Page 27 of Mav

“What’s up?” Turning my head, I give Brag a look that has him cringe. “Oh, fuck, what did you do?”

“Actually, I did nothing, and that is the problem,” I reply, and not sure how this is going to sound when I explain it. Brag takes a seat next to me at the bar once he’s taken a beer for himself.

“What didn’t you do?”

“I took out Blake on a date. Our first date too. We had a basket meal, and it was going great when fuckin’ Sharon appeared from nowhere, threw herself in my lap, wrapped her arms around me and kissed me.”

“Oh, fuck…that’s not good.” Brag’s eyes are round with the shock of the scene I’m painting for him. “What happened?”

“Well, I was so shocked I didn’t move for a minute. I didn’t fuckin’ kiss her back, Brag. But when I jumped up, Blake was gone. She’d run out the front of Club Whisky and bolted in one of the cabs that hang around looking for a fare.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” Brag repeats, and is shaking his head in disbelief. "You know Bitty is going to be after your ass now, don’t you? Oh, and Kenzie too, as she and the Stooges have been big friends. I hope she doesn’t set BigDog on your ass.”

“Goddammit…” I snarl as I rub the back of my neck. I’m in deep shit in more ways than one.

The next morning I’m dodging Bitty, who keeps giving me odd looks. I’m doing my best for it to not be known what happened last night. I need a chance to catch up with Blake. I’ve arranged with Wings to take my place at training this morning while I go over to see Blake.

“What’s going on?” I hear Bitty ask, and fuck me, Raven and Grease have walked into the clubhouse kitchen. Now they don’t usually come in the kitchen before training on a Sunday, but of course, today they have. It is, however, the look they are giving me which is alerting Bitty to something amiss.

“Well, Bitty…you see…there was a mishap while I was on my date.”

I get no further when Bitty drops the spatula she was using to concentrate on Raven, Grease and myself. Now, Grease is smirking at me, obviously taking great delight in the shitstorm I’m sitting in. “What mishap?” Bitty snaps, placing her hands on her hips.

Amelia, Sybil, and Meat all step over to Bitty and look over her shoulder at all three of us standing here in front of them, but the glare is aimed at, you guessed it, me. Fucking hell!

“Look, it wasn’t my fault. Sharon came up to where I was sitting at the table with Blake. She came up behind me, so I didn’t even know she was there. She threw herself into my lap, wrapped herself around me, and kissed me. I was so shocked I had a delayed reaction before I stood up and chased Blake, who had left the club and jumped into a cab.” I quickly make my case and see Bitty grinding her teeth. I hope they are not false teeth because if she breaks them you can bet she’ll blame me, and I’ll end up paying for new ones. Damn, where did that thought come from?

“I’m going to speak to Blake and Kenzie. Don’t you think you are going to walk away from this free and easy. Your cousin isn’t going to be happy about this as she likes Blake from what she’s seen of her.” Meat smirks from behind Bitty and walks back to the stove, humming under his breath. Fucker, I think to myself, because it’s obvious he is taking delight in my predicament.

“Hey, Bitty, come on, it wasn’t my fault. Raven had Sharon arrested, and was the witness to what happened.” I do my best to smooth over the anger on Bitty’s face, and I see it has eased somewhat, especially when she turns to Raven.

“I did. She was arrested for sexual assault, and you can ask Forest when you see him, Bitty. They hauled her ass away, and she was screaming and crying, making a real fuss she was. We watched it all happening and we are waiting to see what is going to happen to her now.” Raven is grinning and Grease is chuckling. They are both finding this highly amusing.

“Leave Blake alone for a couple of days, Mav. Let me get the details from Forest and then I’ll speak with Blake. If you are innocent, that is.” Bitty gives me a raised eyebrow and I hold both hands out in a sign of surrender. I know I stand no chance with her at all. She’ll check all the information before she gives me the go-ahead to speak to Blake again. “You just wait until I know all the details.”

Giving Bitty a nod, as I know I’m defeated at this point, I walk over to a table and take a seat. Placing my elbows on the table, I stare at my hands while I run through everything that happened. There was no way I could have seen what was about to happen. I was just slow to react. Sharon, what a stalker she has become. I hope Forest can get rid of her. It’s about my only hope without doing something radical. But Nell is someone I can speak to if I get to a point of urgency.

Star walks into the kitchen with Carrie and Kya. They take a seat at the table next to mine and I can’t help but overhear Star telling the others that Meat is building a nursery onto the treehouse so he can have all his godchildren stay with him. Now, I’m not sure that Mia will want all three of her kids in a treehouse, or Eden or Tilly, if it comes to that. But, you know I have enough drama of my own to work out, so I’m minding my own business.

BS walks into the kitchen, quickly heading to Kya where he gives her a kiss which leaves her misty-eyed. Sighing because I want to get to that point where I can kiss my woman whenever I feel like it.

“Okay, Mav, let’s go. We are going to do some recon.” BS nods for me to follow him outside and he leads me to the club’s van, where Wings, Chaos, Garth and Graham are waiting. “We are going to check out the shop, and yeah, I know we were going todo it before, but things happen and we didn’t get it done, so here we are. Now you are with Garth, so stick together, Mav. We need to check what the fuck is going on, as I’ve had more intel that young girls are being taken inside.”

Ninety minutes later, I’m standing with Garth across the street from the shop we are watching. We are lounging on a bench that has seen better days. But, it is giving us some cover and as we’ve no colors showing for the club. We relax back on the bench, watching from behind our shades.

“You noticed the same four teenagers that have been going in with bags of what looks like groceries?” Garth asks.

“Yeah, it’s odd, isn’t it? They’ve had something from that fried chicken place, too. You think they are making it headquarters for themselves? You know, for their baby gang?” I chuckle at my own description and see Garth smirk, too.

Seeing BS pop his head around one of the buildings opposite I give him a thumbs-up sign and we cross the street. Heading to the back of the shop where we can hear soft speaking through the slightly ajar door.

“Thank you. Can we leave tonight?” Hearing a female voice, and a young female by the sound of it, I give Garth a questioning look, and a worried one I have to admit.

Garth doesn’t wait for any other signal before he storms into the back of the shop, and I’m right behind him because fuckin’ hell, I’m not leaving him to face whatever it is alone. A high-pitched scream rips through the air, and I stop when I see six teenage girls huddled together on a dirty mattress.

“What the fuck is going on here?” BS snarls, and I can see he’s getting ready to grab one of the boys. But that boy is standing firmly in front of the girls, in a protective manner.

“Mister, you need to move out with your friends. These girls are not in danger from us. We are getting them out of the area, is all. Now, who are you? What do you want here? You are not taking the girls.” One of the young boys states, keeping himself in line with the other three boys, so all four are in front of the girls.

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