Empire of Savages (Savage Hunt MC #1)

31. Alex

Chapter 31

Alex

It had been almost an hour since Nick had left, and the longer he was away, the more my anxiety tightened around my throat. Myla was playing pool with another girl around her age in the bar. Knowing that she was being carefully watched by the other women, I retreated to the quiet of Nick’s bedroom. I hadn’t heard from him yet, and I hadn’t heard anything more from Hayes after I’d warned him of what was coming. I knew deep in my gut that he would’ve told my father, but I’d made peace with that. If it saved Hayes’s life, that was all that mattered.

Flopping down onto the bed beside Lucifer’s warm body, I let out a deep breath and closed my eyes. Meditation had helped me in the past, and I was hoping it would provide me with a little clarity now. As I let my mind drift, I sank into the mantras I’d used in the past.

You are safe.

Your feelings are valid.

Your fears don’t control you .

Over and over again, I repeated them, willing my mind to accept them as truth. I’d done what I could to keep Hayes out of the line of fire. Nick would also be safe. He’d promised me. Everything else was out of my control. And with that realization, a sense of peace washed over me. I listened to the thumping of my heart in my ear, the way the air from my deep exhales brushed past my lips—warm and slightly damp. Nick’s scent hung in the air, mixing with the distinct musk of Lucifer, who was pressed against me from hip to thigh.

You are safe.

Your feelings are valid.

Your fears don’t control you .

My train of thought was broken by the intrusion of my ringing phone.

Nick.

I grappled quickly for the phone, pulling it from my pocket, but my blood instantly turned cold when I saw the number on the screen.

With shaking hands, I answered the call. “What do you want?” I snapped. But Maddox didn’t say anything. Instead, there was a muffled scream, and the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.

“Shut her up,” Maddox snarled, just as Bliss screamed my name. I clutched the device harder, my heart slamming against the bone cage around it.

“Bliss? Bliss ! Let her go!” They had to have got her when she was in my apartment, but how in the hell did they get in there? There were guards. There were supposed to be guards on my apartment the whole time… only there weren’t. Oh shit. Every available man had been pulled into the pending war, which meant my garage—and Bliss—had been left unprotected.

“No, I don’t think so, baby,” Maddox finally said. “Since you can’t pay me the money you owe me, I’m going to take something of value away from you… unless…”

I clung to that conjunction. “Unless what?”

“Meet me at the garage. We can negotiate.”

“I can’t leave.”

He chuckled. “I heard about the trouble between the Devils and the Hunt. Whose side are you on?”

Squeezing my eyes shut, tears leaked from their corners. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t leave. The place is locked down.”

Bliss started to scream again, this time sounding like she was desperately fighting for her life. The cadence of her voice sliced against my skin like a thousand cuts. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. I refused to let anything happen to her.

“If you want to save your friend from being fucked in two by Reaver, you’ll find a way out.”

“Wait—”

The line went dead.

Ice washed over me, helpless tears sprung into my eyes, and my brain turned frantic. Something hard and furry was suddenly against my palm, and I looked down. Through the frustrated and scared tears, I saw Lucifer standing there.

“I have to get her back,” I told him. But the clubhouse was sealed tighter than Fort Knox. There wouldn’t be a good enough reason to go outside other than…

I looked around for Lucifer’s collar and lead. I found them on Nick’s dresser, and I quickly snapped the collar in place, then clicked on the lead. Nobody would stop me from taking the dog out to pee, surely.

When I stepped out in the hall, I found the space deserted, but the noise from the bar area told me that was where most people were still congregating. I walked down the hall and checked every door toward the end until I found one that opened out on the back of the building. Sliding through it silently, I led Lucifer around the side and got a look at the security.

There were at least half a dozen men standing around, many of them in groups of two as they patrolled. Stepping out with Lucifer’s lead clutched in my hand, I chose the look-like-you-belong option and walked with confidence toward the gate.

There was one prospect standing guard. “You can’t leave,” he told me, eying Lucifer warily. “Kaash’s orders.”

