by Bella Jewel
I’m a fucking idiot.
“Sorry to interrupt, Prez,” Koda says, walking into my room, his face grim. “Got a man here, think he might have information. Thought you might wanna deal with him, given the mood you’re clearly in.”
I shoot him a glare but he doesn’t back down. Koda rarely backs down from anything. He just holds my eyes, the challenge apparent on his face. He’s daring me to take him on. He’s as stressed and angry about this entire situation with Trey, as I am. He knows we’re getting nowhere, and he knows Charlie is in danger because of us.
And he hates an innocent being put in danger on a good day.
Let alone this.
I stand, my anger and rage a fire inside my body. “Let me see this fucker. I need something to let some steam out on.”
Koda grins, his eyes twinkling with that darkness he hides so well. I follow him to the door and out into the sheds at the back where Boston, Maverick, and Mason are all waiting. There’s a man, stony eyed, strapped to a chair in the middle of the shed, glaring at the men, his face already bloodied. I guess they already got to him. I walk in, not acknowledging any of them. I go straight over to the blue-eyed man who looks up at me.
It’s no doubt he is a user.
His face is sunken, bones poking out where bones shouldn’t be poking out. The whites of his eyes are yellow, and he looks like crap. He’ll know something, I can tell in the set of his jaw and the way his eyes are refusing to break contact. He knows exactly what I’m going to ask him about, and by the looks of it, he isn’t going to tell me anything without a fight.
That’s fine, I’m up for a fight.
“I’m not going to start with the old-fashioned line we can do this the easy way or the hard way, because you already know that. I’m just simply goin’ to give you an option. Tell me what I need to know, and you walk out of here, alive, to carry on with your life. Don’t tell me what I need to know, and I’ll take this wild fuckin’ anger bubblin’ in my chest out on you, then I’ll put a bullet in your skull. Mark my words, I don’t tell lies.”
He spits at me.
The dirty little fucker.
I raise a ringed hand and drive it into his face. The sickening crunch of his nose breaking brings me such satisfaction, I do it again. This time blood spurts out and lands on me, but I don’t give a fuck. It feels better already, knowing someone is suffering. Sick, perhaps. But satisfying.
“I’ll tell you nothing,” he snarls at me, blood pouring down his lip.
“Fine by me, I’ll just keep goin’ through you fuckers until one of you gives me what I need. I’m not going to waste my time convincin’ you. If you don’t want to play the game, I’ll end you now.”
I wave a hand and Maverick steps forward, handing me a gun. The man’s eyes bulge, and I keep a casual expression as I aim it toward his head. He stammers something, and then yells out, “You’ll not find him. He made sure of it. Kill as many of us as you want, you won’t get close.”
“Oh,” I say casually, almost bored sounding. “I plan to kill as many of you as I want, purely to make myself feel better. It makes me feel good riddin’ the world of scum like you.”
He swears at me in a different language, and his eyes flare with anger.
“Got any Whack on you before I go?” I murmur. “Hear it’s good stuff.”
His eyes flash and he starts squirming in his chair. He doesn’t want me to look on his body. My smile gets big, massive even. “Somethin’ you don’t want me to find on you?”
His eyes bulge and he starts swearing even more frantically in a different language. I don’t usually check bodies outside of looking for a wallet, or a phone, but this man has sparked my curiosity. So I keep the gun aimed on him and say to Koda and Maverick. “Search him. Every part of him.”
“I ain’t touchin’ his ass, bro,” Maverick mutters. “No fuckin’ way.”
“You’ll touch whatever the fuck I tell you to touch if it means we get information.”
Maverick glares at me, and I grin at him. “You’re my brother, but fuck I want to knock you the fuck out sometimes.”
“Have at it, bro. Later, though. Start searching.”
Koda strips the man down without hesitation, using a knife to cut his clothes off around the ropes that bind him. They empty out the clothes, finding a phone, a wallet, a few cards and some drugs. Then they really get searching, pressing on his stomach feeling for anything hard, and then Koda, without hesitation, shoves his hand down the back of the man, making him squirm and curse.
