Maverick (Devil’s Deviants Book 1)

by C. M. Allen

  As we headed down the freeway to the meet up spot, I couldn’t stop my mind from drifting back to the day that made me into the man I had become today. Who was that, you ask? Well, some might tell you that I was the Devil reincarnated. But to those who really knew me and my story, I was just a man finishing the dream his father started before my mother was brutally murdered, leaving my father with the only choice to kill himself because of it eight years ago. But it felt as if I was there just yesterday watching the horror of it all unfold. My father was trying to take his club legit, but not everyone was exactly happy about that.

  “Baby, go tell your father to bring the guys in so we can get this sweet 16 birthday party goin՛!” My mother yelled excitedly.

  “Ma, it’s not a ‘sweet sixteen party,’ I’m just sixteen. I’m a guy, not a girl you know,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Walking over to me, she took my face in her hands. “But you’re still my sweet baby boy, and you always will be, no matter how big you get Trevor.”

  Always stabbing me in the heart with that “you’ll always be my sweet baby” shit. But that woman was a master at making you feel like no matter what, she was the only light in this world, and you would rather crucify yourself before you hurt her feelings or made her cry. God forbid you do that. If my father ever got wind of anyone hurting my Ma? Boy you had better pray for a quick death. We both loved that woman and we would have both gladly laid down our lives to protect her. “Aw Ma, you know I’ll always love you,” I said, hugging her.

  “Thank you baby. Now go get your father and the guys, hurry up.”

  “On it,” I turned and headed out the door to get my father and the rest of the guys. He promised me I’d get my first glass of whiskey tonight; making me a real man. I’d had beer many times, but that was just pussy juice compared to the hard stuff, at least that’s what dad always said. Running around the corner of the front of the house, I heard them even before I saw them. The roar of the pipes that brought who could only be The Satanic Slayers closer. When I spotted the cloud of dust come up from down the way, the next thing I heard was my father shouting at me to get my ass into the loft above the barn. “But what about Ma?!” I shouted back.

  “I’ve got her! Now do what I said boy!” He ran towards me and pushed me forward with the others as they all piled into the war room, grabbing guns to fight back.

  Taking off, I hit the stairs, taking them two at a time and made my way up to where I found the other kids that lived here on the compound already in the loft. Locking the door behind me, I tried my best to tell them that everything was going to be okay. But when the first gunshot was fired, I didn’t even know if I could believe my own words. After what seemed like hours of guns firing, I heard a few stray shots go off, and then my world was enveloped in a sickening silence. The agonizing silence had been torn apart when I heard the sound of roaring pipes taking off. Turning to the younger kids, I looked at their tear stained faces. “I’m goin՛ to go take a look. Lucas. As soon as I walk out of here lock that door and don’t let anyone in but me, you got it?” My best friend nodded his head. “Good.”

  I made my way down the stairs as quietly as I could and immediately heard the sounds of men groaning and whimpering in pain. When I hit the bottom step, the massacre that had taken place here had left the floors littered with broken glass and bloodied bodies. Panic flooded my body when I thought about the possible condition my parents were in, and I began running frantically through the clubhouse trying to find them. “Ma! Pa! Where are you guys?!”

  Running into the kitchen, the sight that met my eyes was something that would forever be seared into my brain and haunt me in my sleep. There on the floor, my father was hunched over my mother’s body, that now laid lifeless in his arms. He was weeping like I’d never seen a grown man do before as he mumbled the words ‘I didn’t protect you’ over and over again. There was something to be said about seeing a strong man like my father, that had been feared by most, reduced to a sobbing mess on the floor.

  Slowly stepping towards where they sat, my dad’s head snapped up and instantly his gun invaded in my face. “Shit!” he lowered the gun. “Boy, you don’t want to see this,” he sobbed.

  “Is M-ma not goin՛ to be okay?”

  “No son, no she’s not.”

  Unable to stop my feet, I moved a few inches forward and instantly wished that for once in my life I had listened to my father. The sight of half of my mother’s head missing and the other half turned into a bloody pulp caused me to drop to my knees and empty the contents of my stomach onto the kitchen floor.