Mustering all my skills from being my father’s daughter, I looked the guy in the eye and said, “The dog is going stir-crazy. I need to get him out of here.”

“Sorry. Nobody in or out without permission.”

I didn’t have time for this shit. Every second that Bliss was with Maddox, was a second of trauma she wouldn’t be able to solve without therapy.

“Rixon gave me permission,” I stated boldly, holding his eyes. If there was one thing my father had taught me, it was that people often backed down from overt displays of dominance.

His gaze flickered to Lucifer, then back to me. “Stay close to the compound,” he told me, finally relenting and letting me through the side gate. As I walked onto the street, he yelled out, “And stay where I can see you.”

“Like fuck,” I muttered under my breath. Rounding the corner out of view, I pulled out my phone, bringing up a ride share app and booking a ride.

Only a few minutes passed before the prospect called out again. “Are you still there? I told you to stay where I could see you.”

“Come on, come on, come on,” I muttered under my breath, watching the little car icon move closer to my location. Glancing up the road—about a hundred yards away—a set of headlights flashed around the corner.

“Hey!” the prospect called again, the distinct sound of a metal bolt scraping through the hook sending a wave of nausea through me. The whine of the gate opening made sweat bead on my brow. “Come on, bitch, don’t make me come out there,” he added in a hard voice.

The car rolled to a stop beside me, the driver lowering his window. “You Alex?”

“Yeah,” I replied, hastily opening the rear door and motioning for Lucifer to get in first before I slid in after him. “Go!”

The car rolled forward, the automatic locking mechanism sliding into place.

Bursting through the gate, the prospect yelled, “Hey!” He lunged for the door handle, cursing when it didn’t give. He slammed his fist against the glass.

“Maybe you should get out,” the driver said, unsure.

“I’ll give you an extra hundred if you floor the gas pedal right now.” I threw the note into the front seat, and the guy slammed his foot on the gas. The car lurched forward, and I watched the prospect’s expression go from anger to oh fuck in a second.

“You on the run or something?” the guy asked.

“No.”

“That guy looked like he didn’t want you going anywhere. Are you in danger?”

“No, not in danger.” I was silent for a beat, then said, “He was my brother. He didn’t want me going out tonight.”

He seemed to buy that story, but he was still eyeing Lucifer through his rearview mirror as he turned down Schaefer Road. “That thing looks vicious.”

I rested my hand on the dog’s head, giving him a scratch behind his ear. Lucifer’s mouth popped open, his tongue rolling out. “He’s a teddy bear. Can you go any faster please?”

The guy upped his speed by two miles an hour, and I clenched my jaw, not believing for a second that he had an issue with casual speeding, so that little increment was a fucking joke.

He asked, “You in a hurry?”

“Yes.”

We were quiet for a little while longer before he spoke again. “So, you’re going to your boyfriend’s place?”

“I don’t see what business it is of yours,” I snapped, the anxiety of knowing Bliss was in the company of Maddox and Reaver leaving my nerves frayed. I blew out a breath. “Sorry. I don’t mean to snap at you, but I’ve got a lot happening right now. I just need you to get to my apartment as fast as possible. Can you do that?”

The guy didn’t say anything more as he drove me to the garage, and when Lucifer and I got out of his car, he didn’t even acknowledge me when I thanked him. Pushing the asshole’s behavior to the side, I needed to focus on what was important and that was getting Bliss out of there safely. The car took off with a squeal of tires, and as I looked up at the building, I absently wondered where that sort of energy was when he was driving me here.

“Took you long enough,” Maddox drawled casually from the doorway into the garage, drawing my attention to him. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “I almost let Reaver have a little fun with her.”

I came marching forward—all my fear leaving me and being replaced by bravado at his insinuation. “You better not have harmed her, you bastard.”

Maddox laughed. “There’s that fire I know and love.” His eyes narrowed on Lucifer. “The mutt stays down here.”

Lucifer started to growl.

Clutching at the lead a little more tightly, I shook my head. “No.”

