2. Maverick
2
MAVERICK
Killian and Silas stood by my side as we looked up at the clubhouse. The fuckers weren’t even aware there were men on the premises whose one and only goal tonight was to slaughter everyone in that fucking house.
There would be no mercy.
The Irish mob and the MC had nothing to do with each other. At least, we didn’t until Daniel fucking Hayes brought his men and stormed our house when we were just teenagers. They killed everyone there in a violent and bloody battle.
I had only been a sixteen-year-old kid.
Too young, too weak, and too fucking na?ve to do anything about it.
At the time, my one and only concern was protecting my brothers, so we only did what we could do.
We ran to Las Vegas, and let the fucker take the reins of Chicago.
But I wasn’t that kid anymore.
I was a man with power at my fingertips and loyal brothers by my side.
My little brothers didn’t need me to protect them.
Instead, they stood tall and strong beside me, helping me take back my kingdom.
Our revenge was nineteen years in the making.
I now had enough men to take out Hayes for good.
Chicago would be mine for the taking, and I would make sure there wasn’t ever another fucker like this one.
Men were going to die tonight.
“Ready?” I asked.
Silas grinned at me from my left, his white teeth gleaming in the dark.
I could feel the excitement moving along my spine, an impending silence right before the bloodshed.
On the other side of me, Killian cracked his neck.
Out of the two of my brothers, Killian was the more bloodthirsty and savage one.
He wasn’t always like that, though.
No, his viciousness was born from a betrayal that I knew still affected him to this day. It didn’t matter how many times Silas and I told him he wasn’t at fault for what happened.
I stilled when I sensed movement at the left side of the property.
My eyes narrowed, but it was too dark to make out any details of the small person walking along the side of the house.
A woman, perhaps, or a tiny man.
Somehow, I didn’t think this person was a man.
I knew better than to think women weren’t a threat to us, but she was leaving.
It would just be one less person in the crossfire of the attack.
I looked away from her just as her car started, when Emilio, my advisor, spoke through the earpieces we wore.
“I found him. Hayes is in the basement. There’s a group with him. Mostly men. And one woman.”
“Good,” I said softly. “Keep your eyes on him. Don’t kill him. He’s mine.”
“Got it, boss.”
I grunted. The only way I could take back the city was by killing the current king. And Daniel Hayes? He was a dead king. Had been since the moment he attacked my family.
I nodded at my brothers.
We moved in sync with one another.
The fuckers here were too drunk off their asses or out of their minds to realize their end was near.
We didn’t run into any problems reaching the front door.
Daniel Hayes might have ruled Chicago and the MC with an iron fist for the last twenty years, but the fucker was getting sloppy. Too sloppy.
I shook my head in disgust.
It was pure fucking luck no other fucker had attempted to take over Hayes’ kingdom. It would be like taking candy from a fucking baby.
Silas met my eyes and grinned before he kicked the door open.
Screams erupted around the room as people scattered, some trying to reach for the weapons, others making their way to the exit.
Stupid fuckers.
My men had the entire place surrounded. No one was getting out of here tonight.
“What the fuck?” one of the men shouted.
Killian shot him point blank between his eyes before he could utter another word.
It was that first shot that got everyone’s attention.
The men moved at a sluggish pace, probably high out of their fucking minds.
My lips curled in disgust.
My men had never been this sloppy.
My soldiers took out most of them quickly.
I looked around at the chaos as Killian, Silas, and I made our way to the basement.
The house was still the same. Every creak, nook, and tiny fucking cranny.
Everything except for the furniture.
A slight dip in the wall made from a hole near the basement door—where Killian had pushed Silas when they were children—was still there.
I touched it almost fondly and met Killian’s eyes.
Silas opened the door, and Killian moved down first. Silas was in the middle, and I took up the rear—just how it had always been.
My hand tightened around the gun.
Fuck, but it felt good to finally be home.
I strode over to the group.
Daniel was in the middle of fucking a woman on the pool table while his men watched.
Disgust formed on my face.
I didn’t plan on taking over their clubhouse—the family home I was born and raised in.
No, I planned on burning this shit to the ground, starting with this pool table.
I took aim, and just as the woman screamed out her release, Daniel looked up and met my gaze before noticing my brothers.
I grinned as his eyes widened in shock.
He recognized me.
After all, Killian was the spitting image of our old man, and the three of us had already made a name for ourselves.
Did this fucker really think that because we rose into power elsewhere, we’d forget about the old wounds here? That we would leave him to control the entire Midwest?
I didn’t wait for him to shout a warning to his men.
I pulled the trigger.
My shot proved true when it took out the man closest to him.
Daniel pushed the woman away as my brothers took out the remaining men, and I focused my gaze on the fucker.
On my prey.
My blood strummed from the culmination of the hunt and the impending torture just as the woman screamed. She’d finally caught on to what was happening.
She fell to the ground and cowered in the corner as I stalked over to her.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Killian grab Daniel, detaining him.
I focused back on the woman.
She didn’t bother to put on any clothes.
I grabbed a blanket and threw it at her, watching as she wrapped it around herself with shaky hands.
