Page 40 of Punished
Maverick nodded. “You did, baby,” he said, using the sweet term in his attempt to calm her down.
“I love... you so... much,” Melissa said as she began to cry even more, her voice cracking.
“Melissa, think about your kids. They need their mom,” Dasan said, now that he was awake along with his wife.
Melissa never took her eyes off Maverick. “They have the club to take care of them.”
Maverick’s eyes widened, because he realized that Melissa wasn’t intending to let him live or herself. “Tell me what you want me to do,” he said.
Melissa shook her head. “You won’t do it.”
“Yes, I will. You want to be my woman? My old lady?” Maverick asked her.
She nodded. “But I know you won’t let me. This is the only way we can be together.” She cocked the gun and a loud blast rang through the clubhouse. Anyone who had managed to still be in a drunken stupor at that time was now awake and scrambling, some pulling out their guns.
Maverick’s chest was heaving, his heart was beating so fast, it was almost as if he’d just run a sprint. Melissa’s blood was splattered all over him and the floor. He looked down to see her on the floor, a huge hole in her torso where the shotgun blast hit her.
“Holy shit,” he gasped and turned to see his grandma Aiyanna holding a double-barrel shotgun.
“Ain’t no crazy bitch about to hurt my grandbaby,” Aiyanna said, then put the shotgun on the bar. She walked over to Maverick just as his parents and brothers did.
“Fuck,” Maverick gasped, then nodded when he was asked if he was okay. “I’m good, I’m good.”
“Damn it, boy,” Dasan said, then hugged his youngest son.
More members came rushing in through the side door from the upstairs rooms, Ace and Ahiga being among them. “What the fuck happened?” Ace asked, then his gaze panned to the floor to see the bloody mess that was Melissa. “Fuck!”
Liliana hugged and kissed her baby boy, then hugged Aiyanna for saving him.
“Don’t mention it,” Aiyanna said both vocally and with sign language.
Maverick’s brothers all hugged him, then his club did the same.
“You need to get your sons,” Aiyanna told Maverick.
“I’ve got them,” Burger said as he kicked the door closed behind him, and in his hands were two car seats holding Maverick’s twin boys.
“Oh, thank God,” Maverick exhaled and ran over to his brother and sons, taking them both from him and putting the car seats on the table. He pulled his boys from the seats one at a time to look them over.
Are they okay? his mom asked.
Maverick nodded, and Liliana scooped up one of her grandbabies while Aiyanna took the other. The women doing their own inspection to make sure Maverick didn’t miss anything. A woman like Melissa couldn’t be underestimated as far as they were concerned.
“This is a fucking mess,” Dasan said, hands on his hips as he looked at the corpse.
“We need to get her the fuck out of here,” Ace said.
Dasan nodded. “Maverick, clean yourself up. Ace, Big Dick, and Juno, take care of this. Make sure she can never be found.”
“What’s the story?” Debbie asked.
“She left town and left the kids at the clubhouse, claiming she just needed us to watch them for a few hours. That she had an out-of-town emergency or something. She never returned. Later on tonight, we call the cops, make a report, and let them handle it. They’ll write her disappearance off as another case of someone running away,” Ace said.
“Why do we even need to get the police involved?” Ahiga asked.
“Because it’ll look more suspicious if you don’t. Especially with the DEA keeping tabs on us,” Ajay said. He looked down at Melissa and sighed. “Ace is right, you don’t want that extra heat. They’ll ask questions. Just express how much she wanted to be with Maverick, but they weren’t together. So, she couldn’t handle being a single mother. That’s all you need to tell the police.”
“Your expert opinion?” Ace asked.