He comes up with another phone.
“Tucked between his ass cheeks, disgusting fucker,” Koda mutters, tossing the phone at Mason who catches it, and then drops it quickly, cursing at him.
“Pick the fuckin’ thing up, it’s hidden for a reason. Stop bein’ fuckin’ babies. You handle blood all the damned time.”
“Blood ain’t close to a man’s asshole,” Koda grunts, going over to the sink and washing his hands three times. He tosses Mason a plastic bag, and Mason picks up the phone and the other things and then washes his hands too.
“Well,” I say to the man, “that’s all I need from you. Thanks for your cooperation.”
He opens his mouth to scream at me again, but I pull the trigger. The bullet goes straight through his forehead and doesn’t come out the other side. His head slumps forward and I turn to Maverick, but he’s not looking at me, his eyes are at the door. I turn and look over my shoulder, and what I see makes my blood run cold.
Amalie is standing at the shed door, staring at me, her face white, her mouth slightly agape.
She saw me kill him in cold blood.
She saw it all.
She stares at me like she’s just seen a ghost.
She turns and she runs out, stumbling a few times.
“Fuck,” I bark, tossing Maverick the gun. “Fuck! Why didn’t one of you fuckers tell me she was there?”
“She opened the door as you pulled the trigger, boss,” Mason says. “Couldn’t have stopped that one if you tried.”
“God fuckin’ dammit. You three sort this shit out. Get rid of that body. See if you can find anythin’ on those phones. I’ll be back soon.”
I charge out of the shed and toward the front gates, but she’s already gone, her car disappearing into the street.
What in the hell did she come down to the shed for? None of my men would have ever told her to come down there, and as far as I knew, she had left.
She just saw me at my worst, covered in blood and putting a bullet in another man’s head. As if me fucking hurting her wasn’t bad enough, now she’s seen that.
I’m going to fucking lose her.
I can feel it right down to my core.
And I won’t fucking allow it.
I have to fix this.
Somehow.
~*~*~*~
AMALIE
“Oh, honey.”
Scarlett’s face is soft as she stares at me, her expression saying everything. She feels bad for me, but she doesn’t really know what to do about it.
She’s accepted Maverick. No matter what.
These things, they don’t scare her.
They scare me.
I wonder if she saw Maverick hold a gun to someone’s head and pull the trigger, if she’d be disturbed by it? Would it bother her like it bothered me, or would she simply accept that it’s part of who he is and move on?
I close my eyes, trying to get the image to leave my mind but fail. I can’t unsee it, no matter how hard I try. The picture of Malakai holding that gun, staring into the face of the nameless man, and pulling the trigger, is forever etched into my mind. The way the man’s head just sort of slumped, all the life being dragged from his eyes. Just like that. In one small second, he no longer had life.
Just like that.
I wonder if that scared me the most?
Probably.
Scarlett takes my arm and shakes me, forcing me to look back at her. “Hey, I know what you saw
is terrifying, I’d be terrified if I saw Maverick in that situation, but you know this is their world, Amalie. You do know this.”
“I know,” I say softly. “I just never saw Malakai like that. He was always scary, but he always had this softness that I felt right to my heart. I was never afraid of him.”
“And you’re not now, you’re just in a little bit of shock because the reality of what you’re dealing with has sunk in.”
“I told him it was over,” I admit to her. “That he had no chance with me. Even though there was never anything between us to begin with.”
Her eyes widen a little. “You told him he had no chance? Is that how you really feel?”
I shake my head, looking down at my hands. “No, but I was so jealous, and so angry. He had another woman in the room with him, and I was so full of emotion from Caiden. I just said something, anything, to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him.”
“Listen to me,” she says, when I look back up at her. “I know how you’re feeling. What you have been through, it’s going to mess with your emotions and that’s completely normal. You don’t have to be sorry for acting on them. Malakai cares about you, and if he cares as much as I think he does, he’s not going to give up, not yet, okay?”
