Allie:
“There’s just so much to explore in the world for me to be locked down in one spot you know? That’s why I’ve never settled on a traditional career path.”
I took another sip from my beer to keep from rolling my eyes. The last 25 minutes had been spent listening to this guy go on and on about how he didn’t conform to the norms but he just sounded so stupid.
My attention kept drifting back towards the doorway Maverick had gone through. The doorway to the stairs that lead to the dorms.
“So have you ever been anywhere outside of California?” I tried to seem interested but my mind kept replaying the way he’d looked at me before disappearing out of sight. He wanted me to see him take that girl up there. Wanted me to care. The look in his eyes burning into me with the anger of an unkempt animal. It was scary and lustful all at once. I smirked to myself knowing he’d be thinking of me. Good.
I could care less that he was doing up there with her. He could’ve been up there with every girl in this place. He wasn’t mine and I didn’t want him to be. But he was intriguing to me and I wanted to find out why.
“Well no but -”
“Excuse me.”
I could feel myself losing brain cells from that conversation so I excused myself as politely as possible to go outside for a smoke. An arm soon wrapped around my shoulder and I looked up to see Nate. The same arrogant smile on his face.
“Where you heading off to, gorgeous? Can’t let you off this lot without an escort.”
I motioned my head towards the door. “Hate to break it to you but if I really wanted out it wouldn’t be too hard, but for now you’re welcome to escort me outside for a smoke.”
“Cocky little thing aren’t you?”
I smirked, grabbing his hand in mine. He laced our fingers and led me towards the door when we heard my mom’s voice yelling in the crowd.
My head snapped back to see her arguing with a red headed woman, dressed like the rest of the strippers and club hang arounds. I let go of Nate and walked over to see what was going on and he followed close behind.
“You’ve had twenty years and you’re still nothing but a goddamn crow eater!” Mom yelled.
“You think you’re better, bitch? From what I heard you jumped from one cock to the next just to end up back here with the rest of us!”
I couldn’t explain what came over me but one second she was yelling, the next my fist was connecting with her nose. A crunching sound was heard before she shrieked and fell back onto the floor.
“Don’t you ever fucking compare my mother to you, bitch!” I stood over the woman, yelling down at her.
The red head kicked up at me and I heard mom screaming at her but I couldn’t make out what she said.
“Ah shit!” Nate muttered as he pulled my mom away.
I felt strong arms around my waist and lift me off the ground to pull me away and I swung to get free but the figure holding me was solid. A familiar feeling of helplessness came over me and I panicked, thrashing harder to get free until I heard the loud, booming voice of Duke.
“Enough!”
The entire room went silent and the arms finally set me down but kept me pressed against their hard chest. I looked up to see Maverick holding me. His face was hard as a rock as his angry gaze shifted between Duke and I.
“Duke!” The redhead got up from the floor and ran over to him. Her arms wrapped around his waist. “They’re crazy! Look what they did to my face!”
Duke shoved her away into Tex. Anger and disgust written on his face. “Get her out of here.”
Tex nodded and grabbed the woman by her arms to drag her away as blood rushed down her face. I saw mom looking at Duke, arms crossed over her chest before she stormed away. My eyes caught sight of the leather vest she was wearing. Property of Duke with the club’s logo on it. I’d seen the vest on Marla and two other women. They were the Old Ladies and they each got a property patch. Now Vivian was wearing one.
I met Duke’s gaze and he opened his mouth to speak but I pulled away from Mav to follow my mom. I didn’t need to hear what he had to say. Be it a lecture or an explanation of who that woman was. I didn’t care enough.
The only thing I cared about was finding of why in the hell she had that vest on.
“I can’t fucking believe that man!” She huffed out in an aggravated breath as she slammed her fist on the picnic table outside.
“And why the fuck not?” I yelled, catching her by surprise.
“What’s your problem?” She crossed her arms defensively over her chest, looking up at me.
“You want to talk about my problem? Why don’t you start by telling me what it is you’re doing here? The moment we got here you’ve been all over him, trying to bring back whatever the fuck you had. Why don’t you tell me why the fuck you have that vest on? Why the fuck are you acting like you run the place? Like we’re here to stay?”