  Tears that I never knew I had inside of me began to fall out of my eyes like a waterfall as I screamed out over and over, ‘no! Not my Ma! God, not my Ma!’”

  “Shit!” Looking up at where the gruff voice came from, I noticed my father’s VP, Urch. “Fuuuck!” he bellowed out, running his hand through his bloodstained hair. At the sight of my father sobbing on the floor, holding what was left of my mother, he punched the wall.

  “Out! Both of you get out of here, now!” My father shouted.

  “Come on kid, give him a moment.”

  “She’s my Ma! Pa, I should be here… with you!”

  In a voice that was filled with so pain, he begged. “Please son, just… leave me be with her… just for a minute… please.” Nodding to Urch, he moved forward to help me up off of the floor and out of the kitchen.

  We didn’t even make it three steps out of there before we heard the gunshot ring out. “No!” I yelled and turned to go back.

  “Yo! Mav! You hearin՛ me over there?!”

  Snapping out of my stroll down nightmare lane, I looked over at my VP. “What’s that?!”

  “The turn off man! Get the hell over so we can exit the freeway!” he yelled, pointing at it.

  “Shit!” I grumbled, gunning my bike to weave in and out of the traffic blocking my path to the exit.

  Pulling up to the old shack, we parked our bikes. “Shit man, you almost missed the fuckin՛ exit. Where was your head at?” I looked over at my best friend that I’d grown up with, and when he got a good look at my face, he read my thoughts instantly. “Shit Mav, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t sweat it. Let’s just drop this shit off to Dekes and get back to the rest of them at the club, so we can get back to the clubhouse and have church.”

  Nodding his head, we got off our bikes and walked inside the rotting death trap of a shack.

  As soon as we entered, I spotted Dekes in the corner waiting for us. “Any problems I need to know about and cover your asses for?” he asked, getting right down to business as he stepped out of the shadows towards us.

  “Nah man, it was a clean grab, just some old fart yellin՛ at us, but don’t worry he is alive and well.” I clarified, knowing Dekes has had to cover our asses more than a few times for the messes we’ve made.

  “What about the boat operator?” He asked.

  “Just knocked his ass out is all. Told you, it was a clean grab.” I assured him again, frustrated that it felt like the school principal was breathing down our necks right now.

  “Good. Was it all there?”

  “Yep, everythin՛ you said was comin՛ in was on the boat.”

  Handing him the satchel with the two bags of coke and the three bags of meth we intercepted, he opened it up to peer inside. “This is good, really good. You guys are doing great.”

  “Gee, thanks dad.” Butch snapped sarcastically.

  “Be a smart ass about it all you want, but you’re the ones who made this deal so you could keep your asses out of jail and get your revenge on Skull, not me.”

  “Yeah, and speakin՛ of which, when will that be exactly? We’ve been doin՛ this shit for you for the past two months now. Skull may be a piece of shit human, but he’s not stupid. It’s not goin՛ to take him long to figure out who it is fuckin՛ with his shit.”

  Tucking the bags of drugs into one big duffle bag, he grabbed his sungla
sses off the table and slid them on. “Then I suggest you boys don’t fuck up and get caught. I’ll be in touch,” turning, he headed out the back door.

  “Fuckin՛ hate that prick, man. Why is it we work for him again?” Butch asked.

  “So we don’t get locked up in cages for the rest of our fuckin՛ lives for gettin՛ ratted out by that bitch cop when we killed those two pussy ass Slayers.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right,” he chuckled. “Well, he had better let us have our day soon man. I’m gettin՛ pretty impatient and Skull is goin՛ to be gunnin՛ our asses down eventually when he figures out it’s us that’s fuckin՛ jackin՛ his shit.”

  “Soon brother. With, or without Dekes, we will get our revenge on that motherfucker for what he did to our family. You can bet on that. Now, come on, let’s get the hell out of here and meet up with the guys and get back to the clubhouse.”

  After we’d met up with the others, we all headed on down the road. Spotting Butch waving his hand at me, I looked over his way. “Gotta take a piss man! This exit!”