“And what I saw?” I tell her. “Scarlett, it freaked me out. Right now, I have no interest in seeing him. When I left that club, I thought I was making the wrong choice, I regret it instantly, so I went back and I saw that ….”
“Only you can decide if you can live with that side to those men. I can’t honestly answer that for you, because if it were Maverick, I don’t honestly know how I’d react. I know he does those things, I know how dangerous he can be, but I guess I love him so much, that I can accept it. Because my life without him in it, is simply no life at all. You have to know if you feel the same way.”
And right now, I don’t. I don’t know if I feel the same way. Not at all. And that’s making my stomach coil in a mass of knots. I’m still so angry at Malakai, and so horrified, and so hurt, that I can’t make sense of anything I’m feeling right now.
Scarlett’s head turns to the door, and then she looks back at me. “He’s at your door, honey.”
I swivel my head in that direction, but I can’t hear anything. Nothing at all. I hate that, and it only makes me angrier, and more frustrated, and more confused. Damn this. I stand and walk over, going up on my tiptoes to see Malakai and Maverick standing at the door. Maverick will have come for Scarlett, but I know Malakai will have come for me.
Scarlett places a hand on my shoulder and I jump, turning toward her. “Do you want me to let him in? If you don’t, I’ll make him go away, Amalie.”
“I don’t want him here,” I say to her, leaning forward and hugging her. “Maverick is here for you, and I’m tired. I’ll text you in the morning, okay? Thanks for coming over.”
She squeezes me tightly and steps back, holding my eyes. “Goodnight, Amalie.”
I turn and walk down the hall and into my bedroom. Scarlett can deal with whatever storm is going to explode out there. I close my bedroom door and sit on my bed, trying to fight my emotions, trying to clear a space in my head for one second so that I can think. Just for a moment. One small moment is all I’m asking for, but my mind absolutely refuses it.
I lift my head, ready to get up and have a shower but let out a small squeal when I see Malakai standing at my door. His face is hard, but not angry. Just expressionless. He’s wearing his jacket, as always, and a tight black tee. He’s got on faded denim jeans and no boots. He must have left that at the door. He also must have convinced Scarlett to let him in. Either that or he bullied his way in.
That’s the more likely scenario.
I stare at the man in front of me, and I want to be disgusted, I want to be horrified by the side I saw of him today, but for some reason, I’m not. I expected when I saw him all my attraction would be gone, but staring at him now, holding those green eyes, I realize it’s simply intensified.
I want him now more than I’ve ever wanted him.
I’m sure I’m not thinking clearly.
“Told you once, I don’t like it when you disappear on me. You got somethin’ to say to me, Amalie, you fuckin’ well say it to me. You do not hide. Because I will always find you. Do not doubt it.”
God.
I want him.
So bad.
“I’m goin’ to talk now. You had your say in that club. Now I’m havin’ mine. If you choose not to let me, I will gag you, bind you, and still have it anyway. Don’t tempt me. Would turn me on greatly to put my hand on your pretty ass for disobeyin’ me.”
I swallow.
Heat pools between my legs.
I’m not afraid of this man.
I’m in love with this man.
“Now,” he continues, and I’m just sitting here, staring at him, considering my next move, “sorry you saw what you saw in that club earlier. I mean the girl on my lap. Two things. First, I read your story wrong, I thought you had done somethin’ you clearly hadn’t. I was wrong. Won’t say it again. Second, not interested in that girl. Not now. Not ever. I’m with you, I’m with you, that’s how it goes. I’ll never put my eyes or hands on another. You can be assured of that.”
I need him.
The heat exploding inside me is enough to make me want to squirm on this bed to relieve some of the pressure.
“As for what you saw in that shed. That’s my life. Sorry you had to see it, didn’t want you to see that side to me, but it is a side, Amalie. It is a part of my life. Someone hurts my club, or my family, I will light a fuckin’ path of fire until I find them. That man was scum. He was also on my path to findin’ who hurt you, who hurt Scarlett, so I lit the mother fucker up. You might not like it, but know this, when it comes to my club, and you, I will do anythin’ to protect it. Anythin’, includin’ putting a bullet in someone. If you can’t handle that, then—”
I don’t let him speak anymore.