“P-please. I didn’t do anything.”
I blinked before taking her in fully.
Bleached blonde hair stood in a messy array on top of her head, mascara and red lipstick smeared across her tan skin.
Her fake tits heaved with every breath she took.
She looked like every other club whore I had come in contact with.
“Please. I can do anything. Anything for you.”
She ran her hand up and down my calf, the red-painted three-inch nails scratching my jeans.
I shook away her touch.
Did she really think I would invite a woman who had Daniel fucking Hayes inside her moments before into my bed?
Killian approached me, and I was certain his expression mirrored mine. “Just kill her already so we can get a move on.”
He walked away before I could answer.
I ignored the way the woman shook and frowned after my middle brother.
He was more bitter than I’d thought.
I sighed. “Leave,” I said to her. “And don’t fucking come back, and don’t fucking say anything. My mercy only extends this once. If I find out you opened your trap, I will personally hunt you down, and I promise you won’t find any mercy then.”
“T-thank you.”
She stood on shaky legs, grabbed her clothes scattered about on the floor, and ran out of there.
I didn’t watch her leave.
Silas heard me, and he shook his head. He wasn’t as bitter as Killian, but he also didn’t like loose ends.
I didn’t fucking like it either, but I wasn’t about to kill a woman in cold blood when she had no connection to the bastard Hayes, other than being a warm pussy he could sink into every once in a while.
I turned and saw all the dead bodies lying around, trying to contain my excitement. Perhaps that was why I was so good at my job. The sight of blood always got my heart going.
We turned to Daniel, huddled in a corner. Bastard still had his pants down to his ankle.
I walked up to him and grabbed a fistful of his hair. “You remember me?”
Nineteen years wasn’t a small amount of time to pass, and I was sure I had changed over that time, but somehow, I had a feeling he knew who we were on sight.
I realized I’d guessed right when he looked up at me with hazy blue eyes, still coming off the high of whatever the fuck he’d smoked, injected, or snorted moments before.
He brought his hands up to cover his face. “P-please.”
I grinned. “You have no idea how fucking good it is to see you again. I have a lot of pent-up anger.”
He shook harder. Killian came forward, and I let Hayes go. Killian grabbed the bastard, moving him into the middle of the room.
Silas took hold of one of the pool sticks, and I shook my head, smiling a little at the sadistic glint in his eyes, already knowing where he was going with this.
I wasn’t going to stop my brothers from having their fun.
This was as much their revenge as it was mine. Killian procured some rope, along with various tools from the bag he had brought in with him.
How my little brother always liked to be prepared.
How convenient there was a small hook attached to the ceiling. I had no doubt this room had seen a lot of bloodshed, and not from when we had lived here.
What a beautiful irony, that the fucker would die in the same house he’d attacked in his quest for power.
And the fucking hook he had put in.
I watched as Killian and Silas tied him to it, his cries a beautiful symphony to my ear.
“Please. I’m sorry. I’m so?—”
He gasped in pain when Killian punched him in the stomach, his binds stopping him from bowing forward completely.
“You’re sorry?” I asked. “You think those empty words are enough? I’m going to give you one thing. Not that you deserve anything.”
I walked up to him and lightly slapped his cheek. He flinched, and my smile widened.
“I’ll give you the truth,” I said softly. “And the truth is you’re not going to make it out of this basement alive.”
He cried harder, his tears touching my thumb.
“Please, I’ll give you anything. I’ll give you?—”
His eyes widened. I pulled away and looked at him.
“The girl. I’ll give you the girl.”
I pulled his hair back, and he let out a yelp, his legs swinging about.
“What girl?”
“My daughter. Surely, she’s worth something—she’s worth everything .”
I laughed. I didn’t think a man like Daniel Hayes would place so much value on his daughter.
I wrapped my hand around his neck, squeezing. “You want me to go look for the girl myself? As if I don’t have other options to get my dick wet? What makes you think I would ever touch a spawn with your blood running in her veins?”
He shook his head and opened his mouth, but couldn’t get the words out. I tightened my grip around him.
His face turned purple, and just before he could pass out, I let go. Wouldn’t want him to miss all the fun.
He coughed, gasping for breath.
Killian cracked his knuckles, and I turned to him. “Now, let’s have some fun.”
He smiled, and we got to work.
It was nearing dawn when we made our way up the stairs.
I didn’t feel tired.
I felt energized.
I washed my hands in the kitchen sink, the memories flashing in and out of my mind. I was sure it was from being back here after all these years.
All the bad memories—and there were a lot of those—mingled in with the good.
My thoughts drifted as I watched the water turn from red to pink, draining Hayes’ blood away from my hands.
All the men loyal to Daniel were dead—at least, those who hadn’t been lucky enough to escape our wrath. Those who’d left, or weren’t present during the massacre, hopefully received the message and would do the smart thing and stay the fuck out of our business. Those who weren’t here tonight didn’t have enough manpower to resurrect this club back to life.
If I had to personally hunt down every single one of the fuckers, I would, but I wouldn’t fucking like it. I’d live up to my good name as the Tiernan Savage.
