Chapter 23
23
BLOOD
I storm out of the locker room and catch sight of Maxine’s drawn, pained face, but I keep going straight to my office. I swipe up the bottle of Jack and gulp at it. I welcome the burn in my throat, but it doesn’t ease the deep ache seeping through my body. I slam the bottle onto the desk, then hurl one of the shot glasses against the wall.
Diesel appears in the doorway, and I glare at him. “Get out.”
He puts his hand up like he’s dealing with a dangerous animal. “Take it easy.”
“I said, get out.” I punctuate my words by hurling the other shot glass in his direction.
“It’s not your fault.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I spit out an evil laugh. “Of course it’s my fault.”
Diesel inches into the office. “You gotta calm down.”
“I don’t gotta do anything. This is my fuckin’ office.” I slam my hand on the desk. “In my fuckin’ gym, and if I want to, I’ll tear the whole fuckin’ place apart.”
Diesel backs away from me, then whips out his phone. I’m too far gone to hear or care what he is saying, but I’m pretty sure he’s calling Smoke and telling him his VP is heading off the rails hard and fast.
After Diesel left, I overturn my chair and a few other pieces of furniture, but nothing helps. My phone rings in my pocket a few times, but I ignore it, and when it continues to ring, I shut it off. No one can do anything or say anything to make this better.
Exhausted, I stumble out to my bike, throw my leg over the seat, hit the throttle and take off. I don’t know how long I ride, but I finally end up at The Tropics. I park in the lot and go in the back door. The loud, pounding music and people laughing pisses me the fuck off. Don’t they know an innocent kid died tonight?
I trudge up the stairs to my apartment, unlock the door and head for the bar in the corner. I nab a bottle of Jack, then throw myself onto the couch. I uncap the bottle and take a healthy swig, then dig my phone out of my pocket and turn it back on. There are six missed calls from Smoke, along with calls and texts from the other brothers.
I kick my booted feet up on the coffee table, gulp at the whiskey, then lay my head against the couch cushions. My eyes slide shut, and the gruesome picture of Javi’s limp body jumps out at me. I bolt upright and put the bottle to my lips. I have to keep drinking until I pass out. Keep drinking until I’m too delirious to see that horrifying image.
He was just a kid. Who would do this to a kid? Who would—I pull the paper out of my pocket and read it again. Fuck, it was Hector. Of course, who else?
A knock on the door jars me out of my stupor.
“Go the fuck away,” I yell through the door.
The knocking comes harder, more insistent.
“I said, go the fuck away,” I bellow louder.
Probably Smoke wanting to talk me down, tell me Javi’s death isn’t my fault. All the bullshit lies people say, even when it isn’t true, even when they know it isn’t true.
The knocking continues, so I slam the bottle onto the coffee table and heave myself off the couch.
“Whoever is on the other side of this fuckin' door better be ready to have my fist in their face.” Diesel, Smoke, Bolt, I don’t give a fuck. I ball up my hand, thoroughly intending to tune up whoever is standing there.
I yank open the door, my fist cranked and ready.
Maxine doesn’t even flinch. “You’re not going to hit me.”
“What the fuck are you?—”
She eases between me and the door, then gently closes it and turns toward me. She cups my face in her warm hands. “I know you’re hurting.”
Then she leans in and kisses me hard, offering me her tongue, then sliding her body tight to mine. My palms automatically cup her ass, and when I lift her, she wraps those magnificent long legs around my hips.
I spin her around until her back hits the door. “Just wanna let you know, this isn’t gonna be sweet; it’s gonna be hard and fuckin’ savage.”
“It can be anything you want it to be.” She plasters her lips to mine, and I twist away from the door, then stumble us into the bedroom.
I drop her on the bed, frantically pulling at my clothes and then hers. I peel down her shorts and flip her over, wrapping my arm around her waist, hoisting her onto her knees. I push my denim away, then my fingers find her center.
She pushes her ass higher, and I slap her cheek hard. I like the way it jiggles under my touch. She wiggles, and when I slap the other side as she moans out again.
My cock is rock-hard and ready, but I can’t end this sweet torture, so I lean over her back, dig my hand into her hair and angle her mouth to mine. Her brutal kiss has me panting, and when she sucks on my lower lip, she bites it hard.
“That’s right, baby, fuckin’ bite me. I wanna feel the pain.”
