Page 7 of Shadow

With that, I let him go. He remained silent, his arms crossing over his chest. He stared out the window as we slowly eased off the gravel lot and onto the highway.

Malik didn’t know I’d never do any of that. But his lack of knowledge of just how much of a hold he had over me was what would keep him in line. And it was what would help me mold him into the unstoppable force I knew he could be.

He might hate me now, but before long, he’d be bowing down to me, murmuring, “Thank you,” before I stuffed his throat with my cock and showed him the power in submittingonly to me.

“You should call your mom,” I told him once we’d been riding in silence for a while. The only person Malik never lashed out and truly, one-hundred percent respected was his mother. He loved her to pieces, and I knew he’d burn this whole world to the ground to protect her.

His love for her was one of his best qualities. When Malik loved someone, he loved deeply and wholly. He was never one foot in, one foot out. He might have been a man with an explosive temper that never let anyone close, but he loved just as fiercely.

I was hoping, one day, I’d be on the receiving end of that love, too.

“Why?” Malik grunted, still not looking at me.

“So she doesn’t go to the clubhouse looking for you,” I said. “You know she likes to do surprise pop-in visits.” Just because Malik was an adult didn’t mean his mother let up. Besides, Iknew she also popped in to do his laundry and cook all the guys food. It made her feel like she was still needed in Malik’s life, even if he and the guys were more than capable of taking care of themselves.

Malik sighed, but instead of arguing with me like I’d been prepared for him to do, he simply tugged his phone out of his pocket.

Good boy, I thought, turning away to give him the illusion of privacy.

One day, I’d be able to say those words out loud to him. But today wasn’t that day. There was only so far I could push, and I knew Malik was damn near at his limit with me.

5

Malik

Mom answered on the third ring. I was honestly surprised she answered at all, considering she was supposed to be at work. And I knew she was doing a rotation in the emergency room, which usually didn’t leave her much downtime. When she worked ER shifts, I did my best not to bother her, but Rurik was right. I needed to let her know I was going out of town for the foreseeable future.

Fuck all knew I didn’t need her calling to light a fire under my ass for neglecting to tell her I was doing a disappearing act for the club.

She was the one person in this world who could bring me to heel with a single, terrifying look. My mother had an incredible ability to put the fear of God into me.

“Do you need bail money?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.

I snorted, my lips twitching in amusement. “What?” I asked, laughter filling my voice. “No, Mom, I don’t need bail money. Why would you think that?”

She sighed. “Because you never call me when I work the ER shift. Thought something was wrong. And jail is the first thing that came to mind.”

I scratched at my beard. “So much faith in me,” I teased. But honestly, I wasn’t the least bit offended. It was a reasonable conclusion to come to.

“Oh, baby, I’ve got all the faith in the world in you. But I also know you, and I know that temper of yours.”

Growing up, I’d been intimately familiar with law enforcement officers. Because they had such a high respect for my mother, they usually just took me home and warned her to keep me under wraps. And damn, she did her best with me.

My behavior wasnother fault. She’d tried therapy for me. Tried anger management courses. My mom did everything she knew to do. Eventually, she had to let me learn my own lessons. And I knew that wasn’t an easy decision for her because at the end of every day, all she wanted to do was protect me.

“We’ve got a… potential problem on the horizon,” I told her. She was the only person outside of the club permitted to know little details, apart from the Bratva. And the only reason she was granted that was because of Rurik. Despite him being a dick, he’d fought for my mother to sort of be in the know. They’d only met one time, but I knew Rurik respected her just as much as I did.

It was one of the only good qualities the son of a bitch had.

“And you have to leave town for it?” she asked. “Who’s with you?”

“Just Rurik,” I told her, my tone filled with bitterness. “He claims I’m aproblemthat’ll make this problem bigger.”

“Probably not wrong,” she said, siding with him. I grunted. I wouldn’t argue with her, and she knew it. No matter how much I hated that they both thought I’d do something to jeopardize my club family, I knew their fears weren’t unfounded. Iwasa hot-headed mother fucker, after all.

“The boys need anything at the clubhouse?” she asked me when I remained silent.

An exasperated sigh slipped from between my lips. “They can fend for themselves,” I told her. “Stop babying them, Mom.”

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