Mace (Untamed Sons MC: Birmingham Chapter #1)

14. Maylie

FOURTEEN

MAYLIE

I barely sleep for the next two nights. All my thoughts are locked in an endless loop of my sister. There’s something really wrong in her relationship with this man.

I have to believe she is pushing me away to protect me.

For your own sake… That is what she had said to me. For my sake.

I read through pages and pages about interrelationship violence, and I’ve come to the only conclusion I can—Ivy is being abused by this man, and I have no idea how to get her away from him.

I want desperately to go to the flat and drag her out of it, but every instinct tells me that will only make the situation worse. I have never felt so helpless in my entire life, so it’s little wonder I’m barely sleeping.

When I wake on the third morning, my eyes are gritty and tired. I pull the pillow over my face, resisting the urge to scream into it, before I force myself out of bed and make my way out to the kitchen.

The flat is quiet, so I grab the kettle. Caffeine is the only way I am functioning right now… lots and lots of caffeine. I swear, the bags under my eyes have their own bags. I hate being stuck in my thoughts and having time to dwell on what’s going on, but the bruising to my wrist means I’ve had to take the last few days off. I can barely lift a mug, let alone a tray of drinks.

Another problem to be added to the list.

My rent arrears are getting bigger and bigger.

I fill the kettle with enough water for my usual two cups in the morning, and while it’s boiling, I slide the sleeve of my sweater up to examine the mottled bruising on my skin. It looks awful, and my wrist is swollen, even after icing it for two days.

Shit. I need to get back to work, but how am I going to do anything with the joint like this?

My thoughts scatter at the sound of someone knocking on the front door.

Instantly, my stomach swirls with panic. It could be one of Toby’s friends. It is Saturday morning, though they know better than to try and wake him this early. It could also be Bernie coming back with his offer to fuck him to cancel my debt.

The hope I hold onto is that it’s my sister, that somehow, she got away from Link and has come home.

I rush to the door, even as my heart thrums like the strings of a cello being plucked.

Be cautious, Maylie.

There are people who want to hurt you.

Carefully, I place my hands on the frame, rolling to my tiptoes so I can peer through the peephole in the middle of the door .

For a moment, I’m sure I’m seeing things, because there is no way in hell he’s here.

“Maylie? You in there?” His voice is like gravel over silk, and I realise I missed him these past few days. What is wrong with me?

I should keep quiet, pretend I’m not in, but my traitorous body wants to see him, so I slide back the chain before I even know I’m doing it.

Despite the early hour, he looks breathtakingly hot when he turns to the now open door. His shirt is rolled up at the sleeves, revealing the tattoos I’m starting to become familiar with, and as always, he’s wearing his leather vest he always has on his back.

His dark hair is tantalisingly long enough to run my fingers through, and they twitch with the need to do so.

“Mace…”

“Where the fuck have you been?” he demands. “Two fuckin’ shifts you’ve swapped out. Why?”

Oh, crap. Of course, he’d want to know why I ditched work, but I don’t want Toby to hear this conversation if he’s awake, so I step towards him, expecting him to back out into the hallway. He doesn’t move, so I bump into him, and his heated hands grasp my biceps.

Why does his touch make all my thoughts scatter?

“Step back,” I murmur, dizzied by his presence, and this time, he does move.

Once we’re clear of the door, I pull it closed behind me, staring at him with disbelief.

“I took a couple days off. I’ll be back on—” I break off. I don’t know when I’ll be back. “What are you doing here?” I demand, changing direction. “Not that I’m not pleased to see you, because I like to think we’re friends, but this is my home, Mace. It’s kind of polite to ask before you just turn up.”

And I have a thousand problems to deal with, none of which involve my boss. “You didn’t show. I was worried.”

Why does that make my belly dip?

“You were?”

“Maylie, you lap danced for me because you were short on cash. You pitched a fit when I sent you home because you’d lose tips?—”

“I didn’t pitch a fit,” I mumble.

“—then you miss two shifts. Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing is going on, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never told you where I live, so turning up at my flat is veering into stalker territory. I’ve seen enough true crime documentaries to know this is how the crazy starts.”

His lips kick up slightly at the corners, and for some reason, that makes warmth blossom in my chest. He always seems so serious.

“You think I’m crazy, Maylie?”

