Remember Me (Defiant MC) (24 page)

“Oh, Mad,” he
r breathing was already labored.  She was one who came quickly.  “I love it like this.”  He gripped her hips and forced her harder, faster, and she trembled, biting down on her lip to keep from releasing a hearty cry. 

When Maddox felt her spasm to finality, he withdrew and moved her hand around his unsatisfied dick.  “Stroke it hard.  Squeeze the tip.  Shit, don’t stop.  Gabs, bend over.  I wanna come between your tits.” 

She held him there until he finished, then she pulled her shirt down and stretched.  Maddox grabbed her and pulled her into his lap.  

“Maddox?”

“Hmm?”

She sighed.  “Jensen asked me again how long you’ll be staying.” 

“He know about this?”

“Well, he would have to be deliriously stupid not to catch on.”

“And we all know Jensen isn’t stupid.”  Maddox paused, lighting a cigarette.  He only smoked when he felt jittery.  He wondered what that said about him.  “You lookin’ to get rid of me?”

She kissed him.  “You know I’m not.  But…” she pulled away, staring at her lap.  “I mean, I know you must have a life.” 

“Everyone has a life, Gabs.”

She socked him in the arm.  “Jesus, can’t you talk in a straight line?  I mean, I know you have ties back there.  With your club and all.”

Maddox exhale a plume of smoke.  He knew what she was really getting at.  “I don’t have a woman.  You know that.  You’re the only girlfriend I ever had.  And no, I’m not blaming you.  I’ve fucked, Gabs. A lot. You know that too.”

“Do you love me, Maddox?” 

He shoved a hand playfully between her legs.  “I think so.” 

Gaby stood and stalked into the yard.  “Noncommittal little shit,” she grumbled. 

Maddox snuffed his cigarette out and went to her.  She didn’t acknowledge him as he circled his arms around her body and buried his face in her hair.  “I love you, Gabriela,” he said, so softly he barely heard the words himself. 

She heard though.   She spun around and allowed him to lift her in his arms.  He carried her into the house and into his old bedroom and as he found his way inside of her yet again, it occurred to him with certainty that he would never tire of this.  Never. 

Later, as she lazily stroked him in the moonlight, she asked him to tell her more.  About himself, about the people who meant something to him.  She asked few questions as he talked more than he had in a long time.  He told her about Orion and Grayson, Brandon and Casper.

Somewhere in the middle of his stories about the men of Defiant, she dozed off on his shoulder.  He kissed her lightly and then left her to her sleep, groping his way into the dark living room and dropping onto the shabby couch. 

Though Gaby had every right to, she hadn’t really questioned him about what he planned to do next.  It was a topic he avoided entertaining even in his own head.  Because the truth was, Mad McLeod didn’t know. 

***

Miguel was in his face at sunup.  Maddox grumbled but rose nevertheless, downing some coffee and waving off Gaby’s attempts to shove food in his mouth. 

“You sure you don’t wanna come?” he asked her as she poured Miguel a glass of orange juice. 

She shook her head, a small smile on her face.  “I think you boys would have more fun without me.” 

Maddox knew it was more than that though.  She was trying to show how she trusted him.  Nothing and no one was as precious to her as Miguel. 

When Mad copped a quick feel in the kitchen Gaby didn’t swat him away as he expected.  She nestled against him, just close enough for him to feel a hint of her breasts and smell the lavender scented shampoo she always used.  There was an intimacy in the way she stayed beside him as the light of the morning sun filtered in. 

“Let’s go,” he said to Miguel, tossing back one more gulp of coffee. 

The coolness of the early hour wouldn’t last long but Gaby forced a sweatshirt on her son. 

“I’m not cold,” the kid scowled once they were outside. 

“Hey,” said Maddox, shrugging into his leather cut.  “Look at it this way, your ridiculously cool uncle is wearing a jacket too.” 

“That’s not a jacket,” Miguel said thoughtfully.  “That’s like your skin.” 

Maddox looked down at the battered leather.  The kid had nailed it.  The club and everything that came with it was who he was now. His family. How could he expect Gaby to understand that?

