35. Max Cherry
Max Cherry
Tony
Cold Steel is being tended to by a medic. He won’t stop bleeding, and they have to apply a tourniquet. I may have gone a little far. My bites are strong, and if I’m not careful…well, he’s probably lucky I didn’t detach his hand.
Never piss off a bloodhound.
His blood is still on my mouth and chin. I’ve got the muzzle on, so the police avoid looking at me.
After a lot of questioning, we get taken to the local station to be detained. I’m looking at assault charges, but because the bounty hunter had a knife pinned into my back at an airport, he’s looking at federal charges.
I call Matty and tell her what happened and that she will need to post my bail. Hopefully I’ll only be detained for a few hours.
Twelve hours later, Matty waits for me outside the jail in Vegas under the pale moonlight as I make the long walk towards her.
She has her baby in a sling tied to her front, and she paces and bounces the very asleep baby.
I’m surprised, but shouldn’t be, that she flew out here to meet me.
I’m doing real well in life if I’m making a single mom come bail me out of jail.
“Hey, dickhead, I’ve been here for two hours. Does it take that long to get your ass out of jail?”
I smile and finally meet her under a lamppost, kissing her on the cheek, then pretend to touch the baby. I don’t want to touch her with my dirty jail hands. They took the muzzle off, and I was able to wipe down my face, but that was hours ago.
“They just love to make everything take three times longer than necessary.”
“We had to use all the money we’d gotten so far from the Livingston job to bail you out. I didn’t want to get a bond. Welcome to square one. We are broke and broken-hearted yet again.”
I miss Matty. Her blonde hair is longer and her cheeks are more sunken than the last time I saw her in person. She’s been working so hard while I’ve been out. She lives in Virginia, so she must have spent the whole day flying in.
“I missed you, too, Matty.”
She pats my back. Matty has been with me for a long time, and being near her now is a balm.
“We need to get a hotel. I can’t fly again until the morning,” she informs me.
Matty and I met in college. After graduation, she went to Langley and joined the CIA, and I went to my hometown and joined the local police.
At Langley, Matty met a nice, handsome alpha and got married.
She stopped working, had the baby, then discovered her husband was a piece of shit liar and cheater.
She reached out to me, and we tried to help each other during our shared life-altering woes.
We started Bloodhound Investigations together.
“You didn’t have to come.”
“After everything you went through, I didn’t want a smelly, but probably handsome, bail bondsman meeting you out here.”
I shake my head and smile. Matty loves that old movie Jackie Brown with the hot bail bondsman. She talks about it all the time—finding her Max Cherry. Personally, I think Max Cherry is a very strange man, and I don’t see the appeal.
Actually, I’ve never understood her taste in men, generally. I think she’s gorgeous, but I’ve never been into blondes. We were doomed to always be friends.
“I’ll drive. You and Fern can relax. I really don’t want to sleep tonight. I’ll take you both to a hotel, but I just…Matty, I just need to be alone…”
“Oh, yes, I forgot you are a lone alpha. Cursed to walk this world alone. Forever craving a partner you will never…”
“Damn.”
“Oh god, sorry, I took the teasing too far. Please forgive me. I am so tired.”
She tends to take her teasing to the absolute limit with me, and I’m an easy victim because there is plenty of fresh content to choose from. We make it to her rental car, and she carefully extracts Fern from her sling and puts her in the car seat. I take her keys and get into the driver’s seat.
When she joins me, she apologizes again.
“I didn’t mean to bring you down even further than I can tell you are.
This whole thing is shit. But at least there are options.
In the morning, let’s get our flights home.
We can also go over all the job requests we can take on now that you’re done with the Livingstons.
I sent the final invoice, but they haven’t paid it yet.
Your court date isn’t for another month, and it’s virtual, so… we got time.”
Fuck the Livingstons! I shouldn’t be surprised they aren’t paying. I brought Kelya all the way here, but they make up some goddamned excuse for not paying what we agreed on! On top of everything else!
