Maeve
He said that his name was Peak. She’d clocked him the second he walked in.
Not because he was the biggest—he wasn’t.
Not because he was the loudest—he definitely wasn’t.
It was the way the room subtly bent around him, the way even the club’s Enforcer kept one eye on him like Peak was a variable that couldn’t be controlled, and that made him dangerous.
Her smile hadn’t faded since she’d opened her mouth. “Bullshit?” Peak echoed, brows lifting. “You’re cuffed in our clubhouse, and you think you’re the one setting terms?”
Peak’s jaw tightened. “You were watching our docks.” He wasn’t asking her a question, but she still felt the need to give him an answer.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“You ran when you saw our prospects in their kuttes,” Peak continued.
“Yes,” Maeve said again.
“And now you’re telling me that keeping you here is a bad idea?” He huffed out a short laugh. “You see the problem with your logic, right?”
Maeve’s eyes flicked to Warden for half a second before returning to Peak. “I see several problems,” she said. “Most of them end in blood if you don’t listen to me.”
Warden shifted. “Careful, sweetheart. Grave Prowlers don’t take kindly to threats.”
Maeve didn’t even look at him. “I am being careful.”
Peak studied her a moment longer, then finally opened his laptop; the soft click of the keyboard was loud in the quiet room. “Let’s try this another way,” he said. “Why were you at the docks?”
Maeve inhaled slowly, taking her time to answer. This was the part she had to get right. “I was looking for someone,” she said.
Peak’s fingers paused over the keyboard. “Who?”
“Someone who doesn’t belong to your club,” she replied. “But someone who’s been using your territory as cover.”
That got Warden’s attention. “Explain,” he ordered.
Maeve turned her head slightly, finally acknowledging him. “There’s a shipment moving through the docks—your docks. And it’s not anything you’d approve of if you knew about it.”
Peak’s gaze sharpened. “You expect us to believe you just stumbled onto that information?” he asked.
“No,” Maeve said honestly. “Because I didn’t stumble onto it—I tracked it.” Silence dropped heavy between them.
Peak closed the laptop slowly. “You’re going to need to do better than that.”
Maeve sighed, the sound soft but edged with frustration.
“I’m not law enforcement, if that’s what you’re thinking.
I’m not another club’s member, and I’m not your enemy.
But the people I’m chasing?” She leaned forward as much as the cuffs allowed.
“They will happily burn your world down to keep what they’re moving hidden. ”
Peak crossed his arms. “Then why not come to us directly?”
A flicker of something crossed her face then—too fast to name, too real to fake. “Because men like you don’t tend to listen to women like me unless they catch them doing something wrong. So, I hung out in your territory and waited for your goons to show up and take me.”
Warden snorted. “Smart mouth for someone in cuffs.”
Maeve smiled at that, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “My smart mouth is why I’m still breathing. It’s gotten me out of plenty of trouble.”
Peak held her gaze, searching for cracks in her story, but he’d find none. She didn’t give him any, and she wouldn’t. The truth was simpler and messier than he’d want—she’d come alone because trusting the wrong people had already cost her more than she was willing to lose again.
“What happens,” Peak asked slowly, “if we let you go?”
Maeve didn’t hesitate. “I disappear into the night. You’ll never see me again. I’ve come here to warn you about the shipment, and my job here is done.”
“And the shipment?” Warden asked.
She met his eyes dead-on. “Becomes your problem instead of mine.” Warden cursed under his breath.
Peak exhaled, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “You’re asking us to trust your word. Why should we do that?”
Maeve’s voice softened just a fraction. “I’m asking you to decide whether I look like a woman who wants to start a war or one trying to stop it from happening.”
For a long moment, Peak didn’t say anything.
His gaze dropped to the cuffs, then back to her face.
Something shifted in him, but she couldn’t tell if it was uncertainty, interest, or even respect.
Whatever happened next, she knew one thing for certain—Peak was about to become a very big problem for her.
And she had the sinking suspicion that she didn’t need a problem like him.
Universal Link-> https://books2read.com/u/4jVJEk
Want more of Chloe and Vengeance’s story? You can find them in another RBMC spin-off—Butcher’s Blade (Savage Bastards MC Book 1). They head over to the new Mississippi club to help Butcher out. Here’s a sneak peek!