I stand, and I run at him. I run. When I reach him, I throw myself at him and he catches me at the last minute, back slamming against the wall. I take his face in both of my hands, and I see him, I really see him. He’s the most dangerous man I’ll ever meet, but he’s also the one who will love me harder than anything else in this world, and that’s just fine with me. I slam my lips down on his, and I kiss him as hard as I can, so hard my lips burn and my tongue scratches against his teeth.
I don’t care.
I want him, and he needs to know it. He needs to feel it.
I pull back, panting, and whisper, “I love you, Malakai. All the parts of you. Even the parts that light fires. Mostly the parts that light fires.”
He grins like a crazed animal and spins me around slamming my back against the wall. Our movements are frantic after that. He jerks my dress up and tears, literally tears, my panties off. My hands go between us and fumble with his belt and jeans, all the while our mouths are hungrily attacking each other. I free him and he lowers me down without permission, without apology, and drives up into me.
I gasp, he nips at my bottom lip, and then he starts thrusting. Hard and deep, slamming into me with a force I’ve never felt. And it feels incredible. My fingers go up, and I tangle them into his dark mane of hair, tugging and pulling as an incredible pleasure builds deep in my body. I can feel his vibrations through my skin, traveling right into my body. One of his hands slides down, and he grabs hold of my ass, hanging on tight as he keeps pumping into me.
I’ve never been taken like this.
And I love it.
It brings out something wild in me. Something I didn’t even know I had hidden inside.
It makes me want to be bad.
But only for him.
“Fuck me harder,” I cry out, and his eyes fly up to mine, shock and surprise filling them.
“Say that again,” he growls, baring his teeth. “God dammit, let me hear those words again.”
“Fuck me harder, Malakai. Please.”
He grins again, wild, and then he does as I ask.
He fucks me harder.
Over and over, until we both cry out from the pleasure.
Then I drop my head into his shoulder, panting, and he just holds me there. For a few minutes, he hangs onto me, like he knows how badly I need it.
Then slowly, he releases me and takes my hand, looking into my eyes, and with a wicked grin, he says, “Time for round two. Shower.”
Oh, boy.
Round two it is.
-14-
MALAKAI
She sits across from me, cheeks flushed from our shower. That and the slow, tortured lick I gave her pussy when we were in there. I ate her harder than she’s ever been eaten before—her words, not mine. I licked and sucked her until she was squirming above me, my hands on her ass, her leg over my shoulder, the warm water running down over us. When she came in my mouth, I licked her again, her clit swollen and aching. I made sure she came twice before I fucked her again, this time slow and deep.
Now she looks like a fucking angel, dark hair wet and curling at the ends, nothing but my shirt and her panties on. My shirt makes her look tiny, hanging off her. But fuck, I’ve never seen something so perfect in my life. And she loves me. She fucking loves me. I came over here tonight, sure I was going to have to work fucking hard to get her back, but the way she threw herself at me, the intensity in her eyes, I didn’t have to work hard.
She knows I want her. She knows I’ll do anything for her.
That’s all we both want.
“That man,” she asks softly, her voice scratchy from the moaning. “Did you have him because of Trey?”
I hold her eyes. “I can’t discuss much of the club with you, darlin’, just the rules, but I will answer some of your questions about that because it directly links back to you. Yeah, was about Trey. We’re goin’ to find him.”
“Are we still in danger?”
I shrug, because I honestly don’t know. Treyton is clever, he never lets us know whether he’s coming or going, but he has his hand in every pie, and he knows everything. The man has eyes and ears everywhere. And no matter how hard I try, I still can’t figure out who the fuck is giving him information from my club. Not one person has put a foot out of line, leaving me to wonder how the fuck he’s getting what he needs.