“Allie, calm down. I love the man! Okay?! Is that so wrong? I love him! What I had with your father, I’ve never had with anyone else! We did come here to stay! I’m sorry. I should’ve told you, but we’re not going back. This is home now.”
My jaw dropped and my stomach felt like it had too. I should’ve known. I should’ve known that she would pull something like this. I should’ve paid more attention. I knew we weren’t going back to New York, but I wasn’t staying here.
“Honey,” her voice lowered into a soothing tone as I sunk down onto the bed trying to wrap my head around this. “I know you think I’m being selfish but this is my home. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. I was never able to give you a home and I regret that with every fiber of my being but this is where I belong, where we belong.”
“You’ve always made the worst decisions. Whether it was in jobs, in men, or in houses. I’m done following you into burning buildings. I’m done trying to rescue you from yourself mom. You can stay, you’re a grown ass woman, but I won’t be here.”
“Allie,” she took my hands in hers. “You know I love you more than anything in this world. I’m asking you give this a real chance. For me.”
Maverick:
“I cannot believe he’s leaving me on babysitting duty.” I downed the rest of my beer as I vented to Nate. “I should be going to that meeting with Duke, not sitting back and making sure his daughter don’t get herself killed.”
Nate smirked, looking at the doorway as she walked through. One thing was for sure, she wore her feelings right on her sleeve. Not sparing either of us a glance, she walked right past to go up the stairs, disgust and disappointment written on her face. He leaned his elbows back on the bar as he shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know brother, I could think of a million ways to keep myself entertained with her rather than go to a bullshit meeting with her dad.”
“You heard Carver, she ain’t here to be fucked with. Duke would have our dicks hung on his mantel for even talking about her like that.”
“Yeah, well it don’t seem like she cares what he thinks. Besides, she looks like she’d be one wild ride in the sack.”
He laughed as he took a swig from his bottle. I shook my head, staring at the counter. He had a point but that didn’t matter. Never had I been as conflicted about fucking a girl. Maybe because it had never felt as prohibited as this did. Nate hadn’t stopped eyeing her since she got here, neither had Pyro and now Hawk, and some hang-arounds. As friendly as she’d seemed, she hadn’t been quite as close to them as she’d gotten with me. At least to my knowledge.
We’d hung around for a another hour until Duke came out from the meeting room. With his old lady pissed at him, he hadn’t said a word to anyone until it was time to round up the troops and go meet the head of The Tribe. He took Carver and Tex with him. I couldn’t hide the fact that I didn’t agree with his decision to keep me here but as he was my president, I had to respect it.
Boonie and Bomber left hours ago, Boonie’s old lady had caught a hell of an attitude since getting pregnant. She couldn’t be around the club for more than a few minutes without the smell of smoke and alcohol getting her sick. Bomber’s old lady just had a nasty attitude to begin with but she had learned her place.
Hawk and Pyro were still hanging around playing pool to keep themselves entertained while Nate was upstairs with a sweetbutt and two of the prospects were out babysitting Duke and Carver’s old ladies. I’d kept my eye out for Allie to come back down but I hadn’t heard so much as a peep from her since after the fight with Rosie, the resident club rat.
I went up the stairs to see what was up. With everything I’d gathered from her in the last two days, her being quiet wasn’t a good thing. There was no sound coming from her door and when she didn’t answer to my knocking I felt a panic rising in my chest. If this bitch had run off it would be my fucking ass on the line.
Without hesitating, I swung the door open to see her asleep on the bed. She was curled up on her side facing away from me, still in her jeans and tank top from earlier. Relief fell over me and I placed my hands on my hips to exhale before she turned around, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she looked up at me.
“Mav?” Her voice was small, childlike.
“Yeah.” I cleared my voice. “Hadn’t seen you in a while, came to check in.”
She nodded, turning back around to curl into her pillow.
Something wasn’t right. She sounded – sad? There was no aggression in her tone. No life. She hadn’t made any quick-witted remark about me checking up on her. She just turned back around. This was definitely not like her.
I knew I should just go back downstairs but I pushed. “Hey, you alright?”
No response.
I stepped closer and she hid her face from me. Placing a hand on her shoulder, I gently moved her face off the pillow to see she’d been crying. With a personality as tough as she had appeared, it didn’t seem likely that she’d just cry but it was hard to imagine how much shit she’d been through this last week. Any person in her position would’ve broken down.
