CHAPTER 3
MAYA
I’m not sure who Drex is, but I don’t want to know. My body is still trembling, my hands are shaking, and my heartbeat is in my ears. I hate fear. It stinks and makes me feel like someone I’m not.
It was naïve to think I wouldn’t need immediate protection, when I knew the risks coming to this place. Lathan, however, is a little better than I credited him, and caught wind of my arrival in Halo before I even slept one night in my new bed.
Now this…
Is it stupid to ask some random guys with scars, tattoos, and guns to take me home with them? Yes. It’s incredibly stupid. But it’s by far dumber to go anywhere my brother might find me. And he will be looking for me. If I’m going to die, I’d like to at least die at the hands of a stranger, rather than my unhinged flesh and blood.
I was lucky when they pulled up, because it distracted Lathan long enough for me to get out of the locked room he’d shoved me in. My lock-picking skills aren’t a waste after all.
Then, to top off my luck, I was able to sneak into the garage while they talked off to the side. I managed to slip into the back of the SUV, undetected.
Lathan was so high it doesn’t surprise me that he never saw me slip out to where they were. I thought the model guy noticed me, but he never acted like he did. Until he got in the vehicle.
“Can I ask your names?” I ask the two silent guys up front as we slow to a steady crawl in front of a massive warehouse right in the middle of town. This is their clubhouse? Talk about no discretion or privacy.
It’s tucked away between more buildings—nothing at all like I would have expected.
“Snake and Axle,” the model says, not telling me which is which as they get out.
I hop out and follow, running close behind the one with scars whose voice sounds like sex to my ears. I’ve never wanted to fuck a voice more than I want to his. Yeah, I’m a crazy girl, but damn. It’s all deep and rough, almost as though he’s trying to seduce you with mundane words and succeeding without effort.
“I’m Maya,” I tell them, even though they don’t seem the least bit interested. “Maya Black,” I mutter under my breath as I sigh.
A door opens for them, and a guy with a beard and a bald head looks at me with surprise.
“Picked up a stray?” he asks.
“Drex’s problem. Lathan is a junkie,” the model tells him.
Still not sure which one is Axle and which one is Snake.
“Damn it. I told him he had to investigate these guys,” the bald guy growls.
“Herrin set it up. Not Drex,” the model adds before walking farther into the warehouse. “But we’re making Drex deal with the stray.”
I continue following like it’s my right to just bust up in their warehouse, and I move close to the side of the sex-voice guy as my breath catches in my lungs. There are people everywhere, and it looks like we’re walking into the middle of a party.
Loud music is blasting in the center of the room as girls dance for the guys, climbing in and out of their laps. I’m fairly positive that someone is fucking against the wall. I won’t look close enough to be certain.
I’ve been in the middle of plenty scandalous parties, but it’s a different breed here. Everyone is rough and…some are dirty…
In my element, I can rock these parties. However, this is not my element. I’m in pajamas to top it all off.
Feeling incredibly uncomfortable and like the new girl in school, I lean against Mr. Sex Voice, who jerks away from me like I’ve just slapped him.
When I look up, he’s glaring down at me, keeping at least a foot between us. I’m tempted to sniff myself and see if I stink or something.
In the light, I see his scars so much better. One gnarly scar runs the length of his face on one side and curls under his bottom lip. It’s deep, and it had to be painful. Some smaller ones are also on his face, marring what would be flawless perfection.
He cuts his gaze away from me and stalks off, leaving me on my own as a few whistles break out and eyes swing my way. I inch a little closer to the model guy, who is getting a drink.
“Are you Axle or Snake?” I ask him loudly to carry over the music.
He turns toward me with a coldness that wasn’t there earlier.
“I’m not interested, if that’s what you’re hinting at.” His eyes drop lower, like he’s appraising me and finding me dissatisfactory before his eyes meet mine again. “My girl would tear you apart for even trying. She has pretty claws.”
My eyebrows go up in surprise. Surely I’m not giving off a flirty vibe, considering he’s not my type. Never been much for the blindingly gorgeous kind.
