Page 36 of Maverick

I hugged and kissed her back and headed toward the door. Before leaving, I turned around and yelled, “Love you too, baby sis. Thanks for this talk.”

I headed out and toward my motorcycle. I started it up and drove down the road to the clubhouse. There was so much in my head, but I knew I needed to get in the right state of mind.

As I pulled into the compound, I could see all my brother’s bikes lined up on the side.

Fuck, I’m the last one here. Some Vice President I am...

Quickly, I parked my motorcycle and ran into the clubhouse. I threw open the doors to Church and was greeted by the dirty looks of all my brothers, already in their seats.

“Fuck. Sorry, I’m late. I stopped in to check on Lilah.”

Striker sat up with a concerned look on his face. “Is she okay? Do I need to leave? Is she in labor?”

“She’s fine. The boys are just giving her a hard time today. Don’t worry, Brother.”

Striker sat back down with a sigh of relief. I took my seat on the right side of him as he banged the gavel on the large table.

“All right, let’s make this quick so I can get home to my family. We all know why we’re here today. Willow. This has gotten completely out of control. We can’t have brothers fighting each other due to some woman.”

I slammed my fist down on the table, “She’s not just some woman, Striker. She told me what’s going on. Willow needs our help.”

Goose laughed as he leaned back in his chair. “Well, let’s hear the sob story then.”

I shot him a dirty look as I stood up. “Yes she owes the Shadow Raiders money, BUT it’s not her debt. They are using her as collateral for her mother’s drug debt. They think she has money from when her grandfather passed away. Unfortunately, he paid most of her mother’s debt and set up an account to pay for Willow until she turned 18. The poor bastard spent all his money on those two. Not a dime left for himself. Willow has tried telling the club that, but they won’t listen. Her mother even offered to help her start pimping herself out for pay.”

Striker ran his hand through his hair. “Fuck, man. That’s some deep shit. She told Lilah and Mama that she grew up around them too. Think’s her pop may be one of them.”

I just nodded. “I know. She didn’t have it easy growing up and they were the only ones looking after her. But now their asshole President is after her.”

Wrench sat up to add to the conversation. “She’s a good kid. She just has trouble following her. I mean if she wanted to be a club bunny like her mother, she definitely had multiple opportunities here and with the Shadow Raiders. I’m with Maverick on this one. I get no bad vibes from her. Willow and I have gotten close. She’s like the little sister I never had.”

“Shit. As much as I would love to help out, there’s not much we can do. We won’t charge her for the van, but we can’t just offer our protection against a rival club to passersby. Obviously, we would protect her if they came here and tried shit on our territory, but we can’t follow her around the country and certainly can’t pay off her shitbag mom’s debts. I know you got feelings, Mav. Just think about the future, that’s all. How much longer is she gonna stay? What’s the long term plan here? Same with you, Wrench. We need to look ahead, not right in front of us.”

I threw my chair back and got right up in Striker’s face. “Yes, we fucking can! We got nothing else going on! Why can’t we find out how much the debt is and pay it off? We can’t just write her off because she’s not family. You dropped everything for Lilah and put the club in danger to just send her ex a message!”

Striker stood up and pushed me away from him. “You were right there with me. Don’t fucking play this game, Mav.”

Wrench stood between us and put his hands up. “Striker, can we do anything? Come on, man. She needs our help. Let’s just find out how much her mother owes.”

Striker just shook his head. “They aren’t going to tell us and if they do, I know they are gonna say it’s way more. This is the perfect opportunity for them to rob us blind then attack. We aren’t doing this. Unless the situation changes, I can’t see doing much more than we are right now.”

I got up in Striker’s face, my fists at my side. “This is fucking bullshit! I can’t believe the same people who are supposed to have my back are turning on me now!”

Goose came in between us and shoved us back into our chairs. “Enough! We aren’t protecting her, Maverick. End of story.”

“Yes, we are.” I looked at each of my brothers and took a deep breath. “I’m claiming Willow as my Old Lady. Now she’s under club protection.” Everybody stared in confusion as I stood my ground.

Striker was the first to break the silence. “Uh, what? Are you sure about this, Mav? Does Willow know about this?”

“Yes, I’m sure. No, she doesn’t but will know tonight. If that’s what it takes to protect her then so be it.”

The Prospect, Zach, stood up. His face was red and his hands were balled into fists. “What the fuck, man! You can't just claim a girl to keep her away from somebody you don’t like. She’s gotta have feelings towards you too to claim her as your Old Lady. And that bitch clearly doesn’t like you if she keeps giving me looks at the clubhouse.”

I launched across the table and wrapped my hands around his neck. “FUCK YOU!”

It took four guys to rip me off the Prospect. Goose threw me to the ground and turned to Zach. “Enough of that shit! You will watch what you say about the woman around here.”

Zach spat toward Striker’s feet, “Fuck off, man. I thought this was a one-percenters club. Not a bunch of pussies. More worried about fucking ladies’ feelings, these fucking cunts need to learn their place around here.”

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