Chapter 9
Maverick
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Henley?” I growled. I was on my way to the kitchen when I found Henley tiptoeing down the dark hallway, her arms crammed full with all of her shit. An exasperated curse rumbled under her breath as she stopped dead in her tracks. With her hip cocked out to the side, she stared at me with a frustrated pout. Too fucking cute. Her long hair was pulled up high on her head in some kind of bun, with loose strands falling down around her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes looked black as coal as she stood there, staring at me, wearing nothing but that damn t-shirt. My eyes trailed down the length of her long, sexy legs, and I instantly imagined them wrapped around me. Damn. This girl was getting under my skin.
“I’m… uhhh… I’m going home?” she sputtered.
“No… you’re not. Get your ass back to your room and go to bed,” I ordered. There was no way I was letting her leave, at least not yet.
“And why should I do that? I’ve already told Cotton everything I remembered about the shooting, so there’s really no reason for me to stay here,” she said, sounding like she actually believed what she was saying.
“What are you going to do when these guys come knocking on your door? Huh? You gonna take care of it on your own? Hit them over the head with one of your fancy fucking pillows? Hear me when I say this, Henley Gray. Once you leave here, there’s no coming back. No one will be there to help you when they come for that pretty little neck of yours. And let’s be clear… they will come for you,” I warned. A defeated look crossed her face as she stood trying to decide what she was going to do. Then a spark of anger crossed her face when she realized I was right, making me almost smile with satisfaction.
She glanced up to the ceiling as a frustrated burst of air rushed from her lungs. “Well, thank you for clearing that all up for me, Maverick.”
“Henley…” I called out to her.
“What?” she snapped.
“You’ll be safer here. Club protection is the best thing you’ve got going right now.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” She rolled her eyes as she turned and walked back into her room, slamming the door behind her. I stood there for a minute, listening to her endless stream of profanities as she tossed her things around in her room. A part of me was tempted to go in there and set her straight and explain what kind of danger she was really in. If she had left here tonight, I have no doubt they would have found her and killed her. Even though having her here was going to be a pain in my ass, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to her.
“You lost, Maverick?” Peyton asked playfully. She was one of the club girls. Most of the brothers called them Fury’s Felines… pussies that were always eager to please, and Peyton was a club favorite. She had a way with her mouth that could make any man forget the world around him, even if just for a little while.
“Hey, Peyton. You’re up late tonight.”
“I was just spending a little time with Clutch. He’s having a hard time with … you know… everything. I was trying to cheer him up a bit,” she explained. “But he’s asleep now, and I was just heading back to my room. Want to join me?”
“Yeah, I’m up for that,” I told her as I followed her back to her room. I needed to let off some steam, and Peyton was just the girl to help me out.
“I haven’t seen much of you lately,” she told me as she hastily began to unbuckle my belt. Without hesitation, she dropped down to her knees. Her long, black hair fell around her shoulders as her fingers worked to release the zipper of my jeans. “We have some catching up to do, handsome.” She smiled up at me, and her brown eyes filled with eagerness. She began lowering my jeans down below my hips. She took me in her hand and brushed her warm, wet tongue around the head of my cock. As her hand began to slowly stroke up and down my now hardening shaft, she said, “I heard you’re going to be around more since you’re helping out with Henley and all.”
As soon as the sound of Henley’s name left her lips, my dick went limp. Fuck. She’d only been here one night, and she was already turning into a cock-block. I took a step back and said, “I’ve got to go.”
“What? Baby, we were just getting started. Let me make you feel good…” she whined, her hands dropping down to her sides.
“Maybe some other time,” I told Peyton as I pulled up my jeans and headed for the door. Still pulling up my zipper, I stepped out of her room. When I started down the hallway, I found Henley standing in her doorway, watching me with a look of disgust on her face that I wasn’t expecting to see. Before I had a chance to say anything to her, she slammed her door and locked it. I almost called out to her, but stopped myself. I knew there was no reason for me to fucking explain myself to her, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt that was scratching at the back of my mind. I decided to ignore it and headed to bed. I was ready for this fucking day to end.
For the next week, Henley did her best to avoid me. Every time we were in the same room, she would make herself busy talking to Cassidy or one of the guys. Even though she wasn’t exactly sharing it with me, she always had a beaming smile on her face. It was like she was immune to all the negative shit swarming around her. Hell, nothing seemed to get her down. As much as I hated to admit it, I found myself being drawn to her light, and each day I was finding it harder to ignore. From time to time, she would notice me watching her, our eyes locking for just a brief moment before she would smile and turn away. I couldn’t help myself. I started to look forward to those smiles.
With everything going on at the club, the next few days became a blur. After we buried Skidrow, I spent most of my time working with Big Mike, looking for anything that might help us find the guys who killed Skid. From everything Henley had told us, we had completely ruled out Tony’s old crew. We already knew they didn’t have the manpower to back that kind of threat. It had to be someone else.
Cotton called Henley into his office again. He was getting impatient with the lack of information we’d collected, and he wanted to make sure she’d told us everything she could remember. Unfortunately, she didn’t have anything to add to what she’d already told us. We were running out of ideas when Big Mike suggested, “Why don’t we use her as bait?”
“Who?”
“Henley. We already know they want her. They went to all the trouble of putting that tracker on her car. It’d be easy. We could send her back home and wait for them to come after her,” he explained. “We could hook her up with a wire and a GPS.”
“No.”
“Hear me out. We have to do whatever we can to find these guys, and she might be the only option we have right now. You know we wouldn’t let anything happen to her,” he promised. “I’d make sure of it.”
“Not taking that chance,” I growled. I was sure he wasn’t expecting my reaction, but there was no way in hell I was going to take a chance with Henley’s life. It was my job to keep her safe, and I intended to do just that.
“Let’s at least talk to Cotton about it. See what he thinks,” he suggested, not willing to let his idea go.
“Drop it, Mike. It’s not going to happen,” I told him firmly. “We’ll just have to find another way.”