On the other hand I’ve experienced nothing but disdain, anger, violence, manipulation, and the distinct pleasure of being discarded like yesterday’s trash by men. All men. I’ve been used, beaten, drugged, whipped, burned, and kicked by the opposite sex, and none of it has made me weak enough to rely on one of them for help when it got too much to bear.
I don’t get it, you might, but I sure as fuck don’t. If you were so badly mistreated by a man why would you run to a clubhouse full of the roughest, scariest, nastiest, testosterone filled men this side of the North Pole? From personal experience I can answer that for you; you wouldn’t! No matter how badly you wanted to, you would never trust another man again, ever.
Sad really, because I’m sure there are some men, few and far between, out there that don’t deserve to be tarred with the same brush, but I’m yet to find one. And for that reason alone I don’t hold out much hope for me. Not just when it comes to finding a man that will treat me with the respect and dignity a woman deserves, but I don’t hold out hope any woman will be truly cherished the way she should.
I came to this realisation when my father backhanded me so hard I fell hitting my head on the coffee table, and blacked out. I woke up an hour later surrounded by a puddle of my own vomit, and can remember thinking why didn’t I just asphyxiate on it then, save myself the pain I’d be yet to endure? But I didn’t, I lived to tell the tale, not that I ever told anyone, I couldn’t, but the sentiment was there.
After that the beatings got worse and continued until I moved out at seventeen, the year before I finished high school. I thought once I was out of his house, away from the daily abuse I’d be okay…I was wrong. The world of men was only just opening up to me, and I found myself desperately trying to find one that would prove to me they weren’t all the same as my father had been. Needless to say I didn’t, and the only one I thought might have been my salvation ended up turning into the one who would in the end damage me the most.
I met Leo Harding a year out of high school, he was working on becoming a member of Devil’s Spawn MC, and I was working at Mo’s diner part-time while trying to finish my beauty therapy course. In the beginning he was sweet, he was kind to me when he came in. Leo tipped well, he always made sure to ask how my day was going, if I was enjoying school, stuff like that. I can admit I had a crush on him from the moment I saw him.
He was handsome, with all his dark hair that flopped haphazardly over his eyes, dark penetrating eyes, scruff that lined his square jaw, and the muscular, yet not too bulky build that filled out his six-foot two frame. In fact he was one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen, and that’s where I made my first error in judgement; thinking that all that beauty wasn’t hiding something. Something dark.
We met for coffee after I finished my shifts a few times, which led to him inviting me out for dinner. That was the beginning of a two-year relationship in which time I’d come to learn that his beauty did indeed hide the darker side of him. It wasn’t all bad, actually a lot of it was good, really good. Leo was attentive, he listened to me, as in really listened, he was great in bed, or at least I thought so. I didn’t have a lot to go on seeing as he was my first, but I can assure you he knew what to do with his fingers, his tongue, and his cock. The man could bring me to screaming orgasm in less than five minutes, and that was saying something because usually I struggled to climax at all.
I never thought things would end the way they did, I never thought they’d end at all. If things progressed the way I thought they were, I stupidly assumed we’d get married one day, have babies together, play house, and be together until we were old and grey. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was no beginning of the end, there was just an end. No lead up, no warning signs, nothing. I walked into the clubhouse on a Thursday afternoon, my last class had let out early and I wanted to surprise him. I should have known something was up when I got more than a handful of sideways looks, and pity filled glances, but me being me, I didn’t think anything of it.
Opening the door to Leo’s room in the dorms sealed my fate. The fate in which I was doomed from birth to never find a man willing to be mine and mine only, that was willing to sacrifice for me, and who was willing to put me before his dick. I’d been kidding myself for the last two years thinking Leo was better than that, he wasn’t. He was exactly the same as every other man I’d encountered, he’d just been better at hiding it. And he managed to prove what I’d known all along; men are fucking pigs.
I don’t need to tell you what I saw, I’m sure you can guess, but from that day on something inside me cracked. Through the crack spilled forth a venom I didn’t know I’d been harbouring, or capable of. I promised myself I would never let another man trick me into not following my instincts, I’d never be conned by a man ever again.
I left Blackwater after that, and didn’t come back for going on ten years. I didn’t say goodbye. I didn’t leave a note telling anyone where I’d gone. I just packed up what I could in the two suitcases I owned and left. No one followed me, they didn’t try to track me down, and like I’d expected no one ever found me. They didn’t even care enough to look.
When I did eventually come back I took a job a Chasers as their receptionist, took on a new outlook, one which not surprisingly gave off the aura not to fuck with me, and I melded back into the small town lifestyle seamlessly…Until Adelyn London came to town that is.
She took everything I thought I was entitled to, and made it hers without trying. The attentions of the man I was interested in playing with some more, the adulation of the women that had once been my friends, and she had caught the eye of the man that I’d truly believed would be mine forever. For that she had to pay, and I was just the woman to make sure she did. And she would, she’d pay dearly for taking what wasn’t hers…she’d pay with her life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Max
“When I was born the Devil said,
‘Oh shit!…Competition.”