  Signaling the riders behind us, we all got off the freeway and pulled into a gas station. As I dismounted my bike I looked over and spotted Vulture talking to some terrified looking female in her car. Even though I couldn’t fully see her, I could tell she had to be scared shitless just by what he was saying to her. After I pulled his ass away and we walked into the Quick Mart, I turned back around to get a look at the woman in the car. The instant I fully saw her, I felt as if I’d just been struck by a gust of wind that threatened to knock me right on my ass. She was a real beauty and not in the usual sense of the word. No, this girl was the epitome of a natural beauty, with her long dark hair and barely there, if any, make up. After a few beats, she got out of the SUV and seemed to be rushing around like she was trying to win some sort of race. Needing to get a closer look at her, my feet grew a mind of their own and before I knew it, I had her gas pump in my hand. “You looked like you could use a hand.” I told her. And from there the conversation between us seemed to go straight to hell on a high-speed light trail when she basically told me not in so many words that I was a piece of shit murderer. Having had enough of this uppity bitch, I turned and walked away before I said something to prove her right about me. Sitting on my bike, I watched her get into her car and lean her head on the steering wheel for a moment before she finally pulled away.

  As she drove off, she looked back at me as if she could sense my stare and knew just where to find my eyes.

  On her.

  “Aw man, that bitch give you the kiss-off Mav?” Butch asked, mounting his bike that’s next to mine.

  “You know how it is. They see a cut and a motorcycle so the man riddin՛ it must be a killer.”

  “Well…”

  “Shut the fuck up. You know what I’m sayin՛. I may have done my fair share of killin՛ and still have more to do, but I ain’t like Skull. That fucker kills the innocent for sport. Something I or no one in this club will ever do.”

  “You’re right, but there will always be that stigma attached to our asses, no matter what Mav.” Squeezing my shoulder, he leaned over. “You just need to find one of them oh my God I love biker guys type of woman and stop tryin՛ to hook up with the ones who fear us.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” But I already knew those kinds of women who went nuts for bikers like us and they just weren’t my type of woman. If I ever needed a quick lay, I could always get one of the club whores and fuck them, but for the long hall type of woman, I wanted her to be more than that.

  Back on the road, barreling down the highway, I could see our exit coming up. That was when I spotted it, the uptight woman’s SUV on the side of the road. Even though everything inside of me screamed at me that I should just keep going after all the mad shit she spewed on me back at the gas station, my mother’s voice in my head whispered at me that wasn’t how she raised her sweet baby boy to act. Even from the grave that woman still led my moral compass.

  Sometimes.

  I signaled to Butch that I was pulling over, but for him and the rest of the brothers to continue on. Giving me a side glance that needed no words, he cracked a smile, shaking his head and motioned for everyone else to keep on to the clubhouse as I pulled off to the side of the road next to her car.

  CHAPTER

  3

  Harper

  Once I finally got back onto the road and away from those crazy bikers, or if I’m really being honest here, the hot biker, I flipped on the radio and turned it up loud to drowned out the thoughts running through my head.

  And they weren’t the usual thoughts about my parents this time.

  No, my parents would be asking me if I was out of my ever-loving mind right now if they were alive to read my thoughts about the hot biker who had probably killed or hurt more people than anyone really knew about. No, men like that were not the kind of man I should be thinking about right now, or ever! Breaking me out of my thoughts, I caught a funny sound the car was making over the sound of the radio. So I reached over and turned it down to listen for it again, and that’s when I saw it, smoke coming out from under the hood. “Oh God, now what?” I mumbled to myself as I pulled off to the side of the road and stopped.

  Popping my hood, I got out of the car and lifted it up and watched as smoke just billowed out from everywhere. “Shit!” Running my hands through my hair, I went back to my passenger side door to open it and grab my phone out of my purse. Opening it up, the first thing I noticed was that I’ve got a no signal notice. “Damn it! Can anything else go wrong today?” I grumbled to myself, looking up and down the practically deserted highway, it was always sparse heading back towards Beaumont. “Just my luck.”

  No sooner were those words out of my mouth, my luck decided to take an even shittier plunge into a dark hole today.

  Pipes.

  Looking back the way I just came, I could see them coming over the horizon, and as desperate as I was to get some help, I was not that desperate. So, I did the only thing I could think of to do.

