MAXWELL
I dropped Heaven off at her apartment so she could pack up while I took care of a few things. I needed to fill up the rental car with gas and grab a few boxes from the local grocery store for some of her heavier items. She’d said she didn’t own much, which really meant she had a shit ton of everything and the boxes would come in handy. It took twenty minutes for her to finally go inside once we’d pulled up to the front of the house. We kissed like two horny teenagers after a first date until we were both so turned on I had to finger fuck her twice before she begged me to stop and practically ran inside. The sweet smell of her pussy lingered on my fingertips while I pumped the gas with a ridiculous smile on my face. I was anxious to get back to her and begin our journey away from this town.
The other patrons probably thought I was batshit crazy. I stood around and laughed because I said our journey, not just my journey. I couldn’t help but think about how empty my life had been since Buck died last year. The endless parade of empty pussy followed by those empty feelings of regret and self-loathing. I missed those times when Buck and I would just sit around and shoot the shit about women, brotherhood, and family. He’d had a way of making me see things as being half full instead of half empty. I wondered if Buck would’ve approved of Heaven and our unexplained cosmic connection. His dream had been for all his boys to finally stop fucking around and settle down with the one woman who made our hearts come alive. He had been a mean old bastard most of the time. “Pussy talk is for bitches” he’d liked to say, but that never stopped him from giving his two cents, especially when it came to women.
Buck could play the part of asshole better than anyone else around when he’d set his mind to it. He would have tried everything to push Heaven’s buttons until he was sure she was afraid of him. Pretended not to like her, growled and cussed like an old bear, and told the top stories about fucking and killing back in the good old days. He’d pretend not to notice her beautiful grey eyes or the way her smile lit up a room whenever she was in it. He wouldn’t have stood a chance against my girl and her sassy but caring attitude. One silly mention about vampires, and he would have been eating out of the palm of her hand. If only he were alive to see how far I’d come with Heaven by my side in such a short amount of time. I was grateful I’d had a man like Buck in my life, as a father, a protector, and a friend. He had been one of a kind, and one day I hoped to make him proud.
I returned to Heaven’s apartment after I grabbed a few boxes from the dumpster behind the grocery store. She had a private entrance to her place and told me to just come in once I was finished taking care of everything. The place was a tiny shit hole not too far from my parents’ mansion, old and run down. It should have been condemned. The paint was chipped, the roof needed replacing, and the concrete that led up the walkway was so cracked I saw flowers growing out of them. I couldn’t wait to get her the fuck away from this place and into something more fitting for my woman. At least it had a bed, which I planned to fuck her on for at least an hour before we left for good.
I stepped into the entryway and noticed that the door was slightly ajar instead of closed and unlocked. She’d probably just run to the bathroom or something and didn’t want to lock up and miss me while she was gone. I pushed it open and called out her name so I wouldn’t scare her half to death, but once I stepped inside, I froze solid. The room was small enough that I could see the entire thing from where I was standing, and it was a complete mess. The chest of drawers was turned over with its contents spilled out, a lamp was busted to pieces and lying on the floor, and the suitcase Heaven packed waited by the door amidst the chaos. My alarm bells went into hyper overdrive when I noticed a small splatter of blood that was smeared across the side of the doorframe. I felt a blow to my chest that hit me so hard it nearly rocked me off my feet. Something was very fucking wrong. She wouldn’t just leave me, not after everything we’d promised to each other. I searched every corner of that run-down house, checked every door and tiny space that could hide a small body. I screamed Heaven’s name, begged and pleaded with her to answer me. I was frantic with worry; all the worst possible scenarios were running through my head. Please answer me, baby. When I reached the door to the last room and found that it, too, was empty, I broke, shattered to pieces, and fell to the ground. Where are you, baby?
Fuck! Fuck! I hadn’t been gone that long, twenty minutes tops. How could this have happened? She was out there somewhere, scared and hurt, and I wasn’t there to protect her. It was all my fault. I should have stayed with her, insisted that she pack only her necessities and leave the rest of the bullshit behind. The spike in adrenalin caused my hands to shake uncontrollably, and I started to sweat when I thought about Heaven bound and gagged in the trunk of some asshole’s car. I had to get my shit together and focus on finding a solution. What would Buck do? Should I call the police? Keep looking? I didn’t know what the fuck to do. Tell me what to do, Buck.
