Maddox (Savage Kings MC Book 5)

by Lane Hart

“I appreciate you picking Audrey up for me and keeping her safe,” he says.

  “No problem,” I tell him, even though I know he’s not finished.

  “Do I need to go through the formalities of warning you not to touch my little sister while you’re watching out for her?”

  “No, sir, absolutely not,” I respond, squeezing my eyes shut as I recall looking at and touching every amazing inch of her, inside and out.

  “Because you know what would happen if you step a toe out of line, don’t you?” he threatens.

  “I do,” I agree.

  “The beating you would get after I take your cut would make Holden’s beatdown look like a cat fight,” War elaborates, reminding me of the day every one of the Savage Kings got to pound their fists into the prospect who turned out to be a rat.

  “Yes, sir. I understand.”

  “Good. Take care and we’ll talk soon,” he says before hanging up on me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I snap at Audrey when I toss her phone down next to her. She bats it away so that it hits the floor instead. Before she even has a chance to respond, I’m pacing at the foot of her bed, running my fingers through my hair. “Oh god. I'm so dead. War is going to kill me! How could you do this to me?"

  “Are you really mad at me for fucking you so good you thought I made you blind?” she asks. “I didn’t hear any complaints during—”

  “I lost my virginity just to use your phone and get this job done!” I exclaim. “And now I’m gonna die because of the one goddamn time I caved and had sex with a woman!”

  “Whoa!” Audrey sits up on the edge of the mattress without bothering to cover up any of her nakedness and says, “You were a virgin? Are you joking right now?” Blinking at me when I refuse to say it again, she tells me, “Dude, if you had walked onto this campus any other day when it wasn’t being evacuated, your virginity wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.”

  “Oh yeah? You don’t think so?” I ask. “Because there are plenty of club sluts who tried to fuck me, and I turned all of them down.”

  “Club sluts?”

  “Never mind, forget it,” I grumble. “Just get up and get dressed. As soon as you pack a bag we’re leaving.”

  “No, we’re not,” she counters.

  “Oh, yes we fucking are!” I shout. “I have to get you to Raleigh now. And you better pray that there’s not a gas shortage or my head is gonna get knocked off by your brother, and it’ll be all your fault!”

  “So, you’re saying that you wouldn’t have fucked me if I had told you who I was?” she asks coyly.

  “Of course not!” I yell. “Why? Why did you lie?”

  “Because I’m not leaving this apartment with you or anyone else!” she shrieks as she gets to her feet and stands a foot away from me…still completely naked.

  Do you know how hard it is for a horny twenty-one-year old to argue with a naked woman? It’s nearly impossible, because now I’m thinking about being inside of her again and I have no clue what we were fighting about.

  Shutting my eyes helps, even though the image of her tiny curvy body still lingers until I think of carburetors and brake pads. There! Now, what were we arguing about? Oh, right.

  “Get some clothes on so we can go!” I tell her.

  “Why are you yelling at me with your eyes closed?” she asks.

  “Because you’re naked!”

  “And I’m going to stay this way. I don’t go out in storms. Ever!”

  When my eyes twitch, trying to pop open and get another look at her, I slap my palm over them and say, “If War had showed up to get you, I’m guessing you would’ve been dressed and he would’ve thrown you over his shoulder and carried you out if he needed to.”

  “I would’ve convinced him to stay too.”

  “How?” I ask.

  “I would tell him we should stay because I don’t want us to end up like our mom and dad who died in agony, trapped in their car after they hit a tree.”

  Lowering my palm from my face, I ask, “That’s what happened to them?”

  “Yes,” she answers, crossing her arms over her bare chest.

  “War never said…”

  “If they had just stayed home that night instead of going out in that shitty storm, they would still be alive!”

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her softly, understanding her fear much more clearly now that I know her past. “We’ll stay here.”

  “Really?” she asks, her big chocolate eyes wide and hopeful. The fact that what little natural light there is in the room makes her unshed tears glisten is just the final touch for making me completely cave. “You won’t drag me out into the hurricane?”

  “Not if you won’t ever tell your brother that we slept together or that we never made it to Raleigh.”

