Page 8 of Maverick
I wanted to find him so we could chat without his dad looking over his shoulder. I loved Reaper more than a brother, but he wasn’t the dad of the year. None of us were, but he’d never had to make a hard decision like I did for the sake of his kids. The women he chose to have kids with hated him, taking his kids from him and raising them away from the club.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and immediately, I folded, getting up and heading out of the clubhouse.
TROJAN
Got your girl. Tavi Bainbridge. Married to Hardy Bainbridge, CEO of Black Anchor. Son Evan is four. Nothing about a job or friends.
Fuck.
Black Anchor was an Ironborne business, which meant she was somehow linked to them through her husband.
Husband.
Fuck.
She hadn’t been wearing a ring when I saw her today. It had been the first thing I looked for when I saw it was the girl of my dreams.
It was clearly him who was beating her. It just made no sense why she would come to our garage for her car.
Unless it was a cry for help.
And she came hoping I would remember her.
I was torn. I wanted to go there, pack her and that boy up, and bring them home to protect them, and another part was sure I didn’t want to bring the heat to the club.
Another vibration and I was grabbing for my secret phone. Fuck. I had told Mari I might go to dinner tonight and never told her no.
I grabbed it out of my pocket and flicked into the message.
MARI
If you were thinking of coming tonight, don’t. Long story but I’m in the emergency department with Bane.
I didn’t need to ask any questions, my body was moving before I could catch up to whatever the fuck I was doing.
Tavi
“Straight to bed,” I said to Van after our day out. He was playing with his toy truck, running it along bannisters that led to his room. I could tell he was tired, and I was thankful he usually didn’t scream his head off when I needed him to sleep, but I could feel a shift in the air when I walked into the house.
Hardy’s men were not at their normal posts, and the house was quiet.
“Rosina,” I called out. “Are you here?”
She’d been our chef, nanny, maid, whatever you wanted to call an all rounder who looked after us more than we did ourselves, and an absolute godsend.
I moved down the hallway and into the kitchen. It was pristine, almost like she hadn’t been here today. That was odd.
Moving back out of the kitchen, I hooked a left to look in the dining room, but it was empty too.
My heart was racing, my stomach was full of butterflies, the anxiety of what I was about to walk into. There was only one reason why Rosina and Hardy’s men were not here.
Because he was.
And he wanted to be alone with me.
I put my hand, now shaking, on the bannister and moved up the stairs slowly. Each step felt like I was walking toward my doom. Van was happily playing on his bed, with his truck, when I got there.
“Time for sleep, bud.”
