The lethal tone made Alexa’s heart pound with a sudden fear. “No, Maverick. Don’t you do anything. Promise me.”
“We’ll talk about this later, Al. But you gotta know all bets are off. He blackmailed you, he threatened you, and now he’s threatening the freedom of two of my brothers and the livelihood of the club. What happened today was a declaration of war.”
She understood where he was coming from, she really did, but his words still sent a chill down her spine.
“Haven, the lawyer saw Dare. He said to tell you not to worry, that he’s fine, and that he’ll be home soon.”
“Thank you,” Haven said, those two words laden with so much more.
“Listen, I’m sorry to run,” Maverick said, “but I want to keep an ear out and catch the lawyer before he goes.” After a quick good-bye, they hung up.
“He’ll be okay,” Cora said, taking Haven’s hand. “He’s as tough as they come. You know that. And Jagger’s there with him.”
Haven gave a quick bob of her head. “I know. But he’s still hurt, even though he refuses to admit it. And I just hate the idea of him in there.”
“So do I,” Alexa said. “But Cora’s right. It’ll just be the one night and then they’ll make bail until we can get all this cleared up.”
“One night,” Haven said, taking a deep breath. “We can make it through one night.”
That we tugged at Alexa’s heartstrings, because it was clear that Haven and Dare really had something special between them. And Alexa wanted it for herself.
With Maverick.
“One night,” Cora said. “Easy peasy.”
Alexa nodded and put on a brave smile for her new friend. But inside she couldn’t help but wonder what other bombs Grant was preparing to launch at them the next day and the day after that—and how much Alexa was willing to let others be hurt and sacrificed for her so that she could escape him once and for all.
ALEXA KNEW SHE was alone the moment she woke up. “Maverick?” she called.
The sheets were cold beside her. Slipping out of bed, she wandered through the house looking for him—his room, the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room. She peered out the front door to check the garage, but it was dark. The LED on the microwave read a little after 4:00 A.M.
Worry sent a shiver over her skin, and Alexa grabbed the fleece throw off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. Where could he be?
The Ravens had finally returned from the police station and guard duty around dinnertime, and the meal had been a somber, quiet, tension-filled affair. And it got even more tense when Alexa shared the text she’d received. She’d hated to pour salt into Mav’s wounds, but also felt like she shouldn’t keep anything from him. Not with so much on the line.
Most of the guys stayed around after dinner to drink and plot against her ex-fiancé, so Alexa had hung with Haven, Cora, and Bunny in the kitchen playing cards until Maverick had finally come in, bleary-eyed and a little unsteady on his feet, and said he was ready to go. When Bunny had said she’d drive them home, he thankfully hadn’t argued.
But he also hadn’t been interested in talking. When they’d returned to his house, he’d collapsed into her bed and fallen right to sleep, still wearing his Ravens cut and boots and everything. No matter what he’d said earlier in the day, Alexa hadn’t been able to fight back the guilt she felt—guilt that he was so upset about his best friend being locked up in jail because of her ex—and she’d been unable to fall asleep.
She’d finally given up and gone out to the couch to work on her project for a couple hours, and part of her was glad that she had—because she was in better shape than she thought she was. A few more solid hours and it would be good enough to turn in. Maybe not her best work ever, but good enough. Right now, that felt like a victory.
A flicker of light out in the backyard caught her eye, and Alexa walked closer to the big picture window. A bright moon sparkled off the pond, and a low flash of red and yellow revealed a small fire.
In bare feet, Alexa crossed the back deck and padded down the sandy trail to the fire pit that sat at the little beach’s edge. Maverick sat next to the fire in a white T-shirt and jeans, his feet bare, his elbows braced on drawn-up knees, his eyes focused out over the dark water. He was so beautiful to her that it made her chest ache.
“Hey,” she said. The heat of the fire warmed her legs, the sensation a pleasant contrast against the night air.
His gaze cut to her and then dragged down her body. She felt the hungry look like a physical caress. “Hey. Why are you up?” His voice was flat, tired.
“Could ask you the same thing.” She came to stand in front of him.
“Too much shit in my head,” he said, raking his hands through his hair.
An apology sat on the tip of her tongue, but Alexa bit it back. That wasn’t what he needed from her. He needed her to make it better, to make it all go away, even if only for a little while.
“Know what helps that?” She dropped the blanket by his feet, her heart doing a little flip inside her chest. Next, she shed her T-shirt. Then she stepped out of her panties until she finally stood naked in front of him.
The raw need she saw on his face was the greatest thrill and the biggest turn-on. But she wanted to ease his mind before she tended to his body.
She stepped backward, a smile growing on her face. “Midnight skinny-dipping helps that. Like when we were young. Not a care in the world. Just you and me against the world.” Backward and backward, until her feet hit the cool water’s edge. Come on, Maverick.
He tilted his head and his gaze lost some of the blankness from moments before.
Alexa kept going. The water hit her knees, her thighs, her waist. The soft bottom was cold against her feet. But she kept going until she turned her back on him and gently dove toward the streak of moonlight stretching out across the dark, glimmering surface. The temperature was a shock to Alexa’s sleep-warmed skin, but it didn’t take her long to adjust. And then it was like swimming through silk, soft and slick and tantalizing. The bottom was a little rocky in some places and muddy in others, so Alexa swam out until she could just barely touch . . . and then she floated.
Small splashes sounded out from the water’s edge. She smiled up at the star-scattered sky, her heart exploding at the fact that Maverick was getting in, that he’d let her offer a distraction from everything weighing on his mind. Finally, she turned to find him thigh-deep, breathtaking in his nakedness, and heading her way. He dove, giving her a flash of the ink on his back before submerging for a long moment.
She scanned the surface, waiting for him to reemerge. Something grabbed her leg.
Alexa screamed and flailed. Maverick came up wearing a smug smirk, his arm around her waist, his hair appearing dark from the water.
She smacked his shoulder, laughing despite herself. “You scared me!”