Chapter 4 #2
When I got his door closed, I moved down the hall, toward my bedroom, praying Hardy wasn’t there. We’d slept separately for years now, him always needing time with his whores, while I preferred my solitude. It didn’t stop him from coming in and taking what he considered his right though.
Now that I knew he had married me somehow without my knowledge, I could only imagine what else he’d done without my knowledge.
Whatever.
I only needed to pretend for a little while longer. Seeing Maverick again had lit a fire in me. I deserved more. Van deserved even more than I did. I would give him the life he deserved, and I would find a man who would treat him as more than a commodity.
Pushing into my room, I was surprised when it was dark and empty. Just as I moved to turn my light on, I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and yank me backward. Gasping, I spun to face Hardy.
He was pure, molten fury in human form.
My stomach dropped, just as he shoved me up against the wall, face first. Darkness descended, and my vision blurred as I gasped for air. Hardy held me against the cold, hard wall, his hot breath on my cheek.
“Now that you’re compliant, I’ll be taking my fill of you, wife. That’ll serve you right for spending all day out of the house with my son.”
“Har–”
His fist slammed into my lower back causing a sharp pain to shoot up my side, winding me and robbing me of my words.
“A good wife is silent when she’s upset her husband,” he said, viciously. “Now, get on your knees.”
He kicked at the backs of my knees, forcing me to fall onto the cool, hard timber floors.
Pain rocketed through my kneecaps before, I felt him tug my hair back, forcing me to look up at him.
My vision was still blurry, but I suspect that was from the tears accumulating in my eyes now, and falling silently down my cheeks.
I knew better than to sob. I’d feel his bruises for days rather than just a weekend if I made a sound, or voiced a protest.
Let him use your body, and you can go to your happy place. He never lasts long anyway.
His hand moved from my hair, to my jaw and squeezed until my mouth opened. He held it that way while he undid his pants and freed his cock. I let my mind wander just as I felt him nudge his cock into my mouth.
Maverick
Bane was sitting up in his hospital bed, proud as punch of his new cast over his arm.
Mari sighed, leaving me alone with him for a few minutes.
She looked weary. I could only imagine how stressed she was feeling.
My heart had almost exploded in my chest when I’d heard he had broken his arm in two places.
“How’d it happen, mate?”
Bane’s smile dropped. “I…fell over at practice.”
“Bane.”
He sighed, and looked out the window of his hospital room. “There’s this kid on my team. He’s an asshole, and he lives two houses down from mine. He’d been saying to some of the others how I was a bastard and didn’t even know my own dad’s name.”
Shit, that tore a hole right through me. I remember how brutal kids could be at that age. Being the cause of my own kid’s bullying was not something I’d ever factored in, and it hurt.
“Kid…I’m sorry that he is bullying you, but violence is no way to answer him. Look what happened to you.”
“Don’t you fight people for a living?” he asked me.
“No,” I said, simply. He didn’t need to know what I did for a living, all he needed to know was I worked with cars and bikes. “Who said that?”
“Lani.”
Fuck. I was ruining my kids' lives and I was barely in them. I thought I was doing it right for them, and instead, I was fucking up more just by being in their lives a little bit. “Bane…I’m sorry I’m not around.
I made a promise to keep you guys safe, and sometimes it’s safer if no one knows you’re my kids.
I hope when you’re older, you’ll understand that more. ”
“I want to be okay with this, Dad, but…Lani says that you don’t love us, and I guess I just want to know if…maybe we did something to make you go away.”
I sat on the edge of his bed, making sure he was looking up at me.
“There is not a force in this world that could ever make me not love you. It’s because I love you that I stay away.
You say my job is violence. It can be. It comes with dangers that I can’t explain.
I know it’s a cop out to say you’ll understand when you’re older, but it’s the truth right now.
I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and I can’t tell you things now.
It’s not safe for you to know things about me.
I just want you to know that I love you, both of you. More than anything, okay?”
He nodded, a single tear falling down his cheek.
“No more fighting?”
Bane nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Fuck. No one told you what it would be like to break your kid’s heart. No one warned you that you would feel like absolute dogshit when you couldn’t bring them joy.
“Bane, I swear, I will explain it all. It’s just not safe right now.”
Sighing, he nodded, and laid his head down on the pillow behind him. “I’m tired, Dad.”
I got up from the bed, leaning over to kiss his forehead, before I let him sleep. My heart was crushed when I looked up once I was outside to see my daughter Lani, leaving Mari’s side, before I could get to her.
“She’ll come around,” she said with a smile. “Is everything okay? You seem a little more rattled than I expected.”
Nodding, “Yeah. Just got a lot on with the club.”
“Go, he’s gonna be fine.”
“I need to explain to them soon,” I said to her. She nodded, almost as if she had been expecting it. “I just…don’t know how.”
“Try the truth, Dane.”
She put her hand on my wrist, but I wasn’t looking at her anymore. I was looking at the woman being wheeled in behind her. Her head was bleeding and she looked like she’d been through a war.
But I knew just who it was.
I moved over to her, stopping the gurney and looking into those brown eyes I knew so well. “Tavi.”
A torrent of rage pitched over when I realised she’d gone back to her abuser after our chat, and now she was in hospital. I growled at the orderlies who were trying to get her past me.
“Maverick,” she said, her voice croaky. “He…my….Mav…he has Van.”
I was on my way to my bike before I could stop myself. One thing on my mind.
Blood. Carnage. Possibly a prison term.
Whoever the fuck this Hardy Bainbridge fucker was. He didn’t deserve to live, and I’d be damned if Van was going to be used against Tavi.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I called Trojan.
“Yeah.”
“Address of Tavi and Hardy Bainbridge. Now.”
“I’ll text it to you. Need reinforcements?”
“Chaos, Beast and Animal.”
Trojan hung up and I made my move. Hardy was going to regret the day he ever laid a hand on her.