Heat rises in my cheeks. Way to go, girl. Insult the guy you want to climb like a tree.

At least he’s smiling… or trying to. “I haven’t quite decided yet,” I sass.

He steps towards me, and my heart stutters. Then, in the sexiest move I have ever encountered, he places one hand on the wall next to my head as he leans in far enough to make my back melt against the plaster. It is nothing like how it felt when Link did it, and my chest tightens, the breath catching before I pull it down into my lungs.

I peer up at him, uncertain what he’s about to do. “Mace…” I whisper his name, and his head dips closer .

“You’re testing all my limits, sweetheart,” he says just as soft.

“I don’t mean to.”

There’s a slight twitch in his jaw, and I’m not entirely sure what that means. “I’m gonna ask you again… what’s going on?”

“Nothing. I’m fine. I just… needed some time off. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kind of a workaholic and?—”

He presses a finger over my mouth, silencing my words immediately. His touch sears my skin, and the urge to dip my tongue out and lick him is only a heartbeat away.

“Don’t lie to me.”

Fuck. I don’t want to tell him the truth. He’s my boss… or at least one of my bosses—I’m not really sure who is in charge anymore—and I don’t want him to think my life is a complete disaster or that I’m bringing trouble to his club.

I haven’t answered him, and he’s looking down at me expectantly.

“I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Maybe. I need to be back now, really, but I can’t lift anything, and my wrist is fucking painful.

I trail off as his eyes bore into my face. “Please talk to me.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Mace. I’m fine.”

“But I do. I worry about everything to do with you.”

My brows come together even as my traitorous heart leaps. “I’m just an employee.”

“Nothing about my feelings towards you is professional.” He leans in farther, his aftershave filling my nose, along with a scent that is all him. “Nothing. ”

Tingles spread over my skin, reaching between my legs. Why am I turned-on by this? I have enough problems in my life right now without falling for a biker.

Get a grip!

I force myself to ignore the rampant feelings swirling through me and focus on getting rid of him as fast as possible. “As you can see, I’m fine, but thank you for checking up on me.”

“So, you’ll be in work tonight?”

Shit. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because! I…” Dammit, I’m going to have to give him something. “Because I hurt myself and I can’t work. Believe me, I’d be there if I could.”

His eyes narrow as he moves back so he can scan every inch of me like he’s an X-ray machine. Finding nothing obvious, his gaze slides back to my face. “Where?”

“I fell down, and my wrist is—hey!” I exclaim as he grabs my arm and gently pushes up my sleeve. The right isn’t as badly hurt as the left, but there’s still some redness and swelling around the joint.

I expect him to be satisfied that’s where I’m hurt, but he shoves up the left sleeve to reveal the pattern of bruising along my wrist and forearm.

“Fuck,” he mutters, his fingers gentle as he turns it. “This might be broken, Maylie.”

I glance down at my wrist that is twice the size it usually is. “What? No, it’s fine. I can wiggle my fingers, and it only hurts if I lift something.”

“How did you fall?”

That’s a long story.

“I just don’t know where my own feet are.” I hate lying to him, but what choice do I have? I can’t divulge my broken life to him.

“I thought you were avoiding me, and all this time, you’ve been hurtin’.”

He seems upset by this, and I don’t like that he is. I’m not sure what possesses me to do it, but I reach out and cup the side of his face. His eyes lock to mine, and it’s hard to breathe for a moment.

“I’m fine, Mace, and I’m not avoiding you. I would never do that.”

“I’d never allow it,” he assures me, and it should freak me out, but secretly, I like it. “You need to have your wrist X-rayed.”

“There’s no need.” I carefully pull my arm back from him and cover the bruises with my sleeve. “It already feels better. A few more days and I’ll be right as rain.”

He stares at me for so long, I’m certain he’s seeing through all my lies. Just as I’m about to try and explain more, he speaks. “Have breakfast with me.”

That was not what I thought was going to come out of his mouth. “I… what?”

“Have breakfast with me,” he repeats, and my stomach somersaults.

There is no part of my brain that can fathom why this beautifully attractive man wants to do this, but internally, I’m squealing that he does. I’m not the girl who gets the guy. I’m the nerdy best friend who is forever a side character.

And yet the way he’s looking at me burns me like fire. “Why?” It’s not what I mean to say, but it slips out anyway.

