His eyes smoldered, all that sternness shifting into desire. In her mind’s eye, she saw him staring down at her as he took her on his bike, trapped between the hardness of steel and chrome against her back and his body over her. “Good. That’s good.”
She nodded. “I really liked last night,” she whispered.
He made a sound like a growl under his breath. “I fucking loved last night. I can’t ride the goddamned Night Rod now without picturing you laid out for me, hair all over the handlebars, legs spread, your clothes wrecked.”
Need settled between Alexa’s thighs as her heart pounded. “Good. Because I can’t stop seeing you over me, riding me, fully clothed while I was all exposed, the hard vibration of the bike rolling through me as—”
Two Ravens Alexa didn’t know spilled out of the mess hall. Maverick’s eyes held frustration and amusement as he clasped hands and said quick good-byes to them. And then his hand was back on her face again, the touch tender and possessive at the same time.
“Now back to me riding you,” he said when the guys left.
Chuckling, she turned her face in his grasp and pressed a kiss against his palm. As the heat in his gaze reignited, the moment felt weighted, significant, full of promise. She sneaked her tongue out to teasingly trace his palm. Mav’s jaw clenched, the look he was giving her like he was a breath from devouring her. Her heart raced and her nipples hardened.
His hand slid from her mouth to her hair. His fingers dug in and hauled her close, her breasts crushing against his chest. Maverick kissed her on a groan she greedily swallowed as her hands went around his neck.
The door to the mess pushed open and a couple more Ravens spilled into the lounge behind them. Alexa gasped into the kiss, instinctively trying to jump back, but Maverick held her fast. “Don’t care about them. Not done with you,” he whispered into her mouth.
A shiver ran through her whole body. The guys said good-bye to Maverick, but he paid them no mind, even when someone laughed good-naturedly at his expense. For her part, Alexa was hyperaware—of the hard press of Maverick’s body against hers, of the shared sweetness of sugar and cinnamon on Mav’s tongue, of being watched by the others.
When Maverick pulled his lips away, he wore the sexiest, most satisfied smile she’d maybe ever seen on his ruggedly handsome face. “Mmm, good morning.”
She smiled and smirked at him. “Good morning to you.”
“Yo, Mav,” Jagger said, coming into the lounge. “I gotta head down to the track to check over a bunch of shit for Monday’s license renewal inspection, but give me a call when you know when you need my help this week.”
Maverick finally released Alexa from his embrace, though he kept her close with his arm around her shoulders. “Will do. We’re heading over to Alexa’s mom’s today to start figuring things out so I should have more details in the next day or two.”
“Good deal,” Jagger said, his fingers tapping against his thigh. A memory came to her—listening to Jagger play his acoustic as a group of them sat at the fire pit out by Maverick’s pond one fall night. The man was self-taught and absolutely amazing. She hadn’t thought of that in years. “Just say the word. See ya, Alexa.” He gave a wave as he headed out the front door.
“Bye,” she said, trying to make sense of the exchange through the haze of lust and nostalgia clouding her brain. “Jagger’s gonna help move my mom, too?”
Mav shrugged like it was obvious. “Of course. Everyone will as much as they can. Before you arrived, Jag reminded me that he’s got a cousin who owns one of those three-guys-and-a-truck moving companies. He’s going to call in a favor to see if he can do the move. We got to talking that if your mom will agree to it, maybe we get her and her most essential things moved as fast as we can, and then we take our time going through the rest. That gets her out of Grant’s crosshairs sooner.”
“Wow. Yeah, that all sounds great, assuming Mom can be brought around to the idea,” Alexa said, the realization sinking in that the Ravens had spent time talking about how to help her and coming up with an actual plan to deal with Grant’s blackmail attempt. It was so unusual to feel like she wasn’t alone that she barely knew what to do with the emotion welling up inside her. “Thank you.”
More Ravens came into the lounge, headed up by Phoenix. He clapped Maverick on the back and gave Alexa a smile. “Okay, we’re heading over to Creed’s to get it ready for your mom. Should I leave the furniture or does she have enough of her own?”
