17. Maverick
17
MAVERICK
We stood on the hill and looked at the aftermath of the destruction of one of our properties.
Killian had his hands in tight fists but otherwise didn’t show any reaction. Silas wasn’t doing better than him. The thunder on his face reflected my own feelings.
We were fucking pissed.
And the cowards who had done this were hidden from us. It could be any gangs around the Midwest wanting to see us fall, but I had my bet on Sebastian Cline and the pathetic MC club he was trying to revive.
How ballsy of him.
I was going to fucking rip him to shreds once I got my hands on him.
“How many men?” I asked.
“Eleven,” Killian answered me.
Fuck. Eleven men too many.
“Make sure their families are well taken care of,” I said.
Silas nodded. We always took care of our men, but especially men who died for our cause.
“The FBI?”
Killian looked at something on his phone. “Coming.”
“And I suppose our good friend Agent Matthew Jones is coming along for the ride?”
“Fucker’s leading the charge.”
“And Larkin?”
“He’s coming along. He’ll help us get rid of anything incriminating they might find.”
I nodded. Sometimes it was good to have an inside man, but this shit wouldn’t have been fucking necessary if some fucker hadn’t blown up one of our properties. It had been used to store the drugs and weapons we shipped out to Canada a month ago. It hadn’t been used since the goods were transported out—thank fuck—but there could still be something, a trace left behind that could incriminate us.
We had men doing a sweep of the place without really messing anything up.
Gravel crunched beneath tires, and I saw three black SUVs—the kind the FBI liked to drive—motoring toward my property. There was something about the sight that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
Fuckers.
“Let’s go greet them,” I said.
Together, we moved down the hilltop we’d been standing on and got to the bottom as the SUV doors opened. My eyes found Jones right away.
The fucker was nearly vibrating with the possibility of putting us away. Unluckily for him, we weren’t so easy to cage.
Jones approached us, stopping when he was only a foot away. Larkin was right behind him, and three other men followed, standing slightly behind the two men.
Killian spoke first. “I hadn’t realized this was a job for the FBI.”
Jones smiled a little. “It is when we think it might be connected to some of the bombings around the country recently. We think this might be the same man. You would want us to catch the fucker, wouldn’t you?”
Silas tensed behind me. We all knew it was bullshit. There was no connection to the bombings of other properties. This had been a targeted move on us, and the fucker knew it.
“Of course we’ll cooperate,” I said smoothly, before Silas could lose his cool. “We are good citizens, after all.”
The fucker’s eyebrow twitched when I said it, and I smirked.
He shook his head. “That’s good to hear. I brought men with me, and they’ll be very, very thorough.”
“Let’s hope so. We all want the men responsible to be put away.”
“Yeah? Do you have any inkling who it might be? Who would hate you enough to do something like this?”
I shrugged. “It’s as you said. We might just have a serial bomber on the loose.”
“Right.”
“We’ll leave you gentlemen to it,” I said. My eyes met Larkin as we passed, and he nodded slightly at us.
I waited until we were a distance away, and they couldn’t hear us before turning to my brothers. “Let’s get to the club. I want to coordinate with Emilio, and I want that fucker Cline found.”
It was time to go on the offense. I wasn’t going to let the fucker go. Not when he had expressed his interest in Mila. That was enough for me to want to kill him. This inconvenience, this slight, was the icing on the fucking cake.
My brothers nodded their agreement, like I knew they would. Like I knew they would always have my back.
It was close to eleven o’clock at night when I came home to catch some sleep before I would be up in a few hours.
For the first time, I craved sleep.
I fucking craved it, but there was a chance I wouldn’t get it. The insomnia was getting harder to control.
Frustration tightened my skin as I trod up the stairs. I walked by Mila’s room with the lights still on. I wondered what she was doing up so late.
I hadn’t seen the little monster in a while, not with how busy things had been, trying to establish dominance in a territory that hadn’t been ours for a long time.
I should probably leave her alone. I was too fucking wired right now, and I wasn’t sure if I could possibly treat her with the kind of gentleness she might want from me.
I was never a gentle man. That didn’t change just because Mila was different from the other women I’d been with, and it didn’t change just because I wanted to be gentle with her.
I shook my head.
I wasn’t making any fucking sense, not even in my head.
I stopped by her door, listening in. It was all quiet. Not that I had expected her to make any noise, but there wasn’t even the sound of her getting ready for bed to comfort me.
I closed my eyes.
I should go to sleep.
Hell, I needed sleep. I couldn’t even remember a time when I’d slept for a full night.
The doorknob turning had me opening my eyes just in time to see Mila appear, like an apparition in a dream.
She startled when she found me standing there. “Jesus. You scared me. What are you doing in front of my door?”
I didn’t answer her. Instead, I took her in from head to toe.
She was dressed in a white T-shirt, and that was all. Considering Silas had stolen all her panties, I doubted she was wearing anything underneath. Hell. How could I possibly leave her and try to go to sleep now?
“What are you doing out?” I asked.
She frowned at me. “I’m thirsty.”
I nodded. “Go back in the room, sweetheart. I’ll get you water.”