  “Deal,” she agrees. Uncrossing her arms, she holds out her palm to me.

  When I accept her handshake, she cheerfully says, “Hi, I’m Audrey. Audrey O’Neil. Warren’s sister,” while our palms are still clasped.

  Grinning despite how fucked I am, I tell her, “It’s nice to meet you, Audrey. I’m Maddox and I’m already a huge fan of your…lack of clothing.”

  “Why don’t you take yours back off and get comfortable?” she suggests, letting my hand go to take a step forward and get to work undoing my pants again. “It looks like we may be here for a while together without any power. Any ideas for what we can do to entertain ourselves?”

  “A few.” When her palm lowers to cup me through the denim, I can’t help but groan with need.

  “If you were a virgin, then you have a lot of catching up to do in bed.”

  Nodding, I tell her, “That sounds amazing, but I used my only condom earlier…”

  “Shit,” Audrey mutters.

  “You don’t have any?” I guess, my entire body deflating in disappointment. I mean, yeah, there are some things we could do without rubbers, but I really want to do more of the stuff with them.

  “No. But maybe my roommate does.”

  When she starts to walk past me toward the door, I put a hand on her arm to stop her. “I’m probably the stupidest man ever to say this, but would you mind putting some clothes on? I’m afraid that if you don’t, I’ll say to hell with protection, throw you down, and fuck you again anyways.”

  Audrey reaches for the bottom hem of my T-shirt and then lifts it up and over my head. Before I can blink, she’s putting it on and covering up her luscious body.

  “That better?” she asks. I’m not sure which is sexier, her naked or her wearing nothing but my white tee. It’s so transparent, I can see her nipples through it, and short enough that if I turned her around, I’m pretty sure her ass cheeks would be hanging out. Okay, I have to see for myself. Grasping her shoulders, I spin her around and then curse when I find out I was right. Seeing her bare bottom teasing me in such a way makes me want to bend her over the bed and slam inside of her so bad that the room spins before I get control of myself.

  So, the good news is that at least when War kills me, I will no longer be an inexperienced virgin.

  Chapter Four

  Audrey

  Maddox and I strike gold in my roommates’ nightstand, specifically a family-size box of gold-foil Magnum condoms. The rest of our first day together passes in a blur, as he and I stretch our imaginations to their sexual limits. Now that he’s popped his cherry, he seems completely addicted, and for my part, I’ve never had such a fine “tool” to work with in the bedroom.

  It’s just after sunset when I collapse on Maddox’s chest, completely spent from riding him for the last half hour. As we both struggle to catch our breath, I inhale deeply and crinkle my nose at our acrid smell. “Is that me or you?” I ask him.

  “I think it’s both of us.” He laughs, sniffing at my neck. “Smells like sweat, cum, and latex in here.”

  “Yuck.” I grimace and stick my tongue out at him. “The water should still run for a while, even with the power out. Let’s see if we can get a quick shower
together.”

  “Oh shit, the thought of soaping up your tits and taking you in the shower…” Maddox’s naughty thought trails off, but his cock, still wedged deep inside me, gives an agreeable throb as if to finish his sentence.

  “Come on, stinky,” I urge him, as I finally dismount and stand by the side of the bed, stretching. I pick up the flashlight I left on the nightstand and lead Maddox down the hall to the bathroom. While I turn on the shower, he throws the condom away in the trash, then comes up behind me to rub himself against my backside.

  “This may not go quite the way we wanted,” I say as I pull my hand out of the shower. I flick a handful of cold water on him, giggling as he jerks away from me.

  “Holy shit, that’s freezing! There’s no hot water, huh?” he asks as he leans past me to test it himself.

  “Doesn’t look like it. Let’s make this quick, then we can towel each other off and have some fun!”

  We jump into the shower together, but rather than fighting over who gets to stand under the water, we both struggle to stay out of the freezing spray. We soap up quickly, rinse each other down with a variety of squeals and curses, then jump back out together.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to get out of here?” Maddox asks me as he stands on the shower mat, dripping and shivering. “That was awful!”

