Page 41 of Mad Max

Gripping under my arms, he lifts me easily and tosses me back against his pillows. I crawl under the covers as he walks to the side of the bed and climbs in. I don’t hesitate, and neither does he. He lies on his back, and I just crawl over him, using him as my pillow. He lowers his arm around me, and I know he’s accepting me as his blanket. Then we both sleep.

No words are needed. We’ve already said so much without them.

Just not sure what it’ll mean in the morning.

Chapter 18 – Mad Max

“D

on’t think you understand the point, son. Once they release you from this place, you don’t come back.”

I ignore the raised eyebrow Travis gives me a second before he takes the seat opposite me. His eyes wander the visitor’s room of the prison, and I’m sure he sees what isn’t there—the Hounds of the Reaper. I didn’t come with a single brother. Ain’t hiding it. Know Flint could track my phone if he wants, but this isn’t club related. This is about me, and about a promise I made to a man that I can no longer keep.

“Must have missed the memo.”

He grunts but then just waits. He owes me nothing. No small-talk bullshit. He’s smart, so he knows there’s only a handful of reasons why I would be here. Even less for why I’m here solo. But he keeps what little power he has in this place, making me be the one to break first.

“We got a problem.”

He stiffens as he leans in. “Boo covered?”

“Yeah, moved her to Hounds territory.”

“How deep she in?”

I huff at that. Of course he knew she would go digging. That she wouldn’t stop when he gave her that name. Any normal civilian would have run to the cops. But not her. She just walks in, says weird shit, and makes herself at home. And I don’t hate that about her, not at all. Kind of like it, actually. Just wish it didn’t put her on the target list.

“Guess it depends. How deep was she in before you got locked up?” I keep my eyes on him. I need to gauge his reaction.

Jimmy Travis might have worked for an alphabet agency and been trained to lie, but I’ve been studying this man’s body language for two years. I learned to react at the barest movement from him, but in those days, it was to protect. Never once did I accuse him of shit. We might not be friends, but we established an allegiance of sorts in here together. The club has no beef with him, and he has no issues with who I’m connected to. We got along simply ’cause we both took out rapists and got fucked by the system for protecting a person it should have protected but instead let the bastards walk. Thanks to us, neither of them is walking around anymore. I might not have killed my guy like Travis, but he’s paralyzed from the neck down, and I got no regrets about that.

“You asking which side she’s on or how deep she’s in?”

“Is there a difference?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t expect his question, or the response to the one I asked. But I’m intrigued, that’s for damn sure. “What can you tell me?”

He looks at me for a long while, and I just sit there. I’m not an open book, but just like I’ve watched his mannerisms for years, I know he’s watched mine.

“There’s a price.”

“Always is,” I say with a roll of my eyes.

Nothing’s ever free with Travis. Not even when we came last time. The info he gave was at the cost of protection for Boo. An agreement I made on behalf of the club, but no one dismissed me when I agreed to his terms. Even if we didn’t talk about price from the start, like we’re doing now, Law expected there to be a fee. But none of us expected it to potentially cost us getting to Duke when we could have. We had the perfect opportunity the other night, but instead of going after him and finishing this, we made sure the fairy was okay.

“What is it?”

“To be determined after our chat. You game?”

It’s risky to go in blind like this. Club went in blind last time, but that was all of us. This is just me. There could be a chance I can’t pay up.

Do I risk it?

Is she worth the risk?

Fuck yeah.

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