21. Mila
21
MILA
There was something different about me.
I looked… happy .
I expected to feel degraded. Used.
I didn’t feel either of those things.
What I’d done with the brothers was out of the norm.
But they never looked down on me for agreeing to this… fling. I still couldn’t believe this was my life right now.
I had always dreamed about escaping my father’s grasp and being able to live like a normal person.
Live a life in which I could date and fall in love.
In which I could find the one and have a happily ever after.
Silas and Maverick were the furthest thing from a fairy tale. My fantasy was nothing more than that. A fantasy conjured up by a girl who’d never had the chance to really live.
Now that I was out of my father’s grasp, I hoped it would stay that way. And I would get more new experiences.
I shook my head, wiping away the sappy thought. I needed to be careful. If I got any sappier, I’d sound like a girl in love, and that was just a dangerous line to cross.
This was nothing more than a quick fling before I moved on. Perhaps somewhere remote and safe and peaceful. Somewhere I would never have to hear the term “club princess” ever again.
I was back in my motel room. As nice as the hotel suite was, I needed some time alone to recoup. And I was happy to relax a little before my shift at the restaurant tonight.
My phone ringing got me out of my thoughts, and I frowned at it, wondering if it was Silas. After coming back from his little trip, he had taken me back to the hotel to swim. Maverick joined us. Oddly enough, it had only been the three of us at the pool. Perhaps we got lucky, as I was subjected to their teasing for most of our time there. And the kind of teasing they’d done… it wasn’t exactly for the public eye.
I shook away the memory. I was back in my motel room now because I had work to get to soon.
Something like relief mixed with disappointment settled in my chest when I realized it was my mom calling me instead.
I debated whether I should pick up. It wasn’t that I was angry at her for leaving New Orleans just as I’d gotten here, but there was some resentment over her leaving me so easily—and not just recently, but years before, when I had been a kid who needed her mom.
I picked up on the last ring.
“Hello?”
“Mila,” she breathed through the line, and I couldn’t be sure, but she sounded almost—relieved? “Are you still in New Orleans?”
“Yeah,” I answered, lying down on the bed and looking up at the popcorn ceiling.
“Are you planning on staying there?”
I shrugged, even if she couldn’t see me. The smart thing to do was leave before the brothers left me. I didn’t want to be the one left behind, but the thought of leaving too early…
I shook my head. I told myself not to get so involved. I wondered if it was simply too late now.
“Why don’t you come to Texas?” she said, surprising me.
“Texas? Where you are?”
“Yeah. You can come live with me for a while.”
“You don’t want me to live with you,” I said matter-of-factly. It was true. I had clung to the idea of her leaving me because she couldn’t take another moment living with Dad. That it wasn’t me she was abandoning, but her marriage. But I knew I only clung to it because any reasons besides that, would hurt.
Although I had only seen Dad get rough with her a few times, I didn’t know what went on behind closed doors. She might have endured worse abuse from him.
But if that was the case, then she chose to leave me behind with a man who abused her.
And she didn’t care. No matter how many times I’d tried to paint her in a better light, the picture just didn’t come out pretty.
And now she wanted me to come live with her?
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I want you to live with me.”
The little girl inside me who had always craved her mother’s love and approval wanted to say yes. The cautious woman she’d made me into told me this was a heartbreak in the making, and I would be better off living by myself.
“I’ll think about it,” I answered finally.
“Well, don’t think about it too long,” she quipped, annoyance and perhaps anger in her voice.
“Right. Well, do you know what happened to Dad?” I asked.
I hadn’t really searched anything on the web about the MC since the first time I’d tried. Maybe she knew more than me.
“Sweetheart, haven’t you heard?” she asked.
“Heard?”
“Yeah. It’s all everyone in our circle can talk about. It hasn’t made it into the news yet, for the public, but I’m sure it will. After all, a massacre of an entire MC is not something you see every day.”
“A massacre?” I whispered.
“Most everyone in the club that night was slaughtered. There’s been some word that pictures are circulating on the dark net.”
“Why?”
What kind of sadist would not only slaughter an entire club, but take pictures and share them?
“It’s a warning,” Mom said, her voice toneless. I was sure she was more affected by this than she let on. After all, she had made herself at home with the club years before everything turned to shit with my father. There were probably people there whom she still cared about.
“A warning? Do you know who did it?”
“I don’t have anything concrete, but everyone is saying it’s the three heads of the Irish mob. Of course, it would be them. You don’t just come in and attack a family home, killing the mob boss, without expecting his children to come back for you.”
