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HAVEN

It’s a funny thing.

To know you helped bring down someone that powerful and walked away victorious. Someone who was so corrupt, and yet, so easily manipulated when he thought he had the upper hand.

Governor Bennett Marshall is currently puckering his asshole in a holding cell while he tries to defend the leaked information Loki stole from his computer. We then forwarded it to news outlets in the United States, making it look like Marshall had sent it from his own email account.

We’re cool like that.

But, in our defense, the guy is a fucking creep.

He likes minors a little too much, not to mention he sold his own daughter to The Rojas Cartel just to help boost his political career. This fucker was gunning to be the next Vice President of the United States. I can’t tell you how glad I am that the club, Bea, and I helped take this motherfucker down.

This means tonight, the club is in full celebration mode. A win like this calls for one hell of a damn party, and after expelling all my energy today taking down the Governor and his dickwad cronies, I need some grease to wash down all that macho testosterone they were flinging at me.

As I drive closer toward the heavenly drive-thru, where my salivary glands are practically dancing in excitement with the copious amounts of fried chicken I am about to ingest, I turn up my radio. Bouncing along to Taylor Swift—who isn’t my normal heavy-death-metal go-to—I change the lyrics as I sing along to make it feel more, well, me.

“Karma’s not my boyfriend,”

“ ’Cause I am the god,”

“Karma is the bitch whose name is Haven,”

“Karma’s gonna fuck you up,”

“Aren’t you anxious that for you, time’s up?”

“Slice like butter, karma is a bird,”

“Layered up just right, tongue in the middle,”

“Ears on edge like a layer of fat,”

“Me and karma vibe like that!”

Bursting out laughing at the memory of me dishing up vengeance on one of the Governor’s cronies sends a thrill of excitement through me.

Yeah, karma got him good.

I mean, what was I supposed to do?

The asshole told me I should be in the kitchen making a sandwich. So, I held him down in a chair and made one for him—out of his own body parts—using his ears for bread and his tongue as the filling.

Then, I made him eat it until he choked.

Yeah, T-Swizzle—me and karma do vibe like that!

Smirking at myself as I drive up to the speaker box in the drive-thru, I turn down the volume, cutting out my new hype song, and order a stupid amount of fried chicken and other shit for the club to feast on tonight.

Lord knows my guys can eat!

And honestly, after having some fun myself today, I could demolish the whole damn chicken shop at this point.

I pay, wait a little bit, turn up the music, and sit in the drive-thru lane, bopping away to the random songs the radio station is playing. Eventually, after I’m sure the store had to rapidly start frying extra food to fulfill my order, the cute, pimply teen sticks his head out the window.

“Evening, ma’am, your order’s ready. There are a few bags, though.”

Nodding back at him, I grin. “I’m sure there is. My harem back home gets reeeal hungry. I gotta keep ’em fed. Maintain their strength, you know, for all the…” I waggle my brows with a mischievous smirk.

His eyes widen in disbelief, his mouth forming a wide ‘O.’ His pimply face turns bright red as he hands me the first bag. “I-I, ahhh…” he stammers, and I can’t help but giggle at him in response.

“I know, right? What a wooorld we live in.” I let out a heavy exhale. “Who would have thought when I was growing up, that I would be part of a thirty-man harem, and little old me would be the center of their world? Phew, I mean, it’s just dicks flying all over the place. A dick here, a cock there. Sometimes there are dicks in places, and I didn’t even know they were!”

The poor kid stands in shock, staring at me like a deer in headlights, holding a bucket of chicken like he has no fucking clue what to do with it.

Trying to hold back my laughter, I reach through my window and grab the bucket from him with a nod. “You know, if you wanted to, when you were older, of course, you could go into the harem life too. Don’t limit yourself. College isn’t for everyone, kid.”

With his mouth still open wide, his face now shifting from red to pale white, he reaches for the last bucket of chicken and hands it to me without saying another word. I take it from him with a bright smile and a single nod. “Thanks so much. You have a clucking good night!” I call out, then hit the accelerator as I see his manager rapidly approaching the window.

Almost spinning my tires as I speed away, I shake my head, driving back toward the clubhouse, still laughing uncontrollably. “Oh Lord, I probably scarred that poor boy for life.” I chuckle under my breath as my cell begins to ring in its holder on the dash.

