MAXWELL

I watched that fucking douche bag Jeremy dance around with my Heaven in his arms until I could no longer contain my rage. My mother was the mistress of all things fucked up, but how she managed to convince Heaven to go along with that bullshit was a stretch even for her. She didn’t strike me as the type of woman who could be bought; her shitty car proved that, so it had to be something else, something money couldn’t buy. My plan to corner Jeremy and make him talk would just have to wait. I couldn’t allow Heaven to get hurt by falling into my mother’s trap. I had to protect her. She had no idea what a conniving bitch that woman could be, and I was certain she lacked the killer instincts to take her on, not if she wanted to win.

“They make such a lovely couple, wouldn’t you say so, Maxie?” Speak of the devil, and she appears.

“No, the fuck I wouldn’t say so, Mother. What sick game are you playing with her?” I gritted.

“No games, I’m afraid. Haven begged me to help her land a rich, successful man like Jeremy, and I was more than happy to oblige. Jeremy’s been like a son to me, so of course I’ve always had his best interests at heart.” Lying bitch.

“Yeah, right, you’re just full of maternal instincts. I bet you had your Mother of the Year Award bronzed before you hung it in the bathroom.”

Fucking around with this ridiculous conversation made me lose track of Heaven and Jeremy. I stretched my neck and tried looking through the crowd to spot them, but it was no use; they were gone. If he did anything to hurt her, I swore on my life I’d gut him like a fish until his eyes popped out of his head. My mother was busy preening herself on successfully pissing me off even more than I already was. Her words were always her ultimate weapon. What she failed to realize was that I knew the difference between a woman who really wanted to be with a man and that pathetic bullshit Heaven tried to dance her way around. She didn’t want Jeremy’s pussy ass; she knew it and I knew it, so she could stop trying to convince me otherwise.

“Did you know that Jeremy was only twelve when he arrived? The same age you were when you decided to leave us and strike out on your own. He was the perfect little boy who never failed to show his gratitude to the senator and me. He wasn’t our own flesh and blood, but we never treated him any differently than we treated you.”

“I never decided shit, Mother. You and that sick fuck, whoever he was, forced me to finally defend myself and run away from here as fast as I could in order to survive. One way or another, I’ll find out who he was, and when I do, he’s a dead man.”

I shouted above the noise from the party and immediately stopped myself before someone got wind of the conversation. She bated me, got off on watching me lose it, and I fucking fell for it like an idiot. All of that took a backseat to finding Heaven and making sure she was safe and in my arms where she belonged. I broke away from my mother without giving her a chance to respond and ran toward the front entrance. My rental car was parked just outside, so I popped the trunk and retrieved my heavy black bag. I was about to face the nightmare that had plagued my dreams for years. In order to do that, I needed my power. My shotgun gave me the strength I needed to finally face my past, a past that started deep within the bowels of the mansion. The basement.

I heard the cheers before I reached the bottom of the landing. I remembered them like it were yesterday. Each step bought back a memory, overwhelming fear, just before she started to hum and made it all go away. My hands began to sweat, but I pushed forward. I gripped the handle of the black bag tighter and drew from its strength. I had to fight the pull of darkness, the need to escape consciousness, not for my own sake but for that of a beautiful nurse who I’d sworn to protect. I pushed my way through the crowd and searched frantically for any signs of Jeremy and Heaven. The sight of the small boy through the one-way glass caused my steps to falter, but I had to keep looking, no matter how badly I wanted to blast every one of those motherfuckers watching. My search turned frenzied. I ran from room to room with no luck until I reached the last door and froze solid.

Heaven was lying facedown across a table with her beautiful blue dress pulled up around her waist. Her panties were torn to pieces around her ankles and hung haphazardly, barely managing to stay in place. There was just enough light shining through the window for me to make out her face that was turned toward the doorway. One look at her dark, lifeless eyes, and I reached inside my bag for the handle of my M4. I was reminded of a time when Buck had taken all of us camping and we fished for our dinner. We fucked off too much to catch anything worth eating, but Sebastian managed to reel in a small guppy whose eyes bore a striking resemblance to Heaven’s. They were wide and glazed over, completely oblivious and incapable of giving consent to the asshole getting undressed by her side. My insides burned with outrage. He put his dirty, filthy hands on my woman and thought he could get away with that? I blinked several times to clear my head before advancing the cartridge in the chamber and pointing the barrel at the back of Jeremy’s head.

“You got two seconds to back the fuck away from her before I blow your fucking balls off.” He held up his hands and turned slowly, giving me a full view of his nakedness. I lowered the barrel from his head and pointed it at his balls instead. The asshole covered himself, as if that was enough to save his nut sack from a shotgun blast if I pulled the trigger. The only thing stopping me from killing that fool was Heaven’s trembling body while she stared off into space lying flat on that table.