“Children? You mean the men who killed Dad and the club members are children of a man who Dad killed?”
“Killed? Your dad didn’t just kill. Twenty years ago, your dad took on the Irish mob and gained control of their narcotics trade. That was how he made a name for himself. And those kids your dad let get away, ’cause he got cocky? They’ve grown into men out for revenge.”
I shuddered. “So now they’re taking over Chicago.”
“Just about. They have other gangs to contend with. They need to prove to everyone that they’re ruthless enough to take over.” Mom let out a dry chuckle. “I don’t think that will be a problem. They don’t call those men the Savages of Las Vegas for nothing.”
A chill ran up my spine. “Las Vegas?”
“Yeah, that’s where they lived when your father drove them out of Chicago. You need to be careful, Mila. Just because your dad let them go doesn’t mean they will let Daniel Hayes’ daughter go.”
I sputtered. “What? I have nothing to do with the club. If anything, I was just another fucking captive.”
“Language. And don’t you think you’re being just a little dramatic?”
“Dramatic?” She was well aware of all the shit I went through at the club. Perhaps not the full extent, but enough for it to hurt that she’d never attempted to come back for me.
I scoffed. “I have to go.”
“All right. But remember what I said. You can come to Texas and live with me. And we can hide you from the Irish.”
“Sure.” I hung up before she could say anything, throwing my phone on the bed and looking around the room that seemed to be getting smaller with every breath I took.
Hide from the Irish.
Come for Daniel Hayes’ daughter.
Savages of Las Vegas.
I suddenly had a very bad feeling.
What if…
No, that wasn’t possible. How could it be when I had spent the night safely in their arms? And before, when Silas had stayed with me in the motel room.
I was overthinking and paranoid, probably caused by the lack of sleep.
I blinked and, without thinking, reached for my phone.
My hands shook as I pulled up a web search and typed in the Irish mob .
It took a while for the page to load, considering the sucky Wi-Fi, but once it did, the first thing that popped up on the page were pictures.
My heart dropped, and along with it, the flimsy foundation beneath me. I would have fallen had I not already been sitting down.
It was clear as day whom I was looking at.
I clicked on the first photo.
It was obvious this was taken in Las Vegas. Beneath it were the words, The Three Savages of Las Vegas . I took a deep breath and zoomed in on each of their faces. To Silas’ smile that, for the first time, looked cruel, to Maverick’s stoic expression that exuded power and command, and Killian’s scowl, warning anyone and everyone not to fuck with them.
I clicked on the photo, which took me to a web page.
I only read enough to get their full names and a few of the rumors that surrounded them.
Maverick, Killian, and Silas Tiernan. Rumored to have something to do with the governor’s disappearance, though no one could pin it on them. Something along the lines of the governor meddling in the gambling laws and policies, and they didn’t like that.
I swallowed, my vision getting blurry. The phone fell from my hand with a clatter, and I stood, hurriedly packing my things. I still hadn’t unpacked when I moved into this new room, so thankfully, it didn’t take me long.
I still didn’t have my car. It was in the shop, and I didn’t know when it would be done. I wasn’t going to wait around for it.
The car was registered under Dad’s name, anyway.
I reached down and searched for the phone I dropped on the floor, finding it had bounced deep beneath the bed. I cursed out loud as I crawled to get it, adrenaline spiking my system. This felt similar to when I ran away from the clubhouse the night we got attacked, only so much worse, because I didn’t have the entire club to act as a buffer between me and those—those savages .
This was much worse because I didn’t know who they were when I ran that night. I hadn’t spent the night in their arms. Hadn’t developed feelings for them.
A sob burst free from my lips, surprising me.
I blinked away the tears and tried to clear my vision. My palm touched the phone, and I grabbed it, pulled it out from under the bed, and looked around.
How fucking stupid I had become!
And if I gave myself time, I might just lose it under the unbearable weight pushing down on me. I grabbed my bag from the bed, put my room key on the nightstand, and headed to the door.
I looked around the room for anything I might have missed, and then I opened the door and ran right into Silas’ hard chest.
I squeaked in surprise and fear as Silas wrapped his arms around me to keep me steady.
My heart felt like it had fallen out of my chest.
Behind him stood Maverick and Killian. I looked back up to Silas’ dark eyes, watching as he assessed the state I was in and my bag hanging off my shoulder. His arms tightened around me, and fear like I had never known overtook me.
“Are you going somewhere, angel?”