“Because I’m hungry and I don’t like to eat alone. ”

“You don’t have friends you can eat with?” Why in the fuck did I ask that?

He snorts. “I have plenty of friends, but none of them are you. You’re acting like you’ve never been asked out for breakfast.”

If my mother hadn’t died, if I hadn’t been left to raise my siblings, I probably would have dated. Who knows, maybe there would have been a line of previous boyfriends and broken hearts, a history of the most mind-blowing sex of my life, but that’s just not how things went for me. Instead of raunchy kisses in the back of the cinema or dinner dates for anniversaries, my life was homework, and up until recently, school runs and drop-offs.

Mace is… more than that, and standing in front of him, I feel like a na?ve, stupid little girl. What the hell could he possibly see in someone like me?

I wrap my arms around myself, as if I can guard my heart from the pain I’m about to inflict on it. Mace is the first man who has ever shown any interest in me in my entire fucking life, and he’s the first man who has ever quickened my pulse like this. But how can I embark on anything with him, given the crap going on in my personal life?

Oh, shit. I don’t want to do this, but what choice do I have? I won’t drag him into my disastrous mess. This is going to hurt, and I brace myself for the pain.

“I can’t.”

His brows climb up his forehead. “Can’t or don’t want to? Because those are two different answers, sweetheart.”

I know I should lie and say I don’t want to. It would make this problem disappear pretty fast, because Mace doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would push once he’s given a no, but I’m already lying enough in my life as it is. “I… I can’t.”

It makes my chest ache to say those words, to give up on something I have wanted for so long, but Ivy needs me.

He opens his mouth to say something, but I never find out what because the door to the side of us swings open and a very sleepy-looking Toby steps out, rubbing at his neck as he yawns. “I can’t find any milk in the frid?—”

He breaks off the moment his head lifts. Highly aware that Mace is still bracketing my body with his against the wall, heat rises in my cheeks. I can only imagine how this looks, and from the bemused expression on my little brother’s face, I’m going to have to do some quick talking to explain.

I slip out from beneath Mace’s huge frame, completely ignoring him as he straightens. I’m hyperaware of his presence behind me, but all I want to do is get my brother back inside the flat.

“Go and play your game. I’ll sort the milk situation in a moment.”

I try to steer him back so I can close the front door, but Toby is no longer a scrawny little kid. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still growing, but when he digs his heels in, he’s surprisingly strong.

“Did I interrupt something?” He grins like he swallowed a boomerang.

“No,” I say at the same time as Mace answers, “Yes.”

Toby slips around me, beaming. “I’m Toby,” he says, offering Mace his hand.

“Mace.”

My brother’s eyes narrow on him. “How do you know Maylie? ”

Before he can answer, I grab my brother’s arm, tugging him towards the door. “Okay, since you’re not a detective, and I don’t need you to interrogate my life, time to go back inside.”

“The fact you won’t tell me only adds fuel to the fire,” he says.

I relent, knowing my brother is going to be an annoying little brat if I don’t. “He’s a colleague from work, and this is not a conversation for you to be involved in. Please go back inside.” He smirks, but thankfully, Toby lets me off the hook, wiggling his eyebrows in a way that tells me he is not going to drop this. Great . The last thing I want to explain to him is who Mace is to me because then I have to admit it to myself.

And then I have to admit he can’t be mine.

Right now, that’s still a possibility.

I close the door behind my brother and take a steadying breath. How am I going to explain this?

Plastering on a smile, I turn to Mace, who is staring at me with an intense look I can’t read.

“I better sort the milk situation,” I say. “Don’t want him to stage a revolution because he can’t have cereal this morning.”

“He’s too old to be your kid,” he muses.

I frown. He wouldn’t suggest that if he knew that I’d never so much as been touched by the opposite sex. “No, he’s not. Toby is my brother.”

“You still live with your parents?”

I can’t tell if the thought of this is a turn-off for him, but I’d imagine it is. Mace doesn’t look like the kind of guy who stayed living in his old bedroom until he was well into his twenties. “I’ll see you tonight,” I tell him, sidestepping the question, my chest heavy.

“Rather than face a revolution over cereal, why don’t you both have breakfast with me?”

