“They’ve been leaving you alone,” Christie told her with a chuckle. “You have the biggest space in the clubhouse to yourself because you’re in a mood.” She hooted. “You’ve got to love men sometimes. So fucking scared of a woman’s temper. And these are all crazy bikers!”
Pip’s lips twitched. “Seriously? They’ve been avoiding me?”
Christie nodded. “Yup. But the Council is in session. They’re with Juanita.”
“Of course they are.” She thought of Major being in close proximity to the woman and felt her stomach clench. “What if he prefers her, Christie? What if the Bear changes his mind?”
The other woman frowned at her. “I don’t even know why you’re asking me such a stupid question, Pip. Jesus, can’t you feel the bond?”
“Of course I can. I’ve done nothing but feel it all these years. He’s the one who hasn’t. What if my scent changes again? What if he got it wrong and I’m not his mate at all, but she is? We can’t exactly trust his nose, can we?”
“Mundo heard that you were on some kind of hormonal treatment that fucked with your scent, and that’s why he couldn’t recognize you... is that true?”
“It’s what he and Mars figured out. I don’t think Major was overly bothered. He was just relieved to have his mate. I don’t think it fucking mattered who that mate was.”
“Bullshit. Now that’s just pity talking.” Christie tutted. “This bond we’ve got, it doesn’t go away. I mean, have you ever thought the only reason you got that talent of yours is because you’re his mate? And that’s some pretty impressive shit you can pull, Pip. The Goddesses wouldn’t have given you crap if you weren’t supposed to be his.”
She blinked at that. “I never thought of it that way.”
“Well, no, you wouldn’t. You’re running scared, and I can’t fucking blame you. I went mad after a couple of weeks without my mate. You’ve gone years. It’s a wonder you haven’t gone fucking insane by now, and you know what? That’s his fault. I get that. But you can’t punish him for it. You can’t change the fact his Bear couldn’t scent you over the hormones you were taking. You just have to get on with it. Otherwise, it will eat you up inside, and it will ruin this relationship you’ve been waiting for for so long.”
Pip bit her bottom lip. “I am scared, Christie. I’m fucking petrified.”
“You have no need to be,” the other woman told her softly. “Seriously. I understand why, but there’s no need. That man would die for you. Hell, if anything happens to you, he’ll die too. That’s how the mate bond works. You just need to give it time to develop.”
Pip blinked. “He’ll die if I die?”
“Yeah. Guess he didn’t tell you that, huh?”
She huffed, but softened it into a sigh. “No, but it wouldn’t have stopped me from joining with him.”
Christie smirked. “Nope, didn’t think it would. But you get my point, right?”
“I do.” She ran her hands over her face. “I don’t have to like it though, do I?”
“No. I never said you did. You can give him hell for it, but don’t doubt what you have together. That’s Goddess-gifted. If there’s one thing you can be secure in, it’s your bond. Like I said, it just needs time, and you two haven’t exactly been able to have a honeymoon, have you? You’ve been healing someone nearly every day, and I know the Council has been at loggerheads trying to sort this shitstorm out before it hits the MC hard.”
“We’ve only had sex once. That night we bonded.”
Christie’s mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding me?”
“No,” Pip wailed, her misery complete. “I swear, I thought I’d be sore by now. Walking cross-legged. Instead, we just sleep every night. I mean, I’m exhausted, and I know he is too, but still... That can’t be right, can it?”
Christie stopped gawking at her then sighed. “Pip, I understand even more why you’re feeling so insecure, but honey, it’s just a sign of the times. I bet all the mates are getting less action than usual. The MC’s at war. The Council has to deal with the brunt of that, and we have to deal with the trickle down.”
“Do you think I should come on to him?”
“If you want to.” Christie shrugged. “And that’s only if you want to. You said it yourself, you’re exhausted when you get into bed every night. I know you’ve been healing and practicing the talent. I don’t think you recognize how much energy that takes out of you.”
Pip pondered that then nodded. “You’re right. Major keeps trying to get me to stop, to slow down, but I feel like if I don’t learn everything now, when the MC needs me, I’ll let them down.”
“Which makes sense, but the weight of the MC isn’t on your shoulders, babe.”
“No?” Pip cocked a brow. “You mean to tell me if Mundo got hurt and I didn’t do everything in my power to heal him, you’d forgive me?”
Christie grimaced. “I’d be hurting, and I’d be upset, Pip, but how can I hold something against you that’s out of your control? You’re forgetting, I have a talent too. It’s pretty fucking useless, granted, but I know how it takes over everything without rhythm or rhyme. I just wish mine was as useful as yours.”
Pip let out a deep breath. “I think I’m going to go nap.”
“No. Stay here. I’ll go. I should be back in bed anyway. Mundo will worry if I’m not there by the time he makes it out of Council, but I needed to come and see you. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Pip shot the other woman a hesitant smile. “Thank you, Christie.”
The woman groaned as she got to her feet, rubbing her back as she waddled toward the door. “No problem, babe. Happy to help.”
“You want me to ease your back?” she called out before the other woman could leave.