Alexa’s gaze scanned over the small group that included Phoenix, Blake, and a Raven she didn’t know well whose cut read Bandit. “She does have a lot, but it’s not all in the best shape. Maybe leave it until we see what she actually wants to move and what she might need?”
Phoenix nodded and waved, already heading for the door with the others. “That’s a plan. Okay, then, we’re outie.”
“Thank you, Phoenix,” she said, overwhelmed by the generosity all of these men were showing her. Which made her remember . . . “Hey, what was the emergency you had to leave for this morning?”
A storm rolled in over Maverick’s expression. “The situation for one of our clients escalated when her estranged husband tried to break in. The mother called nine-one-one. Sheriff Martin knew she was one of ours so he called us in on it, too. The husband had never done anything like that before so we didn’t have a twenty-four/seven detail on her.” He shook his head, clearly frustrated. “We moved them up here to one of the cabins for the weekend because the kid is so spooked. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the sick fuck had abused her, now she’s scared of him crawling through windows in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, God,” Alexa said, her heart aching for the little family. What would people like them do without people like Maverick and his brothers in the club? What would she have done without them? Once, she’d thought she had nothing in common with the women and families the Ravens helped protect, but now Alexa knew that was just one more thing she’d denied because she hadn’t wanted to see the similarities. “That’s so terrible. Was anyone hurt?”
“Just rattled. Mostly.” His dark expression made it clear there was more he wasn’t saying.
“I’m glad you were there for them,” she said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
His gaze ran over her face, soft and searching. “No, but thank you for offering.”
She nodded and heaved a deep breath. “There are some things I should do before heading over to Mom’s this afternoon.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Maverick said. “Because the faster we sever your remaining ties to Slater, the easier I’ll be able to rest.”
“And the less ways he’ll have to try to hurt or control me,” Alexa said in a low voice.
“Hey.” Maverick tipped up her chin. “Over my dead fucking body is anyone going to hurt you.” He arched a brow.
As much as Alexa appreciated the sentiment, the words unleashed an icy chill all down her spine. “Please, don’t say that, Maverick. I couldn’t . . . it would . . .” She shook her head, the horror of imagining him dying—or even getting hurt—stealing her ability to pull together her thoughts.
“I’m not going anywhere, Al. Don’t you worry.” He took her hand. “Come on.”
But as they headed out into the already hot summer morning, that chill wouldn’t go away. Because she didn’t know what she’d do if something happened to Maverick because of her.
And she hoped she never, ever had to find out.
CHAPTER 22
Alexa was right.
Her mother took the news badly. She yelled, cried, and rocked in her chair, the nastiness of her rants and name-calling more a reflection of her stress than what she truly thought of her daughter. Intellectually, Alexa knew that. It still hurt to hear her mother accuse her of being selfish and stupid and uncaring. Especially when so much of what she’d tried to do these past five years had been about making sure her mother would be taken care of forever.
“How can you do th
is to me, Alexa? How can you do this to me?” her mother cried. It went on and on and on, no matter what she or Lillian said.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I wish this didn’t have to happen—”
“It doesn’t. You can just make up with Grant. Make things better,” she said, ringing her hands against the stack of photo albums she’d hauled into her lap. The stacks of magazines and newspapers around her chair had regrown in height since Alexa had cleaned some out just last week. “Then I could keep this house and all my things.”
Alexa pushed down the hurt that her mother was more worried about losing her junk than why she and Grant had broken up. Not that Alexa had offered the gory details, but her mother seemingly hadn’t even thought to ask. “I can’t, Mom. And I won’t.”
“You could if you wanted to. You could if you cared about me,” she said, her voice nearly a shriek. Her sobs and sniffles filled the tense air.
Wearing a pair of khaki pants and a lavender top, Lillian sat on the end of the couch closest to Mom so she could pass her occasional tissues. “Now, Cynthia, you know your daughter’s relationship has nothing to do with how she feels about you,” she said, trying for the fiftieth time to interject a voice of reason.