Matty just watches me fume with rage at yet another shitty deal. Finally, I get a hold of myself and start the car, then promptly turn it off.
“What? What’s the problem?”
“I’ve been running on pure instinct all day. I totally forgot.”
“What?” she asks, a little scared.
“I don’t have my glasses.” I point to my naked face. “I can’t see for shit.”
She barks a laugh then slaps her hand over her mouth to prevent the loud noise from waking up Fern. I lean my head back against the seat and do the same. But my laughing quickly turns into sobs.
I have this gaping wound in my chest. It’s exposed to everything around us. And it’s in the shape of a notorious omega thief. Did she know she ripped me open and took my heart with her?
My head hits the steering wheel as I open my mouth in a silent scream. Matty rubs my back and grabs my forehead so I don’t slam it again.
A sob breaks through.
I can’t stop it.
Oh god. This hurts. This hurts so bad. I can’t fucking breathe. What the hell am I going to do?!
“Fucking fuck fuck, oh my god. I can’t do this. I can’t…”
“What? What can’t you do?”
“I can’t be away from her! I can’t go back.
I think this is it.” I take shallow, lung clenching breaths.
“She’s all I fucking want. I want to find her, pin her down, and bite her.
I want to tear off her clothes and make my mark on every single inch of her.
I want her to be mine. Only mine. She’s it for me, Matty.
My life is fucking over. I knew what my dad went through when he lost my mom, and that is nothing compared to how I feel. ”
I gnash my teeth, and spit flies down my chin. I beat my chest with a clenched fist. Then I just cry, because that’s all that’s left.
“You need to keep it together, Tony! Fuck! I’ve never seen you like this. Ever.”
I look up and try everything to catch my breath. My skin is so hot my tears cool me down.
“If you go to her, that is it, you know. She’s a wanted criminal. You’ll be the same. You can never have your life back in Barberie.”
My life in Barberie…with my house that hasn’t been mine in a year. Occupied by my ex-lover and her four fucking boyfriends. Fuck, she can fucking have it. I’ll sell it to them. Be fucking done. They want to live in my house? Fucking let them.
Wherever Kelya is, that’s where I will be, too.
“Matty, I smelled the Livingstons. They are rotten. That’s most likely why they want Kelya back, to help stop the rot. They won’t ever let her go…”
“That’s what I’m saying! If you go to her, they won’t let you near her without a fight. Are you willing to pay the cost?”
“I’d pay it gladly.” It comes out so quickly it surprises me. It doesn’t surprise Matty.
“Good.”
“Good!”
“It’s going to take a lot to get her back, so if you aren’t willing to do whatever it takes, then don’t even bother trying.”
I blink and look at my best friend. I can barely make her out with my weepy eyes and poor vision, but she is beautiful. How did I get so lucky?
“You look like you’re going to kiss me…”
“I am! On the fucking mouth! Matty, you don’t believe in love either. I’ve heard you so many times. Are you telling me you think I should do this?”
She rolls her eyes and huffs, uncomfortable with being called out.
“While yes, it’s true that love is stupid, unfair, harmful, and untrustworthy—yes.
But I have this weird feeling that this is what we say when we talk about true love.
And…” She turns away, but then decides to be brave and turns back to face me.
“I want to feel what you’re feeling one day.
Grief over the idea of being away from the person I love.
I didn’t even cry over my ex. I cried over a lot of things, but not over him. I’m really fucking jealous.”
She’s going to make me think this is possible, but I have to get my head in the game if I am going to do this right. I can’t make any mistakes.
“We need to drive to Saint Kane.”
She groans and unbuckles her seatbelt.
“Move over, Romeo. I’ll drive all night.”
I nod, then unbuckle my seatbelt and open the door, but just before I get out, I lean over and kiss her on the cheek quickly. She smiles and hits my shoulder.
“Fuck you, Tony.”
I walk around the car with only one thought in my head—I’m going to tie Kelya so tightly into knots she won’t ever escape me.