“Nah. I’ll get Mundo to rub it better. He’s pretty good at that, and I don’t want him to feel obsolete.” She shot Pip a wink then disappeared out into the hallway, leaving Pip with a lot of shit to process and a crapstorm of emotions to take control over.
Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell happened to me?” Juanita asked as she stared down at herself, and Major couldn’t blame her.
It looked like she’d taken part in a miracle.
Gone were the bruises, the swollen flesh, and the rips in her face. Physically, she was as well cared for as she’d been the last time he’d seen her.
Mentally and emotionally were probably on another scale altogether.
“We healed you,” Mars said, then shot the Council a look to keep them all quiet.
It made sense to make Juanita beholden to them in any way they possibly could.
“No way,” she retorted immediately, staring with unease at her unmarred arms and healed chest and shoulders. He’d seen them earlier. She’d been cut. Badly.
Considering that was one of Martinez’s favorite punishments, it made sense.
“How did you heal me?” she asked, gawking at them all, lingering on him before moving on.
“It doesn’t matter how, surely?” Jarvis said, his tone grave. “Just accept it as the token of friendship that it is.”
Juanita looked taken aback at that, but she nodded. Then, looking down at the table, she murmured, “I’m sure you can guess what my being here means.”
Mars grimaced. “You’ve been made.”
“Yeah. Martinez caught me snooping around. Turns out, he knew I was sneaking around with you and figured I’d turned.” She shrugged. “He was right. Can’t fault him for his instincts.” Juanita frowned then pinched herself. “Is this really happening? How can I feel so well when I know what they did to me?” She ran a hand through her thick glossy curls. “I can’t make this make sense.”
Mars softly murmured, “We know the extent of the attack on you.”
“You mean, you know I was raped.” Her bitterness was evident and well earned. Jesus, he wanted to kill Martinez for daring to touch her, to take her and abuse her like that. “It wasn’t the first time. I
just hope it’s the last. At least I won’t have to...” She broke off.
“Won’t have to what?” he asked, voice cracking.
“Deal with the aftermath. I’m healed. I can move on from this without having to deal with the physical.” She blew out a breath. “Anyway, you’re not here to listen to me list my injuries. You want to know what I managed to find out. I have no intention of ratting on my cartel to known enemies, but I have every intention of ratting on the cartel leader to the Feds.” Her smile was tight. “I handled that yesterday. They should be swooping down on Martinez any day now.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
At Mars’ remark, she just shrugged. “Makes perfect sense to me. I got enough information the first time I was in his apartment to phone him in—bank records, some tax shit. Managed to download a whole load of shit from his computer, including the file named ‘second book-not for CPA’. Martinez never did have any imagination.
“At the very least, he’ll be stuck in an audit until his hair turns gray. If not, there should be enough to prosecute. I got greedy last night. Wanted to see if there was something else I could send in, something that would just seal his fate. Instead, I sealed mine.” She grimaced. “I’m lucky to be alive. I should have gotten out of there the minute I sent that shit over to the IRS.”
Major cleared his throat, dragged his gaze from Juanita and to Mars, and said, “I promised we’d help her, Prez. If she helped us, we’d help her get out of the area.”
“I want to go North,” she told the room at large. “I had family up in Boston.”
“That might be the first place Martinez looks if he decides to come after you,” Mars warned. “Because you were caught snooping, he’s going to realize you were the one to blame for shopping him to the IRS.”
Juanita let out a shivery breath. “I know. I was thinking about going to them then trying to get into Canada. Jesus, I should never have listened to you, Major.”
He shook his head. “You were right to do what you did. If what you sent was enough to get Martinez out of the picture, what you did will be forgotten when the vacuum at the top starts sucking everyone in. The power-hungry sharks will swim to the surface, they’ll battle everything in sight, decimate the ranks, then all will return to normal. Hopefully, you’ll slip between the cracks.”
Juanita pursed her lips. “I hope you’re right.”
Mars eyed her a second. “The information you sent to the IRS, will it be enough to take him down, do you think?”
She nodded. “Martinez has committed enough crimes to throw the book at him, but we all know that will never stick. The folder I found was tucked away, but it contained all the specifics of the trades he’s made over the past year. If it starts with an audit, it can only escalate. There’s no way it can’t.”
“I just don’t understand why you put yourself in danger if you didn’t have to.” He scraped a hand along his jaw pensively. “Why not just back the fuck away if you had enough?”
“Because I wanted to make doubly certain there was enough. I want more than the book I mentioned before thrown at him. I never want him to see the light of day again. I want him buried in some fucking high security prison, so far away he can’t even reach me in my nightmares.” She shuddered, closing her eyes as though trying to run from her memories, her thoughts.
Major hurt for her. He couldn’t say he didn’t. He’d gotten her into this fucking mess, and look what had happened. She’d been beaten, mauled, attacked, raped.
Thanks to him.
“I’m sorry I put this on you, Juanita. I didn’t realize.”
“No, I know you didn’t, but in fairness, you never asked me to go looking where I did. I knew you wanted me to sneak around, see if he was pulling small cons here and there in his trades. You didn’t ask me to access his personal computer, did you?”
“No. It would never have occurred to me that you’d be able to get close to it.”