My men were taking stock of all the bodies around, seeing if we could identify at least some of the high-ranking men of the club.
I never thought taking out these fuckers would be hard.
And it wasn’t.
The hard part was what came next.
Taking back control of my territory.
The Heartless Saints MC controlled a lot of the drug trade—mostly narcotics—spanning from the East to the West. They even owned the biggest and strongest arms deals transport in the Midwest. But I had been keeping track of Hayes for a while now. Things weren’t going well. The club was in fucking deep shit and a ton of debt.
It would be like starting fucking over.
It would have been easier to set up a base elsewhere and expand out to this territory slowly, but taking back the name was a matter of principle.
This empire was fucking mine.
“Hey, Maverick?” I turned to find Killian standing by the stairs. A shadow crossed over his eyes. “You might want to see what I found.”
“What, more dead bodies?” Silas joked as he sauntered into the kitchen. Showed where my mind had fucking been that I hadn’t heard either one of my brothers coming into the kitchen.
“If only,” Killian said. I raised an eyebrow at him. Now my curiosity was piqued.
Silas and I climbed the stairs after him.
He led us into the master bedroom.
This was the room our old man had shared with our mom, before the fucker went crazy and killed her in cold blood.
I had been the one to find her.
He had wanted me to find her.
A lesson, he had said.
What a fucking lesson that was.
At thirteen, I had been old enough to know about the kind of family I came from, no matter how hard our soft-hearted mom had tried to shield us.
But it was something else entirely to find the person who had always protected you dead in the most gruesome way imaginable.
The image of her—bloody and in bed, her eyes open and staring up at the ceiling in terror—was scorched into my memory.
I shook it away and looked around.
I didn’t think I had been back in this room since the day I found her, but of course, we were forced to leave when I was only sixteen.
Yet the memories that haunted me as a kid didn’t have such a hold on me now.
“What am I looking at?” I asked.
Killian walked up to the closet door and opened it wide, turning on the light. “This.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant at first, until I focused my eyes on the clothes hanging there.
Women’s clothes.
“Any of Hayes’ clothes hanging in there?”
“Not unless the fucker had taken up cross-dressing in secret.”
I raised an eyebrow at that, and Silas laughed. “Nah. This ain’t his style.”
“Okay. Focus. We’re getting off topic,” I said, directing my attention back to Killian once more.
Killian shook his head. “No. There’s no sign that he even sleeps here. The third bedroom across the hall seems to be his.”
I looked around the room, finally noticing some things I’d missed at first glance.
Feminine and somewhat juvenile touches were scattered about.
From the stack of romance novels on the nightstands to the pink, almost juvenile bedsheets and the white feminine furniture…
There didn’t seem to be a theme for this room.
“The girl’s room? She lives here with Hayes?”
We knew Hayes had a daughter. We knew everything there was to know about the bastard. Hell, he had been ready to serve her up on a silver platter to three monsters to save his pathetic, worthless life moments before. His old lady left him almost ten years ago. I had assumed she’d taken the kid with her.
Obviously, I assumed wrong.
The girl was twenty-four, wasn’t she? Why the fuck did her room look like it belonged to a seven-year-old?
“What the fuck? If she lives here, then where the fuck is she?” Silas commented, moving around the room.
He picked up a maroon leather journal. It looked like a diary.
Jesus-fucking-Christ. Was our intel correct? Was the girl really twenty-four, or did he have another daughter, much younger than the first? But there was no sign of the girl—of any girl.
I watched as Silas opened the diary and started reading.
“Another fucking loose end,” Killian spat.
If she didn’t have a relationship with her dad, then she wasn’t involved in club business. There wasn’t a need to hurt an innocent. But if she had been living with the bastard all this time, that was a different story.
He needed to have been secretive about the girl in order to keep this important piece of information completely out of our investigation.
My fists clenched.
How the fuck did we mess up?
“Then we’ll fix it,” I said.
This girl wasn’t the same as some club whores fucking the president, hoping to get ahead. She was his blood. And that meant she was more than just a loose end.
She could be a problem for us in the future, the way we were for Hayes now. We’d learned not to underestimate anyone. Not even a woman.
Killian opened his mouth, but I shook my head.
He might be frustrated, but I was still in fucking charge.
“Silas?” I asked when he finished reading parts of the diary. Jesus. A girl living at the club and doing something as innocent as keeping a diary. The heavy weight that had been on my chest since the moment I found myself responsible for my two traumatized brothers increased.
I had done a lot of shit in my life, but it had never included hurting children.
Or innocent women.
But Miss Hayes wasn’t a child, was she?
Or innocent—at least, I didn’t think so.
Fucking hell.
“Her mom lives in New Orleans,” Silas said. “It might be a good place to start.”
I nodded. “Then we’ll start there.”
This time, I wouldn’t let the loose ends go. It was one thing to release a woman who had no real connection to Daniel Hayes. It was another to let his blood go free.
After all, he’d made the mistake of giving up his hunt for us nineteen years ago.
I wouldn’t make his mistake.