Page 3 of Bane's Beginning

“I know, kid. That’s the problem.”

“Look, I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here anymore,” he said, pulling me into a hug. “I don’t want to kick you out. Hell, I’d rather kick Marcus’ ass and send him packing, but that wouldn’t do him any good. This would do you some good, though.”

Chase pulled out of the hug but kept me close. He moved a piece of my blonde hair out of my face and wiped the tears coming from my eyes with his thumbs. He was the only person I ever really cried in front of.

Still holding on to my face, he looked deep into my eyes and said, “You need to figure your shit out.”

As he kissed the top of my head and walked away, a feeling washed over me that I was all too familiar with.

Once again, I was alone.

“You need to figure your shit out,” Chase’s voice echoed in my head and I chuckled. I took a sip of my drink and I took a look around. Many people crowded the club, which is why I chose to go to Jynx. It was rated highly and was a popular bar, which meant I was able to blend in easily. I never liked to stand out too much, my past wouldn’t let me. With so many faceless people surrounding me vying to be the center of attention, I had nothing to worry about.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t judging them. I was jealous, which is why I was there tonight. To have one moment, one night to forget who I was and let go.

Tonight, I wasn’t the sad little Orphan Annie, a girl running from the devil, or hell, Marcus’ ex. No, tonight, I was just a girl in a dress sitting alone at the bar. This is why I pulled out all the stops. I left my typical “Good Girl” apparel at home and swapped it for a tight red-leather body-con dress that clung to my full body like life support. My curly black hair was currently braided under a long blonde wig, which made my dark skin glow even more under the club lights.

My shoes made my 5’3” frame sit up to be about six inches taller, and I wore more makeup than I typically do. I did a smoky eye with sharp wings and fake lashes and I topped it off with dark red lipstick to complement my dress. Back at school, I blended in with the narcissistic, stuck-up rich kids. But here, I was just being myself and didn’t have to worry about putting on a front to fit in.

Tonight, I was India Matthews, 26 and from Chicago. At least, that is what my ID said. I couldn’t take any chances even when I felt like safety was only a few miles away.

The sound of Nights Like This by Kehlani filled the air, and a smile crept on my face. I loved this song. I gave the dance floor another scan and watched as people danced to the music.

I felt a strange feeling like I was being watched and I quickly looked around, making contact with one of the sexiest men I had ever seen in my life.

He gave me a quick knowing smirk and he immediately got up. Fuck, was he coming over here?

A few moments later, the man stood before me. When he was seated at the table across the club, my eyes weren’t doing me justice. He looked like the type of man that could make any woman fall with the right smirk. He was tall with shaggy blonde hair that made his blue eyes brighter and he was covered in tattoos that peeked from the sleeves of his white T-shirt. He was wearing a leather vest and, because of my long nights at shady bars with Bridgette, I knew he was part of a motorcycle club. I quickly scanned his patch, and it read Martyrs in Mayhem MC and the words Prez.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I might let you buy me a drink,” a deep voice playfully said to me.

Chapter Two: Maverick

Fuck me. The pretty little thing I couldn’t keep my eyes off all night finally looked at me. As soon as our eyes connected, I couldn’t stop myself anymore. I had to talk to her, to be close to her. Figure out why the hell she could make my dick stand at attention just by walking into my fucking club.

I hated Jynx. It was the worst out of the six clubs the MC owned in the area. The crowd skewed younger than I was at thirty-four, and we only played shitty dance music so they would get out on the floor, sweat and buy more drinks. The customers who came in were also rowdy. Not violent, they just couldn’t hold their liquor or shut the fuck up. I never came here. Usually, if there was a problem here, I’d send a prospect or another brother to come figure it out, but after several nights of investigation to no avail, I decided to come check things out myself.

Someone was selling drugs in my territory. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just that someone thought they had the balls big enough to sell near the Martyrs, but it also had to be a bad batch. Kids had been dropping dead across three towns for weeks, and dead kids meant the feds would be knocking on our doors anytime now. That’s what happens when you have the power, you get blamed for every little fucking thing that happens as the feds look for that final nail to put in your coffin. I refuse to let that shit happen to my club, though.

The Martyrs in Mayhem MC is one of the largest in the country. We operate out of our hometown Haven Hills, but have charters all across America and a few in other countries. My pops, thefounder of the club, made sure years ago that gang and MC activity didn’t touch anywhere near our headquarters unless it was us or a few of our buddies.

The last time we had someone dumb enough to try us was the Sons of Sorrow MC. Grim, the president of the club thought he could off my pops and founding members, dismember the club and take our territory. Grim had made a few bad deals with the mafia and a lot of promises he couldn’t keep. It took us one month to decimate those stupid motherfuckers. So many Sons were coming up missing or dead and holding their own nut sacks in their mouths that Grim ran for the hills and we hadn’t heard from him since.

He’s probably still out there hiding, but that’s what happens when you make the wrong kind of deals with the devil. That was fourteen years ago, and not many viable threats had popped up since then, which meant that whoever was trafficking drugs here either knew what they were doing and were looking to start some shit, or they were just a stupid fucking kid. Hopefully, it was the latter.

I didn’t give a shit either way. Everyone knows not to disrespect a Martyr or risk losing their life. My brothers and I don’t stand down or take any shit, just like the founders before us. We don’t bend for pigs or follow the laws. We follow a higher moral code that was created by the brothers before us. That’s how we’ve been able to spread all across the U.S.

Then I looked up and there she was in front of the bartender. I wondered if she knew she had my balls in her hands since I first caught sight of that tight red dress gripping her sexy ass body. Though every time I looked up at her, she always looked so sad and deep in thought. Not the typical bimbos that walk aroundJynx. No, those were early twenty-somethings that only had to worry about if mommy and daddy gave them the right AMEX card this morning. She was different and had a dark aura about her that pulled me in. That, her nice set of tits that poked out of her dress, and her dark red lipstick had me running over the first chance I got.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I might let you buy me a drink,” I said, trying to see if I could get her to smile. Truthfully, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to just fuck the girl or ask her to stop looking like someone pissed in her cereal right next to my bar. Sad girls are bad for business at a club. Go take that shit to Charlie’s down the street.

I knew that’s not really what I wanted, though. I wanted to find out what about her intrigued me so much.

“I think you’re supposed to be buying me the drink,” she said, laughing. I finally saw her smile and it was just as beautiful as I thought it would be.

I laughed at her response. So she did have a personality, too. I gave her body a lingering look starting at those sexy high heels that made her legs look endless and slowly up to her exposed shoulders and neck. I was captivated, and by the way her body tensed up every time we made eye contact, I knew she was interested, too.

“Maybe, maybe not. Truthfully, I just wanted to see if I could make you laugh. You’ve been looking pretty sad all night.”