“Martinez is an arrogant prick.” She smiled tightly at him. “When he calls on his girls, we go to his place. It would never occur to him that we might betray him. He’s so cocksure.”
Jarvis broke into the silence that fell after her words dispersed. “We can get you up north, Juanita, but it might be wise to go out of the country straight away.”
Justiss piped up, “I have friends with a private airfield. They can log a flight out of the country, no passengers, and we can take you wherever you want to go.”
“I just don’t want him to be able to find me. Throw me wherever that is. I don’t care. I just want a fresh start.”
Justiss nodded, and getting to his feet said, “I’ll handle that now, Prez.”
“Yeah. Let me know when you have details, and I’ll get a convoy to take her to the airfield.”
Justiss retreated, leaving them behind. Major couldn’t help himself. Some little devil on his shoulder had to know. “Who brought you here, Juanita? Are they going to be a problem?”
She shook her head. “No. My brother brought me. They dumped me on his door. A message, I guess. I don’t know why he brought me here.”
“He must have known we were seeing one another. Did you tell him?”
“I don’t think so, but Ricardo always keeps an eye out for me. He probably saw you coming to my apartment.”
Mars hissed. “That could present a problem if he squeals to Martinez.”
“He wouldn’t have brought me here if that was his intention,” she immediately denied. “He’d have either dumped me at the hospital or let me stay with him. This is him washing his hands of me but taking me somewhere safe so that he knows I won’t be too badly harmed.”
Major tried to imagine a brother who could do something like that but couldn’t. Jesus, his weren’t even kin by blood. They were brothers by choice, and they’d never fuck him over like that.
“Wherever you go, I’ll give you a contact number so you can keep in touch with us, Juanita,” Mars said. “We’re not just going to throw you to the wolves like your brother has. Keep in touch. If you think someone is following you, then you contact us and we’ll do what we can to get you out of there. By the same rote, stay in touch because we’ll keep you informed as to the situation with Martinez.”
She nodded. “I did this for a lot of reasons, but mostly because Major asked me to.” She looked at him. “He vouched for you. Said you didn’t want bloodshed among your men or mine. Is that true?”
“It’s very true.” Mars sighed. “I’m too old for war.”
She blinked at him. “But you’re what? In your thirties?”
“Make that hundreds. I’m a Shifter, remember? I’ve seen too much fighting to want more. I’ve found my mate. She’s pregnant. I just want to grow old with her and raise my cubs. My brothers put me in this position. I never wanted to be Prez, but if I have to be it, I’ll do it the way I want it and that’s for no blood to fall unnecessarily.
“The old Prez got us into this shit, and I’m just trying to get us out.”
Juanita’s smile was soft, and Major knew Mars’ sincerity had further won her over. “I know what you mean. Sometimes it feels like there’s no end in sight, but I really feel like what I sent the IRS will do the job.”
Mars sighed. “I’m praying so, because otherwise, we need a fucking miracle.”
Chapter 12
Two weeks later
“It fucking worked!” Major shrieked as he skidded into his bedroom. He didn’t wait for his mate to react, just carried on until he had hold of the remote in his hand and could flick on to the local news.
The instant Martinez’s face filled the screen, he let out a hoot and turned to face Pip, who was sitting up in bed now.
Her eyes were wide as she looked at the man on the TV. “That’s Martinez?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Whatever Juanita sent to the IRS has got him in a whole shit heap of trouble.” The cartel leader was being led into an office building by officials, but the news reports were saying that the detail
s fed to the IRS were enough to send the bastard down for decades.
Of course, the news was always wrong, but Justiss, as always, had a contact on the inside. Said contact had confirmed that Juanita had royally fucked up Martinez’s life, and hopefully, as a result, put a halt to the war between the MC and the cartel.
Martinez would be too busy trying to save his own ass to waste time on them, even if he believed that the MC had something or everything to do with why he was being investigated.
“I know his face,” Pip murmured absentmindedly.
“What?”
The screech escaped him before he could contain it. She eyed him askance then said, “He came into the diner that morning... the day we mated. He left twenty minutes before you came.”
“What the hell was he doing on that side of town?”
She shrugged. “How on earth should I know? I just remember him because this woman was breaking up with him, and he started crying in the diner. I swear to God, he was howling like a baby. It was the craziest thing I’ve seen. All the diners were pretty damn shocked too.”
“Martinez? The Martinez was crying like a baby because some chick split with him?”
Pip nodded, eyes glued to the screen and the information that was flooding the news reels. “This is insane. I can’t believe it. That means the war is on hiatus for the moment, right?”
“It means we hope it is,” he corrected. “But it’s a step in the right direction. Martinez has bigger shit to be handling than dealing with petty revenge over a lost business deal with us.”
Pip frowned at the screen. “Can he worm out of it?”
“Nah, this is the IRS, babe. It’s not like the cops. It’s not like someone can testify on his behalf, or like he can kill someone before they can rat on him. These are facts and figures. They’ll work against him until he’s either rotting in jail or heading overseas to live out a permanent exile.”
Pip rubbed her arms. “I’m glad it worked.”
MAJOR (MC Bear Mates Book 5) Page 15