  I’m too cold to even respond, so I throw him a towel and use mine to rub myself down vigorously, trying to restore some feeling in my limbs.

  Once I’m mostly dry and recovered, I tell Maddox, “We need some food to warm us up. I think I’ve got some…oh crap, with the power out, I guess our options are kind of limited.”

  Wrapping the towel around his lower body, Maddox grabs the flashlight and we head to the small kitchen in my apartment. After digging through the cabinets, Maddox shines the light on his pile of plunder on the counter. “So, it looks like our options are two packs of Pop-Tarts, half a bag of chips, and some SlimFast bars. Why do you have SlimFast bars?” Maddox snorts.

  “They’re my roommates, but they’re actually really good,” I reply as I grab one of the chocolate bars from him. “I’ve got all kinds of stuff I could make, once the power comes back on. We can make do with this for now.”

  “If you say so,” Maddox says, casting a skeptical eye at our supplies. He starts to dig into the bag of chips, when a loud crashing from outside my apartment startles him so badly he drops the sack.

  “Was that thunder?” I gasp. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t, which is more terrifying to me than the actual storm outside.

  “No,” Maddox whispers. He grabs the flashlight and my hand, then leads me back to my bedroom. “It sounded like a door breaking. I’m going to get dressed and go check it out. You hide out here, okay?”

  “Fuck that,” I hiss. “I’m coming with you. I know everyone on this hall, but you’re a stranger. Someone might think you’re a, ah, I don’t know, a looter or something.” As we’re quietly arguing, I scramble back into my pajamas, while Maddox just pulls on his jeans and his leather cut.

  Once we’re dressed, he leads me to the front door, motioning for me to stand back as he cracks it open and peeks outside. “Do you see anything?” I whisper. I slap a hand over my mouth when Maddox holds a finger up to his lips, just as the beam of a flashlight briefly illuminates the hallway.

  “You see anything else in there?” a coarse voice calls out from down the hall.

  “Nah, it’s clean. You get that television in the van okay?” someone says, so close to my doorway, I inadvertently gasp.

  “Yeah, I got it,” the first man responds, much closer now. “Let’s check the rest of this hallway.”

  Maddox steps back from the door, digging inside his leather cut as his free hand waves at me frantically, pointing me back down the hall of my apartment. He pulls something out of an inner pocket of his vest as I duck behind the kitchen island.

  I manage to hide just in time, as the door to my apartment swings open only a second later. “Look at this shit,” the voice from the hallway says. “Crazy bitches took off without even closing the door.”

  A beam of light shines throughout the apartment, reflecting off of the kitchen appliances just over my head. They can’t see me yet, but as soon as they come into the living room, I’ll be completely exposed.

  “Hitting up these apartments near a chick school was a great idea,” the other voice agrees. “We’ve got this entire building to ourselves!” he exclaims as he steps into my apartment.

  “Not exactly,” I hear Maddox say, just before there is the sickening crunch of bone breaking, and the beam from the flashlight spins around before abruptly going out.

  I peek around the edge of the kitchen island to see the first man who stepped into my apartment lying face down on the floor, his arms splayed out to the sides and his knees folded under him, so that his ass is sticking up in the air. The flashlight he was holding rolls across the floor as Maddox charges out into the hallway.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” the other man shrieks as Maddox rams him into the wall outside my door. I scramble to my feet and rush over just in time to see Maddox slam his fist repeatedly into the man’s face, which quickly becomes misshapen and unrecognizable. With a guttural roar, Maddox pulls the man forward and then slams his head back into the wall, so hard that the sheetrock crumples and dust rains down as the looter slumps to the ground.

  “Jesus, Maddox, are you okay?” I cry as I rush to him. He’s gasping for breath, his bare chest heaving under his leather cut. He turns to me and then shakes his right hand, before tugging off what looks like a metal plated fingerless glove. Glancing at the two men sprawled on the floor, I ask, “What is that?”