Maddox practically rolled his eyes at my defiance, took out his gun, and aimed it at Lucifer.

Time seemed to slow. I screamed for him to stop, but the sound of the gun left my ears ringing. Lucifer made the most pitiful yelping sound before slumping to the ground. I dropped to my knees in front of him, pressing my hands over the wound to his rump. There was so much blood it was hard to see how bad the wound was, but it had to have been bad because Lucifer didn’t make so much as a peep when I applied pressure.

Maddox wrenched me up from the ground by my upper arm and dragged me inside.

“No! You can’t leave him there like that,” I yelled, struggling to free myself. Maddox’s grip was too tight, though, and he yanked me backward, the door slamming shut between me and the only ally I had. With a grunt of annoyance, Maddox threw me onto the stairs, shoving me forward with a hand between my shoulder blades, the force of his actions making me trip up the treads.

The farther we climbed, the louder Bliss’s sobs became until they were spilling out on the landing like blood. Maddox shoved me down outside my apartment door. Sprawled on the carpet, I peered through the curtain of my hair to the doorway beyond. Bliss was on the couch, which had been turned to face the door. She was shaking with silent tears, the t-shirt she was wearing torn at the sleeve, but otherwise intact. Behind her, Reaver held a knife pressed to her throat.

“Bliss, are you okay?” I asked, shoving myself back to my feet and rushing into the room. I fell to my knees in front of her, clutching her hands in mine. My attention was drawn to Reaver, though, when he pulled out a gun and aimed it at me.

“I’m okay,” Bliss told me with a tight voice. “I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay…”

Her repetition made me think that she was not okay and possibly going into shock. The trauma that would follow her around after this would be immense, and my guilt stabbed at me again.

“I must say,” Maddox began, still standing behind me. “I was very surprised to find Bliss here tonight in your bed instead of you.”

I shot him a scathing look over my shoulder. “Let her go. She has nothing to do with this.”

Maddox shook his head, a sinister laugh bubbling out of him. “No, I think I might just keep her. She’ll fetch a pretty price”—the savage look in Maddox’s eyes left my entire body cold—“when we sell her to the Bratva. Or the Yakuza. Actually, the Yakuza would pay top dollar for a white girl. If we get a good enough price for her, I might sling you a couple of bucks as a finder’s fee, Alex. It might even pay off some of your debt to me.”

Tears glistened in Bliss’s eyes as she let out a quiet, “No.”

“You can’t,” I told him, almost choking on the bile that bubbled up my throat. Bliss thought her sister had been taken by the Savage Hunt, but was Maddox involved somehow instead?

Staring in Bliss’s eyes, I felt the stabbing guilt transforming into the crawl of a thousand spiders all over my body. All of this was my fault. Bliss wouldn’t have even been on Maddox’s radar if it wasn’t for me.

“Take me,” I said, eyes still fixed on Bliss. When I turned to Maddox, his expression was pensive, his head cocked to the side as he waited for me to speak. “Take me instead. Let Bliss go. That way, you’ll get your money back when you…” I hesitated over the words, feeling my throat tighten. “Sell me. I’ll come with you willingly if you promise to leave Bliss alone forever.”

“Alex, no,” Bliss whispered behind me.

“The younger girls bag us more money,” Maddox replied, walking to where Bliss was sitting and running his index finger along the neck of her shirt. “Virgins get us even more. Why would I take you in her place? Believe me, Alex, nobody would believe you were a virgin.”

This was it. My bargaining chip. My only leverage. My father had said there were people looking for me. It was clear that Maddox was more than who he was pretending to be. I had to hope that he had been looking for me, too. “Imagine how much more you could get for the daughter of the Devil’s Chaos president.”

His eyes narrowed. “Bullshit.”

Licking my dry lips, I said, “My real name is Alexis La Croix. Daughter to Talon La Croix. You could sell me back to the club—get double the money you’d get if you sold me to the Bratva or the Yakuza.”

Maddox’s dark eyes flickered from me to Reaver, then back again before he burst into laughter. “You expect me to believe you’re the estranged daughter of Talon La Croix?”

