Chapter 5
Maverick
Animal, Chaos and Beast were already waiting for me outside the mansion that I knew the fucker lived in. I checked my gun was loaded and the safety was off, before I headed over to Chaos.
“You sure about this, brother?” he asked.
“Deadly. He put his hands on a woman, and is holding her son hostage.”
They didn’t need to know the full truth, because even I didn’t know it. Not yet. They just needed to know the kid was in danger.
“Say less,” Beast said, angrily. He pulled his gun out and did his checks, just as Animal did. Chaos nodded and checked his own piece.
Pushing down the rage was a mission, but I had to think about Van. Fuck knows what a man like Hardy would do to him if he was okay with putting his wife in the hospital. She didn’t even have anyone with her.
Animal and Beast made a move to head toward the back of the mansion. We were lucky that Trojan was on hand to take the security feed down, but it meant we would need to work fast to locate Van.
“Mind telling me why we’re rescuing some kid from here?” Chaos asked, waiting for the all clear from Trojan.
“I’ll tell you after.”
Chaos nodded. “Prez is preoccupied right now, but he will notice if you start side shit without his approval. He’d be on board with this, why keep him out of it.”
“As you said, he’s preoccupied.”
Chaos sighed. “You’ll keep us apprised if things go south, yeah?”
“Of course,” I shot back, annoyed it was even a question. That was what he was good at though. He’d always had a way of reading you, just like me, but he’d been good at getting under my skin which pissed me off. No one had ever been able to do that.
He looked down at his watch and up at me. “It’s time. Fifteen.”
I nodded and headed into the now darkened porch. The door was electronic, which meant when Trojan brought down the power, it unlocked. Fucking useless piece of crap. You’re meant to have a back up generator for this shit.
We headed inside, a torch on Chaos’s neck to lead the way. We took the hallways quickly, moving toward the only sound in the house.
A boy crying.
I headed toward it, my chest clenching at the sound of terror in his tears. Without a care for myself, I followed the terrified cries until I got to a door. It was locked from the outside. What the actual fuck?
I raised my knee up and kicked at the door. Once. Twice, and finally on the third, the wood splintered around the lock. I pulled my phone from my pocket and lit up the torch to see Van bundled up in his bed, tears marking his little cheeks.
“Hey,” I softened my voice. “Hey, Van, do you remember me?”
Slowly, he looked at me, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment before he saw me. He nodded. “Dust line…”
Fuck, he was good. He remembered the name of the car garage. Man, that filled me with pride. He’d remembered because he had enjoyed his time there.
“Yes, good boy. Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “My mama was crying, but I don’t hear her now.”
“That’s okay. I know where she is, bud. Do you want to go see her?”
He nodded. “He will come. He hurts Mum sometimes.”
Fuck me. I was going to rip this motherfucker apart with my bare hands.
“It’s okay, buddy. I’m not going to let him hurt your mum again, okay?”
I helped Van out of the bed, bending down to grab his car from earlier and helping him up into my arms. He tucked his head into my neck, and hugged me tight.
The fact that he was trusting me like this was mind-blowing.
Chaos saw that I had the kid and he followed behind.
So far I couldn’t see anyone stopping us.
What the actual fuck was going on?
Just then, I heard Animal grunt before an unfamiliar face moved into the foyer, stopping me.
“Shackled Sons…kidnapping my son?”
Beast came up behind him, pressing a gun barrel into his temple. Hardy looked surprised, but didn’t make a play to get away.
“Keep your head tucked away, Van, okay?”
He nodded against my neck, and I shielded him the best I could as Chaos stepped in front of me.
“No men on guard tonight, Bainbridge?” Chaos asked. “Standard practice for beating women?”
“She’s my wife, I can do as I please with her.”
Smug, arrogant bastard. I was going to enjoy watching him bleed out.
“Not even close, mate,” Beast sneered.
“He’s my son.”
“For now,” I shot back. “What do you think they’ll do when they see Tavi? Do you think they’ll give the abuser custody?”
“She’ll never turn on me. She’s got nowhere to go.”
“Yeah, she does,” I shot back so quickly I didn’t know what I was saying.
“You’re going to let us walk out of here, and you’re going to let her go, or you’ll have an entire clubhouse on your ass, digging into your businesses, leaving breadcrumbs to your underworld dealings in plain sight for the police to find. ”
Hardy worked for the Ironborne. They weren’t clean. We could easily find something and pin it on him. Then he could spend the rest of his life in prison, hearing about his son and his wife living happily without him.
It was almost enough not to put a bullet between his eyes, but I didn’t want to scar the kid.
Chaos ushered us out the door, and before I could think twice about it, I had Van bundled up in my jacket.
“Van, I’m going to need you to hold onto me tight, you understand?”
He nodded, handing me his toy car. I put it in my saddle bag and wrapped his arms around me as tight as I could.
“No letting go, Van, promise me.”
“I promise,” he said, softly. His little fingers dug into my back. I started up my bike, leaving the boys to take care of the fuckwit. No killing had been the order, unless he presented a problem. Secretly, I hoped he didn’t.
I wanted to be the one to cause him as much pain as possible. Right now, I needed to get Van to safety, and I needed to talk to Tavi. Then…then, I would take care of business.
