,” I mumble and stand before stepping inside the kitchen.
To my surprise, he follows, saying, “You know how to play chess?”
“Um, no…”
I blink when he smiles, nearly blinded by his fierce good looks. I see where this one gets his nickname because he’s a real-life Adonis standing before me.
Dark as sin hair frames a face that would make angels weep with those devastating caramel eyes, lush lips, and high cheekbones.
The man is huge although not as big as Joker who towers over everyone, but he makes up for it with sheer animal strength.
He’s built, and I don’t mean, oh he has lovely muscles. Nope. His muscles have muscles. His abs have abs.
He’s beautiful except for a wicked scar that marks his cheek starting at his brow. If I had to guess it was made by a knife, but it only makes his glorious, good looks more sinful than heavenly.
He’s also, I suspect, at least ten years older than me and if that wasn’t a deterrent, Maddox’s dark, bold eyes are.
We may be nothing to each other, but Maddox makes me flutter, Romeo merely inspires a weird sort of awe.
However, I am grateful when after two hours of patient explanation, I find myself sitting across the table from him while we start a game of chess.
He could have left me to my own devices. He could have stayed out on the porch.
Instead, he’s here, explaining the strategy while I ask endless questions and after a few moves, I pick up my knight and glance up, not sure what to do.
“Remember,” he says, pointing to the board, “the knight can only move this way.”
He makes an L shape while I watch and nodding, I search across the board, as he continues, “You know…the knight is the best for taking out two pieces at the same time.”
“Oh?”
Although it’s interesting, I’m still trying to learn the beginner’s version and that’s way beyond my understanding.
“Yep, there’s also the smothered mate move. It’s when the king, surrounded by his army, cannot move out of check once the knight moves in for the kill.”
“Hm,” I hum and set my piece down, hoping that I haven’t already made an error.
He nods and moves to his own piece while I watch, grateful for this distraction in the wake of everything that’s happened.
It’s only when my stomach rumbles that he looks up, his pretty eyes dancing and says, “Hungry?”
When I nod, he taps out a text before pushing back from the table. “Food will be here soon. Want a soda?”
“Thanks,” I say.
He rounds up two drinks and I follow him to the couch. When he hands me the remote, I stop on the first movie I find and he says, “Classic.”
With a smile, I say, “The remake was better.”
“No fucking way, sweetheart. This is the beginning of the story when Jason spreads his wings.”
“Yeah, but–”
“Am I interrupting?” Maddox interjects from the door and the icy tone sends a chill through me.
Turning, I swallow when his dark eyes meet mine because where before he had a bewildered sort of amusement around me, now it’s sheer fucking hate.
Wow.
Averting my gaze, I watch dumbly as Romeo stands, unfolding his bulky frame from the couch and says, “Nope.”
He grabs the boxes of pizza from Maddox’s hand and sets them on the table. Maddox follows the movement, his mouth folding into a frown when he spies the chess set.
“Hungry, Delaney?” Romeo says and I stand and approach, sitting gingerly in the chair Romeo pulls out before he pushes a box of pizza in my direction.
When Romeo virtually ignores Maddox standing in the door, I follow suit, shivering in the chilly air.
No one speaks and I tentatively take a bite of the pizza as Maddox stalks forward, pulls out a chair and drops into it before grabbing the box sitting in front of Romeo and snatching it away.
Eyeing Romeo sideways, I muster a wan smile when he winks which fades when Maddox barks, “Chill out. She’s half your fucking age and practically a useless fucking virgin, old man.”
Once again, silence fills the room, and I mentally cringe at the way Maddox sneered the word virgin.
Avoiding his acidic glare, I see something brewing behind Romeo’s eyes before he turns to me and says with a raised brow, “Virgin’s ain’t so bad. Means you can teach them all the right moves.”
His eyes slide to the game of chess sitting on the table and my cheeks bloom with heat. I see his point. I mean, I think he’s teasing but the innuendo is there.
The pieces go flying when Maddox slams his fist against the table and leans forward, working his jaw. Finally, he says through clenched teeth, “What’s your fucking problem?”
“You are,” Romeo barks. “Get the fuck out before I kick your ass.”
After that, Romeo nods to me and says, “Eat.”
I’m not the least bit hungry but I do as I’m told while Maddox pushes back from the table and stalks to the door.