Yet as he listened to Miguel excitedly chattering about the million things in the minds of boys and thought about the tender look in Gabriela’s eyes that morning, he realized this was his family too.  

He just didn’t know how the two fit together. 

“Hey, Miguel,” he called.  “Remember the rules.  Follow where I go, step where I step.” 

By the time they reached the cemetery it had grown warm enough for Miguel to tie his sweatshirt around his waist.  The boy immediately went to the work of uncovering all the crude gravestones and touching each one as if magical properties could be absorbed from these last sad fragments of men’s lives. 

Maddox allowed him ample time to explore.  He kicked at rocks and tried to remember what it was like to feel in awe of the wider world.  Then he glimpsed the small cave he and Jensen used to hide in. 

It was barely a shelter, now that he got a better look at it.  A natural concave depression in a small hill, it had been carved out further by small animals who had used it as shelter.  It had seemed larger when he was a boy.  Maddox was scarcely able to fold himself inside.  No, there was a reason why it seemed even smaller.  Something was in the way.  Maddox felt sharp corners and beyond that a smooth surface.  He swiveled around to try to get a look. 

It was some sort of safe, he could tell that.  A real antique by the looks of it.  It had been
cracked open already and the door loosened easily under his fingers.  He hesitated to dip a hand into its recesses without seeing what he was dealing with.  Could be rattlers, scorpions or something worse hiding in there.  With a mighty heave he dragged it out into the sunlight

“Mad, what’s that?” Miguel shouted, hopping over in a heartbeat. 

Maddox frowned.  “I don’t know.” 

The safe was small, perhaps fifteen by twelve inches, perhaps a foot deep. 

“Wait,” he cautioned Miguel when the kid made a grab for it.  He peered inside and saw a few rocks.  They were tiny, pebbles really and there weren’t many.  The sunlight glinted off them and Maddox let out a low whistle. 

“It’s treasure, isn’t it?” whispered Miguel in an incredulous voice.  “It’s the lost treasure.” 

“Maybe,” Maddox said carefully.  Something about this wasn’t sitting right.  Who the hell would have left an old safe half hidden in a cave flanking an abandoned cemetery?  It would be tempting to assume it had always been there, stowed sometime in the darkness of a long finished century but he knew that wasn’t so.  Maddox had been familiar with every inch of that cave when he was Miguel’s age.   And while he figured these were real gold remnants and not the fool’s kind, there wasn’t enough to justify keeping it locked a safe that size.  Unless there had been more.  Perhaps it had been discovered somewhere else, then opened and emptied.  Then the safe itself, a heavy and inconvenient thing, had been discarded carelessly in the cave.

Miguel fingered the tiny gold pieces with curiosity.  “Can I keep ‘em?” he asked. 

Maddox shrugged, still feeling confused and oddly ill at ease.  “Yeah, I guess so.” He took a crumpled bandana out of his pocket and offered it to Miguel.  The kid carefully stowed his precious gold inside and filed it all away in his pocket. 

“So what about that thing?” he nodded at the safe. 

“Well,” Mad heaved it up.  “I guess I’ll just put it back where I found it.” 

He allowed Miguel to get his fill of capering in the desert before he started easing him back to town.  When the boy pointed towards the mountains, wanting to go further, Mad shook his head.  Miguel pouted but Maddox understood danger now in a way he hadn’t in his reckless youth.  The mine shafts were deep and numerous.  Falling into one spelled likely death.  He put his arm around his nephew’s shoulders and they made their way steadily back to the house, where Gabriela waited. 

Maddox could see the red pickup truck in the driveway as soon as he turned the corner.  He wondered what his brother was doing there.  Gaby hadn’t mentioned that Jensen was coming by but Maddox wasn’t bothered, figuring the man had a right to drop in and see his son when he chose to.  Plus, there was the matter of the house.  Priest had left it to the two of them.  Sooner or later they needed to figure out what to do with it.   But as Jensen barreled out of the front door Maddox immediately grasped that his brother hadn’t come by for any of those reasons. 

“You fucking prick,” he growled at Maddox as Gabriela flew out of the house behind him. She was still i
n her robe and her face was anguished.