  I ducked.

  As the sound of the motorcycles got closer, I sat with my back pressed to my front passenger side tire and wrapped my arms tightly around my knees, pressing them into my chest.

  Practically holding my breath, I listened as they passed by my car with a loud roaring sound that was almost deafening. Once the sound of their bikes faded away, I took some much-needed air into my lungs and stood up. Walking around the front of my car to take a look at it again, I practically jumped out of my own skin with a screech when I saw the same hot biker from the gas station was there leaning on the front of my car. “Looks like you’re in need of a hand, again.”

  Trying to get my breathing back under control, after having the absolute crap scared out of me, I finally got a sentence to come out. “You scared the shit out of me you asshole!”

  Nice? Yeah, probably not so much.

  “I can see this conversation of ours is about to go to shit just like our last one, so let’s do this,” reaching his hand out in my direction, he introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Maverick, and you are?”

  Staring at his hand like it carried the Norovirus, I finally got myself to snap out of it and placed my small, shaky hand in his much larger rough one. “Harp… Harper, my name is Harper.”

  “Nice to meet you, Harper.”

  Nice to meet me?

  “Uh, yeah, nice to meet you.”

  Chuckling at my response, he smirked with a raised brow. “Sure about that? You don’t really seem all that happy about it.” After I said nothing, he let out a frustrated breath and then turned to start checking under my hood, twisting this and pulling on that. A few minutes later he looked at me. “It’s your radiator Sweetheart, bone dry. Do you have any radiator fluid in the back of your car?”

  “I-I don’t know. This is my mom’s car.”

  “Well, I’m sure your dad made sure she had all that kind of stuff, so let’s take a look.”

  “My…” Clearing my throat after alm
ost clarifying for him that my parents were dead, I decided the less he knew about me the better and instead headed to the back of the SUV to open the trunk.

  “Shit, you own some kind of restaurant or somethin՛?” he asked, looking around at all the supplies I had.

  “It’s my parents' diner.” Not hearing him say anything else, I turned to find him just staring at me. “What?”

  “Nothin՛ Sweetheart, just waitin՛ on you. Didn’t think you’d want me rifflin՛ through all your stuff there.”

  “Oh! Um… okay, let me see if I can find what you’re looking for.” Moving everything around in the car and looking in every place I could think it would be, I come up empty. “I guess she doesn’t have any.”

  “You need to tell your father to be sure and keep that kind of shit in her car so you or her don’t end up stranded on the side of the road again like you are now.”

  Irritated that he’s making this out to be my father’s fault, I snapped back. “Well, that would be pretty damn hard to do now since he’s dead, wouldn’t it?” Slamming down the tailgate of the SUV, I walked up to the passenger side of the car, grabbed my purse and keys, slammed the door shut, then hit the key fob to lock it before I slung my purse over my shoulder and began walking. Watching my phone for any signs of a signal, I didn’t even bother looking back at the asshole biker.

  About a half mile down the road, I heard the roar of his bike closing in before I was cut off by it skidding to a sudden stop in front of me. “Are you trying to hit me with your bike now or something?!” I yelled at him still pissed off about his comment about my father.

  Turning the engine off, he swung his leg off of his bike and the next thing I knew he was towering over me, glaring with a scorching intensity in his eyes. “First of all, all I was tryin՛ to do back there was fuckin՛ help you.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want— “

  “I wasn’t finished talkin՛ yet Sweetheart.” He said in a booming voice, cutting me off. “Now, like I was sayin՛. All I was tryin՛ to do was help you back there, just like I tried to help you at the gas station. I know you have this idea in that thick head of yours that I’m some sort of bad guy all because I ride a bike and wear a cut, but if I was so bad don’t you think I would have pulled some serious shit with you by now? Trust me, if I wanted to hurt you I sure as fuck wouldn’t waste my time pretendin՛ to give two shits about fixin՛ your fuckin՛ car.” Running his hand through his hair, he moved it down over the scruff on his face. “Now, I’m sorry about that shit I said about your father. It’s just I was raised that a man always takes care of his… but obviously your father is not here to and… shit.”