- E-card
I called, I texted, I went past her house night and day, and three weeks on still nothing. I hadn’t heard back from her, my texts went unanswered, and Adelyn never seemed to be home, or she was and she wasn’t answering the door to me. I suppose this was karma for the way I treated her previously, I probably should’ve expected it, but us men have self-inflating egos, and we think we’re above women’s wrath. Don’t ask me why we’re dumb enough to believe that, we just do.
“Hey, who pissed in your Cheerio’s this morning, big man?” Pipe asks sitting his ass down on the stool right next to me.
“Fuck off.” I offer my standard response for the last three weeks. Who am I kidding? That’s been my standard response for the last thirty-five years.
With a chuckle he tries again.
“When are you gonna give up this bullshit game of cat and mouse you’ve got going on with her, and just go stake your claim?” He enquires with a raised eyebrow.
Fucking smartass. If only it were that easy, I would’ve done it already. I’m not going to tell him I already have, given up that is. This morning I made the decision to put an end to the run around Adelyn’s been giving me, and did something that’s no doubt going to piss her right the fuck off, but at the same time will have her beating down my door, or is that me? I’m not sure, but either way I know for a fact I’ll be seeing her soon. Ignoring his question I change the subject.
“What are you doing here anyway? I thought you had to pick up May from Kendall’s.”
May is Pipe’s three and a half year-old daughter with Selena, and she is one of the most beautiful little things I’ve ever seen. With her curly black hair, and hazel eyes just like her daddies, she resembles a cherub, and acts like one too. I’ve often wondered how a guy like Pipe, with the sensitivity of a Great White shark, and the mouth of a sailor could raise such a perfect little girl, and then I remember her momma is pretty damn near perfect herself.
Selena and Pipe haven’t argued a day in their f
our and a half year long marriage, and I’m betting that comes down to Selena knowing exactly how to handle his shit. She’s not a pushover, but she’s not hardened by our lifestyle like some of the old ladies either. She’s still just as sweet as the day Pipe met her and I hope for her, and his sake she stays that way. Don’t spread this around, but we bikers need some of that sweet in our lives when we come home. And there’s nothing better than a beautiful, warm, willing woman you can call your own to welcome you through the door at night. I wouldn’t know this personally, but I can imagine, because that’s what Pipe’s got, and the man looks like he’s living on cloud nine most of the time.
“Already got her. She’s in the kitchen trying to convince Sheila to hand over some of those cookies she baked earlier,” he replies with a snort. Good luck with that little May, you’ve got about as good a chance as we do of getting one of those.
“Sonofabitch,” I exclaim loudly. It looks like I’ll be eating my words, and not the cookies, because skipping across the main room of the clubhouse is the one and only May Belle Marks with a cookie in each hand, and one in her mouth for good measure.
Laughing, Pipe manages to get out,
“You doubted her? Fucking idiot,” he mutters under his breath. “My girl’s got the power to rule the world in her little finger, shame on you, you should know better.”
I should, I really should. May has always had a way about her that makes it impossible to deny her anything. From the minute she was born telling her no became a rarity, one only saved for when it was absolutely necessary.
Around a mouthful May sing-songs,
“Daaaaddy, Uncle Max, these for you,” and hands us each one of the cookies she managed to pry from Sheila’s iron fist. The woman really is fanatical about baking, and even more so over having to share the spoils of her labour. I think if we let her she’d eat every last baked good she made all by herself. Isn’t she lucky that we’re more than happy to relieve her of a few of them?
“Thank you, darlin’,” I say as she climbs up on my lap.
Times like this, with May cuddled up in my lap, is when I find myself thinking about Dakota the most. When I’m close to May, or my own grandkids. It makes sense they’d be the ones to evoke the most emotion from me, especially May seeing as Dakota would be almost her age now. Ever since finding out Adelyn and I would have had a girl, I’ve gotten closer to May and Anna. It’s not me trying to use them as replacements for my baby girl, but seeing them grow and thrive makes my heart hurt a little less.
“Maxwell William Andrews, aka, rat bastard, where in the fuck are you?” Ah, right on cue. I know what you’re thinking, what’s he done this time? Well, a round of applause, and a gold star to you, because I indeed did something, but rest assured it’s not as bad as you think.
Spotting her over near the wall that divides the bar from the courtyard, I spin fully in my seat, handing May off to Pipe as I do. The minute I’m facing her, her eyes lock on mine, and I swear if I could be burned alive, I’d be fried to a crisp on the spot. Adelyn’s eyes are shooting fire, and they’re aimed directly at me.
Giving her what I hope is a welcoming smile, because face it, I’m an asshole through-and-through I ask,
“Adelyn, fancy seeing you here, what do we owe the pleasure?” I know it sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but there’s no bite behind my words and she knows it.
Her eyes widen as she stalks toward me and holy shit, she’s fucking beautiful. Her platinum dreadlocks are twisted at the sides of her head and clipped back leaving her beautiful pixie like face unhindered from my gaze. Wearing skin tight ripped jeans that look made for her, moulding her trim thighs, and what I can only imagine are hugging her gorgeous heart shaped ass, she looks good enough to eat. And don’t get me started on the scoop neck Harley-T that’s hanging off one of her slim shoulders, giving me a glimpse of the black bra she’s sporting underneath.