Miguel had stopped with a gasp but Jensen didn’t even see his son.  His limp barely impeded him as he stalked with purposeful fury over to where Maddox waited.  At first Mad figured he must be drunk but as Jensen drew closer he realized that wasn’t it.  There was something, though.  Something which caused his face to flush and his fists to clench.  It was rage. 

Maddox held his arms out, palms up, in what he hoped was a genuine ‘What the fuck?’ gesture.  At the same time Gaby had reached Miguel and hastily pulled him away.

Jensen’s breathing was ragged as he stood toe to toe with his brother.  Maddox eyed the holstered gun on his hip and tensed.  If it came down to something physical, Jensen was still a cop. 

“What the hell is this about, Jen?” he asked in a quiet voice. 

“Dad!” shouted Miguel and as Jensen finally noticed his son he seemed to shrink a little. 

Then he leaned in close so that his words wouldn’t carry.  “You think you can just blow right through here and fuck your way to payback?” 

Maddox glanced at Gaby.  She held Miguel close and shook her head. 

“Screw you, Jensen,” he said with quiet threat.  “You don’t know me at all.  If that was my plan then I already got what I came for.  And I’m still here.  I don’t know what the hell is going to come of all this but I know that I love her.”

Jensen watched him with mute wrath.  Maddox tried to read the significance of his brother’s anger.  Why would Jensen be so bent out of shape about him and Gabriela?  Was it for Miguel’s sake? 

“Anyway,” Maddox continued smoothly.  “I don’t think you ought to have a fucking thing to say about it.  She’s a grown woman and doesn’t answer to you.” 

Jensen blinked.  “You’re gonna pretend I’m talking about Gaby?  Shit, she always wanted you and you only.  I could give a fuck at this point.  What the hell does that have to do with you nailing my wife?” 

“Wha- your what??”  Maddox felt utter confusion for a moment.  He found himself actually unable to picture the woman in question.  Then he remembered the sultry curl of her lips and the language of her body.  Casey McLeod had issued a silent invitation which Maddox had failed to accept.  He had her figured on sight as a bag of schemes and he’d stayed far away, not even returning her embrace the day of Priest’s death when she breezed through with false tears and sympathy.

“Last night,” Jensen said through clenched teeth.  “While I was down at the station.  You guys shared a bottle and before she knew which end us was up you were fucking her against the living room wall.”  He moaned and swiped at his face.  “Jesus Christ, Maddox, in my house!  That make you feel like a man?”

“No,” Maddox shook his head.  “No. Didn’t happen, Jensen.”

Jensen coughed.  He looked suddenly old and tired.  “You were always a lousy piece of shit.  Even when we were kids.  And yet everyone seemed to love you.”  He stepped away and glared out toward the mountains.  It seemed he had forgotten he was speaking aloud as he continued in a sullen voice.  “Why in the hell did everyone love you?  Look at you now.  Nothing but a biker hood on the hunt for pussy.”  He spun around suddenly.  “What good are you, Mad?  What good are you to anyone?”   

Maddox stared his brother down as the charged words hung suspended between them.   He had long been used to the accusations that he had screwed this or that way.  And usually it was true.  But not this time. 

“Jensen,”
he said firmly, “I never touched her.”  He knew it was important not to flinch.  “I don’t know what in god’s name she told you or what she aims to get out of sparking a war between us, but I swear on the memory of our parents that I never touched your wife.”  

Jensen stared at the ground and exhaled thickly.  Maddox knew this wasn’t just about Casey.  This was the culmination of a lifetime as mismatched brothers.  When he raised his head again he looked at Maddox as if he saw right through him. 

They were at an impasse.  Jensen wasn’t quite willing to walk away but the worst of the wrath had evaporated.  Somewhere in there he had to realize what Casey was.  Perhaps he even felt foolish for lashing out so quickly.  Mad glanced anxiously over at Gabriela.  He was relieved to see that instead of gazing at him with hurt in her eyes she was glaring angrily at Jensen.  She’d made a mistake once before in who she believed.  She wouldn’t make another one.