Once he’s slammed it behind him, I stare at Romeo, eyes wide until he winks again before shoving a piece of pizza in his mouth.
What just happened? And is that what Maddox thinks of me? A useless virgin.
Wow, just…wow.
Maddox
After Delaney’s whispered confession, I took to the road. It’s the only place I can clear my head and possibly what saved me after Mom died.
Her death was the harshest lesson I ever had to learn because it showed me just how weak I truly was…am.
Not only couldn’t I protect her, but I also couldn’t be the man she needed me to be for Pops and even Draven.
Back before she died, I was a typical teenager, getting into trouble because I could and acting like the tough guy, I thought I was.
I’ve never wanted to be anything, but MC and I walked through the world with balls of steel I hadn’t yet earned.
She was the only one who called me out on my brash behavior too. Where Pops and I tended to clash, she always knew when something was brewing in my head.
One of the last conversations we had, she told me to drop the suave smile and be the man she knew I could be.
I don’t remember what I did, but I do recall her soft dark eyes as she said, “A real man doesn’t hide, son.”
From what, I don’t know because I will never get the chance to ask, and the brutal burn of grief overtakes me again.
I never thought Delaney would be related to the man who orchestrated her death and knowing that the little cheerleader with the wide blue-gray eyes carries his blood, chills me to the bone.
Intellectually, I know that it’s shitty to blame a child for their parents’ actions but fuck me, that doesn’t mean I can ever look her in the eyes and not see Mom’s lifeless stare on that porch ten years ago.
All this rolls around in my head and although I was calmer when I drove back to the clubhouse, it all came rushing back when I was told that Delaney was at the house.
Our house. Mom’s house.
The same place Mom made her own, where she experimented with food and created crazy meals that we pretended to like and carefully remodeled, saying that she never wanted to leave.
It’s where she laid her head at night and woke with a false sense of security every morning.
It’s also where the Aces left her like a broken toy.
I know it was my idea for her to stay there but that was before she confessed her sins. It was before I knew just how tainted her blood is.
She’s touching Mom’s things. She’s alive. My mother is not.
When Pops received a text from Romeo about food, I volunteered to pick it up and bring it by.
Call it curiosity or rage but I needed to see her in that space to process it.
Now, I’m watching Delaney and Romeo get all cozy on the couch. Mom loved that couch, and she insisted on buying it even though Pops said it wasn’t comfortable.
At well over six feet tall, it probably did feel too small for his larger frame, but he gave in when she insisted.
Her beautiful face looks over them from the mantle as they argue about a stupid movie.
Images of Delaney whispering the dialogue from the horror flick we watched that long ago night pushes at the edges of my vision, but I shove that shit away.
Delaney may not be responsible for the actions of others, but she can never be more than my enemy.
It’s as simple as that. I will not fail my mother again.
“Am I interrupting?” I ask icily, my control slipping when Romeo acts like nothing is fucking wrong.
Delaney isn’t our guest. Fucker.
When Romeo invites her to the table, she avoids my gaze as she sits down and tentatively pulls the pizza over. Her shaking hands bring me back to the warehouse and the brutal burn of my rage boils over.
She felt so tiny in my arms. She carries the blood of my fucking enemy.
With a snarl, I pull out a chair and sit down, eyeing the chess set on the table.
What is this? A vacation? Fucking no.
Delaney eyes me sideways and when Romeo winks at her, I lose what’s left of my control.
I know that I’m being unnecessarily cruel even as the words fly from my mouth but there’s a burn in my chest that demands I hurt her, like she did me…not me, Mom.
“Chill out. She’s half your fucking age and practically a useless fucking virgin, old man.”
Instead of feeling vindicated when Delaney’s cheeks pale and she makes a weird sound in her throat, the burn in my chest rises to a crescendo and I beat back a new emotion…guilt.
Romeo meets my gaze, his jaw ticking but he doesn’t respond to my bait, instead turning to her, he says, “Virgins ain’t so bad. Means you can teach them all the right moves.”
What the fuck did he just say?
Frozen, I glance between them before I growl, “What’s your fucking problem?”
Everything after that is a blur because I walk away before I do something that I can’t take back.
Now I’m standing on the porch wondering what happened to my fucking life. I can’t wrap my brain around Delaney being in my home, but Romeo’s sexual innuendos press at my chest like a lead fucking weight.
Whatever.
She’s here now. The question is, how do we use her to lure that piece of shit out of hiding?