Within seconds my cock’s rock hard and throbbing painfully in my jeans. Only she can do this to me, and as much as I’d like to be able to take the scathing look she’s giving me seriously, I can’t.
“One question,” she says raising a single delicate finger in front of her. I don’t answer, so she takes that as her cue to ask away. “Did you, or did you not sabotage my car, re-program my alarm system to play ‘Push it’ by Salt ‘n’ Pepper, and pay my next door neighbour to steal my spare key?”
Pipe lets out a fully belly laugh, and May launches herself off his lap running straight to Adelyn linking her arms around her thighs. Adelyn’s face softens immediately as she lifts the little girl into her arms for hug, settling on her hip. I can only imagine being around May is hard for her, but if she affected, she’s not outwardly showing it.
I can’t help letting out my own laugh when I see May trying to replicate the glare Adelyn was giving me seconds earlier.
“I may, or may not have done all, or none of those things Angel, but we can discuss it over dinner, yeah?”
I know I’m pushing my luck, I’m pretty sure I should be grateful she hasn’t killed me where I sit, but I can’t resist working her up, it’s like a sport. Placing May on her feet she whispers something in her ear that has May nodding, and skipping off in the direction of the kitchen. Waiting until she’s out of earshot, Adelyn whirls on us pointing at Pipe first.
“You, you should be doing something to deter your brother from something that may end up causing him horrific bodily harm. I’d recommend you have a chat with him A-S-A-fucking-P, Pipe. I’m not kidding, I’m going to kick his ass if you don’t.”
Pipe nods solemnly,
“Sure will, sweetheart.” Smug bastard doesn’t mean a word, I can see it by the mischief dancing in his eyes as he follows the direction his daughter went in, leaving me alone with Adelyn finally.
“And you, how could you? It isn’t enough that you’ve called and text a million times, now you have to resort to trespassing, theft, and vandalising my property? Jesus Christ, Max, why can’t you just let it go?” I can see the hint of sadness in her eyes, the challenge she’s issuing me, hiding in the recesses of her pain, and I intend to rise to meet it this time.
Standing quickly, I back her the five steps into the wall behind her, placing my hands on the wall above her head, effectively caging her in. This close our lower halves are touching, albeit barely, and I can feel the whisper sweet caress of her hardened nipples against my chest. We haven’t been this close in years, and it’s got my body straining toward her, or one part in particular is. Don’t be fooled though, the rest of me is just as eager to be near her as well.
Running my nose up the graceful column of her neck, and along the shell of her ear I whisper,
“It’s easy, Angel. I told you we need to talk, and we still do. You’re ignoring me, and I needed to do something to catch your attention, and here you are. Magic wouldn’t you say?”
And it is; magic. Why I hadn’t thought of it earlier is beyond me, but now I know it’ll have her on my doorstep within an hour, I’ll do it every day if I have to. Before she can speak again another angry female’s screech rents the air.
“Where the fuck is she?”
Lou looks like she’s about to blow, and Jesus fuck that isn’t something anyone needs to see. Removing my hands, I turn in the direction of my daughter-in-law, still holding Adelyn captive behind me by using my body to block her between me and the wall. No matter how pissed Lou looks, there’s no way I’m letting Adelyn go, not this time.
“What’s your damage woman? What’s all the fucking yelling about?”
I love the shit out of Lou, but if she ruins all my hard work in getting Adelyn here, I just might kill her this time. Spotting her behind me, Lou points a long red-tipped fingernail in Adelyn’s direction yelling again.
“I can fucking see you, bitch. Get out here so I can kick your ass.”
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. But before I can put a stop to the ridiculous shit Lou’s carrying on with, Adelyn slips out from behind me takin
g several steps forward coming almost toe-to-toe with a spitting mad hell-cat.
“What can I do for you, Lou?”
The sweet tone of Adelyn’s voice shouldn’t be mistaken for niceness, it’s anything but. I’ve heard that tone of voice once before, and let just say the person she used it on didn’t fare too well.
“I can’t fucking believe you stole my car. I mean, I know you’re cheap, but what, you’ve resorted to ‘borrowing’,” Lou says using those air quote things women use all the time, “other people’s cars now?”
Looking over her shoulder Adelyn seems to sense I’m getting ready to step in, and she shakes her head at me slowly telling me she’s got this. Flicking my eyes from side-to-side I can see we’re picking up quite the audience too. I hope for Lou’s sake she doesn’t take this too far, or she’s going to be fucking embarrassed when Adelyn lays her ass out in front of half the club.
Using her thumb and forefinger to rub her chin Adelyn scoffs,
“Yep, that’s about the size of it. I was too cheap to put gas in mine this morning, so I thought I’d make the six-mile hike into town, seek out your car specifically, hotwire it, and drive here just for shit’s and giggles. You caught me, gold star for you, Lou.”
Captive: A Devil's Spawn MC Novel Page 20
