Chapter 17 #2
The second Maverick walked through the door of the room Cherry had popped me and the kids in, I breathed out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t realised how much I had been holding my breath since we arrived here. Lani and Van both had been asking questions and I had no answers for them.
“Dad!” Lani ran into his arms. He hugged her tight, and pulled her back to look into her eyes.
“You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We’ve just been worried. I don’t think I remember the last time I came here.”
“You were pretty young, kid,” he said. I loved watching their relationship blossom. It filled me with so much warmth. Van ran past me and clutched onto Maverick’s leg tightly. He bent down and scooped my son into his arms, holding him tight.
“What about you, bud? You been looking after Lani and your mum?”
Van nodded, rubbing his eyes. He hadn’t had his nap today, and I could see him fading fast. Maverick must have noticed.
“Lani, do you think you could stay here and keep Van company? He’ll probably go to sleep soon.”
“Yeah, I can do that. We can watch Cars.”
Van squealed his excitement, making Lani chuckle as she took Van’s hand and led him over to the bed. Maverick motioned for me to follow him outside. I did, making sure Van was good with Lani, before I closed the door.
“What happened?”
“Not here,” he said, taking my hand, and pulling me behind him through the clubhouse. I loved the feeling of his rough hand in mine, as he led me through the place. Eyes were on us, women who sat in the corner of the clubhouse, shooting daggers at me.
I wondered if any of them knew Maverick the way I did. Jealousy suddenly started to bloom in my chest, before I felt the cool air outside hit my face. Maverick led me down the stairs and around the side of the clubhouse.
It was just me and him.
He closed the distance between us, his hands cupping my face, before he kissed me softly. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, even though I was very much not okay. Somehow, in his grasp, I felt…calm.
“Tell me what happened, Dane.”
He sighed, placing his lips on mine in a soft, tender kiss, before he pulled me into his arms. I melted into his hug, loving how he felt as he squeezed me against me.
“I was wrong about Mari’s husband. Parker is Ironborne.”
“What?”
“He’s buddies with Hardy.”
“Oh god.”
“I don’t know how long he’s been feeding back information about my family, but I told Mari to bring Bane here.”
“She’s here?”
“Yeah, Animal has them out the back in one of the cabins, it’s safer than in here for now. I’ll have Lani join them later.”
I nodded, but everything in my head was fuzzy. The information was flowing through my brain at an alarming rate.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Maverick sighed, and leaned his forehead against mine. “Sometimes, I hate that you can read me so well.”
“Dane…”
“I left them in the hands of someone who was watching them for the Ironborne. I fucked up because I was too scared to fuck up in person.”
“Dane, jesus, you could never have known that,” I told him. “You did what you thought was best. You got them out when you realised. You did that. Now, just focus on what you need to, to protect them.”
“And you, and Van.”
I loved that he included me and Van. Like we were his already. I so wish we were, but the second something seemed normal, and we were getting into a good vibe, something brought it all tumbling down again.
Maybe we were cursed.
Maybe…we weren’t meant to be together.
Maverick groaned, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Church is in session. I gotta go, baby.”
He kissed me long and slow against the wall of the clubhouse, his arm over the top of my head, keeping me close.
“I’ll come find you after.”
I nodded, feeling my lips tingle from where he had laid claim to my lips like they were for him only.
Watching him walk away had been the hardest, especially when I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be here. Pulling myself together, I started back toward the doors, noticing how quiet it was in the clubhouse now that the church was in session.
Maverick
Shadow stopped me at the door to Chapel. His hand on my chest, pushing me back, and closing the door, locking us out.
“What the fuck?”
“Prez just got called back in from a trip away with Rowan. Tension is high. Focus on the immediate threat.”
I knew what he was trying to say, and it didn’t sit well with me, but I had to trust in Shadow. He had known Prez longer than I had. “You want me to keep quiet about who Tavi is? Chaos would disagree.”
“Chaos isn’t calling the shots, VP.”
I nodded, acknowledging what he was telling me, before I opened the door and walked in, with Shadow at my back. Not telling Reaper about my association with Tavi felt wrong, but I’d kept him out of it this long, a little longer wasn’t going to hurt.
The main problem we have is the Ironborne, and she wasn’t one of them. Not anymore.
Reaper would understand, in the end. He would understand because he would do anything to protect his woman, too.
I sat next to him, his eyes on me, and his expression grim. He was pissed. I would be too if I was away with Tavi for a few days and got the call to come in.