“I was just making conversation,” I grumble, repeating what I said earlier.
He returns his attention to the party, ignoring me, acting like it’s my conversation skills that need work. My eyes flit around the room, looking for the one who abandoned us. It’s too chaotic to really tell if he’s anywhere close, but a blonde-haired girl walking toward us has my attention when she flashes a big smile.
She looks vaguely familiar, but I have no idea why.
“Hi,” she says brightly, bouncing close to the guy at my side.
His arm drops around her shoulders, and he kisses the top of her head.
“Hi,” I say back lamely.
She continues to smile while looking around, and I awkwardly stand in place.
“You came in with Snake?” she asks, glancing between us.
At least I know who Snake is now.
“I needed to escape, and Axle and Snake happened to have wheels,” I explain, remembering what Snake said about her claws.
My eyes dart down to see her perfectly manicured nails, and I wonder if she’s ever actually been in a fight.
Her eyes brighten, and her sweet smile grows. No way is this girl a fighter.
“I’m Sarah. Snake’s girl. You really shouldn’t be here dressed like that. The guys…are a little rough here.”
I glance down at my skimpy pajamas and shrug.
“I can handle my own—”
“Says the girl who cowered in our backseat from her brother and begged for our protection,” Snake cuts in.
“Play nice,” Sarah hisses, gently elbowing him in the ribs.
Snake just grabs a beer from the bar behind us and starts drinking as he pulls Sarah closer to his body. He doesn’t know anything about me, so I understand that the circumstances are misleading, and it’s not like I can explain the truth of the situation.
“Why do you need protection?” she asks seriously.
It’s hard to hear her, but I still manage.
“Long story.”
She darts a glance at her boyfriend just as he gets called away. I take notice that more eyes are on us now, watching me with undisguised curiosity.
I guess I stick out, considering I’m wearing a small camisole and very short, thin pajama shorts. I have on zero makeup, my hair is barely brushed, and I have on my ugliest sneakers to top it all off, since Lathan’s goons barely allowed me enough time to grab shoes at all.
Not my best first impression.
“You’re in deep shit, aren’t you?” Sarah asks, losing the bright look in her eyes as it changes to something a little colder.
“Yeah. A little bit. I can’t go home right now, so I’m trying to convince Axle to let me stay. I didn’t realize…this is a little more than I was expecting.”
I gesture around to the wild party, noting all the guns I see. Guns don’t make me nervous, but when they’re attached to a bunch of drunk brutes, that’s when anxiety creeps up.
Sarah shakes her head.
“You need to stick close to me, but you can’t stay here. There are some guys here who don’t wait for consent.”
That didn’t even cross my mind. My stomach tilts when I think of how stupid it was for that to not cross my mind. My father always kept his men in check, so even though I grew up in a similar—slightly more refined—environment, it wasn’t as unsafe as this one.
The guys there wore Armani, but they still packed the same Glock as these guys have on their Wrangler hips.
“What’s going on with you?” she asks. “Maybe I can help.”
Not sure how she can help. “My brother wants me dead.”
She nods like that isn’t completely shocking. “Sucks when people want you dead. Why?”
It’d be too risky to tell her all the details, so I stick to the story I gave Axle and Snake.
“I have money and he wants it. My parents cut him out of the will before their deaths because he was deep into drugs. They left everything to me, and all he had was his original trust fund that is probably gone.”
She starts to speak, when suddenly my eyes land on a returning figure, and my stomach flips over. Dark angel is an accurate description. I just wish his jaw didn’t tic every time he looked at me.
Sarah’s eyes follow mine, and we watch as he talks to a guy who is reading the screen of his phone like there isn’t a party going on around him. The guy looks up, confused, then they both cut their eyes toward me.
Shit.
Now I have two guys staring at me like they can’t stand the sight of me. But my options are limited and I’m a little desperate to stay here. Despite the cold glower, Axle did get me away from Lathan, and he did bring me here.
Axle might be a stone on the outside, but he obviously has a heart somewhere inside that massive, firm, very distracting chest of his.
Right?