Chapter Five Maverick
I couldn’t believe the girl who had walked out on me this morning was just standing in the middle of my club, screaming at my enforcer.
Ares was one tough son of a bitch, too. He got his road name because of the time he served in the military and being one scary-ass motherfucker.
I knew grown-ass men who wouldn’t dare talk to him the way that she just did.
Something about her fierceness made the blood rush to my dick.
I couldn’t think about that right now or the fact that I had missed being in her pussy the moment I woke up and I realized that she had fucking run out on me.
Seriously?
Never in my life have I ever had a chick run out on me like that.
I had thought last night meant something, that we connected, which is why when I saw her eyes begin to doze off after we came down from round four, instead of rushing her out the door, I grabbed her and pulled her close to me and let her sleep.
A lot of good that fucking got me.
I should have kicked her ass out.
Now, she stormed into my clubhouse and blew up one of the biggest bombs we’ve had in years. Ares had a sister, one that no one knew dick about. Fuck, I knew he was going to kill me when he found out I banged her.
It would still be worth it. Last night was truly amazing, though I realized that nearly everything she told me was a fucking lie, like that her name was India and she was 26 and from Chicago.
She even had a fake ID to back it up. As soon as I woke up this morning, I had Jason check the scans at around the same time she came to the bar.
Yes, I wanted to find her. No, I didn’t want to think about what that meant.
He pulled up her ID, and sure enough: India, 26, from Chicago. So why the fuck was Ares calling her Thea and what else did she lie about?
At the bar, when I asked her why she was in town, she said because she was going through a really bad breakup.
She said that the fucker had a tendency to hang around after they got into it and needed the space to figure shit out.
Was that a lie, too, or was some guy bothering her back home?
I wondered if Ares would change his tune about her sticking around if he knew there were some fucking numb nuts chasing her away.
“Ares, are you fucking kidding me?”
I heard Serena, Ares’ ol’ lady scream at him.
Serena glared at him. She might’ve been one of the sweetest women I’d ever met, but she had no problem putting Ares in his place.
Now that it was official and they were having a kid together, we thought all the bumpy roads were behind them.
Of course, that has changed since he lied about having a sister to her and all of the brothers.
I didn’t know what the fucker was thinking.
He knew his girl was big on family and that this could have been something she would have a hard time getting over.
“Babe, I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about Thea. It’s complicated.”
She scoffed in his face, and I laughed. She was a fucking hellcat, too.
“What’s complicated about saying, ‘hey Serena, I have a sister,’” she said in her best impression of a manly voice. “How old is she even?”
At that question, my ears perked up and I stood up a little straighter. God, please let this be good news, I silently prayed to myself.
“She’s 21,” he replied.
Thank fuck. Not as old as I hoped, but old enough to not get me fucking locked up. But, why did she need a fake ID then?
“Look, babe. I don’t want you to worry about this. I’m going to fix it okay.”
“You sure fucking are, Ares. I promise you,” she said to him as she dug a finger into his chest. “You’ll be sleeping on the couch every night until you fix your relationship with her. Did you see her face? She thinks you completely abandoned her and got a new family!”
Tears began to well in her eyes and I knew the waterworks were coming.
Poor girl. As I said, Serena is big on family.
She’s also the biggest empath ever, which makes her the best, and the worst doctor ever.
She had to switch to a family practice from an ER after she couldn’t take seeing so many people not getting better.
That’s just the type of person she was. Too nice for her own good, and I knew seeing the hurt in Thea’s eyes really ate her, too.
Hell, it had to eat at all of us who witnessed that.
The heartbreak she had in her eyes when her brother told her that he was getting married and having a kid was almost gut-wrenching, but as quickly as it flashed there, it was gone.
I knew she was putting on a front for everyone who was watching, which made me want to run over to her and take her away from all of the pain.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to figure out what the fuck was going on and why Thea was here now looking for her brother after all of these years.
If some prick was having a hard time letting her go, I would chase him down myself and make sure he got the fuck over it.
I don’t know why I was already so protective of her.