Without looking at the caller ID, I hit answer, automatically assuming it will be Alpha, wondering where I am. “Hey, Big Guy, do you know a good attorney? Because we might be getting a call from this kid’s parents about me talking to him inappropriately about harems and cocks in the drive-thru—”

“I don’t think an attorney is going to help you with the predicament you’re about to find yourself in, Haven,” a gravelly voice I’ve never heard before grunts down the line, instantly sending a shiver down my spine.

My eyes flick to my phone—unknown caller, and the number is blocked.

Instantly, my training kicks in full force as I check my surroundings.

No one is obviously tailing me.

No one beside me looks suspicious.

I can’t figure out with his singular sentence what’s going on.

I need more.

“And what predicament is that?” I answer cooly, continuing to drive, even faster now, back to the clubhouse.

A slight chuckle echoes down the line. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Furrowing my brows, I glance at the rearview again in an attempt to see what the hell is going on, but he answers for me, “You’re driving faster toward the clubhouse. Trying to get there quickly so Loki can trace this call. Problem with that is, Haven, we have a tracker on your cell. We know where you are, how fast you’re going, and more importantly, we anticipated this.”

Exhaling, I ease my foot off the accelerator. My nostrils flare as I slow to the speed limit. “All right. Well then, if you think you know my moves and how I’m going to react to everything, tell me then, asshole, who the fuck are you? And what the hell do you want? Because I have a fuck ton of fried chicken here, and I do not want it getting cold. Mama’s hungry as hell. And you don’t want to see me when I get really fucking hangry. So can we just hurry whatever the hell this is along and get to the goddamn point?”

The asshole chuckles, only making me more irate. “I’m gonna drop you a pin. Come to this address. Do not alert the club. Come alone. Come now.”

I snort out a laugh as I hear the pin drop through my cell. “Pfft, and why the fuck would I do that?”

The asshole on the other end of the line is quiet for a moment, as if he’s walking somewhere. My brows furrow, continuing to check my surroundings while I drive. The silence is increasing my heart rate. Shifting to my cell, I swipe open the pin to check where the hell this bastard is located.

Looks like he’s at an abandoned meat packing facility in Vernon, just southeast of Downtown LA.

Great, that doesn’t seem suspicious at all.

Peering back up to the road ahead of me, with the guy on the other end, still crazy quiet, is making me antsy. “Have you lost the ability to speak?” I grunt down the line, making a U-turn to head in the opposite direction of the clubhouse, and make my way to Vernon.

“Not at all, I was waiting to see what choice you were going to make. Now that you have made the right one, I will give you a little incentive to get here even quicker and without informing your lesser half.”

Snorting out a laugh at his ballsy attitude calling Alpha my ‘lesser half,’ I huff. “Oh, yeah? It’ll have to be one hell of an incentive ’cause I’m not liking this bullshit game you’re playing with me, assho—”

“Haven, stop! Don’t come, it’s a tra—” Livvy’s shrill voice rasps before she’s cut off, and the line instantly goes dead.

My heart slams into my throat, my breath hitching as I stomp on the accelerator. Adrenaline tears through me like a hurricane, ready to wipe out every-fucking-thing in my path. I duck and weave between cars, horns blaring, people screaming through their windows like I’m some madwoman on a rampage.

Maybe I fucking am.

I need to get to her.

I don’t give a fuck that she’s my fiancée’s ex-wife.

Livvy sounded terrified.

And I can help her— I have to.

For Alpha.

For their daughter, Poppy, and for me.

Because despite it all, Livvy’s my friend, and I would never forgive myself if something happened to her on my watch. So, whoever the fuck this guy is holding Livvy hostage right now, he’s messed with the wrong lady. He might be doing this to get to Alpha, but I see straight through his plan—grab his ex-wife and his future wife to lure Alpha to him. The problem is, this asshole fucked up because he clearly didn’t do his background check on me.

I might be Alpha’s Old Lady, but before that, I was an assassin at The Nest.

You can take the bird out of The Nest, but she will never truly fly away.

Hold on to your ass, motherfucker, this Blue Jay is coming out to play!