Page 16 of Risk (Mayhem Makers: MMM #3)

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

Risk

As I sit in the living room, I ask my brothers, “Was that too easy? I thought she’d give us more of a fight.”

“Yeah, she gave in too quickly. I expected more of her mouthing off before she gave in and followed instructions. Did you see the way her eyes widened when she realized we weren’t messing around and would pack up her shit on her behalf?” Conan questions.

“She’s hiding something, and whatever that is, it’s big,” I acknowledge.

“We’ll get to the bottom of it, eventually,” Kodiak presumes.

“I can do some investigating while she’s gathering her shit,” Regulator offers. “Might as well, so I have something to do while she’s in the other room seeing as she kicked us out and won’t let us do jack shit.”

“I’ll help,” Midas volunteers. “I don’t think she’s going to be an open book with us.”

“You’re right about that,” I offer up. “Did you see the way she yanked that woman into the room with her? They were whispering with their heads together as they ushered us out of the bedroom.”

“Something ain’t right,” Conan mumbles. “What is she protecting? Doesn’t she know that we’ll never judge her, especially if she’s an unwilling participant?”

“I don’t think she has figured out we know more than the simple fact that she’s in some sort of trouble,” I state.

“It’s not like she gave us the chance to tell her we do,” Kodiak imparts. “But she’s scared of something, and if she’s not going to tell us what that is, we need to find out what it is ourselves.”

Normally, I wouldn’t encourage them to pry on my old lady and invade her privacy, but it’s crucial we know the facts—all of them.

We have to know so we aren’t blinded by the truth when it comes out.

Because it will, there’s only so far you can bury shit before it gets dug up.

“Do it,” I say. “I have a bad feeling about this shit and if she’s going to try and pacify us with half-truths, a lot of people are going to end up getting stuck in the crossfire. ”

“You all realize that we’ll most likely end up at war, right?” Kodiak presumes.

“I’d walk through the gates of hell and take on Lucifer himself if that’s what I had to do to keep her alive,” I avow.

“I already destroyed her once; I gave up on her and I won’t be doing that again.

Because of what I did, she didn’t have anyone to go to and ended up doing shit that she shouldn’t have had to do. That’s on me.”

“That’s on us,” Conan opposes. “We all let her down when we didn’t stay in touch with her after we sent her away on a Greyhound to her mom.”

“A mom we never met. Are we sure she even exists?” Midas inquires.

“I don’t think she’d lie to me about that,” I contend.

“Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t close by any stretch of the imagination, and she never reached out to her, not even after we got married, but I never questioned the reason why she chose to go back to a woman who meant so little to her.

” I recline back in the seat and toss my head back, closing my eyes in self-contempt. “What the fuck was I thinking?”

“That things were getting toxic, for all of us,” Regulator reminds me. “We all thought it was the best solution at the time. How did we know that it was the worst decision we could’ve made for her?”

“We couldn’t,” Rev emphasizes, glancing at the closed door to the room we haven’t yet surveyed or explored. “If we don’t have all the data laid out before us we can only make informed decisions based on what little information we do have.”

“We’re losing time, go check shit out,” Kodiak orders.

I watch as Midas, Rev, and Regulator head that way.

When one of them releases a whistle, I jump from my reclined position and stomp down the hallway.

“What the fuck?” As I study my surroundings, my heart sinks down into my chest. There’s video equipment, lights that studios use for production, and an opened laptop.

But what has my teeth grinding is all of the toys spread out on a towel, drying from being recently cleaned. “I’m gonna kill somebody.”

“I’ll be your alibi,” Conan laments. “This is bullshit.”

“What are y’all doing?” a voice yells from behind us. “Please get out of there. Please. Oh, God. No.” When I turn around, I see McKenna’s hands cupping her face as her shoulders shake. “I didn’t want y’all to know.”

“We already had an idea that something wasn’t right,” I reply. “Caught three suspicious looking men casing your apartment earlier. Took them back to the clubhouse and questioned them.”

“It’s why we came as fast as we did,” Regulator supplies. “We knew it was bad, but we weren’t prepared for this.”

“I know what you mean,” the young girl attached to McKenna’s hip states. “Today was my introduction into this world, and I don’t think I’ll ever recover from what I thought my life was going to be.”

“You’re safe now, you both are,” I maintain. “No holding back, McKenna. I need to know every detail about what you’ve been through and who’s the cause of it.”

“Okay.” She relents, yielding to my commandment. “But you’re going to hate me once you hear everything. I can’t tell you, not here, anyway. This isn’t a safe place for me to tell you everything that’s happened since I was a teenager. This is my hell.”

“A teenager?” I ask, frowning. “You never said anything when we were together, Kenna.”

“I couldn’t,” she adamantly claims. “I was living a fantasy where nothing could hurt me as long as I was with you. Obviously, I lied to myself.” She snorts, opening her arms showcasing the room while shaking her head and biting her bottom lip.

“I was ready to end everything to escape.” When she says that, I scan her from head to toe and notice that while she was in her room, her wrist got bandaged and is now wrapped in gauze.

“Got everything you want packed?” Kodiak asks her.

“I thought I did, but I’m assuming Auto will want to go through my laptop so you may as well grab that too,” she answers.

“Damn right he will,” I acknowledge. “Hope you packed light because all we have are my saddle bags.”

“I don’t have much,” she confirms. “Everything I needed or wanted is packed in a backpack.”

“You always did travel lightly,” I criticize. “It’s why we always had to go shopping whenever we landed in a new town.” Thinking of her escapades through the stores has me shuddering. It was not what I’d call a fun time.

“Don’t need much,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. “Can we go now? Reality is setting in and I’m beginning to freak.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” her little friend says, exhaling a relieved breath.

“Then let’s hit the road,” Kodiak suggests. “The sooner we’re home, the better I’ll feel. Luna is going to skin me alive for being gone as long as I have.”

“Who’s Luna?” McKenna asks.

“I’ll explain it to you while we ride,” I tell her, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “Someone scoop up her bags for me.” The only thing on my mind is getting her the hell out of this building and behind me on my bike. Only then will I begin to relax and not feel so murderous.