Calm, boy, calm. Remember what I taught you about payback. I heard his voice and knew he was trying to tell me something. He used to tell us about striking back against your enemy, hard and fast, take away the one thing they loved the most. Your enemy should rue the day they decided to fuck with you or anyone in your family. But why payback? Why would someone want revenge against Heaven? She didn’t have any family, and as far as I knew, she didn’t have any enemies. Why would anyone want to hurt a nurse, for fuck’s sake? Like a “Buck slap” to the back of the head, it all became clear. I always win, Maxie.
“FUCK!” I roared in disgust. “FUCKING BITCH”
I jumped in the rental car and sped off toward the mansion. How could I have been so stupid? I should never have left Heaven alone knowing that my mother was lurking in the shadows just waiting to destroy me. She couldn’t leave well enough alone, for once in her miserable life, do the right thing and let me have a little piece of happiness. This time, she’d gone too fucking far, touching my woman, hurting her. Fuck that. I thought about all the ways I would make her pay as I pushed open the front door and took off in search of her. The five-minute drive from Heaven’s apartment back to the mansion sent my rage into orbit. Blood would be spilled this day, I was sure of it. The servants I encountered on my search were instructed to leave immediately; my M4 added the punctuation mark to my demand. I was done playing games. By the time I found her in my father’s room, I seethed with the need to inflict pain on those who were responsible for taking my woman.
There she was, the woman who bore me, getting fucked in the ass by that cocksucker Jeremy while she stretched across my father’s prone body. Her expensive skirt was pushed up around her waist, and she smiled knowingly at me when I entered the room. Stupid fuck Jeremy never stopped pounding into her until I cocked my shotgun and pointed it in their direction. His pussy ass was so scared he pulled out and nutted all over her back before he tripped and fell backwards, hitting his head against the nearby wall. I almost laughed at his shocked-as-fuck expression when he stuffed his cock back inside his pants, and I would have, if I weren’t about to blow a hole through his chest. My mother, ever the well-bred lady of the manor, stood to straighten her clothing and faced me without an ounce of fear on her freshly-fucked face.
“Where. The. Fuck. Is. She?” I bared my teeth. My nostrils flared like a bull’s ready to charge at a moment’s notice. My anger had reached its boiling point. Jeremy could do nothing but look to my mother like the sack-less puck he really was and hoped she could talk me down. Not fucking happening, bitch.
“Well…that certainly didn’t take you long to figure out. Then again, you were always too smart for your own good, Maxie.”
“I asked you a question. Where is she?”
She smiled. Both rows of perfectly straight teeth took over the majority of her face. She thought this was a goddamned joke or a fucking game. That wicked little gleam in her eye pushed all the right buttons. Like a madman, I fired off a shot to the ceiling directly behind her head. The impact destroyed the sheetrock and left a gaping hole, and the noise from the blast caused my ears to ring, but I wasn’t done. I advanced another round and pointed my weapon at her a second time. She’d learn the hard way that this was no empty threat.
“I won’t ask again, Mother. What have you done with Haven?” She squared her shoulders and scoffed in my direction. I was done with her bullshit.
“You came here to find out some information, information I wasn’t ready to share. Now I am.” She sat on the edge of my father’s bed and crossed her legs. She was trying to distract me by stalling, but it wasn’t going to work, not anymore.
“I don’t give a fuck about that shit anymore. Fuck your information. Tell me where I can find Haven.” She didn’t miss a beat. She blew out a frustrated breath and continued.
“Oh, but you should care, my precious little boy. I’ve waited for you to come back for years, planned for the day you returned, so we could finally have everything we ever wanted, and that little cunt thought she could get in my way. Really, Maxie, I’m surprised at you. Did you really think I would let that happen without having a backup plan?”
She stood from the bed and grabbed the pillow from under my father’s head, covered his face with it, and calmly smothered him to death without so much as breaking a nail. She gave me a smug look that said it all. She was capable of anything to get what she wanted, including murder. I pointed my weapon in her direction, her head clear in my sights. All I had to do was pull the trigger and she’d be a wet spot on the wall. She was poison, to me and everyone else around her, but I had to find my girl, and she was the only one who knew her whereabouts. I’d let her live, for now, but just long enough to tell me what I needed to know. Time was running out if I had any hopes of finding Heaven and bringing her back to me where she belonged.
“You two.” I flicked my weapon in their direction. “Get down in the fucking basement, or you’re both dead. Do not test me.”
“I most certainly will not.” Defiance etched on my mother’s face as if she really had a choice.
“I think we should do what he says, Antonia.” Bitch boy finally got up enough nerve to speak.
“Better listen to your boyfriend, ANTONIA. Your life depends on it.” She thought the basement was my nightmare. To find my girl, it was about to became theirs.