Page 29 of Panther’s Magpie (Mountain River MC #1)

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

MAGGIE

M y throat hurts from screaming and being choked, my body is a little worse for wear, but Aspen is coming home, so none of it matters.

I’m still slightly traumatized by watching Meek snap Ava’s neck, but he totally saved my ass, so I’m not going to say a word to him.

The fact that the guy doesn’t enjoy casual touch but held me to his chest as I panicked afterward speaks volumes. He even helped me get the heavy vest off when I felt like it was going to suffocate me. The guy cares about me. I know Panther told me to keep it on, but I just couldn’t.

After calming down, he finally told me that he had been coming to tell me the good news when he heard the commotion. They found Aspen and are bringing her home.

For the past hour I’ve been sitting here waiting for them to get here. Now that they are, I’m unsure what to do.

The door finally opens, revealing Calloway holding a very beaten-up and bruised Ava under his arm.

My heart hurts as I look at her. When she sees me, she looks surprised.

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

“Aspen,” Calloway says lowly, “Maggie has been here since you’ve been kidnapped. She’s been helping us find you.”

I don’t miss the way her eyes take in my body. She doesn’t say anything, but I know she notices the men’s clothes on my body.

Calloway brings her closer to me, dropping his arm from her shoulder. When she doesn’t step forward to hug me right away, I make the move. She backs away, refusing my hug.

Tears prick my eyes at the move.

She doesn’t want you here.

Calloway clocks the move and steps forward. He pulls me into a hug before lightly kissing my lips. “Told you I would come back, Magpie.”

I hug him, needing his comfort.

“Boss, we had a little run-in here. I need to talk to you about it,” Meek tells Calloway.

“I’ll be right back,” he tells me, kissing me once more before leaving me alone with Aspen.

She is full-on glaring at me now.

“I see you had a nice little vacation while I was gone. How long did it take you to seduce my brother?” she hisses at me.

Her accusation hits me hard.

“It wasn’t like that. I came here because it was the only place I could think of to go. That man, Asher, told me to go somewhere I trusted. What did you want me to do?” I ask her.

“I don’t know, but not this. Calloway is my brother. You aren’t supposed to be with my brother. Friends don’t do that. We are supposed to be friends.”

I take a deep breath. I’m trying to remember she has been through something, but her words are so selfish. She doesn’t care about the fact that I came here for her. All she sees is the betrayal.

It has my heart hurting. I don’t want to let Calloway go, but I always wondered if what we were doing was wrong. If I should have stuck to girl code. I can’t give him up now. I’m his, and he is mine.

If she asks me to choose between them, I’m not sure what I will do.

“Aspen, you have been through something traumatic. I don’t think we should talk about this now,” I inform her.

She sneers at me. “Oh, now you are telling me what I went through, huh? You know that the whole time I was there, the leader only talked about you. He wanted your gold-plated pussy. Maybe you should have let me run away while you took my place.”

It’s an arrow to the heart. I wanted to take her place. She has no idea the turmoil I went through knowing I left her behind.

“I would have,” I tell her softly. “I would have taken your place in a heartbeat. I didn’t want to leave you in that bar, Aspen. I wanted to stay.”

“Then why didn’t you?” she screams, getting everyone’s attention.

“Because if I stayed, we would both be dead. No one knew where we were or what we were doing. Calloway wasn’t expecting us. What did you want me to do?” I ask her.

“I wanted to not be alone. I wanted to not have to go through that.”

“And I wanted to not stop in the first place.”

It’s so silent you could hear a pin drop at my words.

She lets out a small, humorless laugh. “That’s what this is about then, huh? You didn’t get your way?”

“No, Aspen. This is about you taking some responsibility for your actions. You are sitting here blaming me for everything you went through. I will never understand what you have faced, but it wasn’t my fault.

I tried to save you that night and again when I went back.

I have done everything I can to find you.

I felt a lot of guilt when you first went missing.

I blamed myself too, but the truth is, this wasn’t either of our faults.

We should have been able to stop at a bar and get a drink without worrying about our lives.

We can’t, though. What happened, happened.

I can’t do anything to change that, and if I need to be the villain in your story to help you cope, then so be it.

I will still love you,” I tell her, tears pouring down my face.

“Calloway is supposed to be mine,” she whispers, her own tears on her face.

I know what she’s saying. She doesn’t mean romantically.

He was her brother. It was something she had that I didn’t.

Now she has to share, and she doesn’t know how.

I love her to death, but she’s never been good at sharing.

What’s hers is hers and only hers. Add in everything she went through, and well, she is going through it.

My heart hurts for her.

“I know he is, but now he is mine too. I hope you can learn to accept it, but if you can’t, I won’t leave him. I love him.” I try to plead with her, even though I know it’s useless.

If there’s one thing I know about Aspen, it’s that she’s hardheaded and won’t listen to reason.

She shakes her head, the anger building up.

“You’re a fucking selfish bitch,” she spits at me.

Closing my eyes, I let the insult hit. It cuts me to my core, but I hold my head high. I refuse to let her see me cry.

“I’m whatever you need me to be, Aspen.”