Riding slowly, I made my way back to the clubhouse with the precious cargo on board. The clubhouse was the only safe place for him right now. Somehow I knew Tavi wouldn’t want him to see how hurt she was.
And if she did, I’d come back and grab him for her.
Riding into the clubhouse gates, I noticed most of the clubhouse was quiet.
It wasn’t a party night, and it was late.
I grabbed onto Van and carried him inside.
He was sleeping in my arms before I even got to a spare room.
I’d answer their questions later, but for now, I needed someone to watch over him.
I put him down in the bed, and pulled the blanket up to tuck him in.
He held onto the jacket I’d wrapped around him, like it was a comfort to him.
Something about that made my chest ache.
He’d trusted me enough to fall asleep in my arms, even with everything he’d heard and seen.
There was something so wildly heartbreaking at this boy having a life like that.
I wanted to protect him.
I wanted to keep him wrapped up in my jacket, just so he could feel safe, and protect him from all the monsters—both real and in his mind.
Heading out of the room, I left the lamp on, just in case he woke when I was gone.
Moving down the hall to where I knew Cherry was living at the moment, I knocked softly.
Slowly, I opened the door to see Cherry getting up from her bed, completely naked.
In the bed behind her, I noticed Vegas was passed out.
The fucking sly dog.
“I need your help,” I told her.
“Sure.”
“I got a kid in the room two doors down. I need you to watch over him until I get back.”
“Is the kid yours?”
I didn’t know how to answer that but a straight no felt like a lie.
“Can you just watch him? I need to help his mum out.”
Cherry nodded. “I got it, Mav.”
I headed down the hall, and out of the clubhouse. Tavi was going to come clean and she was going to tell me everything I needed to know about that scumbag before I blew his brains out.
Tavi
My heart rate sped up when I saw Maverick turn the corner and enter the room I was set up in. The doctor had been worried about a concussion. I knew I probably had one, Hardy had smashed my head into the wall a few times to disorient me, but I hated being here.
“Is he…”
“He’s being looked after at the clubhouse,” he said, gruffly while pulling a chair over to sit beside my bed. “He’s safe there, no one can get to him with the brothers around.”
I nodded, knowing it was probably best. Hardy would never expect that I would use the Sons to help me.
“Was he there?”
“Yes,” he answered quickly. “I need you to tell me everything, Tavi. I mean everything.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, flashes of Hardy’s vile words and his harsh hands on me causing my body to shudder. Opening my eyes again, I took in Maverick’s caring eyes.
How my life would be different if he’d been the one to be Van’s dad.
“He’s my husband.”
“Clearly.”
“You don’t understand, Maverick. I didn’t even know about that until a few days ago. I don’t know how he got an official to do it without my knowledge but I’ve seen the paperwork and it’s legal.”
“He forced you to marry him?”
I nodded. “I guess. I can’t let him take Van. He’s an asshole, barely knows his own son, and I know he’ll use him against me.”
“Van is safe with us. We won’t let Hardy hurt you or him, I promise.”
I nodded, knowing he spoke the truth.
“Is that why you came to the garage today?”
“I didn’t know you’d be there,” I told him, honestly.
“That’s not what I asked, Tavi.”
Slowly, I nodded. “I figured I could…find someone who will want to look after us.”
Maverick nodded. “He works for the Ironborne. You know they are our sworn enemies. That poses a problem.”
“What problem?” I said, quickly. “He’ll never admit that he was bested by his own wife, nor that he put me in here.”
“You sure about that?”
I nodded at him. “Yes. Usually I would just patch myself up, but he really lost it tonight.”
“How often?”
Shrugging, “I don’t know…whenever he wants to.”
“Tavi…”
“You don’t know me,” I spat at him. “You knew me for all of five minutes back then. I thank you for the assistance, but once I’m out of here, I’ll take Van and leave.”
“There are legal ramifications for that, Tavi. We can help you.”
“I’m tired,” I lied, although it was only a half lie. I was incredibly tired, but it was the topic I didn’t want to discuss. I didn’t want to admit just how fucked I was. Hardy wasn’t going to stop. He believed I was his property, to be used and abused whenever he saw fit.
Maverick stood up, moving the chair back to the wall, before he moved to the bed, leaning over me.
“You’re wrong, little devil,” he whispered, sending jolts of pleasure down to my crotch.
“I do know you. I know you prefer hard rock to the poppy shit your generation listen to. I know you like your drinks sour or bitter rather than sweet, that you like bourbon over vodka. I also know your favourite colour is red, and you always have it on your clothes somewhere. I know you came to that clubhouse looking for fun, but you never came back, and I can only assume it was because of him. What you don’t know about me is I will kill your husband for laying hands on you that you didn’t want there.
I will murder him for treating that boy as anything other than the prince he is, and then I’m going to find you somewhere safe to go. I know more about you than you think.”
He leant down and placed a kiss on my temple, sending a fresh wave of tears hurtling down my cheeks.
“Get some rest. I’ll be back in the morning to get you discharged.”
I watched him walk out of my room and speak to someone outside, before he left. The peace I’d felt for a moment before he came was long gone, and in its place, a sharp reminder that he was most definitely not the man I should be with.
Yet, it’s all I could think about.