15. Chapter 15

Chapter fifteen

Maverick

T he Next Day

Maverick stirred awake and felt the coolness of the air conditioning on his bare skin. His head throbbed from the hangover he was being attacked by and he groaned. Slowly, he pushed himself up and saw a naked woman lying on the pool table next to him. He smirked.

"Damn, that was one hell of a party," he grumbled as he climbed off the pool table. His clothes were in a pile on the floor and he immediately began to get dressed. He looked around to see more naked and half-naked bodies scattered about. Even his mom and dad were passed out on the sofa, sleeping together.

There were some people awake and milling about, cleaning up or preparing the buffet table with breakfast. Maverick groaned as his stomach churned and a wave of nausea rolled through him .

"Fuck." He frowned and then smiled when he saw his grandma, Grand Ol' Lady, placing a tray of eggs on the Shaffer. He walked over to her. "Grandma, please tell me you made a new batch of your remedy."

Aiyanna turned to him and shook her head. "You're twenty-six years old and you still can't handle your fucking liquor?"

"Grandma," Maverick whined. "Come on, give it up. My head and stomach are killing me."

Aiyanna smirked. "Serves you right for being a lightweight. I have to wonder if there's a drop of Irish blood in you."

Maverick scoffed. "Oh, that's a low fucking blow, granny."

Aiyanna giggled, then motioned to the bar. "I brought in a new batch this morning because I just knew some of you idiots were going to be needing it."

"Thank you." He leaned down, kissing her cheek, then went behind the bar to pour himself a shot of the "Good Stuff". Next, he went to the bathroom, because he knew what was coming.

***

Afterward, he rinsed his face off, washed his mouth out, and left feeling so much better, his headache and nausea gone. His big brother rushed past him into the bathroom and Maverick could hear Burger purging. He laughed. "Better out than in, right bro?" he called out.

"Fuck you," Burger said before puking again.

Maverick shook his head and walked over to Bear, who had passed out on the floor. He kicked his foot until the big man moaned and opened his eyes. "Rise and shine."

"Damn, how did I end up on the floor?" he asked as he looked around .

"Fuck if I know," Maverick said with a chuckle. He noticed some of the partygoers weren't there. Either they'd made it to their bedrooms upstairs, like Ace and Ahiga, or they had the wherewithal to get home safely.

The door opened and Maverick turned to see Melissa walking in and he groaned. He also wondered why she was there. He walked over to her but stopped as soon as she pulled the revolver he'd given her for protection from her handbag, aiming it at him.

"Melissa, what the fuck," Maverick said as he looked at her in shock.

"Oh shit," Bear said, then began to rise.

"Don't fucking move!" Melissa yelled, the outburst causing some sleepers to jolt awake. Bear froze, not wanting to set her off.

More and more eyes were on them now.

"Put the gun away, Melissa," Maverick said.

Tears started to roll down Melissa's cheeks, her mascara from last night running. "I... I tried so hard to be a good woman for you," she said, her lip trembling along with her hands.

Maverick nodded. "You did, baby," he said, using the sweet term in his attempt to calm her down.

"I love... you so... much," Melissa said as she began to cry even more, her voice cracking.

"Melissa, think about your kids. They need their mom," Dasan said, now that he was awake along with his wife.

Melissa never took her eyes off Maverick. "They have the club to take care of them."

Maverick's eyes widened, because he realized that Melissa wasn't intending to let him live or herself. "Tell me what you want me to do," he said.

Melissa shook her head. "You won't do it. "

"Yes, I will. You want to be my woman? My old lady?" Maverick asked her.

She nodded. "But I know you won't let me. This is the only way we can be together." She cocked the gun and a loud blast rang through the clubhouse. Anyone who had managed to still be in a drunken stupor at that time was now awake and scrambling, some pulling out their guns.

Maverick's chest was heaving, his heart was beating so fast, it was almost as if he'd just run a sprint. Melissa's blood was splattered all over him and the floor. He looked down to see her on the floor, a huge hole in her torso where the shotgun blast hit her.

"Holy shit," he gasped and turned to see his grandma Aiyanna holding a double-barrel shotgun.