“Hey, hey.” I pulled her up into my arms. Her head resting against my chest careful not to hurt her cheek. I brushed her hair with my hand as her tears soaked into my t-shirt. “It’s alright. It’s going to be alright. You’re safe now.”
She cried harder at the words as I rocked us back and forth lightly. I didn’t know what to say. Her life had taken a whole new turn that she couldn’t have prepared for if she tried. And I wasn’t a therapist or even a nice enough guy to know how to deal with this. This right here was the main reason I didn’t get involved with women yet here I was with my president’s daughter bawling her eyes out into my chest.
“Let’s get some air. Huh? I’ll roll us up a blunt. Grab us some beers.” I offered, trying to think of anything to say to make her stop crying. “Come on peaches.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes on her tank top before getting up to go wash her face. I headed downstairs to grab some beers and grabbed a pre lit joint from my room before I walked up to the roof. Just as expected, there she was laying on the blanket staring at the night sky all over again, though to my disappointment she had on more clothes than last time.
“Here.” I offered her a bottle as I sat next to her.
She took a pull, her eyes reddened from her tears as she lowered them to stare at the bottle. I wasn’t sure what to say or if she wanted me to say anything, but there was no way I was leaving her alone.
Lighting the blunt, I took a pull before passing it to her. Keeping her high may have been the only way to keep her sain and I was fine with that. She was nicer this way.
“Thanks for this. I know you’d rather be down there balls deep in some blonde.” She finally said after a while.
“You get tired of that after being here as long as I have. More times than not I prefer to be up here by myself. Lets me regroup after shit with the club.”
“Is it really as dangerous as Viv makes it out to be?”
“Could be. Has been. Might be.” I shrugged. “There are other clubs in the area, we try to maintain a peace but one club, the same one you’re pops sent you away from, they’re inching in on our territory again. “
“And what happens if they do?”
“If Duke and their pres can’t come to and understanding then we go to war.”
She nodded her head, looking back down again staring blankly at her bottle. “Is Duke really a cold hearted killer like I’ve heard?”
“Come on, peaches. Is that really how you want to think of him?” I laid back on the blanket, taking a pull from the joint.
“Trust me, what I think of him is a lot worse.”
Her words were cold, but there was still no passion behind them. It was as if the life was knocked out of her and she was just an empty shell. Exhaustion had hit her like a ton of bricks and I was surprised to see how much I felt for her.
“He’s a good -”
“Don’t.” She stopped me, finishing the remainder of her beer.
I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to change her mind about her father but it wasn’t my job or my place too.
“It took some balls to do what you did.” I said, trying to get her to talk more but got nothing from her. “I wish I could’ve been there for my ma, but it was too late. My dad was a drunk, just like your stepdad. He beat the shit outta her almost every night. One night he’d gone too far and killed her. Turned himself in once he sobered up and I was put in foster homes till I turned 18. Club took me in after that.”
She looked up at me, tears threatening to fall again before she wiped them away. “I can’t stay here.” She whispered, the sound of her voice shaking. “Viv wants to, but this just proved to me that no matter what I do, she’ll never want more from her life than to be someone’s property. I can’t live my life watching her make one bad choice after another. It just goes to show you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved, Mav. All of this was for nothing.”
“Duke ain’t going to hurt your mom, Allie. He’s nothing like your stepdad.”
“Yeah, well he ain’t much better either. She couldn’t find herself a regular guy. One with a normal job and a normal life. Live in a good home with a white picket fence and a dog. That’s what she deserves, but she’ll never not be attracted to men who treat her like shit. She may want to stay here, but I ain’t going to. I can’t.” She stood up, brushing herself off. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I nodded, watching as she went back downstairs. She wasn’t going no where for the time being. Not with Leo looking to kill her and now Tribe troubles going on. Duke would have my ass if anything happened to her but I didn’t want anything to happen to her neither. She had looked so small and vulnerable tonight, brought out something primal in me. I had to protect her. As tough and as loud as she liked to act, she was still human. She was still afraid.
**Note: I just wanted to say thank you again to Stefanie who donated $5. Thank you so very much! I hope you enjoy the update!