My jaw tightened as his laughter continued. I could feel Bliss’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t look at her—not until I secured her freedom. Releasing her hands and reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and held it out to Maddox. “I’ll call him right now.”

Without hesitation, I found my father’s number and hit the call button. It rang twice before my father’s frantic voice barreled down the line. “Alex, thank Christ. Lawson told me about the text you sent him. We got out before they could hit. Tell me you’re okay. Tell me?—”

Maddox snatched up my phone, ended the call, and tucked it into his pocket. “Reaver, release the girl. We’re going to keep Alexis instead,” he sneered.

Reaver took the knife blade from Bliss’s throat, and she pitched forward. In her desperation to get away from Reaver, she landed awkwardly onto the floor. Scrambling to her hands and knees, she attempted to come toward me, but Maddox pulled his gun and shoved it into her face.

“She just saved your life. Leave before I change my mind.”

Bliss shot me one last desperate look before she ran from the apartment and down the stairs. Now that it was just me, Maddox put away his gun and took a seat on my couch—casually lounging there like he had all the time in the world—while I remained kneeled before him.

“So, you’re La Croix’s long-lost daughter?” he said, and I had the sense that the question was rhetorical. “I’ve been trying to get La Croix to play nice with me for a long time, and I knew the most powerful leverage I could gain over him would be to find his daughter. But by all accounts, she’d vanished almost ten years ago. There was even a rumor that you’d died. How strange that I would be the one to find you.” With lightning quick reflexes, he leaned forward, wrapped his strong fingers around my jaw, and yanked my face toward him. “How strange that I would be the one to break you .”

“You’re the one who’s been going after my father?” I asked, pulling back, trying to stop the wave of hot breath beating against my face.

Maddox dug his fingers in a little harder until my jaw ached. “No,” he replied. “If I had to guess, I’d say that was the Hunt, but their destruction has certainly been welcome. La Croix is fucking running scared, and when he finds out I have you, he’ll do whatever I tell him to.”

To have that sort of power over my father, he couldn’t be just a loan shark, or businessman as he’d told me he was. “Who are you?” I whispered.

“Who am I?” he asked loudly, looking to Reaver. “I guess it can’t hurt to tell you now. Who am I, Reaver?”

“Maddox Lynham. Bastard son of Killian Kavanaugh, head of the Kavanaugh Crime Family.” Reaver’s tone was monotone. Cold.

“Bastard son of Killian Kavanaugh,” Maddox repeated. “ Bastard .” He punctuated the word with a shake of his hand, his grip tightening. “I’m the son my father barely recognizes. The son who was birthed by a whore. The son who has to prove he’s worthy of the Kavanaugh name. But I’m the son who will bring the biggest distribution deal to dear old dad, and you’re going to help me do it. My father wants that Merida contract, the one currently held by the Devils, and I’m going to be the one to give it to him. Me! Not my fucking asshole half-brother, Aidan. Me !”

Maddox finally released my jaw, shoving me away from him and began pacing, scrubbing his hand over his face as he thought.

Striding forward, he hauled me up by my arm, torquing my shoulder into an unforgiving angle. Pain speared through the joint, but I held back the cry of agony. There would be no mercy from Maddox—not until he got what he came for.

“Reaver,” Maddox barked. “Let’s go.”

Reaver moved around the back of the couch, holstering his gun as he headed toward the apartment door.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

Tightening his fingers, he hissed into my ear, “You know I’ve been doing some digging into that limp-dicked asshole you’ve been spreading your legs for. And now it all makes perfect sense. The only reason he’s sniffing around you must be because he’s using you to get his revenge.” When I didn’t react, he shook me violently, making my teeth rattle. “Did you hear me, baby?” He sneered over the pet name he used to use with affection. “Nick is just another man using you for his own end. He knows your father pulled the trigger, firing the bullet that killed his brother. He knows the only way to get back at La Croix is to take something that belongs to him. You’re a fucking convenience, and nothing more.”