I grab her hips, squeezing her flesh, leaving a mark as I notch my cock between those perfect ass cheeks. Reaching around her hips, I find her clit and twist it between my thumb and forefinger until she groans into the pillow.
When she is good and wet, I slide home, pumping her from behind, grinding my hips into hers, skin slapping against skin, me driving harder until I’m balls-deep in her soaking pussy.
She arches her back, and her body sucks me in farther than I thought possible. My choppy breathing and her moans fill the room as the headboard bangs against the wall, keeping rhythm with my thrusts. The first waves hit, but I keep at her, never wanting this to end, never wanting to come back to a reality without meaning. I just want to float above it all, pretend Maxine and I are the only two people on earth. No pain, no retribution, no guilt. Just us.
I collapse against her back, then shift, burying my face in her neck, drinking in her scent and the closeness of her body.
She wriggles out from under me and flips over, then smirks up at my surprise. “You forget I have moves too.” She pushes at my shoulders, and I let her pin me to the bed, although if I hadn’t, I think she would’ve anyway.
“Looks like you still need more.” She eyes my still hard cock. “Do you trust me?”
Isn’t that the question of the week? “Whatever you got, I can take it.”
Wasting no time, she lowers her head, leaving little butterfly kisses on my inner thighs. Getting just close enough to my cock without touching it.
Yeah, fuckin’ torture.
Leaning back on her knees, she slowly, very slowly rakes her fingernails over my lower abs and thighs. She actually fuckin’ laughs when my dick twitches a few times.
“You think that’s funny?” I could play this out even as her eyes burn into me, daring me to tell her to stop.
“I think it’s funny I’ve got all two hundred pounds of you on your back under my control.” She cups my balls with one hand while stroking my dick with the other—hard.
I turn my head into the pillow on a groan when she tightens her grip. Then, without warning, she lowers her head and devours my rock-hard length, swallowing every inch until I hit the back of her throat.
“Ohhhh, fuck, yeah! Suck it harder, baby.”
She increases the pressure, and my head spins out of control. Just like the last time with Maxine, little sparks of lights shimmer before my eyes.
I’m getting close, real close, so I nudge her shoulder.
“Mmmhmm,” The humming and the deep dragging of her lips brings me over the edge hard. My hips jerk off the mattress, but she never lets me go. She keeps pace with me, sucking and drinking me in until I collapse against the bed.
She licks me clean, then rests her head on my thigh as she strokes my abs in calming circles.
I lie for a long time in the euphoria, not thinking, not feeling, just letting my body float on the cloud Maxine created. No guilt, no repercussions, just peace.
She shifts next to me, resting her head on my shoulder, her hair fanning over my chest. So giving, so tranquil, like she knew what I needed before I did.
I don’t know how long we lay there in the quiet of my room. I try to close my eyes, but fear holds me back, so I calm myself with rhythmically stroking Maxine’s hair.
“Hector did it.” The words fly out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“I figured.” She leans up on an elbow. “No one else would be capable of doing such a thing.”
“Hector might’ve done the act, but I helped. It’s because of me Javi’s dead.”
She rears back. “What?”
“The stupid kid looked up to me, and I knew it. One of the last things he said to me was he wanted to be a Royal Bastard, and I didn’t say shit. I should’ve told him to run hard, run fast, but I didn’t.” I scrub my hand over my face. “I led him on with money. I let him think he could have a better life, but there’s no better life. It’s this life—hard, so fuckin’ hard, with no second chances.”
“Don’t do this to yourself.”
“There’s nothing I could do to myself that would be worse than what I saw tonight.”
“It was a tragedy. Such a sweet kid. I mean, I know Hector’s deranged, but why Javi? The kid never hurt anybody.”
I stare at the ceiling, remembering. “He started coming by the gym last year. Right after we took over. At first, he just used to hang around, but the longer I was in Tijuana, the more I saw the poverty, and how some of these people are forced to live.” I shake my head, but the images only become clearer.
“It’s so sad.”
“Some of these houses are no better than shacks. A lot of them don’t even have running water or electricity. It’s disgusting, especially when the politicians and fat cats like Hector have too much.”
“Why do you think Hector did it?”
“He’s got eyes all over. He wanted to warn me, show me what he was capable of doing.”
“But you’ve got other kids working around the gym. Why Javi?”
“‘Cause I had him tailing you.”