  “Riding glove,” he explains, wiping the metal plated knuckles on his jeans. “Got a steel backing to protect my hands. They’re good for other stuff too,” he adds, gesturing to the men on the ground. Tucking the glove back into his cut, he walks past me and grabs the man in my apartment by the ankles, then drags him out into the hall.

  I gape at the bloody smear left by the man’s face as Maddox pulls him clear of the door. “Oh my god, are they dead?” I gasp.

  Maddox shakes his head as he crouches down and begins feeling around the man’s pockets. “Nah, but they’re fucked up. They deserve it for pulling this shit. Go grab your phone and call nine-one-one. I’ll make sure they don’t have any weapons on them in case they wake up. Tell them to send an ambulance too.”

  “I’ll try,” I agree. “I don’t know if there is anyone to send, though. The news said two days ago that there would be no emergency services during the evacuation period. Their exact words where ‘anyone who stays is on their own.’”

  “And you decided to stay anyway?” Maddox sighs. “Man, I’m glad War sent me.”

  “Are you being sarcastic?” I demand. “How the hell could I have expected something like this?”

  “There are always looters during national disasters,” he replies. “But no, I’m not being sarcastic. I am glad War sent me. Meeting you has been amazing, and I hate to think what might have happened if they had found you here alone.”

  “Oh. Well, let me get the phone,” I tell him, slightly mollified by his explanation. Just hearing Maddox say that meeting me has been amazing is giving me the strangest fluttering in my belly. That, combined with the shock and fear of what just happened, make me momentarily forget how terrified I am of the phone as the storm continues to rage outside.

  I walk back from my bedroom, holding the phone away from me, after setting it to speaker. After only a couple of rings, an automated message answers, saying, “Due to the mandatory evacuation of New Hanover County, emergency police, fire, and medical services have been temporarily suspended. If you need immediate assistance and are in a life-threatening situation, you may attempt to contact Pender County Emergency Management by calling…”

  I disconnect the call and toss the phone on the kitchen island, right by the pile of food we recently abandoned. “Well that was a bust.”
I sigh. “What the hell are we going to do with those guys?”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Maddox says. “Can you run downstairs and see if you can find the vehicle these keys go to?” he asks me as he holds out a keyring. “I found them in this guy’s pocket. When I was on my way down here, I saw the National Guard setting up down near the mall. I can throw these dumb bastards into their ride, and then go drop them off with the Guardsmen. They’re stationed out here to prevent shit like this from happening.”

  “That’s dangerous! The storm is awful, and what if they wake up or something while you’re driving?” I protest.

  “It’s less dangerous than letting them wake up outside your door. Honestly, I think they’re going to need some medical attention. This first dude I hit, his jaw is shattered,” Maddox says as he points to the man. Grabbing my flashlight from the kitchen, he clicks it on and points it at the second man in the hall. “This guy’s even worse,” Maddox explains, shining the light on the man’s arms, which are twitching feebly in front of him. “I’m pretty sure that’s a sign of brain damage.”

  “All right, but I don’t know if I can go outside.” I shudder as thunder rolls and rumbles outside. “I’ll go to the front door and see if this key fob lights up a vehicle. Be right back.”

  I tiptoe past the two men lying in the hallway and jog down the stairs, already clicking the “panic” button on the key fob to see if any vehicle will respond before I have to get anywhere near the outer doors. Fortunately, as soon as I reach the bottom of the steps, I see a white cargo van has been backed up to the glass double doors leading into the lobby of my building. As the horn begins to beep and the lights flash, I see these two idiots didn’t just back their van up to the doors, they actually backed right through them!

  “I’m glad we took a break when we did,” I tell Maddox when I get back upstairs. “These two drove their van right through the glass doors on the first floor, and were loading it up from there. If we hadn’t stopped for a snack, we might not have heard them coming!”

  “If we had been in Raleigh,” Maddox grunts, as he heaves one of the limp forms over his shoulder, “we definitely wouldn’t have heard them, and I wouldn’t have to haul these dumb bastards out into a hurricane.” Despite the harsh words, he is grinning at me as he straightens, and leans over to steal a kiss. “You seem to have a talent for getting into trouble,” he adds, “so it’s a good thing I decided to stick around.”