“Hey, look, Max, she wanted it. Ask her yourself. You can have her once I’m done, or we can go at it together, makes no difference to me.” The fucker had the nerve to smile, like I’d really take him up on his offer. Heaven wasn’t his to give, and she never would be. She was mine. I held the gun steady. He had nowhere to run, even if he were brave enough to try it.

“I want to kill you so bad my dick is hard. Back the fuck up…NOW.” Don’t do it, boy. Another time, another place. Get your woman and get the fuck outta there.Buck’s voice inside my head saved that asshole’s life. He could thank me later. Haven hadn’t moved a muscle since I’d entered the room, so my only thought was to get her as far away from there as I could. I grabbed a blanket off the bed and wrapped her inside as best I could with one hand still holding my weapon trained on Jeremy.

“You won’t get away with this, Max. I know important people in this town. All it takes is a phone call, and I’ll have you thrown in jail for the rest of your life.” I lifted Heaven off the table with one arm and placed her over my shoulder. She weighed nothing wrapped tightly in that blanket, but I felt every tremble of her shaking body against my chest.

“You are one lucky motherfucker, Jeremy, but don’t worry, we’ll finish this dance later.”

“Antonia will hear about this, Max. She won’t stand for your insolence.”

He was still spouting off bullshit when I backed out the doorway and took off at a steady pace down the back staircase. I made it out the servants’ entrance without being spotted and found my rental car parked right where I’d left it. I secured Heaven in the passenger seat with her seat belt, jumped in the driver’s side, and took off down the long road that led out of the gated community. Heaven’s beautiful face was the only thing left visible out of the blanket, and my heart broke even more when I noticed a single tear that sat along her long eyelash but refused to fall. I remembered how she’d told me that stupid-ass story about the vampires when I was too upset to drive. It was the only thing that had saved me from jumping off a building after that run-in with my mother. I wanted to hear her laugh again, make funny faces, and cross her arms like she did that day in the car. She opened herself up and told me something that she truly believed in. Dumb-ass vampires aside, it had made me feel alive. I owed her the same, so as I drove, I told her a story that meant something to me:

“My brothers and I were always getting caught doing stupid shit around the junkyard. Buck would threaten to kick our little asses, but that never stopped us from finding more shit to get into. Don’t get me wrong, Buck was scary as shit, but he never hurt one of his boys. Anyway, on this particular day, we decided we wanted to become blood brothers like they did in the movies, you know, by pricking our fingers and holding them together until enough time passed and we thought our blood would mix.”

I wasn’t sure if she was listening, but I kept on.

“We crouched behind a big stack of tires so Buck couldn’t see us. I took out my knife and passed it to Range so he could go first.

Sebastian thought it was a bad idea as usual. “Are you sure this is sanitary? We could get a really bad infection, a deadly infection! The doctor will have to cut off our arm and make us a fake one. Mother and Aunt Enid would kill me if they knew about this.”

“Don’t be such a pussy, Sebastian, it’s just a little prick of the finger. What’s the big deal?” Marcus asked. He was always the toughest after Range. He smacked Sebastian on the back of the head, grabbed the knife, and pricked his finger first. The rest of us followed, and then it was Sebastian’s turn. You should have seen his face, Heaven. It was a miracle he didn’t pass the fuck out right there on the ground. Once the sticking was over, we held our fingers together, but neither one of us knew what the hell to do after that.

“Are we supposed to say something? Like, make a vow to each other?” Range asked the group. It was a good idea, so I started.

“I vow…to always be strong for my brothers.”

Range went next. “I vow…to always fight for my brothers.”

Then Marcus. “I vow…to always protect my brothers.”

Finally, it was Sebastian’s turn. “I vow…to always love my brothers…but not if I lose my arm! Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat with one hand? How many of you guys will volunteer to hold my junk when I need to take a piss? Hmm? That’s what I thought. Mother and Aunt Enid…”

“Shut the fuck up, Sebastian.” We all said it at the same time, which started a fit of laughter that didn’t stop until we were rolling round on the ground, hootin’ and hollering. You should have seen us, baby.”

“Did you guys get caught?” She said it so low I almost didn’t hear it. I smiled from across the seat and breathed a sigh of relief. She’d heard my story and came back to me, my Heaven.

“Yeah, baby…we all got caught.” I missed you.

I drove around the city and searched for one of those shitty motels where the rooms were on the outside so I could rent one for the night. She was in no condition to walk inside a crowded lobby wrapped inside a blanket, which required far more explanation than I was willing to give.I had no doubt that my mother would be on the warpath and desperate for blood. My blood. None of that mattered to me as long as Heaven was by my side. She was what was important, not my mother or that asswipe Jeremy. Fuck both of them.