We had only spent one night together, but I knew there was more to her than what she was letting on.
When I was watching her from across the club last night, her eyes were full of darkness and secrets, not the eyes of a carefree, twenty-one-year-old college kid needing a change of scenery.
“Hey,” I butted in. “I texted the prospect at the gate and told him not to let anyone out, so she is stuck here until you figure out what the fuck to do. You got twenty minutes and then I’m calling for church. If you’re not a voting member, then your ass better not be in my chapel!”
I yelled the last part to all of the brothers in the room so they knew that this wasn’t a typical meeting. No, we were going to get to the bottom of this and figure out what the fuck Ares was thinking about lying to us.
***
THEA
I sat in my car outside of the clubhouse. The beating sun was making my forehead sweat.
“Can you open the damn gate?” I yelled at the guy who had let me in earlier.
“Nope,” he sassed back at me and turned away.
“Have you lost your ever-loving mind? If you don’t let me out, that’s kidnapping and I will kick your ass and make you open the gate,” I growled at him.
That just made him laugh in my face.
“Sorry, sweetheart. It’s Prez’s orders that I don’t open these gates for no one, and seeing as you already lied your way in here, you’re not going to lie your way out.”
Really? He was mad because I told a little white lie, I thought. It wasn’t like he asked me for a security passcode or even my fucking name.
“Okay, I tried to be nice, but now I’m getting Stella,” I said with my hands raised.
“Go ahead, bring your little chick friend. Still not getting out of here,” he mocked me.
Asswipe. I stepped back to my car to get Stella. I popped open the glove box. Stella sat right where I’d left her.
My fuck-around-and-find-out.
I aimed my gun toward the sky at an upward angle and fired off a round. The shot echoed through trees and the quiet area around us. Birds flocked up toward the skyline after the sudden disruption.
“What the fuck!” The guy yelled as he put his hand on his gun.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” I said with my gun already pointed toward him. “Turn around, get in your goddamn gatehouse, tower thing, and let me the fuck out!”
I heard shouting and curse words behind me and I turned to look to see some club members and my brother running outside to see what was going on.
The prospect had his hand on his gun still and as soon as my brother saw it, he yelled, “If you even think about shooting my fucking sister, I will blow your goddamn head off, kid.”
The prospect quickly removed his hand from his gun and looked at everyone nervously. “I’m sorry, Ares. Prez said not to let anyone out and this crazy bitch just fired her gun at me.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t fire it at you, I fired it above you to prove a point,” I said, annoyed.
“And what fucking point was that?” My brother said to me, getting in my face. “Would you shoot a kid dead in his tracks for following orders, Thea?”
“I would do whatever I had to do to survive,” I said and gave him a firm glare.
He looked at me, puzzled. I didn’t wait for him to respond.
I just pushed past him to reach my car. Behind him, I saw Bullet, Ace, and, of course, their president all looking at me.
He wasn’t looking at me with judgment, though, or even in disdain.
He was looking at me like I was a puzzle that he was trying to figure out.
Unfortunately, for him, this trip made me build up walls even higher than the ones before.
Even with my walls up, I couldn’t ignore that every time I felt him staring at me, it was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on me.
Being under his gaze woke something up in me, and I wasn’t sure what the fuck that meant.
“You’re staying here for a few days,” my brother grumbled to me right as I was putting my hand on the car door. I stopped and looked up at him curiously. “We’ve got a lot of shit to figure out between us, and I need to know what your next move is.”
I nodded before getting in my car. I let out a heavy sigh as soon as I shut the door, staring at the clubhouse and the men who were walking inside it.
Well, I had gotten what I wanted, which was to find my brother and make him listen. But what I also found carried a lot more weight than I had anticipated. I couldn’t involve anyone else in my casualties. I wasn’t just little Orphan Annie anymore. I was an aunt and sister-in-law now, too.
I couldn’t stay here for long. I had secrets that I needed to keep buried because my brother may have forgotten what family meant, but I didn’t. And I would do whatever I could to protect mine, even if that meant staying the hell away.