I don’t know why, but the fact he invites my little brother to breakfast makes my chest feel warm. But he’s going to run as soon as he knows the truth, so I might as well rip off the Band-Aid and get it over with.

“Well, it’s not just Toby. There’s also Ivy, my little sister, and I use ‘little’ in the loosest sense of the term. She’s almost eighteen and going through a phase,” which is the greatest understatement on the planet. “And I don’t live with my parents. Our mother is dead. Cancer got her good and proper about four years ago. It was rough, I’m not gonna lie, though at the end, it was almost a blessing when she went. At least all the suffering was done, until I remembered she left behind two young kids. So, I did the only thing I could and took guardianship of them, because there was no way in hell I was letting them go into foster care, which was looking like the only option since we don’t really have any family. None that care anyway.

“Dad took off like a whippet the moment Mum was given that terminal diagnosis. He said he didn’t want to watch her die, but I think it was just an excuse. He’d always had one foot out the door ever since Toby was born. Which means I’ve been a parent the last four years of my life, so when there’s no milk in the fridge, unfortunately, that’s my problem to deal with. And I’m not joking when I say he will stage a revolution—growing preteen boys are a nightmare. So, enjoy your breakfast, and I’ll see you back at work maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, if you’re there. ”

What in the infodump was that, Maylie?

At least now he’s going to see how shitty my life is and he’ll lose interest. Better now than when I’m more besotted than I am already.

As I turn to head back inside, I’m mindful of the fact his expression never changed or flickered for even a second during my entire ramble, and that makes me nervous. I don’t like not knowing what he’s thinking, and it makes my tongue want to loosen more than it already did in an attempt to explain myself.

“Maylie.” My name rolling in that deep voice of his sends a wave of deliciousness through me.

How does he make that sound so good?

He moves in behind me, and I’m aware of his huge frame at my back, but I’m too cowardly to turn to face him. I don’t want to see his rejection of me.

“They can come too.”

I turn to him, trying to read his expression. Is he just saying what he thinks I want to hear? “Eating out is expensive, Mace. A pint of milk is not. And I’m not exactly getting paid while I’m off work.”

He scoffs. “You ain’t paying,” he says, sounding offended. “I’ll wait downstairs.”

He starts to walk along the corridor while my brain takes a second to play catch up. “Hold on, I haven’t said we’ll go.” I chase after him as he moves towards the stairs. “Mace!”

“Get dressed, Maylie, and don’t keep me waiting too long.”

I know I should argue this a lot more, but I’m so tired of everything that the thought of having just one nice thing is almost too much to deny myself. “Right. Okay. ”

I slip back into the flat, giving him a final look as if he might disappear like a ghost into the stairwell. As I sag against the door, I glimpse a figure in front of me and let out a startled yelp.

Toby is standing there with his arms folded over his chest, smirking. “You and I need to have a talk,” he says.

I roll my eyes at him. “No, we don’t.”

He ignores me. “He your boyfriend?”

There’s that hot feeling in my face again. “No,” I scoff at him, “but he’s insisting we go to breakfast with him.”

Toby’s grin intensifies. “So, he is your boyfriend?”

“I told you. He’s a colleague… from work. Kind of. I mean… his club owns Temptation.”

“He didn’t look at you like a colleague.”

I wave this off, though secretly, I like it. “What would you know about that? And when exactly do I have time to date?”

I feel bad for saying that when his expression drops. “Yeah, well, you should make time to do all the things you want to. You deserve to be happy too, May.”

My heart feels like it shatters into a hundred pieces. I don’t want him to think I don’t want to be here, that I regret my choices. “I am happy.” I step up to him, pulling him into a hug, and he surprises me by allowing it. Normally, he would give me shit. “Don’t ever doubt that for a second, Toby.”

“I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me. I know Ivy is too, though she hides it pretty well at the moment. But taking care of us doesn’t mean you don’t get to live your life as well,” he says.

There is a sudden choked feeling in my throat. “Well, we’re going to live our life by going out for breakfast with Mister Tall, Dark, and Broody. Get changed and make it snappy. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” I sigh. “I’m guessing Ivy isn’t home still?”

He shakes his head, and my stomach dips. I have no idea how to fix any of this.

“She’ll come home eventually,” Toby says firmly.

“Yeah, I’m sure she will.” I doubt it, but I don’t know what to do.