I tried not to let her gaze get to me. I knew I didn’t succeed, not when my skin felt hot all of a sudden.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Go back in your room,” I said instead of answering her. She looked like she wanted to say something, but when I shot her a look, she smartly refrained, nodded, and went back to the room. I closed my eyes when the door shut behind her, wondering why I was so tired today.
Even monsters needed rest, I supposed.
I went back down to the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. The house was quiet as I made my way upstairs. Not that I had been expecting any noise to come through at this time of night. Mila and I were probably the only ones in the house. Something about that felt so… dangerous.
I smile a little at the thought that I might be afraid of that tiny slip of a girl. I went to her door and stood there for three long seconds before I opened it without knocking. She was sitting on the bed, her legs bent in front of her while she lathered them with lotion. A sweet floral scent hit my nose. She looked up at me inquisitively. I wished she would stop. I didn’t want to be figured out, especially not by her.
Silently, I came up to the side of the bed and held out the bottle for her.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, grabbing it from me. I watched as she untwisted the cap and took a drink, her eyes on me the entire time. Her movements were delicate in a way that made me want to take possession of her. She closed the bottle and placed it on the nightstand.
We continued to stare at each other.
I nodded. “Sleep tight.”
She grabbed my arm, halting me. I turned and looked back at her questioningly. “Won’t you stay?”
“Do you want me to stay?” I asked.
I wondered if she would answer me honestly. I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. Why would she want to make herself vulnerable with me?
She surprised me when she nodded. “Yes. I missed you.” The last part was said quietly. “Stupid, huh?”
Perhaps so. She should have wanted me as far away from her as possible. And maybe I was just as stupid, because I’d fucking missed her.
More reason for me to stay away tonight.
It was on the tip of my tongue to deny her. I shouldn’t. But the thought of going back to my room alone, trying to chase sleep, held no appeal. I gently pulled away from her and discarded the suit jacket I wore. Then the tie, my shirt. Her eyes watched me intently, desire clear in her eyes.
It still amazed me that she could look at me, at any of us, with desire.
I stripped down to my boxer briefs. Her hungry gaze ate me up, and I smiled a little. Pointing at her, I said, “Stay.”
“Woof.”
I grinned at her. “Would you like to be my pet? I’m not really into pet play, but I can definitely make an exception for you, little monster.”
She rolled her eyes at me. I was still grinning when I walked out of her room and headed to mine to get ready for bed. Fuck, but how could she make me want to smile when moments before, I had felt bone tired?
Five minutes later, I returned to her room. She was where I’d left her. I came up to the side of the bed and lifted her until she was kneeling on the mattress, and we were almost at eye level. I pulled her shirt off without saying anything. It was as I suspected. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Her skin pimpled from the cold air, and she shifted a little.
“Maverick…”
“Shh. I am too damn tired to do anything. I just want to hold you in my arms tonight.” Just for a few hours, where I didn’t have to be anything except the man she missed.
“Do I have to be naked?”
I pushed her until she was lying down in the bed and cupped her pussy. She was wet.
“Yes,” I answered, gently massaging the skin. She slowly gyrated her hips toward my touch. I smiled a little and pushed one finger inside. She winced, and I regretfully pulled away. It hadn’t been that long since Silas had taken her virginity. The fucker was proud as hell of that.
And fuck, I might be a little jealous of that if I didn’t know I was going to get her soon. Once she healed…
I shook away the thought, trying to talk down the hard-on. She wasn’t ready for any penetration. She got in the middle of the bed and under the blanket before I climbed in, holding her to my body.
I had one hand cupping her full tit, and the other between her legs. She shifted. “Maverick.”
I squeezed her to me. “Go to sleep, baby.”
“I can’t,” she whined.
“You’re sore.”
“Not too sore.”
Hell.
“Hell.”
I plucked at her nipple, and she turned toward me. My fingers clamped on the hardened nub as my fingers strummed over her clit.
“How about I play with my baby until she comes?” I said softly, close to her ear.
She shuddered against me.
I’d take that as a yes. I kept my finger around her nipple, rolling it ever so slightly while I played with her clit. It didn’t take long before she was squirming against me.
“Maverick,” she chanted, her eyes glazing over from lust. I quickened my pace, and she squirmed, trying to get away from me in one breath, and closer in the next one.
“That’s it, my beautiful girl. Why don’t you come for me?”
“Maverick!” she screamed, her body convulsing as she came.
Fuck. How beautiful she looked like this—flushed skin, dilated eyes, and wet pussy.
I stilled my hand when she finally came back down and reached over to turn off the lights, bathing the room in darkness.
She sighed and snuggled closer to me, burying her face in my neck. I might have imagined it, but I thought she might have sniffed me. I skimmed my fingers up and down her spine, holding her tightly against me and creating a little cocoon for us against the outside world.
A few hours later, I unwrapped my arms around the sleeping girl and stood up. I looked down at her on the bed, buried in the covers. She shifted slightly and hugged the covers tightly, letting out a soft snore.
I chuckled silently.
Fuck, but she was cute.
I had slept sporadically throughout the night, and I should have still been tired. Instead, I was energized. A monster ready to take on the world and destroy anyone and everyone who got in my way.