I leave it at that. If she has to hate me to feel better, then that’s okay. It will hurt like hell to lose the only person who has always been there for me, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Calloway is worth it.

PANTHER

Aspen and Maggie are arguing. I have no idea how to make this better.

I knew Aspen would have a hard time accepting us, but I thought she would at least be happy to see her friend. It looks like I was wrong.

I am so out of my element here. I am used to dealing with men coming to brawls over stupid shit. They fight it out and then get better.

I have no idea how to deal with female shit.

“Get rid of the body,” I tell Meek.

He nods.

I can’t believe Ava showed up here and tried to kill Maggie. She should be glad Meek snapped her neck. I would have done much worse.

“I want the prospect in the interrogation room too. He doesn’t leave here breathing,” I inform him.

“Got it. What are you going to do about that?” he asks, nodding to the girls.

“I have no idea.”

He chuckles. “Better you than me.”

I shake my head, leaving him to approach my sister and my girl. I need them to get along, but if they don’t, I won’t leave Maggie. She brings me peace.

“Why are we fighting?” I ask as I approach.

Maggie turns to me and shakes her head. “It’s not anything for you to worry about. We will either figure it out or we won’t.”

“You two disgust me. I was off fighting for my life, and you two were building the perfect little life without me. You know she’s seven years younger than you, right? Like you knew her when you were a kid. It’s disgusting.”

My anger starts to build, but I try to push it down.

“I did not know her as a kid. She was your friend, sure, but I never spent any time with her, nor did I even remember who she was when she showed up. She wasn’t a thought in my head, so don’t go trying to twist what we have built together into some sick and perverted relationship in order for you to hold onto that anger in your head.

Yes, we are together now. She’s my old lady and will be with me for the rest of my life.

No, that has nothing to do with you. We didn’t do it to hurt you.

We didn’t even mean for it to happen, but it did.

I know you want me to regret it, but I don’t. ”

I step forward to give her comfort, but she backs away from me.

“No. You don’t get to do that. She was my friend, and you were my brother. You were never supposed to cross,” she hisses.

“Then why were you bringing her here? Had none of this happened, I would have still fallen for her. You were bringing her right to me, so why?”

“Because I missed you. I wanted to see you, and you totally forgot about me. I didn’t want you two to get together. She was supposed to be my support in case you turned me away,” she admits.

“Goddammit, Aspen. When did you become so self-centered? Did you even consider Maggie at all in any of this? She is such a caring person that she would have kept pouring into your cup until yours was overfull and hers was empty. This is how you are treating her now? You get a small pass because you have been through something, but I won’t stand for you disrespecting her like this. Maggie doesn’t deserve it.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I became self-centered the day you left and never came back,” she spits at me before turning and stalking off.

I take a deep breath and try to steady my pulse. Maggie hugs me, her hand patting my chest.

“She’s hurting and lashing out. I knew she wouldn’t like us together. She will get over it eventually. We might not be the friends we were before, but we will learn to live with each other,” she whispers to me.

A peaceful calm comes over me. Cupping her neck, I kiss the top of her head.

“Why are you so perfect?” I ask her.

She laughs despite the fact it has to hurt after being choked. As much as it hurts to hear, I love it because it means that she’s still here. She’s still alive.

“I’m not. I’m logical. Aspen has been my constant for so long, but maybe it’s time we learn how to live without having each other as a crutch,” she rasps.

“So are you saying I’m your new crutch?” I tease.

She looks up at me, her eyes beaming. “Maybe.”

I kiss her nose. “I don’t mind holding you up. I’ve always got you.”

She laughs. “I know you do. Everything is going to be all right. You know that, right?”

“Shouldn’t I be reassuring you?” I ask her.

“Maybe sometimes, but I can feel it in my bones. This is where I’m supposed to be.”

“So no going back to Cali? What about school?”

She shrugs. “I never liked school anyway. I love learning and read several books a day. But school was something to do until I figured out what my life purpose is.”

“So you’ve figured it out, have you?”

“Of course.”

“Well, tell me. Don’t leave me hanging in suspense.”

“My purpose is to be your old lady and help you run this club.”

My heart damn near stops in my chest. I know I called her it just minutes ago, but it hits differently coming from her mouth.

Leaning in, I kiss her. “Say it again.”

“What? That I’m your old lady.”

I smile against her lips, kissing her harder. “Fuck yeah, you are. You’re my Magpie. Mine.”

“Panther’s Magpie. I like the sound of that,” she says, giggling.

“Me too. I can’t wait to show you how much. That will have to wait. I have some things to take care of. Are you sure you’re okay? Meek told me about Ava.”

She deflates. “I hate that Meek had to do that for me.”

“He was happy to. No one ever liked Ava,” I tell her.

“No, but that doesn’t mean she deserved to die. She wanted to kill me, though,” she admits.

“She did, and I told you these brothers would protect you.”

“Not the one on the gate,” she mutters.

“That was my mistake. He wasn’t a full-fledged brother yet. He’s one of the things I need to deal with. I promise, I won’t be so careless again. You will always be protected.”

She lets out a small breath. “I know. With you I’m safe.”

I smile at her.

“Always.”