“You’re wrong,” I whispered, conviction strong in my voice.

“What was that, bitch?”

“I said you’re wrong.” I refused to let Maddox’s words wound me. At one point in time, I was sure Nick’s motivations were destined to hurt me, but I also believed that actions spoke louder than words. He had chosen me over and over again. Protected me when it was a choice between his club—his president —and my safety. He claimed me in front of everyone, and even though he hadn’t said the words, I knew.

And if I didn’t at least try to get away from Maddox right now, I couldn’t tell Nick myself what he’d come to mean to me.

Frantically, I looked around the room, looking for something that I could use as a weapon. Maddox shoved me ahead of him, and as I passed the kitchen island, I spotted the baseball bat propped up in its usual spot.

Two steps until I was within range.

One step.

Darting to the side, I wrapped my fingers around the bat and swung around to face Maddox. His answering grin was laced with malicious glee.

“You think you can take me on, Alex?” he cracked his knuckles, then crooked his index finger at me, making a ‘come and get me’ motion.

With a determined set to my shoulder, I feigned swinging the bat high. Maddox moved to block it by raising his forearm, but at the last moment, I switched my trajectory and target—slamming the metal bat into his knee.

Maddox let out a roar of pain, his knee buckling beneath him at an unnatural angle. He reached for the bat as he fell, snatching it from my grip and tossing it across the room. Backing away, I watched with satisfaction as he writhed in pain, but I couldn’t linger, my window to escape was closing fast. I turned to bolt from my apartment but drew to a stop when I saw Reaver standing in the doorway. His dead eyes roved from me to Maddox. Reaching behind him, he pulled out his gun and took aim.

My world slowed to the sound of my heartbeat.

Thump, thump.

Reaver took a step closer, his finger moving to the trigger.

Thump, thump.

His cold, heartless eyes flickered from me to Maddox, who was screaming at him to fucking shoot me already.

Thump, thump.

Reaver brought the gun level with my head.

Raising my chin, I stared at the man who would murder me and waited. I’d already saved Bliss. Knowing she would be safe was enough for me.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.

My eyes closed, the sound of Maddox’s demands for my death fading from my ears.

I found a sense of peace in my waiting.

A sense of calm.

But then, a profound sense of sadness descended on me.

Bliss would be all alone.

And Nick…

We would never have a chance to see what would happen between us.

We would never have the chance to tell each other how we really felt because despite all his protective macho bullshit, I could tell he cared for me, just like I cared for him.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.

Thump, thump.

Something hard and cold was pressed into my slack palm. On reflex, my fingers tightened around the object and my eyes peeled open to find a gun. My head jerked up. Reaver was standing close—too close—another gun still in his hand. He jerked his chin in Maddox’s direction, and it took my addled brain a minute to understand what he wanted.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Maddox snarled as he staggered to his feet. He pulled out his own weapon and took aim. “You’re fucking finished, Reaver. You hear me? My father will personally feed you to the fucking fish?—”

Two shots rang out, but I was only responsible for one of them. I flinched from the recoil. This was a larger caliber weapon than I was used to, and the energy it released slammed back into my already tender shoulder socket. Flecks of warmth hit my skin, and I wiped at it absently. Pulling them away, I found my fingers smeared with blood.

I let out a breath, unable to take my eyes off Maddox. His arm fell a moment before he listed to the side. He landed on my apartment floor, his eyes open and unseeing, two small holes—less than a quarter inch apart—between them. A small trickle of blood ran down his forehead, while the back of his skull was blown out—blood and brain matter decorating the wall and carpet behind him. I spun around, gun raised, to face Reaver, who was sliding his gun back into its holster.

Our eyes locked.

And for a heartbeat, I was lost in the fathomless depths of them.

This man was a true killer.

He nodded, turned, and left.

And even though I wanted to chase after him and demand to know why he had let me slay my own demon, I listened to his heavy footsteps descend the stairs instead. When the last pounding footfall echoed, I released the breath that I’d been holding and dropped the gun.