"Ain't no crazy bitch about to hurt my grandbaby," Aiyanna said, then put the shotgun on the bar. She walked over to Maverick just as his parents and brothers did.

"Fuck," Maverick gasped, then nodded when he was asked if he was okay. "I'm good, I'm good."

"Damn it, boy," Dasan said, then hugged his youngest son.

More members came rushing in through the side door from the upstairs rooms, Ace and Ahiga being among them. "What the fuck happened?" Ace asked, then his gaze panned to the floor to see the bloody mess that was Melissa. "Fuck!"

Liliana hugged and kissed her baby boy, then hugged Aiyanna for saving him.

"Don't mention it," Aiyanna said both vocally and with sign language.

Maverick's brothers all hugged him, then his club did the same.

"You need to get your sons," Aiyanna told Maverick .

"I've got them," Burger said as he kicked the door closed behind him, and in his hands were two car seats holding Maverick's twin boys.

"Oh, thank God," Maverick exhaled and ran over to his brother and sons, taking them both from him and putting the car seats on the table. He pulled his boys from the seats one at a time to look them over.

Are they okay? his mom asked.

Maverick nodded, and Liliana scooped up one of her grandbabies while Aiyanna took the other. The women doing their own inspection to make sure Maverick didn't miss anything. A woman like Melissa couldn't be underestimated as far as they were concerned.

"This is a fucking mess," Dasan said, hands on his hips as he looked at the corpse.

"We need to get her the fuck out of here," Ace said.

Dasan nodded. "Maverick, clean yourself up. Ace, Big Dick, and Juno, take care of this. Make sure she can never be found."

"What's the story?" Debbie asked.

"She left town and left the kids at the clubhouse, claiming she just needed us to watch them for a few hours. That she had an out-of-town emergency or something. She never returned. Later on tonight, we call the cops, make a report, and let them handle it. They'll write her disappearance off as another case of someone running away," Ace said.

"Why do we even need to get the police involved?" Ahiga asked.

"Because it'll look more suspicious if you don't. Especially with the DEA keeping tabs on us," Ajay said. He looked down at Melissa and sighed. "Ace is right, you don't want that extra heat. They'll ask questions. Just express how much she wanted to be with Maverick, but they weren't together. So, she couldn't handle being a single mother. That's all you need to tell the police."

"Your expert opinion?" Ace asked .

"If I was investigating, I'd have those types of questions," Ajay said. "There's CCTV video of her coming here and in that outfit. Get someone who looks like they could be Melissa to leave in her car and drive out of the state." He turned to Maverick. "Walk whoever that may be to their car, make it look friendly, you don't want police looking at that footage and forming any opinion."

Maverick nodded. "Makes sense."

Ajay turned back to Ace and Dasan. "Abandon the car at a restaurant near a motel. You want to make it seem like your story holds water. Like she pulled over to eat and that was her last stop. Have whoever is going to not go into the motel, we don't want the people working there to know anything. Pretend like you need to use the bathroom before you eat and then go out the back, and leave with whoever will be traveling with you."

"What about those CCTV cameras?" Ace asked.

"Edit the footage so that it doesn't show her leaving if there are cameras in the area. And if you can edit it in a way that doesn't look suspicious, that's perfect," Ajay said.

"You're certainly trying to earn your place here," Dasan said.

"You're my family now," Ajay said. "You want it to look like she left, that way, they won't have any just cause to get a warrant to search this place."

Dasan scoffed. "Even if they did, we know how to clean up evidence."

"I'll have Diesel get Angel to take care of the CCTV shit," Dasan said.

"I'll drive her raggedy ass car," volunteered Rachel.

"Hey, it's not that raggedy," Maverick fussed since he was the one who'd bought it for Melissa .

"It is because she was driving it," Rachel said. "Anyway, we have similar features, even though I look better."

"Especially now," Bear said.

"Always," Rachel replied. "Stupid bitch should have just accepted that she was a sidepiece." She looked around. "Does anyone have a similar outfit I can wear to match hers?" She picked up Melissa's purse and walked over to the sink to wash it off.

"I do," Gina said, then left to get it.