“Speak.”
His tone was low, menacing, like he was about to erupt at any given moment.
“Recently became aware of a threat to my family,” I told him, simply. “Mari’s husband has been working with the Ironborne all along. I don’t know what the end game would be, my kids and ex aren’t harmed, and they had no idea.”
Reaper grunted, rubbing his hand over his head. “Where is he?”
“It was too hot to take them in, Reaper,” Shadow offered. “Trojan is tracking their movements.”
Reaper nodded. “Have them brought in. No one fucks with our families. Shadow, go and surveil them, yeah?”
Shadow nodded, getting up and heading out to do what he does best. He shot me a meaningful look before he left, and I knew he was right. Now wasn’t the time to bring up who Tavi was. My family needed to be centrestage.
“Mari and the kids are here?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And they’re okay with that?”
“Obviously it’s not ideal, and it’s startling, but I’ll visit them after church and make sure they’re okay.”
Reaper frowned. “Why aren’t you staying with them in the cabin?”
“They aren’t the only ones I brought for sanctuary. I need to keep my woman safe, and her son.”
Reaper’s eyebrows rose, almost like he was a little offended I hadn’t told him. “This the shit that’s been keeping you away?”
“It’s complicated, but it’s sorted now.”
“Am I going to have to ask for more, or are we good, Mav?” he asked. I knew what he was asking. He needed to know if my head was on straight. Fucked if I knew the answer to that, but I didn’t want Reaper blowing a gasket when he was already on edge.
“We are good.”
“Right,” Reaper declared. “We’re going into lockdown.
Call your families in. We have enough room for everyone, since half you knuckleheads are single anyway.
Club girls need to rally supplies and get back here before sundown.
I’ll have Trojan give an update on what he finds out later.
His gavel fell on the table, and chairs scraped back, everyone filing out except for me and Reaper.
Now was the time to come clean, but when he stood, I had remained silent.
“When this blows over, brother, and it will, I want to meet this woman who has you tied up in knots, yeah?”
“You can meet her now, but she’s scared, and so is her boy.”
Reaper nodded. “Understandable. Go to them. We don’t need you until next church session. Get your head right.”
He clapped me on the back, in a comforting gesture, and headed out of Chapel. I felt like shit. I wasn’t lying, per se, but I was omitting a pretty significant fact about Tavi.
When I finally pushed up and left Chapel, Animal was hanging back. “I got them, brother. No one gonna hurt your family, Mav.”
I trusted him implicitly. He was one of the originals when I was coming up, and he watched over his idiot twin brothers like a hawk.
“Thank you, brother.”
Animal nodded and headed out of the clubhouse. He took his job seriously. If he were looking after my family, he wouldn’t sleep a wink, and he wouldn’t leave them alone. I had a choice to make.
Go down the hall and see Tavi and Van, or head to the cabin to see Mari and my kids.
Both my family.
Yet, still so separate.
I ran my hand through my hair, pulling it from my hair tie, and trudging down the hall to check on Tavi.
When I opened the door, Van was lying on the bed next to Lani, and Tavi on the other side. Her eyes were wide, as if she thought a threat would come through the door.
“All good?” she asked.
“All good, just a service to talk about the imminent threat. We’re going into lockdown so we’re safe.”
“Lockdown?” Lani asked, a little nervous. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t worry. You’re safe here. I’m going to walk you down to see your mum, okay?”
Lani nodded, jumping off the bed, and heading outside the room, leaving me with Tavi and Van. Van was sleepy, and I saw a slow smile pop up on his face. “You look like a girl.”
Both Tavi and I laughed. I knelt down beside the bed, letting him feel my hair. I rarely had it out, but I couldn’t bear to cut it off, and I knew Tavi liked to hold onto it when I was eating her out, so it was definitely staying.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep, little man?”
“You need to read me.”
Fuck. The innocence.
“If you have a nap now, I’ll read to you later, okay?”
Van slowly nodded, his eyes drooping faster than I think he realised. I disentangled his fingers from my hair and got up from beside him, before I moved over to Tavi’s side and knelt.
“I’m going to check on Mari and the kids, make sure they’re okay. Then I’ll come back and we can talk about everything and how it works in the clubhouse, yeah?”
Tavi nodded. I kissed her on the lips, quick but harder than I expected. We both needed a fucking break from this shit. But it all came down to leaving that cocksucker breathing. I should have taken him out when he spoke about Tavi.