“But it does, it does, if she cared about me at all . . .”
“Mom,” Alexa said, guilt threatening to swamp her.
Her mother’s hand stroked over an album with one of her brother’s baby pictures on the cover. “Tyler would never have done this to me.”
Alexa flinched, the words impacting her like she’d been struck.
“Enough!” Maverick yelled.
The room went eerily quiet.
He’d been standing just inside the living room by the door to the foyer for the whole conversation offering Alexa silent strength and the certainty that she wasn’t alone in all this craziness. He hadn’t said a thing through the entire hour-long conversation. Until now.
“Maverick Rylan, don’t you raise your voice at me,” her mother said with a sniff. But not yelling this time.
“I will raise my voice, because you’re not hearing Alexa and she deserves to be heard. If Tyler were here, he’d be raising his voice, too. So I’m saying what he would say because I know you’d respect him enough to want to hear it.” His agitation on her behalf eased some of the sting she felt, and his defense of her made her realize how long it’d been since she’d last had a champion, a defender, someone who’d always have her back. God, it felt good, and it meant everything.
“So, what is it you think he’d say?” Mom asked, dabbing at her eyes.
Maverick stepped up beside Alexa. Frustration rolled off of him, but he did a decent job of reining it in as he spoke. “He’d say Grant Slater is a coldhearted, controlling, abusive bastard. He’d say that Slater hurt your daughter and forcibly threw her out of the house. And he’d say that if those weren’t reason enough, Alexa can’t go back to Slater for the sheer fact that he’s threatening to evict you from here to try to force her to bend to his will. Now I’ve known you most of my life and I know you’ve always loved your kids, so I know there’s no way you’d want that kind of a man or that kind of a life for your daughter. And that because you’re such a great fucking mom, you’ll do whatever you can to protect Alexa, too, just like me. No matter how hard it is.”
Alexa didn’t quite know how to feel about the fact that Maverick had shared all her dirty secrets with her mother, but she had to admit it was the first time since they’d arrived that her mom had stopped yelling and crying. And was actually listening.
“Language, Maverick,” her mother said, no heat to the admonishment at all.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
Her mom looked at her. “Is all that true, baby? Grant hurt you? And he’s blackmailing you, over me?”
Alexa swallowed hard, the heat of shame and embarrassment crawling up her face. She nodded and hugged herself, feeling raw and exposed. But at least it was for a good cause, because Alexa could see that Maverick had gotten through to her mother by appealing to her as a mother. Smart man.
“Oh,” Mom said on a gasp, her hand going to her mouth. “Oh, my poor girl. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was ashamed for you to know,” Alexa said, her gaze dropping to the floor. “For anyone to know.” She felt Mav’s gaze on her, but couldn’t meet it. Not just then.
“Alexa,” Lillian said, “how someone treats you is a reflection of them, not you.”
“I know that,” Alexa said, finally looking at the other woman. “But I also let him get away with an awful lot.” She shook her head, refusing to dwell on her mistakes when there was so much she could be doing to try to fix them. “I’m not doing that anymore, though.”
Lillian’s expression was full of sympathy and approval. “Cynthia, what does learning about the details of Alexa’s situation make you feel?”
“Well, I feel terrible, of course. And obviously she can’t be with someone like that,” Mom said. Regret and trepidation were clear in her voice, but it was as if Maverick’s tirade had flipped some sort of reset switch inside her mom’s mind. And it was closer to an apology than she usually got from her mom. So there was that.
“So how do you feel about giving this move a chance?” Lillian asked.
After a long moment, Mom nodded. “I guess we have to, don’t we?” She nodded again. “So . . . we will.” Alexa felt a weight lift off her shoulders, at least a little. And she had Maverick to thank for bringing her mother around.
“Good,” Lillian said. “Then how about the four of us come up with a game plan that will make this as easy on you as it can be?”
“Fine,” her mother said, a little cantankerousness sliding back into her tone. “But first I’d like to see this new place. Because I can’t plan anything without knowing what kind of place I’m going to and how much space it has.”