Maverick watched as his family and club got the ball rolling on cleaning up his mess. The moment he ignored his brother's council not to fuck Melissa, he put this fate into motion. So far, no one was blaming him, but he knew some of them had to be thinking about it.

"I bet you won't fuck with any more crazy bitches again, will you?" Dasan asked him.

Leave it to his dad to say what everyone else was thinking. "I'm sorry. I should have listened to you all."

Dasan just shook his head. "I'm not going to dwell on that shit. I'm just happy you're alive. You know you have full custody of those boys, right?"

Maverick nodded. "I understand."

"I'll help," Rachel said. "I need to call my sitter and tell her I'll be a while."

"Where are you driving to?" Ace asked her.

"Shit. Alabama," she replied.

"I'll trail her," Shadow said.

"Don't use your own car," Ajay said.

"Don't worry... we have protocols for this type of shit," Dasan assured him.

Ajay smirked then. "No wonder we don't have anything on you. "

"We?" Dasan cocked an eyebrow. "Did you forget yourself already?"

Ajay shook his head. "No, sir. I mean, pres. My bad. I meant ‘them'."

"Yeah, correct that shit," Dasan said.

Ajay nodded.

"If you're going to Alabama, so are we," Ace said. "Her body needs to disappear there and if they somehow find her—which is unlikely—at least it won't be on us. No cuts."

Those going on their road trip nodded and began removing their cuts.

"Be careful," Dasan said, then patted Ace's back. "Get started."

***

Maverick washed up in Ace's bathroom, then put on a pair of clothes Nine Iron loaned him. He cleaned off his cut with a solution that cleaned leather but removed all traces of blood and other liquids. After that, he put it back on and looked at himself in the mirror. "What a way to start the day," he said absently. By the time he got back downstairs, he saw that Melissa's body had disappeared. The blood was cleaned up and Shadow, Big Dick, and Ace were already gone, no doubt disposing of Melissa's body in Alabama. His club was efficient as fuck, that was for sure.

Rachel was waiting for him to walk her to the car and she was wearing a similar outfit with the same colors that Melissa had courtesy of his twin, Gina. He walked over to her and both made their way to the car as if it was just a regular morning. Maverick opened the door for Rachel and she turned to him and ran her finger down his chest to his crotch .

"Aren't you acting a bit much right now?" Maverick said, slapping her hand away.

Rachel smiled. "That bitch was thirsty for you, baby. I'm just playing the part of being a begging hoe."

Maverick sighed. "She's the mother of my twin boys."

Rachel shrugged. "She was, now she's not."

"Damn, that's cold," Maverick said and shook his head.

"Hey," Rachel shrugged. "I'm just happy it was her and not you." With that, she climbed inside the car, her big round sunglasses made for great cover. Maverick walked away as she drove off and went back inside the clubhouse.

He sighed and sat down on the sofa and thought about what had happened. He didn't love Melissa, but she was the mother of his children. On that level, he did respect her, but he just couldn't give her what she wanted. He couldn't believe that he had almost died and of all the scenarios he'd thought of where he would meet his end, at the hands of Melissa had never been one of them.

Dasan sat down next to him, patting his knee. "This is probably for the best. You were never going to be her old man and she couldn't handle that shit. It's best that she died instead of those kids, because there's no telling what she could have done to them out of revenge."

Maverick nodded, because he'd heard stories of women and men harming children to hurt the other parent. In that regard, he was happy that it was her and not his innocent boys. If only she could have been like Stacy or Rachel, things would have turned out just fine.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I won't let this happen again, I pro—"

"Don't promise that shit, boy. Because then I'll hold you to it because a man always keeps his word. Your dick makes too many of your fucking decisions for you to keep your vow," Dasan said. "Just be careful. "

Maverick nodded. "Fair enough. I will."

Dasan sighed heavily, then rose from the sofa. "Jesus Christ, what a fucking morning."

"One hell of a welcome home, if you ask me," Beast said, a smirk on his face.

Dasan laughed and slapped his hand. "Tell me about it, brother."

Maverick watched as the club continued to carry on as normal and he knew it was one part, because that was just what they did. The other reason was that they needed it to look that way if they were being monitored.

Yes , Maverick thought, it was one hell of a morning.