“That we can do,” Maverick said. His hand went to Alexa’s lower back, and his thumb slowly stroked like he knew she needed the comfort. She did.
Alexa finally looked at him, and the fierce protectiveness blazing from his dark blue eyes absolutely slayed her. Just sliced right open to the heart of her. Which wasn’t so hard since her heart clearly beat for him. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
He gave her a barely perceptible nod, the intensity of his expression communicating so much. Support. Concern. Need.
“Will you come, Lillian?” her mother asked as she stacked the photo albums on the floor again and rose.
“I’d love to see your new home, Cynthia. Now remember what Alexa said. There’s a crew of men there working to fix it up. So it’s not quite ready for you yet but it will be,” Lillian said. Alexa appreciated the older woman offering the reminder.
“Of course,” Mom said. “Let me just get my purse.” Making her way through a path lined with boxes and stacks of every possible thing, she disappeared back down the hallway toward her bedroom.
Alexa blew out a long breath. “I can’t believe you did that,” she said to Maverick, “or that it worked so well.”
“I couldn’t listen to her continue to berate you when she didn’t know all the facts,” he said, gravel in his voice. “I’m sorry if you didn’t want her to know. But I had to do something.”
“I know that was hard, Alexa, but I think she needed to hear it,” Lillian said. “It pushed her into a place of acceptance and cooperation, which is a start. But be prepared for there to be setbacks and resistance as all this progresses.”
Alexa nodded. “I know.” She turned to Maverick. “And don’t worry. It’s okay.” He gave a tight nod just as her mother returned. Alexa donned a bright smile. “Okay, Mom. Let’s go see your new house.”
She’d only been by Creed’s little rancher before, never gone inside, but no matter what it was like, it would be better than here. Better than something Grant could give—or take away. Creed’s house would be safer and happier for the both of them.
And that was all Alexa had ever wanted for her mom. And herse
lf.
“THIS WILL DO,” Mrs. H said as she, Alexa, and Lillian walked through the rooms of Creed’s house for the millionth time. “This will do just fine.”
Maverick hung back with Phoenix, wanting to give the women privacy, and not wanting to take his anger out on Al’s mom again. He hadn’t really intended to interfere or lose his cool, but he could tell what her mother’s tantrum was doing to Alexa—he could see it in her posture and hear it in her voice—and he couldn’t stand for it to continue for another second, especially when she brought Tyler up that way.
Hanging in the mostly empty living room, he watched as the women went into the kitchen again.
“She took it bad then?” Phoenix asked in a low voice.
Maverick chuffed out a humorless laugh, his gaze tracking Alexa until he couldn’t see her anymore. “You could say that.”
“Seems like she’s come around now, though,” he said.
“Yeah,” Mav said, his gaze scanning over the space. A dark blue couch, coffee table, and end tables were all that remained. The house was a ranch-style with all the rooms on one floor. It had a big combined den and eat-in kitchen that connected past a breakfast bar to the living room. Two decent-sized bedrooms and a bath sat down the hall. More than enough space for one lady, even one with a shit-ton of, well, shit. “You all worked fast here.”
“Wanted to get it emptied out as fast as possible so I could see what work it might need. I called Renner in to help, and I paid the three boys who live next door fifty bucks apiece to haul stuff out to the garbage or the storage pod. Just have to do the master bedroom and I’m done.” Phoenix gestured for Mav to follow him down the hall. “We probably don’t have time to freshen the paint up for her, but other than cleaning the carpets, this is the main thing that I should probably address before she moves in.” He flipped on the bathroom light and knelt by the toilet to pull back the old linoleum. Black mold covered the subflooring underneath. Well, hell. “It’s all soft, so something’s leaking.”
Maverick nodded as his gaze scanned over the old fixtures and the dingy shower. “I got a contractor friend who might be able to help.” Maybe he could get the guy to freshen up the whole room, in addition to fixing the water damage. “And I’ll pay you back for hiring those kids and whatever else you’re laying out.”